The Scandalous Duchess by Anne O'Brien Page A

mused.
    â€˜Geoffrey might mind.’
    â€˜Geoffrey might not even notice. So, have you set your eye on anyone?’
    Another diversionary tactic was needed. ‘Speaking of Geoffrey, does he talk to you about court matters?’
    â€˜Sometimes. Why?’
    â€˜I’m interested in the Duke’s ambitions. He’s now addressed as
Monseigneur d’Espaigne
. Does he truly seek the crown of Castile?’
    Does he love the Queen?
That is what I wanted to know.
Has he wed for love, as he wed Blanche, for the passion that was between them? Or was Constanza a pawn in a foreign alliance, a means to a political end because he saw the crown of Castile as a jewel on his horizon?
    â€˜Geoffrey thinks so,’ Philippa replied carelessly. ‘The Duke has ambitions. It has always been so for him, to seek power. It was once mooted that he become King of Scotland. Now it’s Castile. A chance for a kingdom of his own.’ She shrugged, displaying her own lack of interest. ‘He’s an ambitious man. It’s no surprise. Why are you so interested?’
    â€˜I am not.’
    â€˜Well, he would not remain unwed for long, would he? He only has one son to step into his shoes. Perhaps he fell in love. Love at first sight.’
    â€˜Perhaps he did.’
    It confirmed only what I had thought.
    â€˜Geoffrey says he gave her a magnificent wedding gift. A gold cup fashioned as a rose with a white dove on the lid. Sounds like a lover’s gift to me.’
    So it did to me. Which made everything so much worse. His invitation to me was the prelude to a mere dalliance, and I would not comply.
    You will not comply anyway!
My conscience lectured.
    â€˜And she is strikingly beautiful, I hear. Enough to entrap the heart of any man.’
    â€˜Yes, she is.’
    Philippa had convinced me.
    â€˜Enough of Constanza.’ Philippa stood, looking round appreciatively at the spacious accommodation reserved for me. ‘Do I share this room with you, or do I have a Castilian damsel to entertain? Let us go and discover, and find my children. By the by, I have been granted an annuity of ten pounds by the Duke in token of my service.’ The slide of her eye was piercing. ‘It’s good to be appreciated. What are you paid? Are you worth more than I?’
    I shook my head, quick to lie. How easily half-truths and deceptions leaped to my lips these days. ‘How could I be?’
    Another confession that I must make. I was relieved I had packed away the rosary. I would not have liked to explain that gift to her.

Chapter Five
    â€˜R obert!’ I called out as I turned a corner in the early dusk. ‘Robert Rabbas! Where are you, in God’s name!’
    It was cold enough to turn the Thames to ice.
    Shivering, infuriated, fingers so frozen I could barely bend them, I held my hood close beneath my chin. Why was there neither sight nor sound of a squire or a page or even a household servant when one was most needed to carry out a burdensome task? And why had we been blighted by a basket of green wood which did nothing but smoulder and smoke and give out no heat, when the weather was at its bleakest, driven in by March winds from the north?
    Our plans to transfer the whole household to Hertford had gone awry, when Henry, the Lancaster heir, was struck down with a fever. Cross and fractious, sometimes weeping with pains in his joints, his little body alternated between burning heat and intense cold. With concerns for the health of her unborn child—for might it not be the plague?—Duchess Constanza was not to be persuaded that this was a childish ailment and expressed the desire to leave London immediately for the Duke’s castle at Hertford. Within a day she was packed into a palanquin with her ladies and Philippa in attendance and they departed, the Duke accompanying her before returning to London to re-engage with the King and Prince Edward in planning for the campaign against