Child of the Phoenix

hearth and peered up through the smoke into the chimney. There was no one: the room was empty.

The small hairs on her arms prickled with fear. She walked over to the jewel casket and pulled back the hasp – unlocked in spite of her warnings – then she threw back the lid and stared at the jumble of brooches and chains and earrings which lay there. At the bottom of the casket, wrapped in wisps of silk, lay two pendants. She had never seen the countess wear either, but she had unwrapped them once to show Hylde: a fabulous gleaming phoenix with jewelled eyes springing from a nest of flames and a beautiful prancing horse. Also wrapped in the bottom of the casket was a small engraved gold ring. As she had thought, there was no crucifix; no ring which contained a holy relic. She lowered the lid and pulled the hasp back across its loop. There was only one explanation left of what Rhonwen was doing: she was casting a spell.

Hylde took her suspicions to Eleyne that evening, as Eleyne was changing for supper. She chased the countess’s other women away before confessing cheerfully to her eavesdropping, and informed her mistress that Rhonwen had hidden in her chamber three nights before as well. She waited for a reaction, and she was not disappointed. Anger and fear chased each other across Eleyne’s features before she controlled her emotions and smiled at Hylde who was holding her mantle ready.

‘You think she was casting a spell?’

Hylde shrugged. ‘She was talking out loud, my lady, and holding something up before her like this.’ She held her hand out in front of her nose. ‘She sounded as if she were pleading with someone. I searched the room, but there was no one here.’ She looked around, conscious that once more her arms were covered in gooseflesh.

Settling her mantle over her shoulders, Eleyne turned to her jewel casket. Hylde watched. If someone had been rummaging through them, would her lady notice? But Eleyne merely picked out a brooch to fasten her mantle and dropped the lid of the casket without a second glance.

‘Don’t say anything to anyone,’ she said to Hylde. ‘I’ll talk to her. If she’s casting spells to make me bear a child, at my age, I shall be very cross.’ She smiled. ‘I love my children dearly, but if Our Lady has seen fit to make me barren at last, then so be it. I shall not complain!’

And with that Hylde had to be content.

II

Eleyne summoned Rhonwen to her chamber that very evening when supper was finished. Dismissing her other ladies, she turned on the old woman as soon as they were alone.

‘I hear you have been spying on me. Why?’ Her eyes were hard. She was afraid. Rhonwen was the one person she could not deceive.

Rhonwen sat down slowly by the fire and looked at Eleyne. ‘I know.’

‘You know what?’

‘I saw him.’

There was a long silence as Eleyne gazed steadily at her, trying to gauge what she meant. ‘Who exactly did you see?’ she asked.

‘The king.’ Rhonwen spoke in a whisper. ‘Don’t worry, cariad, your secret is safe with me. You have been chosen for great things, and I can help you.’ She smiled confidently. ‘I spoke to him, you see. I told him I would help you – ’

‘You spoke to him!’ Eleyne was as white as a sheet. ‘You saw him?’

Rhonwen nodded emphatically. ‘You will bear his child, cariad. A child who will be a king – just as Einion Gweledydd foretold. He spoke the truth, all those years ago. You see? It has all come right in the end.’

‘I will bear the king’s child?’ Eleyne stared at her incredulously. ‘No, you don’t understand, it’s not like that. He’s not real.’ She twisted her fingers together unhappily. ‘You should not have spied on me, Rhonwen. That was wrong, and you know it.’

Rhonwen shook her head. ‘He was pleased. He needs my help to get rid of Lord Fife. We have to get rid of Lord Fife, cariad. He’s in the way now – ’

‘No!’ Eleyne squatted beside her and took her hands in her own. Rhonwen had begun to look like an old woman, but her eyes had the cold steadiness of the fanatic. Looking at them, Eleyne was afraid. ‘Rhonwen, you must not harm Lord Fife. I am sure the king did not tell you to. You haven’t done anything yet, have you?’

Rhonwen shook her head. ‘With the earl away – ’

‘He is coming back soon. And I do not want him harmed, do you understand?’ Eleyne clasped her hands tightly. She was frightened, not of Rhonwen knowing, but of what she might do; terrified even of acknowledging her fears of what Rhonwen was capable of doing. ‘He did not take me from Alexander, that was Robert. Malcolm is the father of my children, and if, if I should ever bear another child, before the whole world Malcolm would be its father. What would happen if I had a child and I was a widow? Think, Rhonwen, think what would be said!’

‘But the king – ’

‘Leave the king to me, my dear.’ Eleyne dropped a light kiss on the older woman’s head. ‘Now, go to bed and leave me. I want to hear no more about this, do you understand?’

Rhonwen stood up slowly. ‘If you need me – ’

‘If I need your help, I will call on you, I promise.’

Eleyne sat for a long time after Rhonwen had gone. Not once did she stare into the shadows. She shivered and sat closer to the fire. If Rhonwen had really seen him, he was growing stronger, and she was suddenly very afraid.

III

October 1263

The news Malcolm brought on his return put all other thoughts out of Eleyne’s head.

‘You can’t do it!’ She looked at her husband in horror. ‘There can be no question of a marriage alliance with the Durwards!’

Malcolm scowled. ‘It’s all arranged!’

‘Then you must unarrange it. My son will not marry a child of that ambitious, lying, cheating, jumped-up nobody!’

‘I told you, Eleyne, it’s done.’ Malcolm’s face darkened with anger. ‘The match pleases me.’

‘Well, it doesn’t please me!’ she retorted. ‘Think, Malcolm, think who they are.’

‘Little Anna is the grand-daughter of the late king,’ Malcolm said with deceptive mildness. His eyes gleamed. ‘That should please you.’

‘Please me!’ Eleyne wondered for a moment if he had forgotten or if he were being deliberately obtuse. ‘That her mother was King Alexander’s bastard?’ She paused, afraid suddenly even to be saying his name out loud. ‘And perhaps it should also please me that Durward has been pursuing the earldom of Mar through the Vatican courts in a pathetic attempt to cheat himself into the noble blood he does not possess – a claim he was quick to drop when his own legitimacy was questioned!’ She was white with rage.

‘You are strangely defensive about the earldom of Mar, my dear.’ Malcolm took her wrist and pulled her towards him sharply. ‘I had thought that business with Donald of Mar finished. Can it be that I was wrong? Why should you care a jot for the earldom of Mar and who holds it?’

‘I don’t care!’ Eleyne rounded on him in fury. ‘I don’t care at all except that it proves the lengths to which Durward will go, to try to win himself position and influence in one of the ancient earldoms of this land. Don’t you see? He failed to get himself the earldom of Mar. Now he wants Fife!’

‘And his daughter shall have it,’ Malcolm growled, ‘with my blessing!’