Lords of the White Castle by Elizabeth Chadwick Read Free Book Online

in which it's matured,' he retorted.
    Hawise pulled a face at him and Ivo giggled. She sent him out to herald their arrival, bundled her hair into a silk net and covered it with a veil and circlet.
    Le Brun in the meantime had donned his own clothes. Latching his belt, he went to the door and opened it, ushering Hawise before him. 'Let's find out what that wretched boy has done,' he said.
    'You gave him a man's shield for his year day,' Hawise reminded him and laid a cautionary hand on his sleeve. 'Just remember that he is almost an adult. He has been away from us for ten months and the court will have wrought changes.'
    Le Brun snorted. 'He's still my son, is he not?'
    'Exactly,' Hawise said and led him from their chamber into the hall.
    Fulke was sitting on a bench drawn up to the fire, his long legs extended to the warmth and his new cloak still pinned across his shoulders. Seated beside him was a handsome youth whose dark hair, brown eyes and tanned complexion could have made him a family member. As Ivo had said, he carried a lute. However, after one brief glance, it was not at the guest she looked, but at her eldest son, and in shock.
    The malleable features of childhood had been pared to the bone and remoulded to leave a hawkish visage, so reminiscent of her father that she almost gasped. All that he possessed of the FitzWarin line was the heavy, crow-black hair and quick brows. The rest was pure de Dinan—even down to the nose where thin, straight symmetry had been replaced by a version that held echoes of his grandfather's war-battered visage.
    'Mama.' He drew in his legs and stood up.
    'Jesu, what have you been doing!' Hawise cried and threw her arms around him. He had grown again. She was tall for a woman, but the top of her head only reached his collarbone. Pulling his head down, she kissed him heartily on either cheek and then ran her finger down the dent in his nose. 'How came you by this?'
    'That's what I've come to tell you, or at least part of it.'
    He broke from her grasp to embrace his father. 'We have leave from court to sojourn two days here.'
    The word 'we' reminded Hawise of her obligation as hostess and she turned to Fulke's companion who had also risen to his feet. He was somewhat older than her son was, she judged, perhaps seventeen or eighteen. Not as tall, and wirily slender of build.
    'Jean de Rampaigne, squire to Lord Theobald Walter,' he said before she could ask, and bowed over her hand with impeccable manners.
    'You are welcome,' Hawise responded warmly.' 'Tis a pity that both of you could not have been here for the Christmas celebrations.' She gestured around the hall where servants were dismantling the evergreen trimmings and a laundry maid was bundling up the linen tablecloths and napery for washing.
    'Why should they want to come here to celebrate when they could roister at court?' her husband asked, only half in jest. 'I know at their age I took my chances.' He greeted Jean de Rampaigne with a brisk handclasp.
    'We didn't gain leave until last night, Papa.' Fulke sat down on the bench, then, like a restless dog, stood up again and turned in a circle. One hand rose to push his heavy hair off his brow in a gesture so reminiscent of his father that it sent a pang through Hawise. 'I have so much to tell you that I do not know where to start.'
    'The beginning might be a good place,' said le Brun. 'And if it's going to be a long story, we might as well break our fast at the same time.' He gestured to the dais where bread, cheese and ale were being set out on a fresh linen cloth.
    The youth nodded. 'It might be for the best,' he said pensively.
    Fulke watched his father's expression harden as he told him about the incident with the chessboard. Nervously he crumbled a small wastel loaf between his fingers. 'I could not have done anything else,' he said.
    'Yes, you could,' le Bran said grimly. 'You could have made sure he stayed down.'
    'But I thought you wanted a place in the royal household for me