The Courts of Love - Jean Plaidy [230]
He paused, looking straight ahead, smiling tenderly.
Then he went on: “He said, ‘You must leave here at once. You are unsafe. In a few hours they will be here to take you.’ ‘You have not told them I am here?’ I asked. He fell on his knees and, taking my hand, kissed it. He said, ‘I was to set the trap. I was to bring you here. I was to have you here in bed when they arrived to take you. There is little time to lose. Go from here. But do not travel with your companions. You must have just one to accompany you.’ ‘You have deceived your master,’ I said. He nodded. ‘Why so?’ I asked. He said, ‘Because, my lord, I love you.’ I knew he spoke the truth.
“I went back to my friends. I told them what had happened. They said they knew that Roger was laying a trap for us, but I replied that he had opened the trapdoor and we should all be the better for having walked into it. So we rode away and I traveled with only one page to look after me.”
“When I think of the dangers through which you have passed, I tremble,” I said.
“Life is all danger. Compared with what we suffered in the Holy Land, this seems like a small adventure.”
“And it was when you were with your page that you were taken?”
“Yes. Perhaps we were careless. He used to go into the town to buy food. I would be outside in the country. I gave him jewels to sell. We had to have food somehow. It was inevitable, I suppose, that sooner or later someone would ask what a young page was doing with such gems. What we think of as of little value seems very grand to some people. My page was taken and threatened with torture. Poor lad, he was a good boy, but he did not want to lose his eyes or have his tongue cut out, so he told them where I was. We were staying the night at the cottage of a workman and his wife. They were glad to have us for a little recompense. When I heard the horsemen approaching, I went into the kitchen and tried to look like a yokel watching the meat on the spit.”
I laughed at the thought. “You could storm the walls of Acre with more success than you could pretend to be a yokel watching meat on a spit.”
“There were two guards and a captain. They burst into the kitchen. The captain said, ‘You are the King of England and I have come to arrest you.’ ‘On whose orders?’ I asked. He replied, ‘On those of my master, Duke Leopold of Austria.’ I knew I could expect little mercy then. Leopold of Austria, my great enemy!”
“Oh Richard,” I said, “we should never make enemies. They have a habit of turning up at the most awkward moments.”
“‘I demand you give me your sword,’ said the captain. I replied, ‘I will not give my sword to you, Captain. Your master will have to come to take it.’ He was nonplussed. I doubt he had ever arrested a king before. He set one of his men to guard me while he went off, and after a while he returned with Leopold, who was smiling smugly. He said, ‘This is a little different from the walls of Acre, eh?’ I replied that there was naturally a difference, but he was arrogant then and I saw no change in him now. ‘But the positions are reversed,’ he said. ‘You are my prisoner. There are men all over Europe who will sing my praises and rejoice when I have you under lock and key.’ ‘Those who are afraid of me, you mean,’ I said. ‘Weak men who yearn for the glory they have not the courage to win.’”
“You were in his power. Was it wise to speak to him thus?”
“I said what I meant, and you may rest assured he was discomfited.”
“But you were his prisoner . . . and all that time. You must never put yourself in danger again.”
“I am home now. There is much to do here. It is my great pleasure to be with you and to know that you are well.”
“Now that you are back,” I said, “what of Berengaria?”
“She is happy enough where she is.”
“She would be happier with you. Richard she must come to England. She cannot stay so far away. She must be brought here, and when she comes you must live together