King Edward drank a long swallow of wine and handed the cup aside hastily, gesturing his servant behind his chair when Melanthe entered his royal bedchamber. The king's gray hair lay loose over the broad shoulders that once had borne armor, his mustaches flowing down into his long beard. He had the reddened nose and cheeks of too much drink, but he kept a regal posture in his chair.

A day in London had been ample time for Melanthe to discover that he was in utter thrall to his mistress, a fine female of a stamp that Melanthe understood full well. No one attended the king without consent of the feared and hated Lady Alice-and Melanthe was no exception. Alice Perrers sailed into the chamber on her heels.

"I bring you someone you will like, my dear," Lady Alice said, plucking the goblet from the servant's hand. She leaned over the king's chair and kissed his forehead as she poured him more wine. He smiled dreamily at the ample bosom hovering so near his face. "Here is Lady Melanthe, the daughter of Lord Richard of Bowland, G.o.d give his soul rest. She bears gifts for you, and letters from Bordeaux. The duke writes."

"John?" The king's eyes brightened. He held out both his hands. His fingers shook.

Melanthe made a deep courtesy. She rose, giving Lady Alice a significant look before she moved forward to make her offerings.

The mistress had fattened her unofficial power so far that it was said she even sat upon the benches and threatened the justices. But Melanthe could play that game. She had lavished compliments and gifts upon this overripe and overblown person, along with hints that their interests were quite compatible. Lady Alice would not wish any powerful man, most particularly someone like John of Lancaster, to marry Melanthe and combine their great estates into a domain that would challenge the king's.

No more did Melanthe care to marry such a man, she had a.s.sured Lady Alice. She had no ambitions beyond her father's inheritance. Her greatest desire was to pay her levies to the king so that he might be enriched, and thus more generous yet in bestowing suitable presents upon his favorites. In her excess of goodwill Melanthe herself would make a generous present to the king's intimates the moment a private audience might be arranged.

Of course, if a private audience was impossible, if Lady Alice did not trust her new friend, then in Melanthe's crushing disappointment and hurt, she feared that she must return in disgrace to Aquitaine, where his lord's grace the duke had been most flattering in his attentions.

Lady Alice gave Melanthe a narrow smile as she straightened from bending over the king. With much petting and many careless endearments, she withdrew. He retained her hand in a lamentably fatuous manner, but when she finally departed, leaving only the chamberlain-Alice's man-and the servant, Edward seemed to forget her, leaning forward in his eagerness for his son's letter.

Melanthe made another courtesy and gave him Lancaster's missive. She could have recited it to him, having made herself free with the wax seal before they had left Bordeaux. She watched the king frown over his eldest son's poor health, and quicken at the news that the prince would return home to recover. She saw Edward's mouth purse at the report of the empty treasury in Aquitaine, and the uneasy temper of the Gascon n.o.bles.

The tournament went unmentioned in the letter, as did the Green Sire and Lancaster's shoulder and the duke's soured courting of Melanthe. Lancaster merely recommended her to his father's favor as the daughter of a loyal and beloved subject, suggesting that she be confirmed in her inheritance with all due haste-a forbearance that spared everyone, including himself, considerable embarra.s.sment. Melanthe was greatly in charity with the duke at present.

"Richard of Bowland, G.o.d a.s.soil him!" Edward exclaimed with pleasure in his voice. He bade Melanthe rise and gave her a wine-balmed embrace. "Child! And our John has sent you to us! Tell us of him; in truth, how does he?" He held out the paper with a sad sigh. "This speaks naught a word of himself."

"My very dear and mighty lord, your son was in great good humor when I took leave of him, may G.o.d defend," she said.

He nodded, pleased, and then seemed to lose the course of his thought as he stared off into a corner. After a long moment, he tilted his head toward her as if he were a child with a secret. "The prince is our pride," he whispered, "but John is our heart."

