by Anne O'Brien
‘And you are obviously hand in glove with him. Perhaps I should expect no less. Are you guilty of such self-interest? We all know he wants the money to rescue your brother.’
Of course he would have worked that out for himself even if Harry had not told him. I made no apology.
‘Then if that is self-interest, I agree. No one else is moved to help Edmund Mortimer. If Harry will do it, I’ll not oppose him.’
‘No, you won’t oppose. You’ll bend his ear with subtle wiles. I don’t like it.’
‘I don’t suppose that you do, but are you so surprised? You know that your son has always been restless over Lancaster and the Mortimer claim. He feels that Henry led you on with oaths and fair words with the sole purpose of winning the Percy family to his side. He feels it sorely. Nor has the King been generous in payment for your service against his enemies, which rankles even more.’
‘So he will defy me and the King.’
‘On this matter of prisoners, yes, he will. He is his own man. He doesn’t need my subtle wiles to lure him on, as well you know. When did he ever not know his own mind? In the past it has been a trait that you have admired in him, has it not?’ I watched as colour rose in the Earl’s face. ‘You must accept his decision.’
‘We’ll see if the King is as understanding.’
He turned away from me. And in anger I spoke: ‘I think you should pray that his rebellion against the King does not go further than the matter of who ransoms the prisoners.’
The Earl turned slowly back to face me. While I frowned, baffled at what I had said. The thought had come into my mind, as sharp and as lethal as the arrow that had destroyed Douglas’s sight, and I had expressed it before I had given any thought to its meaning. Where did I foresee this stand against the King taking us? Why should it necessarily become a more treacherous disagreement than one over money owing and the tradition of ransom payments? Some sense of danger had prompted me, but of what I was uncertain, and immediately regretted allowing the Earl any degree of access into my mind.
‘What do you mean by that?’ His eyes were opened wide.
‘Probably nothing.’ But I had seen, in that moment, a looming danger ahead, for all of us. My heart thumped with some strange anticipation.
‘So why say it? Women’s logic. Worth nothing.’ And then, in direct contradiction, ‘Go and talk to your husband. See if you can make him see sense.’
‘I will talk with him, but I promise no outcome that will please you, my lord.’
I curtsied with effortless grace, my spine stiffening as I heard his parting delivery.
‘We might all benefit if you could put the future of the Percy family before Mortimer politics.’
I would not rise to it. Nor did I have to, for Harry, casting an eye over an ailing horse, was no more open to advice than when he had defied his father.
‘It is a matter of chivalry and the rights of tradition. I’ll not do it. Don’t bother to repeat my father’s views, Elizabeth, if that’s what you were about.’
‘I will not. I am honoured that you will support my brother.’
‘Support? It’s a fine line between regretting his predicament and condemning the reason for it. Your brother was a fool to get himself captured in the first place, but I’ll not let him languish for ever as Glyn Dwr’s captive. Who knows what ideas he’ll absorb when having to share a table with Welsh rebels from morn till night, for I doubt he’ll be consigned to a cell.’
Which was the end of our conversation, Harry returning to his investigation of the animal’s foreleg which, the groom advised, had a heat in it. I suppose that I had understood why the Earl was so ready to comply, to protect his interests against royal inundations. Lancaster might well increase the power of Westmorland at Percy expense. Sometimes the Earl was more realistic than Harry.
But Harry had no intention of being a cog in the machine of royal finance.
What danger had I seen? A thought that returned to haunt me. I did not know.
Chapter Twelve
As expected, King Henry summoned his parliament to meet on the last day of September at Westminster. True to his word, the Earl left Warkworth in the week prior to this in a foul mood, unaccompanied by his recalcitrant son and without his son’s personal captives.
‘No good will come of this.’
It was directed towards me, the Earl pulling on his gloves, as much as it was to Harry who looked upon the departure with studied dispassion.
