The Courts of Love - Jean Plaidy [194]
“Because of what you have done to me.”
“I did nothing more than you deserved. You are the one to blame. You always were. You turned them against me.”
“I have told you before. You turned them against you.”
“Enough of this.”
“Yes. It is too uncomfortable for you.”
“I might have known that you would plague me.”
“You plague yourself. If you do not want to think of your sons, why liken them to eaglets and have an artist depict them so that they may always be before you?”
He turned away.
“You do not know,” he said, “what I would have done for just one of them to have been a good son to me. Instead of that, I have to rely on bastards. I can trust that other Geoffrey as I can trust none of yours. It is because they are yours. You turned them against me in their cradles.”
“As you like to think that, you must go on doing so.”
He looked old and tired. In spite of everything he had gained during a lifetime, in spite of his power and might, he was a sad and lonely man.
He leaned on his stick for a few moments and then turned and went away; and as I listened to the tapping of the stick, I felt pity for him and a certain sadness. I should have liked to comfort him, if that had been possible.
Freedom is one of the greatest gifts life can bestow, and like all great gifts it is only appreciated when it is lost.
To ride out again through my beloved country, to feel the sweet balmy air of the south, to see the people greeting me, calling long life to me in their warm and friendly voices—it was a pleasure to be savored and remembered.
They saw me as the deliverer. I was their true ruler. They had glorified my grandfather and my father, conveniently forgetting certain strife which had been evident during their reigns. They saw in them the great romantics. Aquitaine was never the same as when we had our own among us, they said.
And I was the direct descendant, but being a woman, I had married and brought strangers among them. Now I was back. There were rumors of what had happened to me. I had been cruelly imprisoned by my monster of a husband, but now I was free to come back among them and take my rightful place.
The troubadours came back to Court, which was filled with jongleurs seeking to return to the ways of the old days which, looking back, they were assured had been full of pleasure.
They wanted no strangers among them. They wanted to live their lives as their grandfathers had. And I . . . the true heiress . . . one of themselves, was back.
Calm settled on Aquitaine.
Henry had been right. This was what was needed.
So passed the days and life began to return to the old carefree ways. The people were happy.
A great deal was happening far away. I could not forget Henry as he had looked when he stood before that picture of the eagle and the eaglets. No wonder he turned to Alais for comfort. I think she must have cared for him, for it was not to her advantage to remain the mistress of an old man when she might have been the bride of a young one with a kingdom in view.
I wondered if Henry realized how dangerous were his eaglets. He was still deceiving himself about John. And John was the least likely to bring him happiness if all I heard of him was true.
My youngest son was wild, sadistic, profligate, a hypocrite and a liar, according to reports. Geoffrey might be pleasure-loving, suave and self-seeking, but he was not as bad as John. Richard of course was cold and stern and in a way high-minded; he would call his rule just, but some called it cruel. But John, from what I heard, was depraved.
Henry had been foolish to send him to Ireland. He ought to have known that that would end in failure. I could imagine John, surrounded by young men imitating him to curry favor. John would not care for the good of the country, of making it a prosperous addition to his father’s Empire. All he would think of was his own pleasure.
Messengers brought news to the Court of how John had roamed the countryside looking for mischief, ridiculing the local inhabitants, because of the way they dressed and wore beards, which he was reputed