The Bastard King by Jean Plaidy Read Free Book Online

depose her young son and give back to King Henry what he had lost.
    How thrilling it was to see the flag of Normandy flying in the breeze beside the golden lilies of France! And how excited William was to watch those gallant soldiers marching into battle, the knights wearing hauberks, their helmets and boots of shining steel flashing in the sun, their lances in their hands. The foot-soldiers too were well prepared with their feet bound in buckskins and hides about their bodies.
    William danced madly round in his excitement.
    His mother, standing beside him, seized his hand and held it very tightly. He looked up at her and saw how sad she was, and wondered how anyone could be sad to see such magnificence; and his father was the finest of them all.
    He supposed she was sad because he was going away. He too would be sorry for that; but he was going to put the true King back on the throne and that was a good thing to do.
    â€˜When I am a man,’ said William. ‘I shall ride just like my father does at the head of my armies.’
    It was silent in the castle. Everyone was thoughtful; each day his mother went to the highest turret and waited there a long time.
    William forgot his father for long periods because there was so much to be done. He wanted to have excelled in archery; to beat Guy at everything they did together, so that he could boast to his father when he returned.
    Every time he performed some feat with extra skill he would say: ‘I will tell my father as soon as he comes home.’
    The days passed quickly – except those hours with Uncle Mauger. Guy whispered that Uncle Mauger was not what he seemed, that although he was an Archbishop and supposed to be a Christian he worshipped the old gods, Odin and Thor, and that he practised sorcery.
    â€˜Then he is a wicked man,’ whispered William.
    â€˜If your father knew he would never allow him to teach you,’ said Guy.
    â€˜Then it cannot be true, for my father knows everything there is to know and he would not allow Uncle Mauger to teach me if it were true that he were not a Christian.’
    But he did not like Uncle Mauger and he would watch him suspiciously during lessons and strange pictures would come into his mind. He wondered what one did in practising sorcery. He had a clearer vision of the Count of Talvas of whom he thought now and then. Sometimes he dreamed of the hall of Domfront and terrible things happening to those who had been unwary enough to be caught.
    In due course Robert came back to the castle. His armies had been victorious; he had routed the Queen Mother of France and her upstart son and he had set King Henry back on his throne.
    There were the usual feastings and revelries to celebrate his return, but it was not long before he was considering a new project. He wished to do for the Athelings what he had done for the King of France.
    William had an inkling of what was afoot. Since his talk with his father he had tried hard to discover all that he couldof England. The country had a fascination for him, largely because it was the home of the beautiful Athelings. They had seemed oddly content with their seclusion at the Abbey of Jumièges. Robert visited them once more and William had been delighted to be in the company that went with him.
    The cousins were a source of wonder to William. Their voices were soft; their hands white and beautifully shaped; their clothes were different from those of all others and William had an idea that they were transformed merely by being put on his cousins’ graceful figures. His father had told him that they were Saxons and this was why they were different. They grew fond of William and they would tell him stories of England and they told them beautifully after the manner of the old Norse sagas; these were not so much of conquests and bloodshed, but of peace and the spread of learning. They enjoyed talking of their ancestor the great King Alfred who, although a peace-loving man, had