‘No good will come of our grovelling before this King who does not know our worth.’ Harry expressed his usual views. ‘If he will instruct his Council to pay the moneys owed to me, I might change my mind. Until then, I stay here. So do my prisoners.’
There was no chance of that eventuality. Even Worcester had been brutally honest in his comments on royal coffers.
‘Empty as a beggar’s purse, unfortunately.’
‘He’ll not fill them with the results of my battles,’ Harry snarled.
‘I’ll tell him what you say, although I’ll wrap it up in softer terms,’ Worcester said.
‘I’ll not anticipate a friendly reply.’ The Earl had the final comment. ‘As long as the King does not call me to answer for your sins.’
‘Your shoulders are broad enough, sir.’
So the Earl rode south with Worcester, and his prisoners too. But not Archibald Douglas who remained in our company to recover his strength. Or such was the rumour we allowed to spread as we awaited the Earl’s return. In fact, his multitude of wounds were well healed by the time the Earl rode back alone into the bailey at Alnwick, prisoner-less, his mood grimmer than on his departure, the long ride home having done nothing to drain the poison from whatever had happened in the royal audience. He sat, glowering in silence over the dishes and cups until, by the end of the meal, Harry lost patience, dismissing the servants with a jerk of his chin.
‘Will you tell us, or will you sit in a dark cloud for the rest of the day?’
‘Oh, I’ll tell you.’ The Earl downed the dregs of yet another cup of ale. ‘I had to present myself to the King and parliament in the White Hall. With my prisoners, all in a magnificent parade as if the King had captured them himself. They knelt. Twice. King Henry was enthroned in suitable glory. It was all very amenable.’
‘Did he notice my absence?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did he take note that Douglas was not there?’
‘Yes.’
‘And he was accepting of it?’
Archibald Douglas sat in silence at my right hand.
‘No.’
‘What did he say?’
‘Not a word. But his displeasure sat on his shoulder as heavily as the fur he was wearing to impress his magnates.’
The Earl showed a tendency to lapse again into brooding silence, until Harry prompted: ‘Did he then provide a feast to welcome such men of high standing?’
‘He did, with all grace. I was the one to receive the lash of his tongue, because you were not there and neither were your prisoners. Your disobedience brought naught but humiliation for me. I was summoned again next day. To say it was stormy would be too mild.’
‘I expect you held your own. Will he pay what he owes?’
‘He will not. He says he has not the money.’ Pushing aside his cup at last, the Earl stood, resting his fists on the table, turning his eye on his son. ‘The King says that he wants to see you. I made no excuses for you. If you continue to defy him, it will be on your own head.’
Harry exchanged a glance with me.
‘What do you think,’ he asked with a slight smile. ‘Do I go and face my nemesis?’
‘I think you must make up your own mind. It will not be a comfortable meeting but it might clear the air between you. If you can keep your temper.’
‘Then I’ll go.’ He stood, stepping to face his father. ‘I don’t need you to defend me. I’ll go and defend myself. If he wants me to continue to uphold his interests in the north, he must give me more than pre
tty assurances that my efforts will be rewarded.’
‘Take Douglas with you,’ commanded the Earl.
‘And will you?’ Douglas asked for the first time.
Harry did not even take the trouble to answer, leaving me to reassure the Scots lord.
‘You will remain here,’ I said. ‘If necessary you will suffer another relapse from your atrocious wounds.’
With something suspiciously like a grunt, the Earl followed his son from the room.
Harry was still simmering as he made preparations to depart.
‘I’ll not offer to accompany you,’ I said as he cast an eye over his entourage.
‘To beg forgiveness from your cousin? I think not!’
‘That would not be my intent. Merely to keep the peace between you.’
Answering a compulsion, I took hold of a fold of his sleeve. Harry would be in no physical danger and yet… I was uncertain of what it would mean if the hostility I had seen between Harry and the King at Lichfield grew even greater. To have Harry and the King at daggers drawn might have unforeseen repercussions. How tangled my thoughts on that day. I would in my heart support my Mortimer nephew against this Lancaster King, but to anticipate violence between Harry and King Henry filled me with fear. Which was a grave contradiction, for to do one would necessitate the other. I desired one, but feared the other.
