Chapter 33
Easter Mass was celebrated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and everyone who was anyone attended, in order to be in the reflected glory of the king. Angelet and the others went along with the Lord of Braecon and his family. They all sat on one side of the church, while Otto and his family sat on the other. Most of the people pointedly ignored the other side, a task aided by multiple, huge stone columns that held up the roof of the round church.
Angelet prayed fervently—for justice and forgiveness and mercy, things she wasn’t sure could be reconciled. Then she went back to the house to worry about the coming audience. Despite the king’s graciousness during the private meeting, she had no idea how he’d rule. Otto was a baron, and Rafe merely a knight. The little she knew of politics suggested that power and influence mattered far more than who was right.
For the audience the next day, she dressed in the same white and blue gown. She nearly fainted when she entered the large audience chamber where the king would hear Otto and Ernald’s grievance. If ever a place was designed to make a person feel insignificant, it was this lofty, cold room.
She saw Rafe, who wore his usual black. He sat between Alric and Luc, with Octavian nearby. Whatever animosity had disrupted the men’s alliance, it was over now. Angelet was grateful, though she hoped that Rafe wouldn’t need their help by the end of the day.
Rafe caught her eye and gave her a tiny wink. He appeared much more confident than she felt. But then, she felt as if she were made entirely of butterflies.
Otto and his entourage came in, filling many seats. Ernald glared at everyone, and sat far from Otto. That was interesting. Had the two quarreled? Lady Katherine sat just behind Otto. She looked down at the floor and never anywhere else, from what Angelet could tell.
Once everyone was assembled, the king entered, along with Lord Drogo, who seemed to be in charge of orchestrating the proceedings.
He began by listing the details of the grievances, and then said to Otto, “You are Lord Otto Yarborough, and you hold the manor of Dryton, as well as other properties in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.”
“Yes.”
Drogo turned to Rafe. “You are Sir Raphael Corviser, son of Sir Michael Corviser.”
“Yes.” Rafe stood proudly. Otto leaned over to mutter something to his aide.
“You hold no properties,” Drogo continued. Otto smirked.
“Not yet,” Rafe said, though he didn’t look downcast by that.
Drogo proceeded to recount the whole sequence of events, based on the accounts people had given him. Where they conflicted, Drogo questioned the parties involved until he seemed satisfied.
Unfortunately, he was not often satisfied. Too often, there was no hard evidence to fully prove that one person was lying or another person told the truth. Witnesses were accused of showing bias, or being blind. Angelet began to despair. If no one could prove Ernald planned to rob the cortège and hurt Angelet—and with his confidante Bethany already dead—he could easily win his case.
While her mind wandered, Drogo had just asked Rafe something, and he was responding vehemently.
“…and my own defense,” Rafe was saying. “There has been an accusation of theft and kidnapping. You heard the evidence, and you can see there’s no proof for them. I refute both charges.”
Drogo glanced to the king, then said to the gathered assembly, “When we questioned the lady Angelet in private, she declared that you are innocent of any charge of kidnapping. Indeed, she says she implored you to take her south, relying on your knightly oath to protect her.”
“After the attack, we could not be sure who was responsible for it,” Rafe agreed. “So yes, I escorted her south with the hope of finding a safe place for her. As you know, circumstances prevented us getting any further than Shropshire.”
“I heard her,” Stephen added. “The lady’s testimony was not that of a woman frightened. She gave her account very ably, and without contradiction. She seems credible, even though she is a woman.”
“Your grace,” Otto objected. “That she is a woman is all you need to know to discount her testimony! She has doubtless been seduced by this man, and will now say anything he wants her to.”
All eyes turned to Rafe. He took a breath, weighing his response. “Even if I wanted the lady to offer a particular answer to the king’s questions, I wasn’t there, and I could hardly dictate her responses. Whatever answers she gave were her own.”
The king put up a hand to call Drogo to him. He whispered to his advisor for a few moments. Then he nodded. “Truly, she seemed honest and forthright. And as for having her head turned by a handsome face…well, then she would not have asked me to find a place in a different nunnery for her, once this is all over.”
Angelet looked at the floor, too embarrassed to meet anyone’s gaze, and in particular Rafe’s. After all this, she would end up essentially where she started.
Otto looked annoyed by all the talk of Angelet being credible, and stood up to regain control of the situation.
