William crouched to pick up his son and swung him round in his arms.
Joanna studied William anxiously, checking for signs that he had been fighting. ‘Are you all right?’ Kissing him, she surreptitiously felt him, waiting for him to wince.
‘Yes, yes,’ he said impatiently. ‘It is all sorted out.’
‘What happened?’ She led him inside and summoned servants to take his hat and cloak and bring wine.
Sighing, he threw himself down on the bench near the fire. ‘I told you, it’s dealt with, don’t worry.’
Joanna scowled at him. William’s ‘dealt with’ could mean any manner of things, mostly disastrous. ‘Tell me what happened,’ she said again, her tone brooking no prevarication, and gestured for the children’s nurse to remove their offspring from the room. She knelt to remove his boots. ‘This is bound to turn into a matter for the King.’
‘Yes, it will, and rightly so. I had to go to Aymer’s rescue. I had no choice – you agreed with me. The less you know the better. I am home and I did not fight, nor did I go to Maidstone. All of that is the honest truth.’
With glaring sins of omission. She pressed her lips together. At least he was safe.
‘I have to make sure the King takes our part,’ he continued, ‘because the Archbishop will seek the Queen’s support and make a mountain out of a molehill.’
‘You have to tell me what happened! Not knowing is dangerous too!’
He rubbed his palms over his face, and after a moment told her.
She looked at him, horrified.
‘He cannot prove anything and we were totally justified. Boniface of Savoy is responsible – or his representative is, but Boniface will back him. As will the Queen, since Boniface is her uncle.’
‘You must tell the King the truth and speak to the Queen without making a confrontation of it,’ Joanna said, thinking rapidly. ‘Blame Eustace for what has happened. We all have servants who can be liabilities. Give a gift to the Church. I have a silver cup we can present where it will have the most influence. It cannot continue like this, William, truly it cannot.’
‘This was hardly Aymer’s fault!’ he protested.
‘He may not have started it, but each time something happens, the situation escalates, and Aymer is usually involved somewhere.’
She fetched his indoor shoes.
Jacomin arrived bearing platters of hot roast chicken and bread.
‘I promise I will do my best,’ William said. ‘It will be all right.’
He set about the food with a will. Joanna had no appetite. It would take a miracle for it to be all right.
*
‘Treating a man of God that way!’ Henry cried with shock and righteous anger when he heard the story of what had happened to Aymer’s man. ‘Disrespecting my brother! Matters have indeed gone too far!’ He glared at the Queen. Friction was already rife between them over a recent ecclesiastical appointment where their opinions had clashed.
Aymer expanded his chest self-righteously. ‘I felt it necessary to rescue my priest immediately, as you can imagine. I had no time to seek permission because of the threat to his life, but I know I have done the right thing.’
‘I thought you would approve by proxy, sire,’ William said. ‘I advised Aymer that you would, and I apologise if I was presumptuous or wrong.’
Henry tutted with irritation. ‘You should have told me first. This is a clerical matter. You had no cause to become involved, although I understand your desire to support your brother.’
‘Indeed, sire, and I am sorry we have had to bring the matter to your attention. I hope it will not happen again.’
‘So do I,’ Henry said darkly. ‘For all our sakes.’
Two days later a messenger arrived at court bearing the story according to Eustace de Lenn, by which time Aymer had returned to Oxford, leaving William to bear the brunt as Henry heard of how Eustace had been abducted, roughed up and dumped on the road in the dead of night, gagged and bound. Archbishop Boniface was demanding that every bishop pass a sentence of excommunication upon those responsible.
As Henry listened, he became so rigid that his head started to shake. Hectic spots of rage burned on the Queen’s cheeks.
‘Now we have the truth of the matter!’ she said, rounding on her husband. ‘How many times have you been warned about your troublesome family? Taking over and doing all manner of badness as they please and lying to their back teeth. How dare that jumped up brother of yours take the law into his own hands and defy the Archbishop of Canterbury!’ She turned to William. ‘I know you are involved in this. You and your kin are as thick as thieves. Where one goes, all go! It is time that order and decorum were restored to this court and certain people were put in their place.’
