Ahead lay the castle. The gates were open wide, the walls lined with curious faces, and as they rode across the drawbridge into the bailey, they found Robert and Amabel waiting within, ready to bid them welcome. They were smiling, and Maude smiled back, reining in her palfrey and holding out her hand so Robert could help her dismount. But her pleasure was not as pure and uncomplicated as Ranulf’s, for as much as she rejoiced in Robert’s return to the True Faith, and as much as she wanted to forget his betrayal, she had never learned how to forgive.
It had rained for days, a cold, pelting rain that defied the calendar and frustrated Londoners, for they’d yearned for June’s warmth during a long, bleak winter, and now June was here, but more like March in disguise. Although a fire had been lit in the royal bedchamber, it had yet to chase away the damp. On nights like this, Matilda missed her cozy chamber at Tower Royal; the palace at Westminster might be a more fitting residence for England’s king, but Matilda preferred the manor house that had been her home for most of her marriage.
“When will Papa be back?”
Eustace was straddling a bench by the fire, kicking rushes into the hearth. He sounded quite ingenuous, as if his only concern were with Stephen’s whereabouts, but Matilda knew better, for she knew her son. Of all her children, Eustace was the most stubborn, the one most determined to get his own way. It was bedtime he was resisting, for he’d decided that since he was eight now, he should not have to go to sleep at the same time as his younger brother, William. Occasionally he’d hide, but his usual tactic was delay, the strategy he was employing tonight, and he’d been bombarding his mother with earnest queries about how long dragons live and whether elephants truly fear mice and why it never snows in summer. His sudden interest in his father’s itinerary didn’t fool Matilda in the least, but she was a woman of infinite patience, and she said indulgently:
“Passing strange, for I was sure I’d told you all about your father’s capture of Hereford Castle. It had been seized by a wicked man named Talbot, an accomplice of Maude’s, but Stephen hastened west with an army and took the castle after a four-week siege. As his last letter said he was about to return to London, we may expect him any day now. So…the sooner you go off to bed, the sooner the morrow will arrive-and possibly your papa, too.”
It was not that easy, of course. Eustace made use of all the weapons in his arsenal: pleading, whining, sulking, even tears. Stephen would have capitulated early on, but Matilda was made of sterner stuff than her soft-spoken demeanor would indicate, and she prevailed.
Stephen arrived much sooner than Matilda expected, that very night, as she was making ready for bed. She hastily dismissed her ladies, for she shied away from public displays of affection, waiting until the door closed to welcome her husband home. His mantle was dripping, and underneath, his tunic was wet, too. She was not surprised, for he was as indifferent to weather as he was to late hours, often riding by torchlight or in a drenching downpour; he was, she knew, one of the few battle commanders willing to undertake a winter campaign. What did surprise her, though, was his subdued, offhand greeting. By now he’d shed his mantle, and she helped him struggle free of his soggy woolen tunic. His shirt seemed dry, and she steered him toward the hearth, then poured a cupful of hippocras before beginning her gentle interrogation.
“You seem oddly glum for a man who’s captured a castle and put his enemies to flight. What is amiss, Stephen?”
“You know me too well, sweet. Lord save me if ever I have a serious secret to keep from you!”
She was not taken in, either by his ready smile or by his rueful jest, and waited. He drank, paused to pull off his boots, and drank again. “My victory lasted about as long as one of our Eustace’s promises not to hit his brother. The garrison surrendered when the town caught fire; I suppose they feared it would spread to the castle. I let them go free, for they were but following Geoffrey Talbot’s orders.”
He shot her a challenging look, was reassured by her obvious approval. “I’d not have been so merciful to that hellspawn Talbot. He was not willing to take his chances with his men, though, and fled as the siege began. But as soon as I rode away from Hereford, he skulked back and torched the houses on the south side of the river.”
“The coward!” she said indignantly. “But you must not brood about such a craven sinner, Stephen. He’ll answer for his treachery, if not before your throne at Westminster, before the Throne of the Almighty come Judgment Day.”
