The boy paused to gaze admiringly at William d’Aubigny’s lance, which the man had been shifting nervously from hand to hand, wondering why the earl looked so odd when he asked if he could hold it later. Aubigny’s face twisted in anguish, and he muttered an obscenity that made William giggle, for he’d heard enough cursing from his father to recognize it for what it was.
The soldier chosen as hangman was being well paid for his labors, but brought face to face with his young victim, he wanted only to get it over with as soon as possible, and he reached out suddenly, scooped William up, and deposited him on the barrel. The child looked startled, but not alarmed. He rather liked being the center of attention, for as the youngest of four sons, he wasn’t paid much mind in the Marshal household. Curious and trusting, he entered willingly into the spirit of this strange new game, and did not object as the noose was fastened around his neck.
An unnatural hush fell over the camp. The hangman made ready to kick the barrel away, looking to William de Mohun for his signal. Shamed by his weakness, Eustace averted his eyes. But Stephen was already in motion. Striding forward, he waved the hangman back. “Enough! I will not do this. Do you all hear me? By God, I will not!”
The hangman hastily moved aside, torn between relief and fear that he’d be cheated of his fee. Reaching up, Stephen took the rope from the bewildered child’s neck, and set him back on his feet. By then, Eustace was beside him. “Papa, what are you doing?”
“What I should have done at the outset. God forgive me for letting it go this far.”
“You’re making a fool of yourself-again. You do realize that? Once word gets out how Marshal duped you and then defied you, you’ll be a laughingstock!”
“Look at the lad, Eustace. Damn you, look at him! We came within a hairbreadth of hanging this child, and for what? No crown is worth this!”
“It is my crown, too! And I’ll not stand idly by whilst you lose it, that I swear!”
William Martel and the Earl of Northampton were hovering about them, pleading that they stop, to no avail. William Marshal had begun to fidget, troubled by the anger in their voices. Moving closer to Stephen, he tugged at the king’s sleeve, saying plaintively, “I do not want to play this game anymore.”
Stephen looked down at the boy. “You do not have to, lad. It is over.” Bending, he lifted William into his arms, and carried him toward the tent as the others watched, wordlessly.
Sharon Kay Penman
When Christ and his Saints Slept
54
Wallingford, England
December 1152
A swirling, wet snow had been falling since dawn. By the time the Bishop of Winchester arrived at his brother’s siege, he was chilled to the bone and grateful for even the meagre warmth of the brazier in Stephen’s command tent. Stephen seemed genuinely glad to see him, for in the two months since his return from Rome, they’d begun to mend the rifts in their relationship. Just as their estrangement had been mainly the bishop’s doing, so, too, was their reconciliation. His papal disgrace and thwarted ambitions had given the bishop a greater appreciation for familial bonds, a belated realization that he’d served neither Stephen nor God with wholehearted devotion. In his youth, he’d craved power and glory, the Holy See of Canterbury, possibly even a cardinal’s hat. He knew now that some dreams were dust; he would rise no higher in the Church.
But all was not lost. His brother still needed him, and so did England. It had been a year of mourning, first their brother Theobald and then Stephen’s Matilda. And Stephen would soon be facing the gravest threat yet to his embattled kingship. Stephen might be clinging to the shreds of a lifetime’s optimism, but the bishop was too realistic to underrate the danger. They dared not hold Maude’s son too cheaply. The French king had already learned that, to his cost.
“I hear your men finally captured Newbury?”
Stephen nodded, watching his brother warily. But the bishop continued to sip his mulled wine; if he, too, was critical of Stephen’s handling of the Newbury siege, he was keeping it to himself. Stephen was grateful for that; too many others had faulted him for sparing John Marshal’s son. “I sent the little lad to Constance in London,” he said, waiting for a negative response. Again, he was reprieved; the bishop merely nodded.
“Is it true that Eustace has crossed the Channel again?”
“Yes. He wants to hire more mercenaries, whilst keeping a hawk’s eye on Maude’s son. And he heard that the French king was threatening to break the truce, so I suspect he also hopes to prod Louis into another war, if he can.”
Stephen did not sound as if he expected Eustace to succeed. Neither did the bishop. The French king could not be eager to take on Henry Fitz Empress again. And even if Eustace did talk him into another campaign, Louis had proved he was no match for Henry on the field. It was their accursed luck, the bishop thought morosely, that Maude’s son would be one of those blessed few born with a flair for command.
Stephen seemed to have read his brother’s sour musings, for he said suddenly, “Normandy is lost to us. If we are to defeat Maude’s lad, it must be here-on English soil. That is why the fall of Wallingford matters so much. It has become a symbol of Angevin defiance, the castle the king could not win. Twice I tried to take it by force, twice I failed. And because that is so, its surrender will daunt our foes and hearten our supporters beyond measure.”
The bishop forgot his aching back, his frozen feet, and chilblained hands, for this was news of consequence, indeed. “Wallingford is going to yield to you?”
“They have no choice,” Stephen said, “for they are running out of food. The castellan asked to be allowed to send an urgent message to Henry Fitz Empress, advising him that unless he can come to their aid, they will be forced to yield.”
While to the uninitiated that might have sounded suspiciously like John Marshal’s ruse at Newbury, the bishop knew that was strictly in accordance with the laws of war, for such an appeal allowed a besieged garrison to surrender with honour if help was not forthcoming. And for Wallingford, it would not be. Not only was it the dead of winter, but Henry was not even in the country, still dallying with his new wife in far-off Aquitaine. Rejuvenated and revitalized, the bishop gave Stephen the rarest sort of smile, one of unqualified approval. “Well done, Stephen! The fall of Wallingford could be a turning point in your kingship.”
“God grant it so,” Stephen said fervently, “for I cannot lose this war. I cannot let my son down.”
Henry and Eleanor’s return to Poitiers was a hectic one, with vassals awaiting them in the great hall, petitioners seeking audiences, and a vast pile of letters accumulated in their absence, for not all of their correspondents had been able to track them on their progress through Aquitaine. After two days of continuous chaos, Eleanor decided they both could use some quiet time together, and surprised Henry with a candle-lit supper for two up in their bedchamber. Henry joked that he’d never heard of a man’s having a secret tryst with his own wife, but he was pleased, for privacy was a scarce commodity in their lives.
Over an Advent meal of herring and pike, they enjoyed a rare luxury-a conversation overheard by no others. Eleanor was able to confide her concern about her widowed sister. Petronilla had recently suffered another blow, for the French king had awarded the wardship of Petronilla and Raoul’s young son to Waleran Beaumont. Henry in turn complained about his vexing brother Geoff, having just found out that Geoff had been pestering their aunt, the Abbess Mathilde, entreating her to intercede with Henry on his behalf to get his forfeited castles back.
“Why Mathilde?” Eleanor asked. “Surely your mother would be the natural choice to mediate betwixt you?”
“Geoff would not dare approach our mother,” Henry said, with a scornful smile. “He has yet to face her, according to her last letter. My aunt said she blistered his ears, but that is nothing to what Mama would have done!”
He told her, then, of the other news in his mother’s letter: Stephen’s clash of wills with John Marshal at Newbury.
Eleanor was riveted by the tale. “How could any man be so indifferent to his own child?”
“Marshal is a gambler, willing to take great risks even if the odds are not in his favor. He proved that when he
