Fire Song (43 page)

Aubery had been staring stubbornly into nothing, but William’s last sentence brought his eyes into focus on his stepfather’s face. “But—” he began.

“But me no buts,” William snapped. “Matilda was cold as a wet winter, stupid as an owl, and a coward to boot. She would not even take responsibility for her ordinary woman’s duties. Have you not noticed that every complaint you voice against Fenice is when she shows her love for you, most especially by using her head or performing an act of bravery?”

“You mean by being disobedient and headstrong—as you permitted—nay, taught Alys to be,” Aubery riposted angrily.

William stared at him and then smiled wryly. “Alys is a strong and clever woman, and she loves Raymond. Yes, I am sure Alys would have done exactly as Fenice did in Castile. But in Pons… I do not know what Alys would have done in Pons, but she would not have succeeded as Fenice did. Likely she would have ended up in prison, too. To speak the truth, I do not think Alys has the devotion or the softness of heart to cover herself with filth—even for Raymond.”

“And does it not matter that I do not wish—”

“I am disgusted with you!” William exclaimed, getting to his feet. “You damned ungrateful dog! Can you think of nothing but your own pride? Can you not think what Fenice must have suffered when you threw so great a sacrifice, a sacrifice made out of the love she bears you, in her face?” He stamped across the room to the door. “I will send someone for my baggage. You may invite Fenice to share the chamber or not, just as you please, but
I
will not share it with you—or anything else.”

Aubery sat staring in open-mouthed shock. Never, no matter what he had done, had his stepfather ever been this angry with him. “What am I to do about her?” he cried as William opened the door.

“Cherish her, you worse-than-jackass. Cherish her as a greater prize than the assurance of salvation. Kneel down and kiss her feet and beg pardon.”

The door slammed on William’s last word. Aubery had got to his feet, but he sank down on the bed again. At the moment he could not think about Fenice. Although the quarrel seemed to be about her, it really was not. It was still Matilda who was the bone of contention between William and him. Aubery tried to draw back into his self-deception, but he could not. From the beginning William had been right and he wrong about Matilda. She was a good woman. She would have made a perfect nun, pious, sexless, blindly obedient, but she had not made a good wife.

He had known that for most of the years they had been married but had been unwilling to admit it because he was too accursed proud to acknowledge his mistake. Looking back on his misery both during Matilda’s life and after her death, Aubery shuddered. All of it was owing to his pride. Had he been willing to say aloud that Matilda was not perfect, the rage he bottled up inside would have had an outlet and he would not have scolded poor Matilda and made her unhappy over what she could not help. Then he would not have had the bitter memory of his harshness after she died. God knew, perhaps the failings that rasped him worst could have been ameliorated or amended if he had confessed them to his mother, but pride had kept him silent.

Pride was one of the seven deadly sins, and he had committed it, and he had been punished.
Had
been.

Aubery had been sitting with his head sunk into his hands, and he suddenly sat up straight. Christ and Holy Mary were indeed merciful. He had been scourged for his pride while he committed the sin. If he avoided the sin, rooted out the pride that had made it impossible to accept help…

A vision, clear as if the event were taking place anew, crossed Aubery’s mind. He saw himself in the prison cell in Pons, struggling upright, aching in every muscle and unable to see out of his left eye because of the pride that had not let him yield when almost everyone else was willing to do so. He saw the bent, filthy figure of the dung collector enter, stumble, be prodded by the guard’s billhook, rise to its feet, and fling the pailful of filth into the guard’s face. He even had a vision of his own face as it must have appeared, stupid with shock, eyes and mouth agape…

Aubery roared with laughter, rocking helplessly to and fro on the bed. Oh, William
was
right. Aubery realized he was worse than a jackass not to have seen how funny that was. And then she hit the poor man in the stomach with the pail, adding injury to insult. Aubery held his ribs, which were still sore, as he gasped for breath, remembering his astonished joy when he realized the unrecognizable figure was Fenice. Then the laughter checked abruptly as he remembered also how the monster that was his pride had swallowed that joy and spat it up in a bitter gall of cruel words.