“Your grace!” he said. “Everything I did, I did out of concern for my daughter-in-law. She was a dutiful wife to my son, and bore an heir. Even later, when she suffered visions and disrupted the household, I saw to it that she was cared for. Angelet, tell them it is true.”
Angelet regarded her father-in-law, feeling nothing but distaste. “I will not.”
Otto’s eyes narrowed. “What ingratitude, after all I have done for you.”
“You’ve done nothing for me,” she told him. “Don’t pour me poison and tell me it’s wine.”
“What?” he gasped.
“You used me at every turn,” said Angelet. “First I was a simple wife to your son to get an heir. Then I was a bargaining chip in your negotiations with other barons during the war. You even used my sewing for your own ends!” She turned to the king. “The altar cloth I gave you, your grace, was intended for the Abbot of Basingwerke. Otto insisted I make it as a gift, probably to soften the abbot’s annoyance once he learned he’d get no other payment.”
Drogo said, “Perhaps some of this is true, but the last part is an invention of a lady’s overwrought mind. We know Lord Otto sent other payment, for everyone saw it at Dryton. He could not have known it would not arrive.”
Otto grunted in satisfaction at the point, sitting down in the wooden chair.
Angelet felt ready to cry, so she closed her eyes and recited a prayer, trying to remember counsel the Lady of Braecon offered that morning—a woman who cried was a woman who lost.
Then a thin, wispy voice said, “He knew.”
Everyone looked in astonishment at Lady Katherine, Otto’s usually silent wife.
“What do you say?” Drogo asked. “Stand and speak up, my lady!”
Lady Katherine stood awkwardly, uncomfortable with all the masculine authority staring at her. “He knew that the gold would not arrive, because there was no gold sent along with the cortège.”
“Katherine,” Otto began in warning, but he was quickly hushed by the king.
“Everyone has recounted seeing the gold before the cortège left,” Stephan said. “Explain what you mean.”
“First,” she said, very nervously, “I must go back much further, back to the marriage of Angelet to Hubert.”
“Well? Do so!”
She cleared her throat. “It is true that the Lady Angelet was married to Hubert Yarborough, and Hubert’s death left her a widow in our house. However, according to the terms of the contract, she was not to remain with the Yarboroughs.”
“How do you know this?” Drogo asked.
“I read the contract drafted by Lord d’Hiver before the marriage took place. It was in Otto’s study.”
“What were the terms of this contract?”
“Most were what one would expect of a marriage contract. Angelet’s dowry was agreed upon, and there was a list of items she would retain possession of in her own right—some household goods and jewelry, a breviary worked in ivory leather, and such.
“But d’Hiver insisted on a special clause. Because Hubert was already known to be in poor health—though we still hoped for his recovery—there was an agreement that Angelet and her dowry would be returned to the d’Hiver family if her husband died before Angelet was sixteen, which he did.”
Drogo nodded. “Because d’Hiver would have arranged another marriage for a daughter still young enough to breed. But then Angelet was kept at Dryton anyway?”
“At Otto’s wish, yes,” Katherine explained. “The baby was the excuse at first, and I kept quiet because I did not want to part mother and child. Little Henry would feed from none but his own mama.”
“He would be weaned soon enough. What happened?”
“Otto told me to forget what I read in the contract, and not to speak of it to Angelet. She was too young to truly realize the implications of the contract, even if she’d known to ask for it. Otto said the war changed everything, and he had mind to keep Angelet close. I was scared to oppose him. I am his wife; it is my duty to obey him…but I never liked it. I knew it was wrong to keep the poor child from her family.”
“Did Otto seek to marry her again, to his own advantage?”
Katherine shook her head slowly. “At first I thought that was in his mind, but he never seriously looked for other suitors. It is my belief that Otto concealed the contract and held Angelet at Dryton so he could keep her dowry for himself.”
Otto looked furious at his wife’s betrayal, and sat staring at her in hatred, his face growing red.
“Where is the dowry now?” Drogo asked Katherine.
“It is nowhere. Otto ended up spending it all, or almost all. That was part of the display at the dinner before she was sent to the nunnery. He arranged the chest with mostly false filling, and a thin layer of gold and silver at the top. It looked to everyone as if the whole chest was filled with precious stones and metal. But it was a trick. By the time the chest was chained up and lashed to the wagon, it was already emptied of all value. It was filled with only rocks and gravel for weight.”
“This would have been revealed at the end of the journey,” said the king.
