ASilverMirror by Roberta Gellis Read Free Book Online Page A

he had been indifferent, not believing the battle could
have any personal relevance. At the time the news had come, he had seen the
deep interest it aroused in King Louis only as an opportunity to free himself
gently from a mistress who had begun to talk of ridding herself of her husband.
He had never given a thought to Alys’s family in England. The conflict between
Henry III and his barons had been going on for many years. William of Marlowe
had been involved in it only as an aide to King Henry’s brother, Richard of
Cornwall, who had been trying to make peace between the parties. Why should
William need to be “saved”? And what kind of help could Alphonse give?
    The answers to those questions could no doubt be given by
the man who had brought the letters and had been named by Alys as John of
Hurley, the younger son of Marlowe’s second wife. Alphonse gritted his teeth
again. John was waiting in the solar to speak to him, but in spite of the real
affection he felt for Alys and her father, Alphonse could not simply agree to
any request John made.
    After making out most of Alys’s frantic plea, Alphonse
realized that Richard of Cornwall had somehow been forced to join the fighting
at Lewes. If so, of course Richard would have fought for his brother, King
Henry, and William would have supported Richard, which meant that Alys’s father
might be in serious trouble. But if Richard was no longer the chief negotiator
of peace, it was almost certain that both parties would turn to King Louis to
take up that burden.
    In that case, Alphonse knew he would need to move carefully
if he wished to enlist King Louis’s influence on William of Marlowe’s behalf.
Louis would take his role as arbitrator of a settlement between the Earl of
Leicester and King Henry most seriously and would refuse to act in the interest
of any individual unless that action was presented to him as a part of a
larger, satisfactory solution to the problem as a whole. Alphonse feared that
John of Hurley might be nearly as hysterical as Alys’s letter. He might demand
instant action to free his father, and Alphonse was sure that would do more
harm than good.
     
    Sir John of Hurley, once page and squire to Hugh Bigod and
now his sworn man as well as his friend, had followed Hugh to war and into
exile in France. As the minutes passed, John glanced uneasily around the richly
furnished chamber to which he had been led. The servant who had come to the
door and taken him up to the solar had politely gestured him toward a cushioned
chair flanking the raised and hooded hearth. But John, splashed to the thighs
with mud, had declined to take a, seat, knowing he would transfer the mud to
the beautifully embroidered cushion.
    He wished now that he had found an inn and a bathhouse
before he came so he could have presented himself more decently to Alphonse
d’Aix. Clearly Alphonse was a more delicate and elegant gentleman than John had
expected. He had assumed Alphonse would be much like his brother, Raymond,
Comte d’Aix, who was, despite his high station, a man’s man who hardly noticed
such things as silken cushions or what he wore, except to be sure his armor was
sound.
    When he decided to come to Alphonse as soon as he arrived in
Paris, John had not stopped to consider that Alphonse had spent nearly all his
life as a courtier. He felt that his message was of desperate urgency. Whether
Sieur Alphonse would feel the same, John was less and less certain as more
minutes passed and the gentleman did not come forth from his bedchamber to
greet him. John could not help wondering how convincing he could be to a
courtier in his present condition. He could not smell himself—his nose had
become accustomed to the stink of his own sweat and his horse’s—but he knew the
aroma with which he was filling the room was not delicate.
    “I am very sorry to take so long, but I still have great
difficulty reading Alys’s letters.”
    John turned from the fire into which he had