Melanthe murmured, "The duke has much the look of his dear mother the queen, G.o.d give her soul rest." Melanthe had no idea if this were so, having only the haziest recollection of Queen Phillipa as a plump and smiling personage, but she added, "He has her eyes, my lord. A very fine figure of a man. Your majesty may well love him with a full heart."

Edward's lips trembled. "Verily. Verily." He gave a deep sniff. "You are a good and lovely child. What can we do for you?"

Melanthe bowed, placing a lavishly bound volume upon his bed. "My lord would honor me, would you accept this small gift. It is a work upon falconry, written by a master from the north country."

At Edward's impatient gesture, the king's servant pa.s.sed the book to him. He turned the leaves, nodding in delight. "A most worthy subject for a treatise. Excellent. Excellent. We are pleased."

Melanthe drew him into a little discussion of hunting birds. After a quarter hour they were great friends. He was well known to have a pa.s.sion for falconing and hawking.

"And this, sire," she said, when she felt the moment right, "I would convey into your own hand, if you will consent."

She held out a sealed parchment. King Edward accepted the paper, fumbling it open. "What is this, my dear?"

"It is my claim to my husband's estate, quitted into your name, my beloved lord. I am a weak woman; I have not the power to a.s.sert it myself, but it is a most valuable right. My husband was the Prince of Monteverde. He had no male heirs to survive him, and I myself have a claim through my mother's blood. All of it I cede to my mighty and esteemed lord, to do with as your majesty might will."

Melanthe was aware of the chamberlain's subtle stir at this news. He stood close to the king, bowing. "May I read the doc.u.ment to you, sire?"

The chamberlain's greedy hand was already upon the quitclaim, but Edward's fingers closed. He held to the doc.u.ment. "Monteverde?" His vague old eyes seemed to sharpen. "We are in debt to Monteverde for a certain sum."

"My lord, I did not know of such a thing," Melanthe lied, dropping into a deep courtesy. Edward was in debt by an impossible amount to the bank of Monteverde, as he was and had always been in debt to the Italian money merchants. "Then I may have even greater hope that my humble gift is of value to my king."

Alice's man made another attempt, not so subtle, to divest Edward of the quitclaim, but the king held it tightly. "You have not a.s.serted your right?" He frowned. "Nay, but-our mind betrays us.

Bowland-have you not a brother to act for you? Lionel's friend ..." He paused, his voice trailing off into an old man's quiver.

Melanthe could see him remember. He had peddled his second son Lionel to the Viscontis of Milan, in a payment for England's debts-but the most lavish wedding of the age, with gifts of armor and horses and hounds in gemmed collars, cloaks of ermine and pearls, a banquet of thirty courses all gilded with gold leaf and a dowry so huge it had taken two years to barter, had not bought a long and happy life for Lionel. He had died six months later in Italy of an unnamed fever.

And with him Richard, of his closest inner circle, Richard her brother, who had been only five when Melanthe had left England and a stranger of twenty-one when he came to Italy to die. The gossips had said that he had been slain mistakenly, by sharing poisoned drink with Lionel. The gossips had said that Richard had meant to kill his own prince and accidentally killed himself as well. The gossips had said that Melanthe had murdered her brother for his inheritance, uncaring that the prince died with him. The gossips said anything. She watched the king with her heart beating hard.

"May G.o.d give both of their souls reprieve." Edward's broad shoulders were drawn inward, his lower lip unsteady. He groped for the wine goblet and drank.

"Amen." She made the cross, drawing a deep breath. "My lord, in my woman's frailty, I have not the courage or desire to act upon my claim to Monteverde. I wish only to return to Bowland and live there unmolested in my widowhood, if it please you. But a man of greater energy and shrewdness than my poor self, sire-such a man as the Duke of Lancaster, say-a lord of your son's natural powers might make a great and useful thing of this claim."

"Verily." The king wiped his eyes. "Verily."

"Your majesty must wish to give the duke much, in return for his dedication to his brother's interests in Aquitaine," Melanthe murmured.

