The Bastard's Tale

by Margaret Frazer

  ‘I’m late,“ Alice greeted her. ”The queen expects me and I’m late. Alyson, take John into the next room. All of you. I want a moment alone with my cousin.“

  They went, but with the steady intent of four years old, John asked over his shoulder as he was led away, “Can we go see the wheel today, Dame Frevisse?”

  ‘Possibly,“ she said, looking not at him but at Alice, who after waiting with open impatience for the door to close, gestured at herself and said fiercely, ”Look at this gown!“ It was one she had worn yesterday of finest, deep-dyed crimson wool double-woven all over into curving, leafing patterns with enough yards of cloth in the skirts spread around her feet and behind her to make three cloaks for lesser women, Frevisse guessed. ”I mean, look at this!“ Alice cried. ”The king’s uncle, a man we’ve known all our lives, is under arrest for treason. King Henry won’t talk about it, acts as if it hasn’t happened. Poor Margaret keeps saying, ’But of course he should be arrested if he wanted my lord husband’s throne, yes?‘ What do I say to that?“ She did not wait for an answer but grabbed handfuls of skirt in either hand as if hating it. ”If Gloucester is guilty of treachery, we ought to be in mourning of some kind but I’m ordered—ordered—to make joy over it and see to it that so does the queen and that she brings Henry around to public pleasure at it, too.“

  ‘Pleasure?“ Frevisse repeated. Solemn thankfulness, yes, maybe. But pleasure?

  ‘Pleasure.“ Alice dropped from smothered outrage to plea. ”Frevisse, what am I to do? Despite all the times and ways Gloucester has been a fool over the years, he’s never had it in him to be disloyal to King Henry. Something is terribly wrong and I don’t know what.“

  With no safe answer to give, Frevisse met Alice’s anguished stare in silence, watching helplessly as Alice drew up her courage and said in a raw, low voice, “St. Anne help me, Frevisse, but my husband is at the heart °f this and I don’t know what to do. Time was I would have asked and expected a true answer. Now all there will be is a kiss on the forehead and a soothing ‘Not to Worry, love, I have it in hand.’ If that much.”

  Why?“ Frevisse asked before she could stop herself.

  Alice turned and sat down on the chest beside her, the gown’s skirts heavy around her. “I don’t know. No, I do know. It’s the king’s marriage. Ever since Suffolk made it, it’s as if he’s seen something in himself that he can’t stop looking at.”

  ‘What?“

  ‘Greatness.“ Alice made the word ugly, let it lie between them a moment, then went on. ”To make the king’s marriage, Suffolk dealt with three kings all at once—Henry of England, Charles of France, Rene of Sicily, Jerusalem, and Naples. Never mind that we’re not supposed to acknowledge there’s any king of France but our King Henry and that Rene of Anjou’s royal title to Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem is as empty as air. They’re all of them kings and Suffolk dealt among them as almost their equal, it seemed to him, I think. He liked it. He liked having no one above him in the world but kings. He wants to go on that way and the best way he sees to do it is to hold all the power he can around King Henry.“

  ‘You’ve tried to talk to him about it?“ Frevisse asked carefully.

  ‘I’ve tried. For answer, he’s cut me out of almost everything he does. We no longer lay our plans together. He tells me what he wants me to do. I didn’t marry him to be told what to do.“

  ‘Alice,“ Frevisse said, warning her voice had risen.

  Alice jerked it back down but said with no less bitter anger, “What he wants from me is to make sure Queen Margaret, poor child, turns only to me for everything. Then I’m to see to it she influences Henry the way Suffolk wants him to go.”

  ‘Alice,“ Frevisse said from the heart, ”I’m sorry.“

  Alice forced a pained part of a smile. “I’m sorry I so badly needed to say all this to someone and there’s no one else but you.”

  ‘I’ll pray for you both.“

  ‘Pray for King Henry and Margaret and Gloucester, too. We’re all in need.“ Alice stood up, the familiar iron of her will come visibly back to her, hardening her voice. ”Go on finding out what you can, please. Anything.“

  ‘I’ve been little use so far,“ Frevisse hedged.

  ‘You can tell me what people away from Suffolk are saying about Gloucester’s arrest. Are they angry or do they accept it?“

  ‘There’s no great choosing of sides yet, that I’ve heard. Mostly there’s only talk and wondering.“

  Alice shook her head as if she did not understand that and gathered up her skirts. “I have to go. Will you take charge of John for this morning? I haven’t the time just now to browbeat his nurse into admitting she’s well.”

  Hoping John would be better company than her thoughts were likely to be, Frevisse agreed, and indeed he proved better refuge from thinking than church or library would have been. He wanted, first, for her to tell him how good he had been in the play last night. Then he told her what King Henry and Queen Margaret had said to him and what his father and mother had said.

