'Can we not go to your room?' he asked in an undertone.
Alys shook her head. 'Catherine's women will be here all afternoon,' she said. 'You will have to wait till tonight, my lord!'
Hugo made a face. 'Very well,' he said. 'You can ride the little grey mule, or one of the ponies.'
Alys threw a cape around her shoulders. 'What about Catherine's mare?' she asked. 'She's quiet enough, isn't she?'
Hugo hesitated for a moment. 'Yes,' he said. 'Catherine has not ridden for months, but she has been exercised by one of the lads every day.'
'I'll ride her then,' Alys said.
Hugo hesitated again. 'Catherine might take it amiss,' he said.
Alys stepped a little closer so that he could smell the perfume on her hair, and raised her face to him. 'There are many things of Catherine's which give me pleasure,' she said silkily. 'Many things.'
Hugo glanced quickly around them. Ruth was sitting at the fireside sewing. As she caught his glance she dipped her head over her work again and stitched furiously.
'Don't tease me, Alys,' he said under his breath. 'Or I shall insult my wife by throwing you down and taking you on the threshold of her bedroom.'
Alys' eyes narrowed and she smiled. 'As you please, my lord,' she said in a low-voiced whisper. 'You know that I desire you. I can feel myself grow wet just at the thought of you.'
Hugo gave an exclamation and turned and picked up his cloak.
'I am taking Mistress Alys out to see the new house,' he said shortly to Ruth. 'I need her to write some orders for the builder for me.'
Ruth rose to her feet and bobbed a curtsey but kept her head down as if she were afraid to see the desire on their faces.
'Tell my wife when she wakes that I will be home in time to take supper with her,' Hugo said. 'I will send Alys home ahead of me when she has finished her work.' Ruth nodded. 'Yes, my lord,' she said. Hugo turned and strode from the room. 'I'll order the horses,' he said over his shoulder.
'Tell them to put a saddle on Catherine's mare,' Alys said. 'I don't like the pony.'
Alys sat uneasily in the saddle as the mare walked quietly across the drawbridge and down the little hill into the town. She had ridden the ponies in the stable often, but the pace of the bigger horse was longer and more rolling, and the ground looked very far away. Gritting her teeth, Alys regretted the vanity which had made her insist on riding Catherine's horse.
On either side of the road people turned to look at the horses going by and women dipped into grudging curtsies and men pulled their caps off their heads. Hugo smiled from one side to another as if the tokens of respect were willing tributes. Alys, swelling with pride, looked straight ahead as if she were too grand to either see or hear them.
At the corner of the street a barrow was halted selling fresh fish. Alys saw a girl of about her own age, seventeen. She was barefoot with a brown shawl around her shoulders and a dirty grey gown underneath. At her skirt clung a whey-faced toddler and she carried another child on her hip. Her face was marked with sores, and there was a dark bruise around her eye. Her hair, uncombed and unwashed, hung in thick rats' tails over her shoulders. She bobbed a curtsey as the two of them and the two servants rode by. Hugo did not even look at her.
That could have been me, Alys thought, her face impassive, her eyes looking straight ahead. That could have been me – married to Tom, accepting his fists and his lust. That could have been me – Morach's apprentice, always dirty, always poor. That could have been me – sickly, pregnant, exhausted. Anything I have done is better than that.
Hugo, ahead of her, rode confidently and easily. His blue cloak flickered behind him, matching the deep blue of his puffed breeches and the slashed lining of his blue jacket. His riding boots were deep, luminous black, the best leather well polished. His blue suede gloves with the gold embroidery would have kept any family in this town in food for months. Alys watched his back, torn between desire and resentment. He turned in his saddle. 'Horse going well?' he asked.
Alys flashed him her most brilliant smile. 'Oh yes,' she said, confidently. 'You must buy me one of my very own, Hugo. A roan to match yours.'
Hugo nodded absently. 'You haven't seen the new house before, have you?' he asked.
Alys hesitated and let him change the subject. 'No,' she said. 'I saw the plans when you were drawing them. And I saw the letters from the men in London who are planning houses in the new style.'
Hugo nodded. 'It's a fine house,' he said. 'We have dug deep down into the ground and we will have cellars below ground level. That will keep things cold even in the hottest of summers.'