“Talbot is the least of my problems, Tilda. I’ve got the Scots king ravaging the North, and Geoffrey of Anjou leading an army into Normandy again…and on the road to London, I encountered a herald from the Earl of Gloucester. Robert Fitz Roy had renounced his homage, claiming that I’d broken faith by sanctioning William de Ypres’s treachery and that I was no true king, having usurped the throne from the rightful heiress, his sister.”
“Oh, no…” Matilda stared at him in such pained dismay that he reached out swiftly, drew her into his arms. She clung tightly, fearfully, for what she’d most dreaded had come to pass. Behind her closed eyelids, an image formed: Robert of Gloucester, so controlled, so competent, and so dangerous. She’d never doubted that if there was one man in Christendom capable of wresting the crown from Stephen, it was Robert. Why had Stephen not done more to keep Robert content? Too late, though, for recriminations, too late. “So…it is to be war?”
“Yes,” he said, “and I shall need your help, Tilda.”
“Just tell me what you would have me do.”
“Besiege Dover Castle.”
“Me?” she gasped. “You are jesting, of course?”
“No, sweetheart, I am quite serious. I’d intended to march north and force the Scots king to take the field against me. But Robert’s treachery poses a greater threat. I’ve good men in Yorkshire, men whom I can trust to repel the Scots whilst I strike at the heart of Robert’s domains-Bristol Castle. It will not be easy to capture, God knows, but it is much too dangerous to remain a rebel stronghold, not when it can menace the whole of the West Country. Yet I dare not overlook Dover Castle, either. Dover would be Robert’s natural choice for a landing. If I can deny Maude a safe port, mayhap I can strand them in Normandy, and then-”
“Stephen, I understand that, I do. But I cannot-”
“Matilda, you can and you must. You are the Countess of Boulogne in your own right, can summon vassals not only from Boulogne but the Honour of Kent, too. Your fleet can blockade Dover’s harbor, starve the castle into submission if need be, and patrol the Channel, making it too risky for Maude and Robert to attempt an invasion. You have the power, lass, and now I need you to use it on my behalf.”
Matilda shook her head mutely, daunted by the magnitude of what he was asking, and he stepped back, looking down intently into her face.
“You are their liege lady; you have the right.” Adding coaxingly, “It is not as if you’d be making command decisions, sweet. You’d have battle captains to direct the siege. No one would expect you to pitch a tent under the castle walls or to launch the mangonels with your own hand!”
But she would be expected to give commands, to deal with unruly vassals, to enter into a man’s world and make all believe she belonged there. “Stephen, I do not think I can do this. It is not a woman’s place…”
“Tell that to Maude!” His smile was wry, but his hands had tightened upon her shoulders. “You must agree, my love. You must do this for me. You are the only one who can.”
Stephen quickly realized that his siege of Bristol Castle was going to take months, and with no certainty of success. Robert’s chief castle was virtually impregnable, ensconced behind two fast-flowing rivers, the Avon and the Frome, encircled by a deep ditch, protected not only by its own bailey walls but by those of the town, too. Patience had never been one of Stephen’s virtues, and he soon grew restless, then discouraged, and was not long in deciding that Bristol’s downfall could wait. Abandoning the siege, he went looking for easier targets and found them at Castl
e Cary and Harptree, held by Robert’s vassals. But as July ebbed away in a haze of heat, trouble flared in the border town of Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury’s castle had been given by the old king to his young queen Adeliza twelve years earlier. As castellan, she’d appointed the sheriff of Shropshire, William Fitz Alan-a man of influence in the Marches-Lord of Blancminster. But he was also a man with marital ties to the enemy camp: his wife, Christina, was niece to Robert and Amabel Fitz Roy. As soon as Robert renounced his allegiance to Stephen, Fitz Alan did, too, declaring that he held Shrewsbury Castle for his liege lady and rightful queen, the Empress Maude. By the first week of August, he found himself disputing that point with his king.