Another vision came to him, of Fenice’s face all pale and with tear-filled eyes as she asked, “Will you put me aside?” There was nothing funny about that! Those words had a double edge to them, for they could be asked in fear, or in hope. The pain of that notion brought him to his feet and to the window. It seemed that hours had passed since he and William came back to the chamber, but the light told him it was still early afternoon. He breathed a sigh of relief. There was time to go to Fenice and tell her…no,
ask
her if she were willing to stay with him rather than with the queen.

Fenice was fortunate in that she did not recover consciousness as quickly as she would normally have done, considering the relatively mild blow she had been dealt. Owing to her weakness and exhaustion, it was not until dinner was nearly over that she became aware of being uncomfortable. She tried to turn to a new position, found it impossible, and all at once remembered everything.

The first thought that came to her mind was so dreadful that she lay still, paralyzed by grief and terror. Aubery had tried to kill her! She did not straggle or think beyond that ultimate horror for a time. The unbelievable facts repeated in her mind. Aubery had summoned her from the safety of the queen’s apartment, struck her, and…and what?

Her hands were bound, and she was gagged. Moreover, the thick pile of substance all around her told her that she had been rolled up in a rag of sorts. But then the whole thing was insane.

If Aubery wanted to be rid of her, why should he tie her up and conceal her? And even if he hoped to get her out of the way for some reason, would Aubery be stupid enough to send a page to summon her in his own name? Ridiculous!

Simultaneously, Fenice sighed with relief and blushed for shame at thinking even for a few minutes that Aubery, no matter how angry he was, would harm her in any way. Still, her head ached dully. Wherever she was was black as pitch and completely silent. She was lying flat on her back with her arms bound in front of her, and she was not very cold. In all, the facts of her abduction added up to one thing, whoever had seized her did not want her to be seriously injured.

But if it was not Aubery who had done this, who could it be? For a little while she considered this question, trying to think of anyone who wished to make trouble for her or wished her ill, but there was no one she could think of who was jealous enough or disliked her enough to go
this
far. Besides, she remembered telling the queen in the hearing of several of the ladies that she and Aubery would resume their journey to England as soon as his business with the king was complete, which meant everyone knew she would be gone in a few days.

Could ransom be desired? But she and Aubery were not rich. There were great ladies with the queen for whom much higher ransoms could be asked. The whole thing was impossible and ridiculous. But Sir William was rich. Perhaps her abductor believed he would pay to obtain the release of his stepson’s wife, and she might be thought easier prey than a more important person. In any case, it was wrong to be lying still. She must escape if she could.

Fenice tried to raise her hands to pull off the gag. It was impossible because she was wrapped too closely to bend her elbows, but the effort made her realize that her hands were not tied very tightly, and the material that bound them was soft.

First she pulled and twisted at the cloth that bound her hands, trying to work them free. The twisting and pulling rubbed her wrists and hurt, and the material gave only a little, not enough for her to slip a hand free. Still, the slight relaxation of her bonds gave her hope. She felt certain that if she could only move more freely, she would work herself loose. It was the constriction of the rug around her that was preventing her movement. If the rug was only rolled, not tied, she should be able to unroll herself.

Abandoning the attempt to free her hands, Fenice considered her position. It seemed to her she was tipped very slightly to the right. She tried to fling herself in that direction, twisting her shoulders and pushing with her left heel. She did move just a little, and an enormous sense of triumph filled her so that she struggled harder and harder, ignoring the fact that the gag made it hard for her to breathe.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to ignore that difficulty for long. Fenice began to feel dizzy and sick. Still she jerked her aching shoulders and pushed with legs that felt all soft and boneless, and suddenly the tilt increased. She rolled, uttering a muted cry of success behind the gag, which became a gurgle of terror as first one and then several more heavy objects struck her.

