‘Perhaps if I was treated justly, matters would improve.’
He sighed and reached for his goblet. ‘You make much ado. My grandmother has been to Avignon to speak with our attorney and with Cardinal Adhemar who is hearing our case.’
‘Has there been a verdict?’ She didn’t tell him she already knew about Elizabeth going to Avignon.
‘Not yet. The Cardinal wanted to hear our deposition and my grandmother obliged by providing them with information – in the same wise that the Hollands provided theirs when they visited last year. There is more evidence to gather and the witnesses to the first marriage have been summoned to Avignon to be interrogated. There will be no result for some time yet.’
Jeanette felt as if stones had been dropped into her stomach. She was already at the limit of her waiting.
‘What are you not telling me?’
He did not answer, and Jeanette banged her fist on the table in frustration, making the dishes and goblets leap. A startled Nosewyse began to bark.
‘It is my marriage that is under investigation!’ she shouted. ‘Why have I no say in the matter? Why should your grandmother go to Avignon and not me? Am I not a participant and a witness?’ She curled her lip. ‘Though then I suppose the truth would have to be known.’
‘But you are to be allowed to give evidence,’ William said, opening his hands. ‘It is only that the court has not arrived at that place yet. I have engaged two lawyers to represent our interests – one for me, one for you – and a clerk representing yours is here to take your deposition. He will speak to you on the morrow.’
He had answered without meeting her gaze and she knew he was sliding past her with the truth. All these endless months she had been literally kept in the dark, and she was not about to be shown the light now.
‘I know what you are about,’ Jeanette said with contempt. ‘You and your family are going to try and bury me here for ever.’
He snorted. ‘That is not true, and anyway, the key to your freedom lies in your own hands. You know what you have to do.’
‘Hah, such a key would just be the door to another prison. You will not succeed, because God sees and knows everything.’
Rising, he dusted crumbs from his tunic. ‘I might not succeed,’ he replied, ‘but my mother and yours are just as determined as you, and more powerful.’
‘Yes, but one day they will grow feeble, even if they are not now. You will be given your full inheritance rather than being a ward. If this marriage is judged valid – God forbid – then I shall be the Countess, and I swear they will wish that they had failed to succeed, for I shall remember everything they have done tome, and my memory is long. Perhaps I shall become like them – is that really what you want? What a terrible pattern to weave.’
He moved away from the table and went to the door. ‘They will not let you go, and while I am still a ward of court I cannot stop them even if I wanted to. If you say that your supposed marriage to Thomas Holland was a foolish whim and you agree to drop the case, our lives would change for the better, but since you won’t . . .’ He left the end of the sentence hanging on a shrug and departed, closing the door.
Jeanette picked up Nosewyse and, kissing the top of his head, realised that whatever had happened before, perhaps her battle was just beginning.
In the morning, Lady Elizabeth came to her room. The miles of travel had dropped some flesh from her body, but her jowls remained as pendulous as a bloodhound’s. One of the new-fashioned frilled wimples framed the folds of her face and did little by way of enhancement. Her dark woollen gown was embellished with silver buttons down the front, each one sitting on a roll of flesh resembling ridge and furrow plough lines.
‘I suppose my grandson told you where I have been,’ she said as she plumped herself down before the fire and ignored Nosewyse, who was baring his teeth at her.
‘Yes, madam. I know you have been at the papal court.’
‘It seems from my discussions there that your marriage to my grandson will be proven without a doubt, and your claim to be wed to Thomas Holland dismissed as arrant nonsense. The King has vouchsafed moneys to William to fight the case, so he is not at a disadvantage. If I were you, I would yield now rather than let the matter drag on to no purpose.’
Jeanette’s stomach sank, but almost immediately she rallied. Lady Elizabeth was bound to say such things, whatever the truthof the matter. Stranded here at Bisham, knowing nothing, she could be fed any tale and not know its veracity.
‘Well, I am not you, and I hope never to become like you. I trust in God,’ Jeanette replied. ‘Until the case is heard and the decision made, we cannot know.’
Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. ‘My girl, you will live and learn. We have engaged an attorney for you, and his clerk will speak with you concerning your representation in Avignon. You will come to the hall now and give him your deposition.’
‘Gladly,’ Jeanette said.
Elizabeth raised one eyebrow, but made no comment.
In the hall, the clerk belonging to Jeanette’s appointed attorney, Master Nicholas Heath, was waiting for her at a trestle table. Jeanette sat down opposite him, and he acknowledged her with a dip of his head, but glanced towards Elizabeth and Katerine, taking his direction from them. Katerine gestured for him to continue and he opened out a wax writing tablet and took up his stylus. He had watery grey eyes, and he averted them from her.
Having cleared his throat, he began questioning her about the circumstances of her first marriage, but his note-taking was scanty, and he delivered his enquiries in a drab monotone, giving her the distinct impression he had little interest in what she had to say. His lips were thin, his breath stale.
‘The marriage was valid, made before witnesses, and it was consummated, not once but many times – I will swear this on oath,’ she summarised firmly.
A flush crept up his neck, and again he looked to the other women. ‘I think I have all that my master requires,’ he said, closing the tablet, and rose to leave.