Alys nodded. The cobbles of the town ended abruptly and the road was hard-packed earth, an old Roman road running north. The horses walked more smoothly on the easier ground and Alys was getting used to the mare's long-legged pace.
'It faces south for the sunshine,' Hugo said. 'It's built in the shape of an "H" with the entrance door set fair in the middle. There's a parlour for Catherine and her ladies on the left as you go in. No great hall at all, no great dining-room for everyone. No more eating with the soldiers and servants.' Alys smiled. 'It will be a great change,' she said. Hugo nodded. 'It's the new way,' he said. 'Outside London they never build castles for noblemen, just houses, beautiful houses with wide, lovely windows. Who wants a pack of servants – a private army? I'll always train the peasants for soldiers, I'll always have men I can call on. But we don't need a great castle ready for a siege at any moment! These are peaceful times. Neither the Scots nor the reivers come raiding this far south any more.'
'And you save money!' Alys said teasingly. Hugo grinned, unrepentant. 'And there is nothing wrong with that!' he said. 'It's my father's way, the old way, to think a man's power can only be measured by the number of people who have to trail after him when he rides out. I would rather be a lord over fertile lands. I would rather have ships out on the sea. I would rather have the men who take my wage working for me -working every day, not lounging around in the guardroom in case I need them in a year's time.'
Alys nodded. 'You'll have house servants though,' she said. 'And some kind of retinue.'
'Oh aye,' Hugo said. 'I shan't ask Catherine to cook her own dinner!'
Alys smiled. 'No, I can't see Catherine working for her keep,' she said.
'I'll have house servants, and grooms for the stables, and Catherine will keep her ladies and David will stay with us, of course. But the soldiers can go, and the smith, and the master of horse, and the bakery and the alehouse. We can brew our own ale and bake our own bread, but we do not have to feed the whole castle any more.'
Alys nodded. 'Your new house will be just for you,' she said. 'Just for you and the people you choose to have by you.'
Hugo nodded. 'I'll get rid of the hangers-on who do nothing for their keep but idle and eat,' he said.
Alys laughed, a little ripple of laughter. 'You will be rid of the ladies' gallery then!' she exclaimed. 'For more idleness and eating goes on there than anywhere else in the castle!'
Hugo grinned. 'I will see if Catherine can make do with fewer ladies,' he said. 'But I would not wish to deprive her of companions.'
Alys shrugged. 'She takes little pleasure in anything these days,' she said. 'All she does is lie abed and sigh and eat. She has not sewn in the gallery for days. She only gets up to have dinner with you. You do not know, Hugo, how idle she has become.'
Hugo frowned. 'It cannot be good for the child,' he said.
Alys shook her head. 'I have begged and begged her to make an effort and get out of bed and walk a little, even if it is only in the gallery. The weather is growing more fair, she could sit in the garden and take the air. But she will not. She feels tired all the time and she weeps for Morach and for her parents. You will have to be patient with her, Hugo. She is old to conceive a first child and she was barren for many years. Her body is not young and lithe and strong. And her humour is melancholy.' There was a little silence for a few moments. 'Shall we canter?' Hugo asked abr
uptly. 'You can manage Catherine's horse, can you?'
Alys laughed. 'I feel as if she were my own horse,' she said. 'Of course we can canter. Have I not told you that I fear nothing when we are together?'
Hugo smiled back at her. 'Well, I fear enough to want to keep you safe when you are carrying my son,' he said. Alys shook her head. 'He is safe inside me,' she said.
'And I never felt better or happier in my life. With your love I have everything I ever wanted. I can canter! I feel as if I could fly!'
Hugo laughed and touched his hunter slightly with his heels. At once the big horse surged forwards. Alys' mare followed quickly, her stride rapid. Alys bounced in the saddle, clinging to the pommel, praying that Hugo would not look back and see her white-faced and afraid.
He did not. They rode for some minutes along the track, the servants cantering along behind them. Then Hugo pulled up the roan and the mare stopped abruptly, throwing Alys forward on to the neck. She held on by a firm grip on the saddle, and heaved herself back into place.