  ‘But I can’t see Giles again until tomorrow. The players have to practice today. They have another play tonight and I’m not in it. Can we go see the wheel?“

  They did, and Frevisse stood uncomplainingly for as long as John wanted to stare at and talk about it. When finally that palled for him, they went for a walk through the abbot’s garden, having it almost to themselves this glooming day, and spent a long, chill time on the bridge to the abbey’s vineyards across the river, dropping sticks into the water on the bridge’s upstream side and crossing to the downstream side to watch them come out of the shadows and drift away on the dark swirling current. To the sea, she thought. Some of them would maybe go all the way to the sea. Not all of them, though. Not most °f them, probably, because most things did not come to the ends dreamed for them. Neither sticks nor anything nor anyone.

  They played until John complained his feet were cold—long after hers were—and that he was hungry. By then it was time for Nones, but having already forgone Sext and Tierce because a small and restless boy was not good company at prayers—and even less good company at Sunday’s longer Offices—Frevisse let Nones go, too, merely took John back to Suffolk’s rooms, where a servant brought them dinner. Then, because neither of the two squires left on duty in the outer room seemed to think John was to come into their charge and there was no one else around, Frevisse spent the afternoon with him by the fire, playing true-lady with marbles on a polished board until almost lamp-lighting time.

  One of Alice’s ladies came for John then, bringing apologies. “My lady is sorry to have left you so long. She’s been with the queen and now she’s sent for Lord John to come and have supper with the queen and her.”

  That should make Alice happier, Frevisse thought, as John asked, “May Dame Frevisse come, too?”

  Quickly Frevisse said, “When queens ask for one person, they don’t want to see two. You go, as your lady mother wants. Why don’t you take your true-lady board with you?”

  John accepted the game as reasonable substitute for her, and she helped him gather the marbles into their bag, tied its cord for him, put his cloak on him, handed him the playing board, and saw him away. Only when he was gone and she was putting on her own cloak did she have the surprised thought that she had enjoyed much of today.

  The abbey bells were pealing to Vespers as she went out into the rapidly darkening twilight, barren of any sunset color. It was as bleak as her wondering if Arteys was still safe with Bishop Pecock. There was no reason he should not be, but too often in life “should” was not the way things went. At least Joliffe, if John had been right, had been in practice with the players today and would be performing tonight, with therefore small chance of him getting into trouble. Or making trouble, come to that.

  There was no chance to do more than nod to Dame Perpetua in St. Nicholas’ chapel before Vespers began. Only at supper in the guesthall refectory with everything they said to each other masked by the generally loud
talk around them did Frevisse ask if she had seen Bishop Pecock today.

  ‘He didn’t come to the library,“ Dame Perpetua answered. ”Or if he did, he didn’t speak to me or I notice him.“ That latter was all too possible if she were far gone into her work, Frevisse suspicioned, while Dame Perpetua went on happily about how far she was into copying the Boece. ”There are such things in it,“ she said. ”Listen. ’Hope after nothing, nor dread not.‘ And ’If Fortune begins to dwell stable, she ceases then to be Fortune.‘ It’s so true and finely said.“

  Not until they were going to Compline did she think to ask how Frevisse’s day had been and only when they were readying for bed did she wonder, “That trouble with the duke of Gloucester, how has that gone?”

  Glad her lack of curiosity needed no long answer, Frevisse answered, “So far as I’ve heard, nothing has changed.”

  But by morning it had.

  The day began well enough. Dawn was growing golden up a clear sky when Frevisse and Dame Perpetua went from the guesthall dorter to the church for Prime and the raw edge was gone from the air, as if overnight the weather had slipped toward spring. Light poured through the abbey’s colored windows, flooding the columns, paving, and altars with patterns of sapphire, ruby, topaz, and emerald, their richness lifting Frevisse’s heart, which had gone heavy to bed with her and been no better when she awakened. Through Prime she let the light hold her, with the thought that, come whatever darkness men made, there was still beauty in the world and the beauties of heaven beyond it and all of them pale against God’s burning love.

  Not until breakfast did the day darken, inwardly if not outwardly. The meal was a mere matter of ale and bread and, this morning, cheese set out on the tables for people to help themselves as they would. They could then eat either sitting or standing, taking long or less at it, and Frevisse and Dame Perpetua were content to draw aside and stand, thick-cut bread and cheese in one hand, an ale mug in the other, making no haste. Frevisse was supposing that after Mass she would go to Alice. Another day with John was all too likely but she hoped some way during it to make chance for Joliffe to find her so they could talk. Unless he sought her out at Mass, little though she would like that.

  Her thoughts running that way, she was not listening to the talk around them. There were only so many ways to exclaim over a thing and surely all the ways over Gloucester’s arrest had been exclaimed yesterday, with nothing left for today but repeating it. It was Dame Perpetua who said, “Did you hear that?”, turning her head to look after two women who had just passed, their own breakfasts in hand. “What they were saying? Something about the duke of Gloucester. That he’s gone insensible? That he can’t be wakened?”

  Newly excited voices were rising all over the refectory. Jarred into listening, Frevisse picked out from the babble near her a man and woman saying the same thing that Dame Perpetua had—that sometime in the night the duke of Gloucester had slipped into a deep unknowing and could not be roused from it.

