Here Be Dragons - 1 by Sharon Penman (best inspirational books txt) 📕

still cannot believe it. That it would happen like this, so sudden . . .""You're not alone in your disbelief, my lord. Your brother was so sure of victory that he had not even bothered to arm himself. He'd ridden out to inspect the siege's progress with only a shield, took an arrow m his left shoulder. It was full dusk, and his men did not see him hit. He made no sound, turned and rode back to his tent, had his surgeon cut it out. He took the castle, ordered every living soul in it hangedservants, women, children, allsparing only the man who shot him, for ^od knows what fate. But the wound festered. When he realized it was

200like to be mortal, he pardoned his killer and sent for your mother tta Queen."" 'Near death/ you said. Are you sure he could not recover?"De Braose's mouth twitched in a grim smile. "My lord, I coul

101Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln, had followed John into the sters, reached them just in time to hear this exchange His eyes soft-j and he watched with approval as John gently disengaged himself f m his sister-in-law's tearful embrace But no sooner were they alone the cloister walkway than John shook his head, said wryly, "Damn me if those tears were not genuine And yet she could count herself lucky that Richard even remembered her name from one day to the next1 That girlls a born martyr if ever there was oneBut, to be fair, there's something to be said for Richard, too All thatMadonnahke purity and goodness would be enough to put any man off, who wants to bed a saint7"The Bishop jerked his head up, gave John a look of poorly concealed dislike"Such talk is most unseemly, my lord," he said, so stiffly that John laughedHe'd been almost continuously in the aged churchman's company on the ride fromChinon, and he was wearying of the Bishop's homilies on virtue, his exhortations about sin and salvation, it was all too plain that he thoughtJohn's soul to be in mortal peril, thought John to be the most ungodly of a family never noted for its piety, and John, who'd begun by good-naturedly seeking to placate, was now deliberately doing all he could to confirm the priest's worst fears"You seem to be laboring under a misconception, my lord Bishop," he said cheerfully "I mean to be crowned, not canonized " But by then they were entering the abbey church, and he sobered abruptly, did not at once move into the sunlit stillness of the naveELEANOR stood before the marble tombs of her husband and son, John's father and brother Her face was tearless, all but bloodless, her grieving was painful to look upon, but intensely private, had in it a fierce pride that conceded little, asked for even less"Mother " John stopped before her, hesitated, and kissed her on the cheek He could discern the faintest stiffening of her body at his touch, an almost imperceptible pulling away, so slight he might have imagined it Releasing her at once, he stepped back For a long moment they looked at one another, and then he said, "I am sorry I could not get here in time for the funeral "The others had tactfully withdrawn, giving them some degree of privacy, and he could risk asking, very low, "Did Richard truly name me'""Yes he did " Eleanor glanced down at Richard's tomb, back to her surviving son's face "But that alone will not make you King," she said tonelessly "You're likely to have to fight for the crown, John Whilst you'll have no trouble winning acceptance in England and Nor-

102mandy, the barons of Brittany, Maine, and Touraine will hold fast f0r Arthur.Already his partisans are moving on his behalf. We had vvor

9POWYS, WALESApril nggN, I.NEVER having been in Wales, Aubrey de Mara looked about with interest whenThomas Corbet informed him that they'd just crossed from Cheshire into Powys."I hear Wales is a wild, beautiful country, deeply wooded and right mountainous." But Thomas just grunted, and Aubrey cast a sideways glance at the other man, a big-boned, burly youth in his early twenties. He had no liking for Thomas Corbet, would not of his own accord have chosen Thomas as a traveling companion. But in his passage through Shropshire, he'd twice enjoyed the hospitality of the Corbet family, first with Thomas's uncle, WalterCorbet, Prior of Ratlinghope Priory, and then with his father, Robert Corbet, at the latter's castle of Caus, and when Thomas decided he would accompanyAubrey into Cheshire, Aubrey could think of no graceful way to escape Corbet's company.He'd hoped Thomas would turn back once they reached Hawarden, but he showed no signs of homesickness, spent a month as the guest of Aubrey's cousin, Ralph deMontalt, and when Aubrey announced his intention to move on to the Montalt castle of Mold, Thomas nonchalantly allowed that he, too, would stop over atMold."Your cousin at Mold, Lord Ralph's brother . . . you've never met him, either?" Thomas now asked idly, and Aubrey shook his head."No. Their grandfather and my great-grandfather were brothers, but they settled here in England with William the Bastard whilst my family kept toNormandy." Turning in the saddle, he signaled to his squire, was handed a wineskin. "Are you sure, torn, we needed no escort from Hawarden?""Damned sure. Mold is but six miles from Hawarden. Moreover, "e Welsh dare not trespass in these parts; they're not ones to risk their necks unless the odds are rigged in their favor. So you need not fret, I'll

104get you there safe enough." Thomas smiled, to signify that he was, Of course, joking, and Aubrey smiled sourly back; he did not doubt that Thomas could merely wish a man good morning and yet manage to g1Ve offense."Tell me of the Welsh," he said. "Who rules in these parts? Was there not aWelsh Prince named David, who was wed to a half-sister of old King Henry?""Yes, although the