“What do you mean?” she said. “What opportunity?”
Flora sat up, unsteadily, and leaned over the brazier, inhaling the smoke deeply. Since it would soon be gone, she wanted to inhale all she could.
“There was a time when we were in the top social circles,” she said. “Our mother’s father was an earl and connected to King Henry, and Papa was a great knight. We spent our youth atcourt with Henry and his mistresses, and then with John when Richard was absent. Do you remember those days, Meadow?”
Meadow closed her eyes, nodding faintly. “I remember.”
“Do you remember when we were powerful and beautiful?”
“We were never that powerful, Flora,” Meadow said. “We simply followed the crowd and did as we were told. We carried food, we mopped piss at times, and if a nobleman wanted to put his hand up our skirts, we let him. We were nothing.”
That had been the reality of court life for them but Flora refused to acknowledge the truth. In her muddled haze, she only remembered the moments that made her feel powerful and bold.
“Wewerepowerful and we can be again,” she insisted. “Marry Lista to a knight with ties to the king and we can regain those days of our youth. Don’t you see?”
Meadow’s eyes opened. “Is that what you wish?” she said, incredulous. “To marry my Lista to a man for power?”
Flora focused her bloodshot eyes on her sister. “The de Velt knight is interested,” she said. “The de Velts are very powerful. They are a major family in the north and not only do they have ties to the Earl of Northumberland, but also to William Marshal. The name de Velt opens doors all over England. Should Lista marry into the family, we would have influence over her and, consequently, over her husband, a de Velt heir. Do you understand that?”
Meadow nodded. “For what purpose?”
Flora’s gaze was intense. “What do you think, stupid?” she hissed. “We could return to court again. Young Henry is upon the throne, but surely his wife would appreciate our experience and guidance since we knew court in the old days. No longer would we be useless here at Fuckington. I hate this place and these gray, dreary walls. We could regain that which we deserve– power and prestige. We could be on top again!”
Meadow was following her sister for the most part. Flora had always had ambition, so this was nothing new, but she hadn’t seen her ambitious streak in quite some time. With a knight from a prestigious family paying attention to Lista, that had apparently changed.
“We have never been on top,” she finally said. “We were the lowliest ladies-in-waiting in court.”
That wasn’t what Flora remembered. “Men gave us coinage,” she growled. “Men kissed us and gave us coinage. I took a few to my bed, powerful lords, and received more money because of it.”
“And then you married one of those men you took to your bed and that was the end of it.”
Flora was teetering on a rage. “It does not have to be,” she said. “Meadow, think on it– we can be back where we used to be. Mayhap there are men looking for wives for companionship, not foolish young things who want home and hearth.”
Meadow didn’t want to hear anything about a new husband. She wasn’t over the death of the only man she’d ever loved and the son she mourned daily. “Cease,” she hissed, putting up a hand. “You have dreams of grandeur and now you are involving my daughter. Lista has been of marriageable age for some time but you have never spoken of an advantageous marriage for her before.”
Flora lay back down on her makeshift bed. “Because no man has looked at her before,” she said. “Lista is pretty enough. She could be beautiful with the right clothing. She does not even have a maid to help her most of the time. She needs a proper lady’s maid and more beautiful clothing if we are to entice the de Velt knight.”
“All of this so you can regain your position at court?”
“Lista must marry. Why not a knight who can do us all some good?”
She had a point. Meadow thought on her daughter, so responsible when she herself was not. Lista fostered at Richmond Castle and then at Bamburgh Castle, and she’d learned from the finest tutors. She was quite intelligent, but she seemed to be more focused on taking care of Felkington, her ancestral home, than in finding a husband. Or friends for that matter. Meadow hadn’t even concerned herself with that until now. Her daughter wasn’t the frivolous type who dreamed of something better. As far as Meadow knew, Lista had no dreams at all, which was sad for a woman her age.
Perhaps Flora was right. Perhaps the introduction of the de Velt knight might change that.
It couldn’t hurt to have her daughter married to a powerful knight.
“The de Velt son is here,” she said after a moment. “He escorted us home. What if I tell Lista to go into Berwick and find a seamstress? She can have the knight escort her and they can spend that time together.”
Flora waved her off. “Berwick?” she said. “Pah! Tell her to go to Newcastle.”
Meadow looked at her in surprise. “But it is two days there and two days back.”
“Exactly,” Flora said firmly. “Four days with the de Velt knight. That means two nights or more. Mayhap he will seduce her and then hemustmarry her, so it is a perfect plan.”
Meadow wasn’t convinced. “Do you think so?”
“The Wu declares the plan to be perfect,” Flora said, closing her eyes and imaging the emperor from the Far East speaking to her in dreams. “Listamustmarry, Meadow. And we must find ourselves a respected part of the nobility again. You will tell your daughter tonight that she is to depart for Newcastle on the morrow and insist the de Velt knight take her.”
