We were met by the abbess, a woman who surprised me by her youth. I thought she might fuss over the king, and perhaps force us to some chat over a cup of wine, but she showed us directly into a large chamber, warmed by a bright fire in its large hearth and then excused herself.
An old woman waited there. She sat by the fire like any good wife, rubbing her hands up and down her knees as if to calm their ache, or perhaps warm her hands. As soon as we stepped into the chamber she stood up, clapping her hands once, and crying out, ‘Edmond!’
He strode over to her. She did not look directly at him and for a moment I was puzzled, until I realised the nun was blind.
‘My boy,’ she kept saying, patting his hand as he took one of hers. ‘My boy!’
I had to smile. I had never thought anyone, not even Edmond’s mother had she still lived, could have stood there and patted his hand and called the king ‘My boy!’ with the same love and verve and enthusiasm as Uda did. Even though she was old, she was still very lovely and I thought that she must have been a great beauty in her time. Her hair was pure white, and dressed simply in a long plait down her back, her figure slender although stiff, but it was her face, wreathed in such happiness at meeting Edmond again, that was her best feature.
Edmond too was smiling as I had never seen him — that this was a woman he loved as well as respected was abundantly clear.
Eventually, Uda calmed down and sat herself, gesturing to Edmond to pull over one of the stools.
‘Who have you for me?’ she asked.
‘What makes you think I “have someone for you”?’ Edmond said.
‘Because I heard her enter at the same time as you,’ said Uda.
‘Have you brought one of your mistresses to meet me?’
Now I was privileged to witness my king blushing like a girl. He flicked a glance at me and flushed the deeper as he saw my smile.
Even Uda chuckled, patting Edmond’s hand yet once more.
‘Bring her over,’ she said, ‘and I shall see.’
Edmond gestured me over, standing back from the stool and indicating I should sit there.
‘This is Maeb, Countess of Pengraic,’ he said.
‘We have travelled a long, long way to see you, Uda.’
‘As if I was your only reason for travel,’ Uda said, chuckling. ‘Come, girl, give me your hand, and we shall see what is what.’
I extended my hand, more than a little nervous about what might happen, and took the one that Uda held out.
As soon as she felt my hand touch hers, she took firm grasp, then clicked the fingers of her other hand impatiently. ‘Both hands, girl, if you please.’
I shifted the stool a little closer so she could easily hold both hands, and waited.
Uda closed her eyes, her head nodding a little as if she were listening to an unheard melody.
Then, very suddenly, her eyes flew open.
Previously her blue eyes had been unfocused, a little bleary with age.
Now they were bright, very clear, and completely focused on me — I shivered, for her eyes met mine directly, and they felt as if they saw down into the very depths of my being.
‘Where did you find this girl, Edmond?’
‘She fell at my feet one day,’ Edmond said laconically.
‘Is she yours?’
‘No.’
‘But you wish it,’ Uda said. Her hand gripped mine tightly, relaxed, then gripped again.
‘Your husband, girl. Do you know who he is? What he is?’
‘Yes,’ I said, and Uda unexpectedly chuckled again.
‘Uda,’ Edmond said, ‘I need to know if she is true.’
‘True?’ Uda said.
‘Who to? You?’
‘I need to know if I can trust her,’ said Edmond.
Uda’s hands had relaxed about mine again, for which I was truly thankful, although she still held them firmly.
‘She has a good heart and a shining soul, my boy. You can trust her as much as you can trust anyone. There is no darkness about her, no deceit.’
Edmond let out a long breath.
‘Thank you, Uda. That is all I needed to know.’
‘Maybe you,’ said Uda, ‘but I must speak to this girl. Go fetch the abbess, boy, and tell her we need some refreshment. And the good wine, not that stuff she keeps for the bishop when he attends us.’
My mouth twitched at the imperious way Uda ordered the king of England, but I kept the smile from blossoming until Edmond, like the good boy he was, went to fetch the abbess.
‘Girl,’ said Uda, ‘we won’t have much time. Listen to me. You must trust your husband.’
‘But —’
‘You know what he is?’
‘Yes. But I cannot —’
‘No “buts”. I can feel that you are now distanced from him. That is not good. You must trust him.’
‘I cannot,’ I said.
Uda let go my hands and sat back in her chair.
‘You are of the Old People, Maeb. Their blood runs strong in you. You have walked their falloways. Strange things have happened to you and you have taken them in your stride. Now, I dare not speak openly, but I can say only this to you. Trust your husband.’
I sat back, feeling cold at what she asked of me. She knew what my husband was. And yet she asked me to trust him?
Perhaps age had addled her wits.
Or was she, too, a servant of the Devil? ‘And trust Edmond,’ Uda said.
‘He will be good to you.’
Then she sat back and age overcame her face again. Her eyes lost their focus, and became once more blurred.
When Edmond and the abbess returned, it was to find Uda and myself prattling on about the best ways of healing footrot in sheep.
Edmond helped me mount Dulcette, then he stood by her shoulder, one hand resting on the crest of her neck.
‘You know I had to test you, Maeb,’ he said.
‘Both king and man needed it.’
‘I know,’ I said. Then I risked a smile.
‘But are you not the fine one to toss accusations of witchcraft at me when you use Uda as your trusted aide.’
He grunted, and one corner of his mouth turned up, just a little.
‘Witenie is close by,’ he said.
‘Two days’ detour.’
My home, where I spent my entire life save for this past year or so. How far away it seemed now.
‘My lord,’ I said, ‘I cannot think what might be found there. Have not the Templars been through my father’s old estate with their fine comb of obsession? What could you and I find?’
‘You would have the eye of familiarity,’ Edmond said.
‘Did your house have any secret chambers? Hiding places?’
‘If so, my lord, they were also secret from me. My lord, the Templars have been there, as has the plague — and it moved on.’
Edmond sighed and nodded.
‘To London, then.’
‘What do we do when we get there? What do I do?’
‘We find this diadem, Maeb, and we loose this realm of its plague. It must be in London.’
And you must have the key to the diadem’s finding was the unspoken word between us.
I thought of returning to London, and of returning to Raife. I had a sick, hollow feeling inside of me, a bleakness I could not shake.
Raife …
No matter what the witch-woman Uda had said, I determined not to trust him. How could she have wanted me to trust the Devil’s right-hand man?
Part Seven
The Devil’s Diadem
Chapter One
We rode into London five days later. The last I had seen London it was barely recovering from fire and river tragedies. Then I had thought it a sad and wretched city — now words cannot even begin to describe the bleak horror of the place after the plague had scoured its streets.
We were to enter via Cripplegate, a fitting entry if ever there was one. But before we entered London we came across the ghastly evidence of the horror the pestilence had wrought on London — huge plague pits dug in the fields beyond its walls, some not yet filled in with soil. These were the worst, for the stink of their rotting, smouldering bodies was appalling, and everyone in the company, king and myself included, retched as we rode through the pall of stinking smoke. It was filthy; I could taste particles of flesh on the smoke, and it left a moist, grey residue on my mantle. Even the horses coughed from time to time.
The only creatures that seemed content amid the horror were the rooks feeding from the corpses.
There was a party to meet us at Cripplegate, a deputation of two aldermen (the only aldermen surviving, we later discovered) and a nobleman called Ralph de Warenne, brother of the Earl of Sudrie, who was now working in my husband’s household.