Shrewsbury had been blessed with natural defenses; the town lay within a horseshoe curve of the River Severn. Surrounded on three sides by water, Shrewsbury could be approached by land only from the north-site of the castle. For the past four weeks, a royal army had been encamped before the rebel fortress. But so far Stephen’s assaults had been driven off, and Fitz Alan remained defiant, scorning all demands for surrender.
The sky was barren of clouds, a bleached blue-white that shimmered with heat, for August had been a month of drought and dust. Stephen’s stallion had broken out in a sweat and was pawing the trampled grass. War-horses were bred as much for their fiery tempers as for their strength, and those nearest to Stephen prudently retreated. Stephen himself did not notice his destrier’s restiveness, for his attention was utterly focused upon the castle.
It looked deserted, for most of its inhabitants were barricaded within the great keep, and the men posted along the bailey walls were hunkered down out of sight, rising up occasionally to heave a lance or shoot a bow, then hastily ducking behind the stockade as Stephen’s archers returned the fire. Large rocks scattered about the bailey, churned-up earth, smashed horse troughs, and collapsed wooden sheds-all testified to the damage done by Stephen’s siege machines. As he watched, one of his mangonels went into action again. A creaking windlass slowly hauled the beam back, the men loaded a pile of heavy stones, and then released the triggering cord, causing the beam to snap upright, slamming into the crossbar and catapulting a rock shower over the castle walls. They could hear the thudding as the stones hit, and then a choked-off scream.
That was a familiar sound, though, and they paid it no heed. By now Stephen’s companions were watching him as intently as he was studying the castle. The Earl of Leicester was the first to lose patience, for the Beaumonts had as scanty a supply of that particular commodity as Stephen did. “What say you, my liege? Are we going to make another try with the scaling ladders or not?”
“No…we’ve lost enough men that way.” Stephen tightened the reins, swinging his mount in a circle. “Meet me in my command tent-all of you.”
They did, although it took a good quarter hour to gather them together. Stephen sat cross-legged on his bed, watching them jockey for position in the tent’s confining quarters. Robert Beaumont was comfortably seated on a coffer chest, swapping bawdy jokes with Miles Fitz Walter, but his blue eyes were keeping Stephen under an unobtrusive surveillance. Stephen had come to realize that the nonchalant affability of the Beaumonts masked a shrewd sense of their own worth and their own wants. He’d come, too, to rely upon that shrewdness, even if he sometimes fretted that their loyalties were not rooted deep. He did believe they’d keep faith, though, for no family had benefited as much from his kingship as theirs had done.
Geoffrey de Mandeville had profited, too. So had Simon de Senlis, for Stephen had restored to him part of his lost patrimony, granting him the earldom of Northampton to compensate for the earldom claimed by his stepfather, the Scots king. Stephen’s gaze rested upon them both for a moment before moving on to Maude’s men, for that was how he thought of Miles Fitz Walter and Brien Fitz Count.
Miles was not one to escape notice, for he had a redhead’s temper, a soldier’s taste for blunt speaking, and a steely-eyed stare that was in itself a formidable weapon. He looked like a man who’d spent most of his life outdoors, with flyaway reddish-brown hair that always appeared windblown and skin deeply freckled by the sun, taut as leather. Bowlegged and barrel-chested, he was a skilled huntsman and an aggressive, able battle commander. He cast a lengthy shadow over the Marches, sheriff of Gloucestershire and Staffordshire, and it was often said of him that he ruled the whole Welsh border, “from the River Severn to the sea.” He’d been devoted to the old king; his allegiance to Stephen had yet to be tested. But if he made an uncertain friend, he’d make a more dangerous enemy, and so Stephen was trying hard to convince himself that self-interest would keep Miles loyal.