“Only if the chest reached the end,” she said meekly. “You see, Otto planned to accuse the hired men of theft. His own man Dobson was to slip a little gold coin into all their purses, then empty the chest and leave it to be found. Otto’s word as lord would be enough to cast doubt on Sir Rafe and the three others. It didn’t matter to Otto if they were actually convicted or not—only that everyone believed the treasure was lost. That way, no one could demand any payment from him, whether in the form of the dowry, or the gift to the nunnery, or anything else.”
“But I woke up when he tried to get the chest out of the room while everyone else was sleeping,” said Angelet.
“And you screamed,” said Rafe. “And we all assumed Dobson was trying to steal a chest full of gold for himself. But it sounds like he never intended to kill anyone—it just got out of hand.”
“Very well,” said Drogo. “But what of the thieves?”
“Ah.” Lady Katherine now looked truly pained. “The thieves were Ernald’s idea, and Otto is innocent of that. This is what comes of pretending too well. Everyone believed that chest was full of gold…including Ernald.”
“You hag!” Ernald burst out. “I never said that!”
“Ernald, you are not nearly as subtle as you think,” his mother told him, a new tartness in her voice. “I heard you plotting and planning at Dryton. Why do some men think that women are deaf and blind, just because we do not always speak? But I will no longer stand here and let both of you avoid justice.”
“You overheard Ernald’s plans, then?” Drogo pressed, now eager to get to the meat of the tale.
Katherine nodded. “I did. He wanted the money for himself, and he was irked at Otto for keeping him subservient for so long, even years after his older brother’s death. He plotted with his own cronies and came up with a plan to have the cortège robbed of its treasure.”
Drogo said, “This I believe, based on what I’ve learned. But Ernald was more brutal than his father—he gave instruction that all traveling with the cortège should be killed…except for the few loyal to him.”
“Even Angelet was to be killed?” It was Rafe who spoke now, just as caught up by Katherine’s revelation as everyone else. “I thought that was Bethany’s doing, because Ernald wanted to marry her himself.”
“That I could not say for certain,” Katherine admitted. “Both Otto and I knew Ernald held a certain passion for his sister-in-law. It troubled me, and I did urge my husband to find a solution—sending Angelet to a nunnery would keep her safe from Ernald. But he chased after her. It’s possible he wanted her alive, and the maid Bethany acted out of jealousy. Certainly, my son would be a fool to say otherwise at this point.”
Drogo took a deep breath. “So it was Ernald’s plan to rob the cortège by force. But Sir Rafe turned out to be a formidable opponent during the initial fight, and his decision to take Angelet and flee meant that the thieves would have had to give chase. They might have done so….except that they had already learned the truth that the chest was empty. No one anticipated that it would have cracked open during the skirmish—it revealed Otto’s deception. Ernald didn’t know about the worthless chest, but his thieves assumed he set them up. They abandoned the job and returned to Dryton to confront Ernald. Is this what happened, my lady Katherine?”
The woman nodded. “That was how he learned of the disaster before anyone else, and how he came to be looking for Angelet himself.”
Then, all at once, Lady Katherine put her hands to her face. “Years I have lived with them, and I tried to love them. I tried to do my duty as a wife and a mother. I kept silence for far too long, over too many things when I should have spoken out. And look what it has come to.”
She looked pleadingly at Angelet, who had no idea what to say.
Then King Stephen cleared his throat. “It seems to me that I have the answers I need. Lady Katherine, you are overwrought, and that is no wonder. You are excused.”
“Let me help her, your grace!” Angelet rose to help the older woman walk. Taking her arm, she whispered, “It’s all right now, my lady. It is over.” She glanced at Rafe as she left, and saw how still and shocked he looked.
Together, the two women left the lofty, cold room, where the king would decide the fate of the men left inside.
* * * *
Rafe watched Angelet go, wishing he could go with her. But he had no time to think about that now. King Stephen was not a man to be ignored.
“Well.” Stephen looked over the assembled group. “I have heard enough. Indeed, too much, for it exposes the weakness of a family I counted on as allies. The young heir Henry Yarborough is innocent of wrongdoing, for he is a child, and was far away from the whole mess. Yet that means he is too young to take up the mantle. And the other generations of men have proved unworthy.”
“Another steward is needed,” Drogo said. “A neighboring baron, perhaps, one who can be trusted.”
