Sitting down, she helped herself to another wafer. “Ranulf, I’ve been thinking about the ransoms. We might as well send word to Stephen now, find out what we must pay to free Rob and Alexander and Minna and the others. I know Brien wants to wait till Robert arrives, but surely Stephen knows by now where I am.”
Ranulf sat down across from her; so simple an act as sitting in a chair was a pleasure after all those weeks of feeding their furniture into the fire. “You are not worried about your safety here, Maude? There is no need, you know. Robert was already gathering an army to march to your rescue when he got Brien’s message about your escape, and so he should reach us any day now. And you may be sure that Stephen knows he is on his way. But even if Stephen were foolish enough-or furious enough-to assault Wallingford this very morn, he’d have no chance of taking it ere Robert arrives. If the worst happened and he somehow captured the town as he did Oxford, he’d never be able to take the castle. And Brien has his larders well stocked. I’d wager we could hold out at Wallingford till spring and beyond if need be!”
He’d meant to reassure her, but the look on her face was one of dismay. It was painfully obvious that she found the prospects of a Wallingford siege even more daunting than the dangers she’d braved in escaping from Oxford. She would, he suspected, flee barefoot out into the snow rather than be trapped here with Brien and his wife, and he understood why; thinking of Annora, he understood all too well.
The door burst open and Hugh reeled into the room. “Riders approach,” he panted, “under a flag of truce!”
Maude and Ranulf both flew to the window, fumbling with the shutters. For all his bold talk, Ranulf felt a chill that was not caused by the sudden infusion of cold air. Was Stephen making a demand that Brien give Maude up? He leaned out the window, so recklessly that Maude and Hugh grabbed for his belt to anchor him. “I can see them now,” he reported. “They are Stephen’s men, for certes. Either a messenger or an escort-Holy Mother!”
He was blocking Maude and Hugh’s view, and they could only wait impatiently until he withdrew safely back into the solar. As soon as he turned, they knew his news was good. “It is Minna! Stephen has sent her back to you, Maude!” His grin widened. “And damn me if else, but he threw in my dyrehunds, too!”
Maude was sitting beside the hearth in her bedchamber while Minna brushed out her long, dark hair. It had been quiet for a while, a comfortable quiet; they were finally talked out. Moving to the table, Minna poured wine for them both, then went back to brushing Maude’s hair.
Maude sipped the wine without enthusiasm; it was a malmsey, too sweet for her taste. “Did you ask for Ranulf’s dogs?”
Minna shook her head regretfully. “In truth, I never thought of them,” she admitted. “No, that was Stephen’s doing.”
Maude set her wine cup down, turning so she could look into Minna’s face. “Did he take it hard…my escape?”
“Yes,” Minna said, and Maude smiled.
Another silence settled over the chamber. Minna had begun to hum under her breath, a German song from her youth, and it was like a cat’s purring, proof of Minna’s contentment. “What a Christmas this will be, madame. It would be well-nigh perfect if only Lord Robert were here. Do you know what sort of festivities are planned? I asked that woman, but she was not very forthcoming.”
Minna’s loyalty was a fierce and elemental force; it took no prisoners. She managed to make the innocuous phrase “that woman” sound as damning as anything Maude had ever heard. She hid a smile in her wine cup, for there was a primitive, sweet pleasure in it, but it was a forbidden pleasure, nonetheless, one she dared not indulge. “You might as well call her what she is, Minna-Brien’s wife.”
“I know,” Minna said, but she could not resist adding a muttered comment under her breath, which seemed to fault Brien’s wife for an odd sin, indeed, that she shared Maude’s name. Maude said nothing, but she could feel heat rising in her face.
