She searched his open, clever face. ‘I do not take what is on the surface for what exists beneath.’
His smile remained, but grew a little taut. ‘It is my honour. When I say you have captured my heart, I mean it, and if I am being too eager or presumptuous, then forgive me. I can wait on yours. Whatever is given in grace, you should cherish and nurture.’
Joanna shivered. It was like standing on the edge of a fire and being told that she could walk into it without being burned, when she had seen so many others come to grief and she did not trust the person who was encouraging her to take that step. ‘Thank you,’ she said, looking at the exquisite little pot. ‘I shall think on what you have said and I shall cherish your gift.’
‘The first of many – you may hold me to my word.’
She found a smile. ‘I saw you earlier,’ she said, ‘when you were training.’
His face brightened with enthusiasm. ‘I hoped you were watching. It gave me encouragement to think you might be. Perhaps I will be able to ride in a full tourney later and break a lance in your honour.’
Not wanting to dampen the moment, she did not say that the King strongly disapproved of tourneys.
‘Do you like to ride?’ he asked.
‘Yes, on occasion.’
‘Then we must do so together.’
A summons from the King who had been speaking with a group of clerks and advisers ended their conversation, and together they went over to join him.
‘Ah,’ Henry said with a twinkle as they made their obeisance to him. ‘You are already becoming soul mates, I see.’
Joanna flushed.
‘We are both very grateful for your kindness, sire,’ William said.
Henry smiled benevolently and waved his hand. ‘Come, I want to talk to you together and detail the lands that shall be yours to govern as soon as you are wed.’ He indicated the trestle at his side, covered with documents and scrolls, and proceeded to enumerate the lands that were Joanna’s by right of inheritance. Pembroke in South Wales, Goodrich in the Marches, Tenby, Sutton, Brabourne, Wexford, Fearns. A tapestry of manors, castles and estates running through England, Wales and Ireland. There were also lands Henry intended granting to William in his own right – Bampton and Swindon, Newton and Collingbourne, with the promise of more to come. Henry touched the charters and parchments as he listed them, flicking his gaze between Joanna and William, hungry for their response.
Joanna had had the lands explained to her soon after Iohan’s death, but this was different because now they were being enumerated for the benefit of her future husband. She smiled to please the King, but to her this bestowal carried an immense and serious responsibility. More than a table full of parchments indicating wealth, property and importance, this was heritage, duty and custodianship. She wondered how much William understood such things, or if he was just looking at it in terms of destriers, rich clothes and personal aggrandisement.
‘I expect in the fullness of time you will enjoy some of them as your homes, although for now, I treasure your company by my side,’ Henry said. ‘Some of the household might transfer from the Crown to your employ but you will need to build up your personal staff of clerics and stewards and servants to take care of yourselves and your estates – people you trust who are honest and competent.’
Joanna nodded seriously. Finding the right people for the task was an underpinning of such an inheritance, for without the right wheels, the cart would not move at all.
William picked up one of the parchments referencing the land that Henry was bestowing on him personally. ‘I desire them to be men of English birth,’ he said, ‘for they understand the customs and laws, and will better relate to them. If I am to settle here, I must begin as I mean to go on.’
‘Admirable, my boy.’ Henry pressed William’s shoulder by way of approval.
Joanna had been observing William’s astonishment and pleasure at the extent of the King’s generosity, but she saw that his mind was at work too and that he was looking beyond the initial dazzle of all this largesse.
‘I shall help you to furnish and improve what you have, of course,’ Henry added. ‘And I shall look forward in the fullness of time to visiting you – and the nieces and nephews you will give me to indulge.’ His eyes twinkled.
Joanna looked down, and William’s ears reddened.
‘God willing, sire,’ he said.
On the day before her wedding, Joanna tried on her gown for a final fitting. The deep-blue silk was set off by a crimson cloak lined with blue and cream squirrel fur. Eyeing her train, Joanna wondered how she was going to walk in all this and manage the fabric when she had so much else to think about. She bit her lip, close to tears, feeling overwhelmed. Since May the court had moved from Woodstock, to Clarendon, to Windsor, and she had been constantly packing and unpacking amid preparations for the wedding, and her tension was knife-sharp.
Cecily arrived bearing a bunch of blooms from the garden – daisies, marigolds and gilly flowers, their stems wrapped with a green silk ribbon.
‘What am I to do about all this cloth?’ Joanna demanded, swallowing a sob.
Cecily clucked her tongue, her eyes alight with humour and compassion. ‘My dear, you must look to the future and watch where you are going, not what is behind you, for the latter will do you no good at all. Let those following you manage what is there. Trust to your maids because that is what maids are for, and if they do well, you may reward them fittingly afterwards.’ She gave the ladies a meaningful look.
‘You are right, of course,’ Joanna said, blinking hard. ‘It is just …’
‘I know,’ Cecily sympathised. ‘So much change, so much to do – so much expectation when you are untried. You want everything to be perfect and you think only you can do what must be done. But you must trust others and delegate. You know this.’