The Lord of Braecon stood up. “Your Grace, some of my lands are not far from Dryton. I would be glad to take on the responsibility of governing the manor until the boy is of age to claim it. Perhaps Lady Katherine would be permitted to continue to live there, and be the chatelaine. There are no reports of mismanagements of the property, at least. In my experience, it is helpful to disrupt a manor’s workings as little as possible.”
“That is acceptable, for now,” King Stephen said, nodding to Braecon.
Rafe marveled at the political shrewdness of Braecon. So that was one of the reasons he was so interested in the proceeding, and why he welcomed one side into his home.
The king was speaking again. “As for Otto and Ernald, I cannot permit them to…”
“Mercy, your grace!” Ernald burst out. “I was misled by evil women. I never meant things to go so far. Please show mercy—”
“Mercy? Here is my mercy. Your actions were selfish. Short-sighted. Cruel. Greedy. Unworthy of a man of noble blood. In short, the actions of a sinful man. If you wish mercy, there is only one path to it. You will join a monastery of my choosing, where you will live as a lay brother. You will give up all claims to inheritance, and you will pray to God for forgiveness for your sins. You may study to take holy vows, at the abbot’s discretion. But you will never leave the monastery once you enter it.”
Ernald looked horrified.
The king went on, “Your other option is to die by an executioner’s sword.”
“The monastery, your grace,” Ernald choked out.
“I expected so. As for you, Lord Otto. In my mercy, I offer you the same choice. What is your decision?”
“The same, your grace,” Otto said, with a more even tone. His eyes were narrowed, and Rafe suspected the man was already plotting a way out of his new situation.
Stephen gestured to his guards. “Escort these two out. They are to be confined under armed guard until escorted to their respective monasteries.”
Otto and Ernald were taken away.
“As for the matter of Henry Yarborough, I will find a more suitable place for him to be fostered, one that will benefit someone other than Otto.”
Luc leaned over and whispered something to Alric, who stood next to him. Rafe wondered what it was about, but then the king pointed to Rafe, erasing all other thoughts.
“Yes, your Grace,” Rafe said.
“One last item, while everyone is gathered here,” the king said. “The Welsh border is still of strategic importance, and it must be defended at all costs. As you already know, it’s not a place for the weak-hearted. Life on the marches is precarious, and we’ve lost many men and strongholds to both the damned Welsh and twice-damned English rebels. I need reliable castellans to guard the castles I do have. Men to hold the land, and to train new fighters for the battles ahead. Sir Michael Corviser did such service for my father. I think it is only right that you, Sir Raphael Corviser, will do the same for me.”
“Yes, your grace,” Rafe said instantly.
“There is a place called Martenkeep. It is in need of some repair in addition to refortification. You’ll be given enough coin to pay for such work. And once you establish yourself there, we’ll send young men to be trained in the matters of riding, swordplay, and all other realms of combat.”
“How many can be trained there?” Rafe asked, suddenly aware of the potential enormity of what was being asked of him.
“As many as you feel you and your men can responsibly instruct.”
Rafe would have to find good people to handle some of the elements of training. At Cleobury, as many as half a dozen men served as teachers for various tasks. “I’ll confer with Lord Rainald de Vere for advice.”
“Good idea. Work quickly to make the castle properly fortified and ready to be inhabited. No woman wants to live in a half-built house.”
“Woman?”
“Certainly you don’t plan on living as a bachelor. Life in the marches can be lonely, and Martenkeep is isolated. When you’re ready, a suitable bride will be found.”
“Thank you,” said Rafe, “but I already have one in mind.”
* * * *
Angelet was sitting alone in her chamber of the home provided by Sir Luc’s family. She felt restless and ill at ease, and was startled by a knock. “Yes?”
Cecily stood in the doorway. “You have a visitor, Angelet.”
“A visitor?”
Rafe stepped in. “Hello.”
Cecily closed the door, leaving them alone.
Angelet rose to her feet. “Rafe. I heard you’re to be a castellan. That’s wonderful.”
“I’m not here to talk about that.” He crossed the room to meet her. “What’s all this about a nunnery? Why are you determined to stay away from me? What more do I need to do to prove myself worthy of you?”
“Nothing! God, Rafe, don’t you understand? It’s not that you’re not good enough for me. It’s that I’m not good enough for you. I was born cursed.”
“You were not.”