  ‘Do you suppose it’s true?“ Dame Perpetua asked. ”How awful if it is. The poor man. Or maybe it’s a mercy, with the treason and all.“

  But her voice was as excited as everyone else’s. And why not? Frevisse thought. What was Gloucester to her or probably anybody here? No more than a figure in the royal pageant around the king. The play of Wisdom had lasted perhaps an hour; the play around the king went on for always—a lifetime’s worth of diversion for people to gape at.

  Come to it, though, Frevisse thought, how much would she herself have cared about Gloucester’s fall except she was forced to? Probably not even as much as most of these people here because it would not have particularly stirred her one way or the other.

  ‘I have to go to Lady Alice,“ she said.

  ‘Of course. If you need me, I’ll be in the library after Mass. Unless you think I could be of help and should come with you?“

  ‘There’s probably nothing even I can do. Best you be useful in the library while I’m being useless around my cousin. That way one of us will do some good today.“

  Dame Perpetua smiled happy agreement with that and Frevisse left her, finishing her ale and bread as she went, setting the cup on a table and going out as quickly as she could among the busily talking people in her way. The guesthall yard was still deep in shadows but overhead the sky was a scoured, brilliant blue fretted with a few thin clouds, the lately risen sun’s long, molten-golden rays striking at a long slant over the abbey church’s high roof. It was too beautiful a day for the darkness come into it, and Frevisse’s regret for that went with her across the Great Court and up the stairs to Suffolk’s rooms where men were crowded in taut-voiced talk in the outer chamber.

  She was too familiar there for anyone to pay her any heed as she passed through with eyes down and ears open. Suffolk himself was beside the window in the middle chamber, a tight gathering of more men around him, mostly other lords, Frevisse guessed by their rich clothing and the intentness of their talk at Suffolk, who was just saying forcefully, “If there’s no explanation, then there isn’t. Let’s…”

  Frevisse missed the rest, her knock at the bedchamber door immediately answered by one of Alice’s ladies, who stood aside for her to come in.

  ‘Go out,“ said Alice sharply from where she stood beside the bed, giving Frevisse pause until she realized the order was at Alice’s three ladies, not her.

  They seemed more than ready to go, the sweep of their skirts almost tangling into each other as they crowded to be out the door. Frevisse shut it after them and said to Alice across the room, “Not a good morning?”

  ‘A very bad morning,“ Alice snapped. She was gowned as she had been yesterday but with her fair hair still loose down her back and an air about her of not knowing which way she would go next. ”A very bad night, a very bad morning, and probably a very bad day to come. You’ve heard about Gloucester, I suppose?“

  ‘There’s rumor running that he can’t be wakened. That’s all I’ve heard.“

  ‘It’s worse than rumor. It’s true. It happened to him sometime in the night.“

  Aware of something different in the room, Frevisse asked, “Where’s John?” Neither he nor any of his toys or clothes were anywhere in sight.

  ‘I sent him away to Wingfield at first light this morning- He’s better out of this.“ Alice turned half around, seeming to be looking for something without being sure of what. Her voice rose. ”I wish we were all out of this!“

  ‘Alice…“

  ‘When word came last night about Gloucester, my husband hoped aloud he’d die without ever waking. Frevisse, he prayed for it.“

  Had prayed for a man to die without making his soul’s final peace before God’s judgment came on it.

  Hiding her horror at that, Frevisse crossed to take gentle hold on Alice’s arm, guide her to the window seat, and order, “Sit.”

  Alice did, and Frevisse went to the table, finding warm, spiced wine in the silver pitcher there and pouring a goblet full while behind her Alice said in a half-whisper, the words too painful to say aloud, “Frevisse, he’s pleased beyond measure about it.”

  Frevisse brought her the wine, offering with it the only other almost-comfort she could. “He was maybe thinking how there’ll be no ugliness of a trial if Gloucester dies quietly in his sleep.”

  ‘You mean no trial where Gloucester might prove himself innocent of all the charges against him.“ Alice paused, then added, ”No trial where maybe someone else might be proved guilty instead of him.“

  ‘Drink,“ Frevisse said.

  Alice drank, but when she lowered the goblet, her eyes were still troubled with looking at something she did not want to see. She drank again, finishing the wine, rose sharply to her feet, and went to set the goblet back °n the table, saying as she did, “God help Gloucester. What am I going to do?”

  ‘What little you can. Your duty to the queen for one thing?“ Frevisse offered.

  ‘What am I supposed to say to her about all this? She asks question
s and I don’t know what to say. And there’s something else.“ Alice returned to the window seat, sat again, and gestured Frevisse to sit with her. She had steadied, her voice level, her eyes fixed on Frevisse’s face. ”Last night it was Viscount Beaumont himself brought the word about Gloucester. He said it right out, for everyone in the room to hear, but afterwards he and Suffolk went aside.“ She pointed to a far corner of the room. ”He told him something else. I don’t know what but he was disturbed about it, and so was Suffolk after he’d been told whatever it was.“

  ‘Disturbed?“

  ‘Bothered. Angry. Thrown out of balance. I don’t know. That Gloucester was gone insensible was no trouble. It was whatever else Viscount Beaumont told him that Suffolk didn’t like.“

  ‘But you don’t know what it was?“

  ‘They kept their voices down even while they traded sharp words over it.“

  ‘They were angry at each other?“