'Here,' he said. 'Here will be the gates. I shall build a great wall all around this area and leave the land inside as it is: trees and shrubs and grass. I shall have deer roaming inside the wall, maybe even some boar for me to hunt. I shall have a cottage here at the gates and a gatekeeper. No guardroom, no soldiers. And then from here I shall make a track to the front door.' He pointed ahead of them. Alys could see about twenty men digging and carrying. 'Is it to be of brick or stone?' Alys asked. 'The main pillars of the house are stone, but it will be faced with brick,' Hugo said proudly. 'It's a pretty brick, a warm colour. It looks well against the stone. They are making the bricks and firing them here.' 'And the stone?' Alys asked idly, looking around. 'From the nunnery,' Hugo said. 'I had them bring the stones up here. Some of them are handsomely carved. I shall use the slates from their roof as well, and some of their beams that were not burned. Shall you laugh, Alys, to be my whore under a nun's roof?
Alys felt her skin grow cold. She turned away. 'And not far from the river!' she said. Her voice was strained but Hugo was unaware.
'I may divert it and dam it and make some little lakes,' he said. 'For fish and for pleasure. I love the sound of water. It's the only thing I will miss when we leave the castle, the sound of water.'
Alys nodded. 'And you must plant pretty gardens,' she said. 'I shall supervise a herb garden, a proper knot garden, an orchard and an aviary!'
Hugo laughed. 'Yes, you shall,' he said. 'And a still-room,' Alys said. In her mind she could smell the clean, light smell of the still-room at the nunnery. 'We shall have a physic garden, a herb garden, and a still-room where I shall make medicines for you and me and our family.'
'You can have some of the gear from the nuns,' Hugo said. 'A lot of it was brought away safe. Pestles and mortars and measuring bowls and the like. Some good glass bottles, too, with golden labels.'
Alys felt her mouth grow dry. Then she nodded, shook her head back and laughed, a high reckless laugh. 'Yes,' she said. 'Why not! Everything that the nuns had and that you took from them we can use. Why should it go to waste? Why should anything be spoiled? Let us take and take anything we need until we have the house just as we want it!'
Hugo jumped down from his horse and held out his arms to her. Alys slid off her horse down to him and leaned against him as he held her close. 'I love you, Alys,' he said. ‘I love your hunger for life. You would rob an old nun of her very shift, wouldn't you – if you had need of it?' Alys looked up into his dark smiling face. 'I would,' she said. She felt at once a fierce, destructive joy. 'I have no patience with nuns, always confessing and forbearing, and avoiding sin. I want to live now. I want to have my joys now and my pleasures. If I am a damned sinner then at least I shall go to my punishment with the taste of everything I wanted still warm on my tongue.'
Hugo laughed with her. 'You must make some magic here,' he urged. 'When the workmen leave one evening we will come and you can summon your wild sisters and we can lie on the half-built walls and on the ground together and we can claim the very stones and the slates back from the nuns and dedicate the house to ourselves and to our pleasure!'
'Oh yes!' Alys said hollowly. 'Yes.'
Twenty-two
'I want a green gown,' Alys said idly. She and Hugo were sprawled on the high bed in her room. There were new hangings on the wall to match the new curtains on the bed. A fire burned in the grate with sweet-smelling pine cones and a pinch of incense. Outside the summer sky was striped with gold as the sun slowly set. 'I want a green silk gown for summer.'
Hugo lifted a hank of Alys' golden-brown hair. 'You're an expensive wench,' he said idly. 'I have given you yards and yards of cloth for one gown after another. Anyway, you have no right to wear silk.'
Alys chuckled, a low, lazy laugh. 'You can give it to me as a portent,' she said. 'Your father has promised me land and money when our son is born. Then I will be a freeholder.'
'Has he?' Hugo looked surprised, 'You have him under your thumb, my little witch, don't you? I've never known him give land away before. Not even Meg, his favourite whore, had land from him! He has you very close to his heart, doesn't he?'
Alys looked smugly at him. 'He loves me as if I were his daughter,' she said with quiet pleasure. 'And he wants me to go out with him when you cut the last of the hay. And I want a new green gown. A trader showed it to me yesterday. It's pure silk, it will cost a fortune. He brought it to show Catherine but she would not fit a wagon-cover. He showed it to me instead and I long for it, Hugo!'