The thick folds of rug saved her from any serious injury, but tears of frustration rolled down Fenice’s cheeks, and all too soon it became clear that her attempt to escape had placed her in terrible danger. The heavy objects settled and shifted, others fell, adding to the weight pressing down on her. Fenice could barely draw air into her lungs, and what she did manage to breathe seemed thicker and less sustaining. She was too frightened to think, or she would have realized that something had fallen over the end of the rug and shut off the free flow of air.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Aubery was annoyed when he found the queen’s antechamber full of chattering people. He had hoped that Eleanor would remain with her husband after dinner, but apparently the king had business to conduct. Aubery could only hope Fenice had remained abed. How he was to explain and apologize in a crowd of people, he did not know. However, he did not see her as he worked his way toward the queen to obtain permission to enter the women’s chamber, and he began to feel more cheerful.

Naturally, Eleanor was surrounded by those who desired to gain her attention and favor, but Aubery was fortunate in being taller than most men. In looking graciously from one speaker to another, the queen saw him and smiled. Aubery took that as permission to squeeze between two people, who glared at him, but he ignored them, knowing their irritation would disappear when he withdrew as swiftly as he had intruded.

“May I have permission, madam, to speak to my wife?” Aubery asked, and seeing the queen’s surprise, he added, “Sir William has been kind enough to give his bedchamber to us. I would like to ask Fenice if she…if she feels strong enough to move.”

“But Fenice has already left!” Eleanor exclaimed. “Have you been waiting by the church all this time? No, that is impossible, the maid said the page you sent for her came before dinner.”

“I sent no page for Fenice,” Aubery said, still more puzzled than alarmed. “I was not in the abbey before dinner. I rode out to Saumur. It was only after the meal that Sir William told me he meant to move and let us have his room. Could it have been Sir William who sent the page?”

The queen rose to her feet. “I am sure the maid used your name, but we can discover the truth quickly enough. Come with me.”

It seemed quite reasonable to Aubery that Sir William had sent for Fenice. Perhaps he had intended to give them both a pleasant surprise and had been checked by the anger and ingratitude Aubery displayed. That would have been a good reason for William to be very angry, if he had Fenice waiting somewhere and then felt he must tell her she would not be welcome to her husband. Aubery was so appalled by that thought that he did not hear the queen’s question to the maid who hurried to her at her call. He did, however, hear the answer.

“No, madam, the servingman said he would speak to Sir Aubery, and the page said most definitely that Sir Aubery wanted his wife to meet him in the porch of the church.”

“What servingman?” Aubery asked, forgetting in a sudden surge of anxiety the proper deference. He should have waited for the queen to speak.

“
I do not know,” the maid replied, beginning to look frightened. “He stopped me when I came out to order that dinner be brought to Lady Fenice and asked whether she was recovered. And…and I do not remember exactly what more was said, but he told me he had heard of someone leaving, and I-I said I thought my lady the queen would speak for the lodging being given to Lady Fenice and her husband. It was the servingman who said he would speak directly to Sir Aubery if it were true that a room would be empty. Of course, when the page came and said Sir Aubery wanted Lady Fenice to come to him, I thought he had secured the chamber…” Her voice ended uncertainly.

“Did you recognize the page?” Eleanor asked.

“No, madam. He wore no colors and…perhaps it was not a page. Perhaps it was one of the boys who belonged to the abbey. But he spoke well. Oh, madam, did I do wrong? I…”

“No, it is not your fault. You may go,” the queen said, waving the girl away. Her eyes, however, were on Aubery. “I cannot believe this,” she breathed. “It must be a mistake or…or a jest…”

“A jest?” Aubery repeated. “To use my name to draw my wife out of your care? What kind of jest is that? If I had by chance been occupied and not come here, a whole day might have passed before you knew Fenice was not with me, or I knew she was not with you.”

“But why?” Eleanor cried. “Why should anyone wish to seize Fenice? No one could want to harm her. I am sure she has not an enemy in the world. And where could she be taken? And how? We are so crowded here and in the village also, no one would dare carry off a woman in the middle of the day. Someone would be sure to see.”

Aubery had not spoken, but in his mind Eleanor’s questions found answers. Fenice in herself was not valuable and had no enemies, but
he
had a bitter enemy, an enemy William had just warned him would strike at his back—Savin. Aubery had no answer to where she could have been taken, but how… He gasped as memory replayed the sight of Savin carrying a rolled rug. He had called Savin a lickspittle, but that was his own stupid pride again. True, Savin would not have contemptuously refused an order to collect or move a rug as he himself would have done. On the other hand, Savin would
not
have carried it himself. He would have ordered a servant to carry it while he followed to see the article was not stolen or damaged.