It had happened on her third night at Wallingford. She’d gone into the solar to retrieve a book, and she was already in the room before she realized she was not alone. They were standing in the shadows, beyond the reach of the cresset lamp. Brien had his hands on his wife’s shoulders; his back was to Maude, and he was speaking too softly for her to hear, but his tone was soothing. His wife’s face was turned up toward his, and it was wet with tears. Maude froze, not wanting to be there, to witness this intimate moment. She’d taken a stealthy backward step when the other Maude’s voice rose, just enough for her words to carry clearly across the solar. “How lucky for you, Brien, that I was christened Maude, for you need never fear crying out the wrong name in bed.” Maude never knew how Brien responded, for she heard nothing after that but the blood pounding in her ears as she slowly retreated toward the door. She could not have borne it had they turned and seen her, but she was spared that, at least. Yet the memory lingered, one she would never share with another soul, not even Minna.
“I’ve never been able to abide women like that, Minna. The ones who flutter their lashes and coo like doves whenever a man walks by, just the sort of woman Geoffrey would fancy.”
“Just remember, my lady, what God has given you and denied her. Her marriage is barren, whilst you have three healthy sons.”
That gave Maude pause. “Sons I never get to see,” she said, and at once regretted it, for even to her ears, that sounded suspiciously self-pitying. “I am so thankful, Minna, to have you back with me. We’ve traveled a bumpy road together, too many miles for us ever to go our separate ways.”
Minna smiled, began to hum again. Within moments dogs were barking out in the bailey. “That sounds like Ranulf’s wolf pack,” Maude said. The barking did not subside; the other castle dogs were joining in. “Minna…do you think it could be Robert?” Maude was on her feet, re-tying the lacings of her gown, and Minna was brushing her hair back, preparing to pin it at the nape of her neck, when they heard the footsteps on the stairs.
It was Ranulf and Brien, and Maude knew at once that her hunch had been right. “Robert?” she asked eagerly, and they nodded in unison. Ranulf’s emotions always ran close to the surface; Brien’s did not. Now, though, the same expression was mirrored on both their faces, a look of jubilation and joy that was somehow expectant, too, the sort of inner excitement that hinted at secrets and surprises. But Maude had no time for curiosity, for Robert was coming in behind them, and then she was in his arms, being held in a wordless embrace, one that said what they could not.
“These narrow escapes of yours,” Robert said, “are becoming the stuff of legend.”
Maude laughed. “Ah, Robert, I cannot begin to tell you how the sight of you gladdens me!”
“I have to admit,” he said, “that you truly surprised me with that miraculous midnight escape of yours. But I have a surprise of my own.” He looked back toward Brien then, and nodded.
Maude watched, puzzled, as Brien pulled the door all the way open. And then she gasped, “Dear God!” for her son was standing in the doorway.
Henry’s qualms about not being recognized now seemed very foolish to him, for he was suddenly sure that his mother would have known him anywhere, on any street in Christendom. He liked the way her hair fell loose about her shoulders, black and shiny like the polished jet in the hilt of his uncle’s dagger, and he liked it, too, that she did not pounce on him, swooping him up in one of those tearful, perfumed embraces that squeezed the air out of him. He did not want her to act like the mothers of his friends. She said his name, making it sound like the “Amen” that ended prayers, and he was drawn forward into the room, straight as an arrow toward its target.
“We were coming to rescue you,” he explained, with just a trace of reproach, “and we would have, too. But you were too quick, Mama. You rescued yourself.” Had she known he was on the way, she said, she’d have waited, and she laughed. He laughed, too, and then she was hugging him, and instead of being embarrassed, he found himself hugging her back.
Henry was not shy, and he was soon settled cross-legged across from his mother in the window seat, talking a blue streak: asking about her trek through the snow, interrupting to brag a bit about his own adventures, then wanting to know if she’d been scared, if she’d gotten lost, if she’d mind that he went to bed later tonight, since he was not tired at all, and there was so much still to share.
Minna and the men watched and listened and then, one by one, discreetly slipped away. Brien was the last to go. He’d seen Maude look more beautiful than she did at this moment. Ironically enough, he’d always thought she had never looked fairer than on the day of her wedding to Geoffrey. But never had he seen her look happier. “Merry Christmas, Maude,” he said softly, and closed the door, leaving her alone with her son.