King Edward began to weep at this mention of his son's unswerving loyalty. G.o.d knew, Lancaster was truly faithful to his family, bankrupting his own coffers as he was in trying to hold Aquitaine together in their name. For a moment Melanthe feared she had gone too far, that this talk of his sons would send Edward back into maudlin foolishness. But the chamberlain took advantage of the moment to get his claws upon the quitclaim again. The king roused, shaking off his retainer's obtrusive hand with royal contempt, showing a gleam of his former spirit as he stared down at the doc.u.ment with a narrow-eyed examination.

They shall not have it, Ligurio. Melanthe smiled inside herself, her teeth grinding together. Not Alice Ferrers or Riata or Navona either. Pray G.o.d and Fortune, King Edward had resolve enough left in him that he would turn her quitclaim over to his favorite son instead of Alice's brood, and the wolves of Italy would find John of Lancaster in their midst after all. Fair payment it would be to him, she thought, for the dislocate shoulder and humiliation she had caused. By hap someday he would even thank her.

The king looked up at her, his eyes red. "What can we do to show our fondness for you, child?"

"Sire," she said, bowing her head. "My only wish is that I may live alone at Bowland. My marriage is in your majesty's gift."

"You would not be pleased to wed again?"

"Nay, sire, by your leave. In hap, in the fullness of time, at G.o.d's hest I will enter a nunnery and devote myself to prayer."

The king nodded, gripping the quitclaim. "So be it. You have our pledge, child-in our affection for you we shall not require you to marry again. Also, we desire that you hold the dignity of your father's offices, in the style of Countess of Bowland, and all other t.i.tles with which he was invested." He waved a shaky hand toward the chamberlain. "See that these things are so affirmed by our seal."

Bowing down unto the very floor, Melanthe abandoned the king to Alice's tender avarice. It was vital now to leave London instantly, before Allegreto or the Riata could discover what she had done. She acted by Ligurio's teaching: she kept her goal clear, but the path to reach it shifted on the edge of a moment.

She felt freedom near. On the high empty hills she remembered from her northern childhood she would live, belonging to no one but herself. Of all her father's rich and comfortable manors, she chose cold Bowland Castle as her citadel, as he had done. If she could command Monteverde for the six years of Ligurio's dying, she could hold her father's lands from Bowland, vast though they might be, among these simple-headed Englishmen.

The course she would take to attain her end was still uncertain, but she lived moment to moment as she must. Allegreto was well distracted from his usual vigilance-she had made sure of that before her audience with the king-but how long his fear would divert him she did not know. Always she watched for opportunity, seized on a different ruse, twisted and turned as she saw her chance or felt her danger. She had betrayed every bargain and vow with her quitclaim. Now she lived like quicksilver, breath to breath until she could rid herself of her watchdogs.

London was full of plague rumors. At Princess Melanthe's command Ruck tracked hearsay through the muddy streets. When he presented himself to attend her at Westminster Palace, Allegreto a.s.sailed him in her anteroom.

"What befalls?" the youth demanded, trailing Ruck to her steward. Allegreto had a morbid fear of plague: he talked of it endlessly and had taken to attaching himself to Ruck whenever he was at the palace, as if Ruck had some talisman against it.

"Naught befalls, that I can tell," Ruck said.

"Naught?" Allegreto asked anxiously.

Ruck held out his hand toward the door as the steward announced him. "Am I to report to thy mistress or to thee, whelp?"

"To me, certainly." The princess's voice was elegant and firm. She lowered the book of poetry to her lap.

"My liege lady." Ruck bowed, while Allegreto hovered by his elbow like an importunate child.

"Green Sire," she acknowledged courteously. She was much more sedate in her manner among the English, dressed with rich propriety in blue and white, only a few diamonds sparkling in her necklace and belt. A changeling, taking on the aspect of her surroundings. He felt his own weakness, succ.u.mbing to this false look of virtue when he knew the corrupt truth of her.