‘Keeping the peace between us is a thing worthy of ridicule, my love. Your logic is as lacking as Bess’s.’
I could explain neither to myself nor to Harry this sudden anxiety that pervaded this leave-taking. ‘Be careful, Harry,’ was all I could say.
‘Of what?’
‘Of making a bad situation worse.’
‘I don’t intend to kill him.’
‘Of course you don’t. Will you tell him how you will use the ransom?’
‘I doubt I will need to. He is no fool. But if you mean, will I offer the information, then no, I will not. I am no fool either.’
‘Then even more I would say – take care. I would rather I did not have word that he had locked you in the Tower for some treasonous utterance.’
‘I will be all sweetness and harmony.’
I kissed him.
‘If you are, it will be for the first time.’
Warkworth Castle: Late December 1402
Harry did not return but I received a message. The brief content of it, in Harry’s scrawl, gave me cause for concern, together with the fact that he had chosen to write it rather than give it verbatim to the messenger, even one as trusted as Morys, a discreet individual who was usually in the employ of Worcester.
‘Where is he?’ I asked Morys.
‘Still at Westminster, my lady.’
‘Is he in good health?’
‘He is, my lady.’
‘So he’s not under lock and key.’
‘No, my lady.’ Morys’s eye did not quite hold mine. ‘But he is, if I might say, somewhat agitated.’
‘And what is it that has agitated him this time?’
‘I could not say, my lady. But he had conversation with the King.’
I opened the note. There was no greeting.
Take an escort and go to Ludlow where I will meet with you. It might be best if you do not discuss this with the Earl. You are travelling for a family matter. Don’t waste time. Whatever you hear, don’t leave Ludlow until I arrive.
Yours in haste.
More enigmatic than Harry’s usual style of making all plain. A dispute over royal debts and prisoner ownership would not take him to Ludlow of all places. I was intrigued. What had happened in London to pre-empt this visit to the Welsh March, unless Harry had finally persuaded the King to ransom Edmund and I was requested as a solid family link in negotiations between all parties? It might be natural for me, related to all, to open discussions with Glyn Dwr to release my brother. It could not be, in the present circumstances, that Harry was planning on starting the negotiation to ransom Edmund himself. Until Douglas was returned to his grateful family and we had been rewarded for it, there was little point in approaching Glyn Dwr. Nor could I truly believe that the King had changed his mind and decided to waste much-needed gold on rescuing Edmund.
Obedient to my orders and taking Morys with me, I made my familial excuses, bade Douglas farewell, and set off in clement weather so that we travelled fast, the children who accompanied me enjoying the adventure and the change of scene. Even so Harry was there before me, his mood edgy as he took my bridle, looking up at me after a brief acknowledgement of Morys, with no real welcome.
‘You took your time.’
‘I came with amazing speed.’
He cast a jaundiced eye over his heir and his daughter. ‘It might have been better if you had not brought them.’
‘Why not? If you don’t give me warning of the purpose of this visit, you cannot expect me to see into your tricky mind. They will enjoy a visit to their mother’s ancestral home. It will be good for them to see that Percy is not the only name of importance in their family.’
He appeared to consider this and his scowl was smoothed over as he helped me to dismount.
‘You could kiss me in welcome,’ I said.
‘I could.’ Which he did, on one cheek and then the other.
‘You could greet your children as if you were a loving father.’
‘I could.’
Which he did, inspecting a laughing Hal as if he were a Percy retainer, commanding him to march, lunge and parry with his dagger, lifting Bess to a high seat on the mounting block as audience to the whole procedure.
‘And then you can tell me why I am here. And what you said to Henry.’
‘More pertinently, what Henry said to me.’
So things had not gone well.
‘What did he say?’
‘I’ll tell you later.’