So, if Savin carried the rug himself, there was something very special about that rug—its weight, perhaps. Would Fenice weigh enough to make a servant notice something strange? No matter! Savin’s knowledge of wrong would make him too cautious to allow anyone else to touch his burden. With a snarl of rage, Aubery turned and ran headlong out of the apartment.

Having stowed Fenice safely, Sir Savin had hurried to the refectory and eaten with more appetite than he had had since he had first seen Aubery and realized his
bête noire
had not gone back to England. He was in so good a humor that others at the table looked at him in some surprise. It was not often that Savin put himself out to be agreeable, however, he had seen a lot of action and could be interesting when he wished. Several men who had nothing special to do lingered after the meal to listen to his stories.

When Savin was sure half a dozen men would swear that at dinner he had been easy in his mind and indifferent to time, he abandoned his company and made his way back to his lodging. A problem he had not considered earlier had occurred to him—how to get the message he wanted delivered to Aubery. He could not send a verbal message because saying enough to induce Aubery to come would be too incriminating. That meant the message had to be written, but although there were more clerks in the area than Savin ever hoped to see again, plainly it was not possible to ask anyone to write a ransom note.

There was nothing he could do but write the note himself, Savin had decided. He was not totally illiterate. An effort had been made in his youth to teach him to read and write. He retained enough learning to sign his name when needful, which he did not find difficult and gave him a false sense of confidence. Thus, having made a detour to obtain parchment, quills, and ink, Savin closed his door and, with a grimace of distaste, sat down to write to Aubery.

It was an extraordinarily frustrating task. Not only was it difficult to remember which symbol represented which sound, but the parchment, quills, and ink all seemed to have taken on lives of their own, characterized solely by a determination to resist him. What Savin had seen clerks do in a few minutes had occupied him for more than an hour, and he was nowhere near finished.

Savin modified his aims. He himself would write only what could be incriminating. The description of the place to which Aubery must come, the time, and all other matters that any man could write to any other with whom he planned a meeting could be written on a separate sheet by a clerk. Much relieved by this curtailment of his onerous task, Savin cut off a small piece of parchment and, beginning again, wrote, “I hav lidy finis bring al gold fer her lif cum alon wif no sord or armor on or—” He intended to finish with the words “she dies” but as he reached to dip his quill, a burst of shouting followed by two agonized shrieks right outside the house startled him so that he knocked over the inkhorn.

Bellowing an obscenity, Savin pushed the parchment out of harm’s way and rushed out of the room, sword in hand, fit to kill whoever had caused the disturbance that had startled him. He was on the stairs when Aubery burst through the door roaring, “Where is Savin?”

Savin stopped, shocked out of the advantage he could have had by leaping down and slashing, before Aubery, who was half-blinded by coming out of the light into the dim hallway, could see who was there. Savin could not even deny his guilt before Aubery recognized him.

“You whoreson murdering dog,” Aubery said, his voice soft now, almost a lover’s croon. “Come down to me and die.”

A croak of protest forced its way from Savin’s throat, but it was a protest of terror, a protest against death. He had never been a coward, but now he was so frightened he could not form words. The eyes staring up at him were those of a madman, and there was an unholy look of welcome on Aubery’s face, such a welcome as the devil must give to a damned soul.

“Will you come down and fight like a man, or shall I spit you like a mad dog where you stand?” Aubery asked gently.

Desperation finally galvanized Savin into action, and he did what he should have done earlier—leapt down the stairs aiming a mighty slash at Aubery. Had Savin’s weapon landed, it would have cut Aubery in two, but only mocking laughter met the blow. Savin screamed, for the force of his swing had turned him half around, and he expected a counterblow that would cripple or kill him. Instead, he was prodded contemptuously, and Aubery said, “Take a shield, woman slayer. I do not want to kill you with my first blow. I want the pleasure of cutting you apart slowly.”