If what first impressed about Miles was the coiled power, the sheer physical impact of his presence, the initial impression of Brien Fitz Count was of polished, impeccable courtesy, a disarming smile, and distance. The most superficial assessment revealed Miles to be just what he was-a man most at home in the saddle, sword in hand. Brien, attractive, urbane, and unusually well educated, was obviously a courtier, and thus easily dismissed by those scanning the horizon for political rivals. That was too simple, though, for there was nothing at all simple about Brien Fitz Count, a man who kept his own counsel, a cynic who was still saddened whenever his jaundiced view of mankind was confirmed, a man of deliberation and caution who was reckless in the extreme upon the battlefield, a man of noble blood and ignoble birth, tolerant of all failures but his own.
Stephen trusted Brien even less than he did Miles, for Brien was that rarity, a man who seemed willing to admit women into that select circle of those who wielded royal authority. Stephen had long suspected that Brien would defect to Maude within hours of her landing on English soil, and oddly, that hurt, for he had a genuine liking for this illegitimate, honourable son of a Breton count, sensing that they shared an uncommon willingness to forgive human folly. A great pity, he thought, that Brien should be so eager to entangle himself in Maude’s web.
They were all here by now, all but one. Stephen was not surprised that it should be the Earl of Chester who’d keep them waiting; nor did he doubt it was deliberate. Randolph de Gernons counted it a day wasted if he did not ruffle a few feathers, and if the feathers were royal, so much the better. He was a man with vast estates, numerous vassals, and equally numerous enemies, for he was as bad-tempered as a badger, as proud as Lucifer, and he collected grudges as if he thought they were coins of the realm. But even if he’d possessed the serene temperament of a saint, he’d have been the object of Stephen’s suspicions, for his young wife was Robert Fitz Roy’s daughter, not only Maude’s namesake but her favorite niece. So far, though, Chester had remained aloof from the political turmoil afflicting England and Normandy, and if he had any interest in making Maude Queen of England, he alone knew it.
Chester seemed to sense just how far he could push his provocations, and he made his entrance mere moments before Stephen’s irritation flared into active anger. Swarthy and stocky, with deep-set dark eyes half hidden under lowering brows, lanky ink-black hair that reached below his shoulders, and a harsh, gravelly voice that could rattle shutters when he was in full cry, Chester looked at first glance more like a brigand than a baron of the realm, and since he so often acted as if his only true peer were God, he got no warm welcome now from the other lords. Unfazed by the chill, he elbowed his way toward Stephen. “I assume this summons means we’ll be launching another attack, and high time, too!”
Stephen ignored the gibe. “We have no choice but to attack again, for it could take months to starve them out. And they’ve made it offensively clear that they’ll not surrender.”
“God’s Bones, why should they surrender? They know full well that their defiance will cost them nothing, no more than it did the garrisons at Exeter and Hereford.”
Stephen glowered at the outspoken earl. “And of course,” he said sarcastically, “men would be so much quicker to surrender if they expected to be hanged!” Satisfied with his riposte, he glanced back at the other men. “We ha
ve much to do and little time to spare, for I want the assault to begin at noon.”
There were surprised murmurs, for none saw the need for such haste. “Why today?” Miles asked curiously. “Why not wait till the morrow?”
“Because,” Stephen said, “we cannot be sure that on the morrow the wind will still be blowing from the north.” And he watched, smiling faintly, as he saw them absorb, understand, and approve.
The final assault upon Shrewsbury Castle began after a priest called upon the Almighty to grant them victory. The castle defenders, warned by the sudden activity in the royal encampment, had taken up position along the bailey walls, watching warily as the battering ram was brought up. They were puzzled, though, by what the king did next, for he dispatched a small armed force toward the castle. Crouching behind large shields, they advanced upon the castle moat. A deep, dry ditch, it had been filled in weeks ago by Stephen’s soldiers, heaped with dirt and brushwood and rocks. When the castle garrison realized that the men below them were throwing more brushwood and straw into the ditch, they understood, and arrows and stones began to rain down from the battlements. But they were too late. Torches were already searing through the air, aimed at the sun-dried straw, and within moments, the moat was filled with fire.
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