We walked together into the great hall, turning into the old solar block where Harry had made his accommodations, the children running ahead. Despite the lodging of a lively disquiet, since Harry was not prepared to unburden himself, I would wait. I was highly skilled in waiting.
‘Why are we here?’ I asked. That I needed to know.
‘Because of rumours coming out of Wales.’
‘Has anything changed? If Henry won’t ransom Edmund, and you haven’t raised the money yet for Douglas, are we not still waiting to see if Glyn Dwr will behead my brother out of pique or consign him permanently to a dungeon?’ A sudden horror twisted the anxiety. ‘He’s not dead, is he?’
‘No, he’s not dead. But here’s the sting in the serpent’s tail. I have had an invitation from Glyn Dwr to join him to discuss something to my advantage.’ The earlier frown returned, became more pronounced. ‘It behoves us to discover exactly what your brother and Glyn Dwr are about.’
‘If you were invited, that still does not explain why I am here.’
His countenance lightened in a smile.
‘Because you are the perfect excuse, my beloved, for an innocent visit. Because you are a caring sister. You are concerned for the health of your brother, if anyone questions why we might be journeying into the fastness of Glyn Dwr’s princedom, and you have persuaded me to escort you to have conversation with him. I am simply an indulgent husband, bowing to the whim of his distraught wife.’
‘Anyone who knows us will be aware that I have signally failed to persuade you to do anything you did not wish to do.’
‘And nor would Edmund render you distraught. But let us on this occasion hope that we can pull the wool over all eyes. I will try to look persuadable and you might weep into your kerchief.’
Leaving Hal and Bess in Ludlow, we journeyed to the west into the mountains of Wales to where we had learned that Glyn Dwr was to be spending the winter at his main stronghold of Sycharth, a short distance over the border. I might have been afraid that we would become a ready target for his Welsh archers but Harry was phlegmatic. We had been invited. Our escort was small but well armed and our Percy banners were flying
. We had added Mortimer flags too, gold and blue stripes showing boldly against Harry’s blue lion.
‘You admire Glyn Dwr,’ I observed, hoping for some insight into this Welsh warrior who was claiming the principality as his own, and shedding blood to do it, before I had to share meat with him.
‘I do indeed.’ Harry grinned, happy to reminisce. ‘Our paths first crossed before his rebel days when he was fighting for England against the Scots. We met at Berwick when I was still young – barely twenty years old and willing to be impressed. He could wield a sword like one of King Arthur’s knights of old, and with the same glamour. Now with years on him, he is still a man of courage but also with a grave dignity.’ His smile faded. ‘Now I also admire his conviction in his Welsh blood and his right to rule. We parted on good terms after Conwy, spending the days, and the nights, talking about armies and campaigns. We had much in common and I regretted being unable to bring him back into the English fold. He would have done so with the slightest encouragement from the King,’ he mused, more willing to talk about their meeting than he had been previously. ‘Henry damns me for not taking him prisoner at the time, or even killing him outright with a knife between his shoulder blades as soon as he turned his back.’
‘I doubt it would have made the Welsh more peaceable.’
‘It would have removed a dangerous element from the scene, but he has sons to follow in his footsteps, and I had not the occasion to do it. Nor would it have been right. We had agreed to a negotiation, not an assassination. He could have clapped me into one of his cellars if he had wished. It was a matter of trust between two knights. As I told the King, it was not in keeping with Glyn Dwr’s rank for me to use the oath of fealty as a trick to ensnare him, to then strike him down as soon as his confidence was won. Such a deed is not in my nature.’
Sometimes Harry, who could ride into battle with bloody sword, surprised me with his level of chivalric sensitivity, but I forbore to comment, except to ask: ‘This isn’t a trap, is it?’ The hills pressed down on us, the croak of ravens and the mew of raptors accompanying us as if to warn us of what awaited. ‘You don’t expect us to be massacred before we get there, as the enemy? Glyn Dwr may not be as chivalric as you seem to be.’
