Lady of the English by Elizabeth Chadwick Read Free Book Online Page A

us err on the side of caution. I will give the order to have Meulan 37
    LadyofEnglish.indd 37
    6/9/11 5:35 PM
    Elizabeth Chadwick
    transferred to Wallingford, but I expect every cooperation with my lord the bishop of Salisbury, is that clear?”
    ttt
    Dismissed by her father with the evening’s business completed, Matilda entered the guest chamber allotted to herself and Adeliza and breathed deeply, trying to release her tension.
    Adeliza followed her quietly into the room and directed her women about their business: folding back the bedclothes; warming the sheets with hot stones wrapped in cloths; preparing a tray of wine and honey cakes.
    “They call women weak reeds,” Matilda said with a short laugh, “but it isn’t true, because otherwise how would we bear the duties and burdens that are set upon us by men?”
    Adeliza gave a small shake of her head. “I think you are courageous. I could not do this.”
    “If you had to, you could.” Matilda fixed her young stepmother with a fierce glance.
    Adeliza gestured. “But it would not suit me, whereas I can see the fire inside you.”
    “I do it because my father asks it of me.”
    “But for yourself too, I think.”
    Matilda wandered to the coffer that held her trinkets and picked up an ornate ivory pot of rose-scented salve. She removed the lid and inhaled the delicate scent of summer petals. She did desire to hold power in her own right, but it was so difficult when a forthright woman was considered to possess masculine tendencies and therefore suspected of being a virago and flouting the natural law. “Am I wrong about the bishop of Salisbury?” she asked Adeliza sat down on her bed. “The bishop has long been one of your father’s closest advisers,” she replied with diplomacy.
    “He knows how to spin straw into gold.”
    “And how much of it does he keep for himself? How much does he take to keep his mistresses and children, his palaces and 38
    LadyofEnglish.indd 38
    6/9/11 5:35 PM
    Lady of the English
    castles? How much goes to buy him a portion of every dish in the land?”
    “I suspect only Roger of Salisbury knows the sums, and that they change from one moment to the next, but since he keeps your father’s coffers full to the brim, he is permitted a certain leeway. Do not make him your enemy,” Adeliza cautioned.
    “He has the power to do you great harm as well as great good.”
    “A bishop exists to serve God and the king, not his own interests,” Matilda said. “But thank you for your advice.”
    Taking a dab of the salve on her forefinger, she worked it into her hands. If, in the fullness of time, she were to rule England, she would need the support and goodwill of the Church, and prelates such as Roger of Salisbury needed to be either persuaded to her side, or put in their place.
    ttt
    In the morning, the court made ready to travel from Reading to Windsor. As Matilda waited for her groom to bring her mare, she narrowed her eyes to study the bishop of Salisbury from across the courtyard. Surrounded by his entourage, he was deep in conversation with her cousin Stephen. Bishop Roger was not tall, but he was thickset and his bejewelled regalia increased his breadth and his presence. The head of his crosier glowed with Limoges work in blue enamel and his robes sparkled with so much metallic thread that he resembled a frosty morning at dawn. His white palfrey was trapped out in glittering harness, the fringed saddle cloth reaching almost to the ground. She had spoken to him on their first arrival in the courtyard, but the greeting, although courteous, had been brief and remote on both sides. The good bishop was being considerably more affable towards her cousin Stephen, she noted.
    Brian FitzCount’s groom brought Sable into the yard, and Brian arrived from his business and took the reins with a brief word. His dark glance flickered over the bishop and Stephen 39
    LadyofEnglish.indd 39
    6/9/11 5:35 PM
    Elizabeth Chadwick
    as he walked the horse