But if he intended an embrace, it was preempted by the Bishop of Winchester in his nightcap coming up the stairs to see what the fuss was about.
Rowleybowed to Adelia, said a polite “God’s blessing on you, lady,” and took himself and his fellow bishop off to their beds.
The male attitude toward Sir Nicholas’s lapses pertained even among the ladies-in-waiting. Adelia, returning to the bedroom, heard Lady Petronilla lecturing her maid. “You must remember that all wellborn men have their eccentricities, Marie. We have to overlook them.”
There was sleepy agreement from Lady Beatrix. “And, after all, Sir Nicholas’s ancestors
The next morning, apparently unaware of the night before, Sir Nicholas was his usual jovial self, whilst Aubrey the squire attended on Marie the maid with an apology, her missing shoe, and a silver piece from a supply of monies with which he’d been entrusted for such eventualities.
THE MONASTERIES AND PRIORIES they stayed at every night blended into one-the same welcome from the abbot/prior, the service, a feast, everybody taking care to show pleasure at entertaining their king’s daughter. All of them were rich, mostly very rich; providing for so many people during such a stay could cost nearly as much as a year’s income, though all of it would undoubtedly be passed on in extra tithes to their feudal underlings.
At first, while in Upper Normandy, the marriage cavalcade had kept to a disciplined and carefully planned procession. Outriders at the front, the princess’s palanquin next, flanked by Sir Nicholas Baicer and Lord Ivo splendid in mail and helmets, alongside squires, bishops, and their chaplains plus a platoon of Captain Bolt’s men, followed by more soldiers around the treasure-carrying mules with their stout iron boxes, then the higher servants, then the sumpter wagons, and, finally, the pilgrims.
But now, as day followed day without any untoward happenings, there was a relaxation. Pressing deeper into fine hunting country, more people, even some of the servants, gave way to the passion of the chase and followed either Lord Ivo or Sir Nicholas into the forests.
Captain Bolt might frown and forbid his men to follow them, but a general complaisance had overtaken the rest which, since the Bishop of Winchester smiled at it, he was powerless to halt.
Father Adalburt, a new convert, joined in the hunts on his rouncey but frequently got lost and, more than once, had to be searched for and kindly led back to the road.
Time and again, while Adelia itched with impatience, the entire cavalcade stopped in order to watch Princess Joanna fly her hawk and applaud its kill.
Inevitably, gradually, among the lesser servants, friendships were formed and enmities broke out, so that the procession thinned in some places and gained bulges in others, as if an otherwise smooth snake had swallowed, and was digesting, its lunch.
There was always a crowd surrounding the musicians, while the cart containing the master blacksmith and his equipment was left to travel alone, he being surly to every living thing except horses.
Bantering, flirting soldiers gathered around the laundresses’ and maids’ section. Even Captain Bolt permitted this as long as the patrols were kept up, the treasure carts guarded, and the rear protected. Most of his men were mercenaries, he said, and had to find feminine comfort where they could.
The chief laundress, however, a large woman with warts and an evangelical approach to religion-she affected to shrink back in holy indignation and mutter her prayers if Mansur was in the offing-swiped the men away and made sure of her charges’ chastity by accompanying them into the woods during the stops for calls of nature.
An Englishwoman by the name of Brune, she’d been doing Eleanor’s laundry for many years and had become a close friend of Joanna’s nurse-a length of service and royal connection that gave her a good opinion of herself. “My girls shall keep their virginity for the good Lord’s sake,” she was heard to say unctuously to an approving Father Guy. “Like I kept mine.”
“As if,” Captain Bolt said, “anybody’d try to take it off her.”
At night, Mansur and Adelia joined Dr. Arnulf in the princess’s room to make the regular assessment of her health by checking the royal pulse and examining phials of the royal urine. By day, however, they rode farther down the line, away from the leading party, where Ward could trot along at their horses’ heels without both him and Adelia attracting taunts from the ladies-in-waiting, nor the Arab having to endure the viciousness of the Saracen-hating chaplain, Father Guy
Their new position at least made them popular with such of the rank and file who felt unwell or had sustained minor injuries and found Dr. Arnulf too lofty to attend to them.
“Cap’n Bolt said I was to come to the darkie doctor,” James the wheelwright told Adelia as she splinted his crushed finger. “That other’n, he don’t care for the poor. Bugger wanted a fee.”
For Adelia the greatest happiness of being farther down the cavalcade was that, from time to time, Rowley could pause beside her as he rode up and down the line to see that all was well; precious, stolen moments for them both as he chatted ostensibly to Mansur in Arabic.
When he could spare the time, Locusta rode with them, apparently preferring their company to that of any other, and talking about Sicily
So did Ulf Other pilgrims were making friends among the royal servants and leaving the group to talk to them. Why shouldn’t he?
So, too, when he wasn’t hunting, did Father Adalburt, which was a surprise-and a not-unalloyed pleasure. The man was a fool. Because he spoke Latin and English, the latter being his native tongue, and was rarely in the company of those who couldn’t, he showed astonishment when foreigners didn’t understand him. He insisted on speaking to Mansur in a slow shout and being bewildered when he received no reply
Every new thing amazed him. On passing a plantation of cork trees and requesting to know what they were, he refuted the answer with: “But there
“Why does the donkey not keep alongside his bishop?” Mansur asked, irritated. “Why does he plague us?”
Probably, Adelia thought, because the Bishop of Winchester was happy to get rid of him. Adalburt was amiable enough, his mouth always lolling in a smile, but how he had achieved his position was difficult to see.
“Because he’s the bishop’s bloody cousin, or something,” Ulf, who’d done some research, said bitterly. “Been living as an anchorite for two years Scarfell Pike way, seemingly, and got a reputation for holiness. Told me he preached to the sheep. If he bored them as much as he does me, I’m sorry for’em.”
LOCUSTA AND HIS uncle had carefully chosen only accommodations capable of providing the enormous stabling and grazing necessary for the company and its horseflesh, good food, beds a-plenty without fleas-even baths. Establishments that didn’t have the latter reckoned without Mesdames Beatrix, Petronilla, and Blanche…
The Abbot of Redon, a somewhat smaller establishment than the retinue was used to, looked hopelessly into three beautiful, formidable faces. “But in this house, my daughters, we do not take baths except at Easter and Christmas, as advised by Saint Benedict-even then it is in the river.”
The three looked for a withering moment toward the hapless Locusta.
He wrung his hands. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, ladies. But to go on farther, or to have stopped earlier…”
The ladies didn’t care about the difficulties of calculating a route.
“The river, though,” Father Adalburt interposed brightly “Is it not an example of God’s bounty that He sent a river to flow past every great town that Man has built?”
The ladies didn’t care about God’s bounty, either. They turned back to the abbot.
“All very commendable, my lord,” Lady Petronilla said, “but our princess is not Saint Benedict. She is a lady of the blood royal.”
“From Aquitaine,” Lady Beatrix pointed out. “And she has traveled through dust all day.” She forbore to mention that, as well as dust, sweat was ruinous to robes that took a phalanx of embroideresses a year to adorn.
“Washing tubs will do,” compromised Mistress Blanche. “My lord, you surely have washing tubs in your
