The easy camaraderie of the early days was gone. The thread that bound them was taut, vibrating with tension and stretching a little further each day. And if it snapped ...
Stifled by her thoughts, Judith opened the casement and looked out. The apple blossom, prematurely detached by a frisky breeze, drifted in pink-tinted snow across her vision. The sound of laughter silvered her ears and she saw that a boat was being manoeuvred into the steps at the foot of the garden, a private riverboat with protective bright canopy and furs piled within against the nip of the spring breeze.
The source of the laughter was an exceptionally pretty young woman wearing a cloak lined with vair. She sat on the nearside of the canopy and was leaning intimately into Guyon's shoulder. Her braids, exposed beneath her veil, were the colour of new butter against his dark cloak. He was laughing too and the woman leaned further to kiss him playfully on the lips as he rose to leave the boat. Richard, his brother-in-law, followed him, chuckling a remark and receiving a jesting slap from the woman in punishment. The last to leave was a slender young man who bent with polished courtesy to kiss the beringed white hand offered to him.
'That's Prince Henry's private craft,' Christen said, nudging her way in to lean beside Judith and watch the boat steer out into the swift, grey current of the river. 'He still sees Alais on occasion.'
'That is Alais de Clare?' Judith narrowed her eyes, but the blonde figure was too far away now to be freshly appraised.
'There's no cause for concern,' Christen said blithely. 'She flirts from habit and Guy was never really that interested.'
'I'm not concerned,' Judith said with far more nonchalance than she actually felt. 'Who else was there with Guyon and Richard?'
Christen turned pink and smoothed her already immaculate gown. 'That was Simon de Vere, one of Papa's assistants. He's heir to an estate just outside the city, but Papa thinks he will rise to much higher things in the King's service.'
So much higher that Richard was hoping for a match between Simon and his eldest daughter.
Christen was amenable to the idea, for Simon was nineteen years old, likely to be rich and already an accomplished courtier.
The women heard masculine voices raised in jovial conversation and Christen hastened to open the door, almost tripping over Cadi who was determined to be first.
Richard strode into the room laughing and wiping his eyes at some joke and tossed his cloak casually on to a chest, Emma being absent among the stall s of Cheapside with her maid and not there to take him to task.
The popinjay screeched at the men and bobbed on its perch. 'You ought to get one, Guy, they're good company when your wife's not around.' Richard grinned, as Guyon paused beside the perch to eye the bird dubiously. 'Mind you, so is Alais de Clare, eh?'
'Not much to choose between the two,' Guyon answered neutrally as he walked around the bird.
'But I rather fancy that Alais bears more resemblance to a coney than a popinjay.'
Richard snorted and turned to take the wine that his daughter brought for him.
Guyon looked round at Judith, who still stood at the open window, her expression censorious. 'Where's your cloak,
'
'Kitten,' Guyon translated in the same, neutral tone. 'She might look sweet, but don't try picking her up unless you want to be scratched.'
'A coney, a popinjay or a kitten,' Richard mused. 'Which would you rather?'
'A kitten any day,' Guyon smiled across at his wife. 'They know how to fend for themselves.'
She looked at him and then away, crossly aware that she was blushing. 'Why do I need my cloak?'
'Simon's grandfather has a house this end of the Holborn road and he's renting breathing space if we want it.'
Judith glanced around the room. Christen and Simon had drawn aside and were talking in stilted formal fashion, painfully aware of Richard's approving but amused paternal scrutiny. Tonight there would be straw pallets laid out over every portion of floor space and not even the privacy to piss in the chamber-pot without alerting half the household to the event. Besides, the crowded proximity in which they were forced to dwell was straining the lukewarm tolerance between herself and Emma to the limit. She nodded to Guyon and went to pick up her cloak from the foot of the bed.
'Get your cloak, Christen,' Guyon said across the room to his niece. 'You might as well come too. Simon's grandfather won't object. He enjoys company.'
'He'd be delighted,' Simon confirmed, his face alight with that particular emotion before he turned a pensive look in Richard's direction. 'With your permission, sire?'
'Dare I trust you for a chaperon, Guy?' Richard enquired, lifting a sardonic brow. 'Emma will have me chopped into gobbets and fed to that damned bird if anything untoward happens.'
'Papa!' cried Christen indignantly, as if his concern had not, at one time, been warranted.
'I will have every respect for Christen, sir,' said Simon with earnest, stilted courtesy.
Guyon considered the bright ludicrous bird upon its perch. 'Does it eat meat, anyway?' he asked.
Christen hit him.
Simon's grandfather was a garrulous old man, in his seventieth year but still hale and hearty, delighted to greet company. He teased Simon unmercifully about Christen, pumped him and Guyon for court scandal, sucking his gums with relish over the juicier bits and making acid remarks about the brains and breeding of the people involved. He gave them wine and honey cakes. The tables board came out and a set of dice and counters. He invited Christen to play and swivelled a jaundiced eye towards Guyon.
'I heard about you from the Prince last time he was here. 'Never play tables with anyone from Flambard's household, or with Guyon FitzMiles,' he said. 'They'll strip you naked in less time than it took you to dress in the first place!''
'That's untrue!' Guyon protested, laughing. 'I'd leave you your braies for decency at least!'
The old man dismissed him with a disgusted wave. 'Nay, but you're not as pretty to look at across a trestle as your niece here and I've a close interest in her, since she's likely to be future family. Take your wife above and show her the rooms awhile.'
Simon, not about to miss the opportunity to study Christen's dainty profile, drew up a stool so that he could watch her as she played.
Judith and Guyon went outside and climbed the wooden outer staircase to the rooms above.
'What did he mean about the Prince?' Judith asked as Guyon opened the door and drew aside a heavy curtain.
'Oh, Henry occasionally stays here, or he used to before the new palace was finished.
Sometimes he games with old Walter to humour him.'
Judith examined the room with renewed interest. The wall s were plastered and illuminated with seasonal scenes - hunting, ploughing, reaping, women dancing at a feast, a man catching fish. The colours were rich and vibrant.
There was a brazier in the room and in a niche in the wall stood a small alabaster statue of the Virgin. There was a bench, an oak chest and a long trestle table.
'He would hold meetings here sometimes,' Guyon said, glancing round at the familiar surroundings. 'That mark on the table is where he propped his feet with his spurs still on.'
'Dicing, wenching and carousing?' she said archly.
'Not often. There are places on the Southwark side for that kind of sin.' He followed her through the second curtain into the slightly smaller bedchamber, which was empty of its main item of furniture. 'I expect Henry's had the bed transferred to Westminster, but I dare say we can find one from somewhere.'
'One?' Judith looked over her shoulder at him.
'As the need arises,' he answered with a shrug, as if the matter was of no consequence.
Judith examined the rest of the room. The windows, like Richard's, were glazed and the wall s as in the first room were plastered and illuminated. Rushes strewed the floor, scattered with lavender, and on a coffer was a folded blanket that was obviously a bed covering. She looked down at a second tableboard set upon a cloth-
