“The king is right and good to see such ambition laid low,” Jordan continued.
“I did not know ambition was a crime worthy of execution,” Alienor replied.“But then, perhaps it is not.Why is Dagobert’s trial so delayed?Perhaps the king knows of his innocence.”
“Perhaps the king fears the power of a so-called ancient king over a superstitious people.Perhaps he wishes to see some of Dagobert’s reputed sorcery.”Jordan sneered.“After all, did he not turn himself to a unicorn when he so desired?”
“The unicorn!”Alienor murmured, eying Jordan with new understanding.“’Twas you who killed that gentle beast!”
Jordan folded his arms across his chest.“Of course,” he conceded without a trace of regret.“I could dally no longer, waiting for someone in your loyal household to err.’Twas time to force the matter into the open.”
“And your visit to my chambers?”Alienor demanded.
Jordan nodded with a slow smile.“Another call for your husband to show himself, my lady.”His deliberate perusal of her left Alienor feeling violated.“But make no mistake, the second task was far easier than the first.”
“Touch me not, Jordan de Soissons,” she hissed when he stepped toward her.
To her surprise, he halted but looked to be amused by her manner.
“You destroyed our lives,” she whispered.
“Your husband preyed upon his people’s superstitions,” he argued.“’Twas only a matter of time before he was called to task.”
“He did naught of the sort...”
Jordan shook his head.“Even you, my lovely lady, were fooled.”
Alienor knew that he was wrong.Their gazes held for a moment, Alienor as convinced in her point of view as Jordan in his, then the knight turned and strode quickly from the room, pausing on the threshold to look back.
“The trial will be tomorrow morning,” he informed her.
Alienor’s heart nearly stopped, her mouth going dry now that the day had finally arrived.
“We shall leave at dawn to attend,” he added, “for neither of us, I am certain, would want to miss one moment.”
Alienor closed her eyes against the tears that rose at his words and fell back against the wall.She barely heard Jordan take his leave.She would see Dagobert one last time, and she focused her thoughts on that alone, refusing to speculate on what would happen to her once her husband was gone.
The courts were finely appointed,tapestries hanging on the walls, the king and his advisers so well dressed that they, too, seemed more ornamental than functional.Alienor was oblivious to the majesty of the court, and was agitated as she had never been in her life.Her attention was fixed on the tiny door that Jordan had told her concealed the stairs to the dungeons far below.She was impatient for the trial to begin.
When Dagobert finally appeared, her shock at the change in his appearance tore her heart in two.He was barely a ghost of the man she had unwillingly left twenty days past, and she choked on her tears at the sight of him.
’Twas not enough that he was gaunt and pale, his eyes red-rimmed and his skin marked with the speckling of myriad insect bites.His luxuriant mane of dark blond hair had been shaved, leaving a faintly discernible stubble across his scalp.He wore a tunic crudely fashioned of roughly woven undyed wool that fell below his knees.His hands were behind his back, perhaps bound there, and his chin high despite his state.Alienor pressed her hands to her lips to silence herself, and was agonized by her inability to assist him.
But it only grew worse.
The trial was a farce and she supposed she should have expected it to be thus, but she had the faith of many in the reputed fairness of this king.It seemed this issue must be close to his heart, though, for the powers in control were taking no chances that her spouse might be found innocent.Seneschals mocked Dagobert’s claim as if he were a madman, to the great enjoyment of the assembled crowd.Their false accusations made Alienor want to leap to her feet and defend her spouse.
Jordan must have sensed her indignation for he stayed her with a restraining hand, frowning as he shook his head.Alienor settled back in her seat, knowing he was right, but hating the fact that she could not change the situation.
Dagobert remained impassive to their taunts, but Alienor saw his lips tighten when they spoke of his father in similar terms and her heart went out to him.Even silent and tonsured, he had a regal air as he stared stubbornly at the floor.His face was devoid of expression, his stance tall and straight.The king watched him with a certain wariness, Alienor noted, the crowned man winding a ring round and round his finger.
“For his impertinent posturing, Dagobert de Pereille should be burned at the stake!”concluded one enthusiastic seneschal.Some attendees applauded this suggestion and the king’s glance flicked to the man for the first time.
“’Tis a punishment for heresy,” he commented.“I have heard no charges of unorthodox religious practices against the man.”The adviser flushed scarlet at the correction, but another leapt immediately to his defense.
“Is the crime not the same, my lord, whether it be against the crown or the church?”he demanded, and the king looked thoughtful.A murmur of assent rippled through the company assembled and the king glanced to the crowd in annoyance, parting his lips to speak when a spectator leapt to his feet.
“Burn him!”the man cried with a fist flung skyward, his neighbors joining in his cry.Alienor clasped her hands together as the demand of the crowd grew to a dull roar, gasping aloud when an icy voice on the far side of the room brought the chanting to a decisive halt.
“Save your firewood,” Iolande declared with a haughty glance over the suddenly quieted crowd.“Dagobert shares no blood with Alzeu de Pereille.”
