Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine (reading an ebook TXT) 📕

had lived in the reign of Queen Anne as a sailor, and he said... he said he's waited for Matilda, but the time was wrong. " She glanced up as Jo caught her breath. "He said he waited again and again and then he produced another incarnation some one hundred and fifty years before that and he talked what sounded like French. That time he died of plague in Paris. Then there was a long gap. " Ann paused. For a moment she didn't seem able to speak. "Then there was John, the youngest son of King Henry II of England. "

Jo had gone white as a sheet. "You mean it is true?" she whispered. "He really was John? It wasn't Sam at all?" She closed her eyes, still kneeling at Ann's side. "He's followed me. Followed me from the past. But why? John hated Matilda. He—" Her voice broke. "He sentenced her to death. " She looked up in despair. "Is that why he's here? To pursue me even beyond the grave? I knew, Ann. I recognized him. Weeks ago, I saw it in his eyes, but I didn't understand. I didn't realize what was happening—"

"No, Jo. That's rubbish. For God's sake, you are not the same people! You keep on emphasizing that yourself. " Ann pulled herself to her feet. "And Nick loves you. He loves you, Jo. " She went to the sink and wrung out the cloth beneath the cold tap once more. "It could still be that Sam initiated the idea. I just can't be sure. I don't know. I don't have enough experience to be able to tell. All I can say is, he seemed to know so much about John. "

"What made him push you over, Annie?" Ben asked gently. His face was grim.

Ann gave a shaky smile. "I questioned his royal prerogative. I'm a republican, don't forget. I don't know how to handle kings. He didn't mean to knock me—he just didn't know I was there. I asked him about the de Braoses and why he had chosen to persecute them. He got angry—furiously angry—and began pacing up and down. Then he—well, I guess you'd say he flung out of the room, and it was just bad luck I was in the way. It was the year 1209. He told me that William had burned the town of Leominster in Herefordshire. One moment he was apoplectic—then suddenly he laughed.... "

Ben patted Jo on the shoulder, then he walked slowly to the door. "Did he go out this way?"

Ann nodded.

"You two stay here, I'll see if I can find him. "

The kitchen was very silent. Neither Ann nor Jo said a word. In the stove a log fell, hitting the iron door with a rattle, and they both turned to look at it. Then Jo spoke in a whisper. "Ann, I must know what happened next. I have to know what the king did. "

"You do know. " Ann turned on her. "Jesus, Jo! Can't you leave it alone? You know what he did!" She sat down at the table and put her head in her hands. "Hell, I'm sorry. That's not fair. I guess I'm a bit rattled, that's all. I'll help you if I can. I said I would. But I'm no good at this, Jo. I'm in over my head. "

"You don't have to do anything, Ann. Just be here with me. "

"Now? But they'll come back any moment—"

"I don't care. I have to know what he's thinking. Don't you see?"

"No. I don't see. Jo, you're upset. It probably won't work anyway—"

"It will. All I need is a trigger, you said so yourself. So I'll find a trigger. " Jo looked around wildly. "That lamp—that's fine—a lamp and a bowl of water. I'll look into the reflections. "

She stood up and went to the sideboard, staring along the shelves. Her arm caught a glass, sweeping it to the floor with a crash. She didn't even notice. She reached up and took down one of Ann's black earthenware mixing bowls and turned back to the sink. "I have to do it, Ann. Don't you see? I have to look into the past so that I can go on living in the present!"

She filled the bowl with clear water and put it on the table, then she sat down opposite Ann, who reached out and gently touched her hand.

In silence they both looked down into the depths of the water.

Matilda had been staring out of the high window toward the shadowed distances of Radnor Forest. She turned and stared at her steward in frozen disbelief as he stood, shuffling his feet uncomfortably, in the center of the high, echoing stone chamber.

"But William left to try to recapture Radnor Castle from the king!"

"He failed, my lady. " Stephen looked at her, his shoulders slumped with despair. "The king holds every de Braose Castle save Hay now. There was nowhere for Sir William to go after his assault was beaten back by the king's constable at Radnor—I suspect he did not care to come back here defeated, my lady—" Stephen glanced up at her under his eyelashes. "So he marched to Leominster and sacked the place. He burned it to the ground. The king will never forgive this, Lady Matilda, " he went on gravely. "I fear your husband has now gone too far ever to turn back. "

"We will be outlawed. " She gasped. "What possessed him? To burn the town!" Putting her hands to her eyes, she tried to stifle the sobs that threatened to overwhelm her.

On 21 September the king proclaimed William de Braose a traitor and appointed Gerald of Athies to travel to the borders and declare all the baron's homagers free of any allegiance to their lord. William's followers left him almost to a man, to pay homage direct to the king.

At last only the faithful Stephen remained, riding with Matilda into the hills to hide what remained