Hugo chuckled. 'Persistent wench! You have as many gowns as Catherine -I swear it.'
Alys sighed and dropped a kiss on his bare shoulder as he lay naked and at peace on her bed, his long limbs gilded with the sunlight from the arrow-slit. 'No,' she said. 'Catherine has more gowns than me. She has all the gowns from her mother's chests. And you have bought her more gowns than you have ever bought for me.'
Hugo shook his head. 'Damned if I can think when,' he said. 'No more than one a year for all the years we have been married. But you, Alys! You want a gown a week!'
Alys smiled. 'Why should I not have as many gowns as Catherine?' she asked. 'You would rather see me in a new gown than her, wouldn't you? And you would rather strip me, than her, wouldn't you?'
Hugo shrugged. 'How many does she have?' he asked in mock weariness. 'Twelve,' Alys said.
Hugo rolled over on to his belly. Alys saw that his eyes were bright and he was laughing. 'And how many do you have, my little witch?' he asked.
'Eleven!' Alys said triumphantly. 'And now I want a green gown!' 'Then will you be satisfied?' Hugo demanded. Alys sat up, threw back her hair and swarmed up along his body so she was lying along his back. She pressed her hips forward slightly, pushing against Hugo's warm, naked buttocks.
'Do you want me satisfied? Satisfied and plump? Plump and tired? Boring?' she asked. She thrust a little harder with each word. Hugo groaned and closed his eyes.
'Witch,' he said under his breath. 'You would make a dead man feel desire.'
Alys laughed and put her arms around his waist. Her hand slid between his belly and the rumpled sheets of her bed. She found his penis and held him, hard. Hugo groaned and tried to turn over.
'No,' Alys said, whispering into his ear. 'I have you in my power, Hugo. I will have you like this!'
Hugo struggled for only a moment and then as Alys' hand insistently pressed him he plunged his face and his body deeper into the bed and felt her push and push him from behind, her hand working, until with a slow groan he lay still. Alys laid her cheek against his sweating shoulder blade, and rested, lying like a long, naked snake along his back.
Hugo shook his head like a man waking from a powerful dream and rolled over. 'Alys, my love,' he said. She smiled at him. 'The green gown,' she stipulated. 'And ribbons and gloves to match.'
He took her in his arms. 'A thousand gowns,' he said, kissing her neck, the hollow of her collar bone and the rumpled mass of her hair. 'A thousand gowns of
green, of silver, of royal purple or gold. Whatever you wish.'
Alys lay back and shut her eyes. Hugo kissed her breasts and then nuzzled her belly. 'You're very thin still,' he said thoughtfully. Alys' eyes opened, she smiled at him. ‘I wondered when you would notice,' she said.
He sat up. 'Notice what?' he asked. 'What should I notice?'
Alys stretched like a cat. 'Why, that Catherine's baby makes her fatter and lazier every day and that my baby has left me as slim as a virgin.'
Hugo shrugged. 'I thought only that different women took their pregnancy in different ways. But what of it, Alys?'
'I lied to you,' Alys said coolly. 'I lied to you and to Lord Hugh. I said I was pregnant when I was not.'
Hugo choked. 'You did what!' he exclaimed.
'I lied,' Alys said again simply.
Hugo put his hand out and turned Alys' face towards him. The lines at the roots of his eyebrows were growing deep, his mouth was grim. 'You said that you were carrying my son and you lied to me and to my father?'
Alys nodded fearlessly.
Hugo pushed her away from him and got up from the bed. He flung his jacket around his shoulders and stared out of the arrow-slit at the river and the green hills behind.
'Why?' he demanded, without turning around.
Alys shrugged. 'Morach had just died,' she said. 'I was afraid you might blame me, too, and have me sent away. Catherine hated me when she first met me, if she knew we were lovers she would have turned against me again. Your father cares for nothing as much as a son to come after you. I needed something to keep me here safe.'
Hugo turned back to see her. 'You are a schemer,' he said with dislike. 'You have tried to entrap me.'
Alys sat up, threw her shift over her head and slipped from the bed, tying the strings of the white linen gown at her shoulders as she walked towards him. 'You entrapped yourself,' she said. 'Your desire for me has trapped you in a way that no lie could ever do.'
The Wise Woman Page 35