Savin swung around, slashing again, and this time his sword was caught on Aubery’s blade. He shrieked wordlessly as his weapon rebounded so violently that the hilt hurt him through the heavy callus on his palm. It was as if he had struck a huge rock. And now Aubery’s sword was arcing toward him, and he could not bring his back to block the blow. Yet it did not take off his head, as it could have done. It only cut his upper arm slightly.

“Take a shield, I said,” Aubery repeated.

Aubery felt very strange. As soon as he became convinced that it was Savin who had abducted Fenice, he was equally convinced that Fenice was dead. The rage that instantly filled him was so tremendous that he could feel nothing else at all. In a way he was blind and deaf. He did not recognize the queen nor hear her call out to him as he ran from the room, nor see and hear the people he pushed aside as he rushed through the antechamber and out of the building. In another way his perceptions seemed abnormally heightened. The men-at-arms who tried to block his way into the Lusignans’ lodging appeared to move very slowly. He struck one down with his left fist, the other with the flat of his sword before they could raise their arms, and he did not feel the impact of the blows he dealt them, although they fell senseless to the ground.

Then, when Savin had appeared on the stairs, he, too, seemed to be laughably sluggish. When he finally decided to attack, Aubery had what appeared to be endless time to move away and to poke him, as one would poke a helpless serf to urge him to greater effort. And he hardly felt the slash he caught on his sword, although he allowed it to slide along the blade a little way to spare his weapon.

After he had dealt Savin the first minor wound, Aubery laughed as he watched him scuttle toward the shields that hung along the wall. He did not take one himself. He did not need one. As soon as Savin held the shield, Aubery leapt toward him and cut him on the thigh, then on the hip. He laughed again as he watched stains mar Savin’s clothes and worms of red crawl down from them, hardly aware that he had twice deflected blows at his own uncovered body. He did not hear the clang of metal on metal as blade met blade, but he did hear the sound of angry voices, and he cut Savin twice more, forcing him around so that his own back was toward the wall, where he was protected.

Still, there was a distraction. Savin seemed to be moving faster, and Aubery was a second late on a parry. There was a sharp pain in his left arm, but he pushed Savin’s sword away and thrust at him harder than before. A burst of blood from the thigh he had previously wounded only increased his rage. He had not meant to disable the man so soon. Now Aubery could hear Savin screaming something. It did not make sense to him, but the terror in the voice stirred in him an agony he had not yet allowed himself to feel.

Suddenly Aubery knew that he could not ease his pain by torturing even this vile creature. His next slash was harder, cutting well into the ribs. Savin went down, screaming the same senseless words over and over. Aubery poised his sword for the death blow.

“Stop!”

The authority in the voice penetrated the dying remnants of Aubery’s berserk rage. Automatically, he put his foot on Savin’s sword and pressed his own into his enemy’s bare throat as he raised his eyes. The king’s half brother Sir Guy stood in the doorway.

“What is the meaning of this?” he bellowed. “Are you mad, Sir Aubery?”

“Yes,” Aubery replied, laughing, although tears had started to run down his face. “Yes, I am mad. This offal feared me too much to challenge me, so he abducted and murdered my wife. Fenice… His voice broke on the word, and the sword dug in, pressure breaking the skin so that blood welled up around the dull point.

“She is alive!” Savin screeched, just before Aubery’s blade made it impossible for him to speak.

The sword was withdrawn. “Alive?” Aubery cried. “Where?”

“I did her no harm,” Savin wept.

“Where?” Aubery roared.

While Savin whimpered that Fenice was still rolled in a rug in the storage shed behind the guesthouse, Sir Guy stared down at the wounded man. Nor, when Aubery ran out of the house automatically sheathing his sword as he went, did Guy give any instructions to the servants who stood shivering behind him or the two groggy men-at-arms who had at last roused from Aubery’s blows and staggered into the room. Lord Guy had been angry and astonished when he was called from the king’s chamber and told his house had been invaded by a madman who had felled two of his men-at-arms and was waving a sword and screaming for Sir Savin. Now, however, Guy’s astonishment was over, and he was much, much angrier.