"You come with what news?" she asked.

"I find no evidence of any epidemic here, Your Highness."

She nodded. "Well enough. It is only gossip as usual, you see, Allegreto." She laid aside the book and gave a little stretch. "I fear you must leave me now to rest. The sea journey still fatigues me."

Ruck started to withdraw, but Allegreto hung on to his arm. "Nay, the truth!" Allegreto demanded.

"What dost thou know?"

Ruck frowned at him. "I've said truth. There's no plague in the city."

"Do not conceal it!" Allegreto flung himself onto the bed. "My lady-he must speak."

"Dost thou hide something, sir?" she asked sharply. Ruck prevented himself from looking directly at her. Out of her presence it was possible to feel disgust, but the sight of her overpowered his better reason. A vision of her had haunted him for ten and three years: the reality cut through illusions to the heart of impure hunger. Her new modesty only made it the worse. He knew more of her, but not enough. He feared that everything could not be enough.

"There is no plague," he repeated. "It is but gossip."

Princess Melanthe tilted her head. "But you believe it will come?"

"How can I know? There's talk of the planets aligned for it."

This news turned Allegreto white. "My lady!"

"There's little enough to that," Ruck said. "I vow the planets predict plague once a month. The

astrologers make their living on such gloom."

"Nay!" Allegreto turned to Princess Melanthe. "My lady's charts say the same!"

"Thou must be careful, love," she said. "Very careful. I've cast thy stars again. They exert an ill chance

now."

"In Bordeaux they said it had returned in the south!" Allegreto exclaimed.

"Not in Milan," she said soothingly. "The talk there was that it raged among the Danes."

"Mayhap it is all talk," Ruck said.

"Traders will bring it from the north! In death ships!" Allegreto hurled himself off the bed. "Lady, let us

fly!"

"Fly where?" she asked calmly.

"Away!" His voice had a frantic undertone. "Out of the city!"

"And suppose it follows us out of the city?" She smiled at him. "By hap thou wilt be fortunate to meet the Heavenly Father while thou art still young and innocent." The youth made a faint sound, falling to his knees before her. He buried his face against her skirt. Ruck had begun to feel a certain compa.s.sion for Allegreto. The indifferent way she mocked his mortal fears might have seemed casual, but Ruck had caught the small cruel narrowing of her eyes as she looked down at her youthful lover. At that instant it was as if she hated him, but men her mouth softened, and she ruffled his hair.

"Fly, then, if it pleases thee," she said. "Return home to Monteverde."

He lifted his face quickly. "Your Highness-we go home?"

"Not I. But I will send thee to safety. Thy father will shield thee in his country villa."

Allegreto stared at her, his fingers gripped in the folds of her dress. "Nay-lady ..."

She traced her fingers down his face. "Go home. I could not bear to see thy sweet skin swell and

blacken," she murmured. "I could not bear to hear thy groans."

His breath came faster. His tongue ran around his lips. "We will go home together, lady. My father will give refuge to us both."

"I've had audience with the king. Wilt thou deny me my lands that he commends to me?"

"But the plague-"

She gave a slight laugh. "There is some privilege in age, my lovely boy. Does it not strike most terribly at

the young and handsome such as thee?"

He shook his head, holding her embroidered hem pressed to his mouth. "I cannot leave you, Your Highness." "The stars augur ill for thee. Wilt thou compel me to follow thy bier?" He gave a dry sob. "You know I cannot leave you, lady. But let us fly from this city, I beg you." She sat back, glancing a question at Ruck. "As soon as Your Highness likes to venture forth," he said bluntly. "But the weather is untoward. We were fortunate in our water crossing. To the north, they say the winter already holds hard. And it were wiser to take time to a.s.semble a large escort for my lady's protection." Allegreto raised his face, wiping fiercely at the tears that tumbled down his cheeks. "Please-lady-no delay!"

"How long to softer weather?" she asked Ruck. "Three months, say."