“You have your legacy now, Rafe. You have a duty to carry on your family line. Marry a woman who can actually bear a child…”
“That’s what’s troubling you?” he asked, sounding amused.
“Don’t pretend it doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter to me.”
“It should,” she insisted. “I would serve no purpose as a wife to any man. I have no wealth, no lands, no title to confer, and I can never bear a child again. And that is putting aside my affliction! I’m useless. In truth, a nunnery is the best place for me.”
“The best place for you is with me,” Rafe said. “Hear my argument, love. I don’t care that you don’t bring wealth or a title or lands. I have what I need of those. I don’t care that you cannot bear children.”
“But what worth am I to you—”
“Angelet, you’re more than a vessel. Any man who thinks that is a woman’s sole value doesn’t deserve to have a woman anywhere near him.”
He cupped her face in his hands when she tried to turn away. “Listen. Children are never guaranteed from any union, and does that make a marriage any less true? No. I need you, Angelet. I need you with me. I need to hear your voice in the morning, and see you smile at me—or yell at me, when I deserve it, and I assure you I will.”
“You want a wife who yells at you?” she asked, starting to feel a crack in her misery.
“I want a wife who knows me, not some name picked by the king’s council for reasons of their own. You know me better than anyone. You know my past, and how I’ve failed. You know how far I need to go to be worthy of the name I’ve just found for myself. You know all my worst traits, and for some reason you still think well of me.”
Angelet sighed, tucking her head under Rafe’s chin. She gathered the fabric of his tunic and bunched it up in her hands, clinging to him. “How could I think otherwise? You saved me.”
“I barely got you away from that whole mess in time, angel. If I’d been paying attention, those thieves never would have got the drop on us, and—”
“Oh, Rafe, I don’t mean the attack, though you’ve saved me over and over while we were traveling. I mean you saved me from despair. I was heartsick when you met me. I thought I had lost everything in my life, and I was nothing more than a nuisance, in everyone’s way. I was lonely and despised and isolated. Then you rode into the courtyard of Dryton, and it was as if the sun broke through the clouds. You spoke to me as if I mattered. You defended me when you barely knew my name. You protected me when there was nothing in it for you.”
“Not nothing,” he said in a low voice. “I had a goal.”
“To seduce me. So you did, but I like to think I seduced you too.”
“Very true.”
“And you never sought to profit from it, when you thought I was wealthy—wrangle me into a quick marriage or blackmail me or sell me off.”
“I hadn’t thought beyond those few nights,” he said. “I knew I’d never get to keep you, so I tried not to dream of the future. Angelet, do you know the first thing I thought when I learned I wasn’t some nameless bastard?”
“What?”
“I thought Thank God, now I can ask her to be mine. I had some standing, some leverage. After an entire life of owning nothing more than my sword and armor and horse, now I’m somebody.”
“You were always Rafe to me.”
“I’d like to be more. If you accept me. Please. I want you as my wife, and if it’s not you, then it will be no one.”
Angelet took a deep breath. “Oh. Well. I don’t want you to be alone.”
He smiled at last. “So you’ll take pity on me?”
“I’ll marry you. We can decide who deserves pity later on.”
Rafe captured her mouth for a kiss. “No one will say the word pity about our marriage, love.”
Rafe was so new in the good graces of the king that they dared not risk his wrath. Rafe put his request to marry Angelet before the king himself.
Stephen frowned. “Dear Lord, how changeable you both are!”
“Not changeable, your grace,” Angelet said quickly. “Our hearts have both wanted this, but misunderstandings made it seem impossible. But those misunderstandings are now swept aside. No offense was meant.”
His expression softened as he looked at Angelet. “I suppose this whole affair has been less than simple.” Then he shifted in his chair. “But by God, I’ll make the ending simple. If you both now want marriage, then you will be married…on the morrow. No more delays, no more prevarications, no more wishes for the cloistered life, no more misunderstandings. Do I make myself clear?”
Rafe nodded. “Yes, your grace.”
“After morning mass at the Holy Sepulchre. I will have a man in attendance to report that it is done. And henceforth, I expect nothing but simple, quiet, encouraging reports from Martenkeep, Sir Rafe. You will take on your first batch of trainees by the end of summer, and you will send to my armies the finest squires you can.”
“That is my goal, your grace.”
“Very well. God grant you both joy. I think the Fates wish you to be together—certainly all plans to separate you have been thwarted.”