Виктория Холт - The Battle of the Queens

It was a moment she would never forget.

Louis was seated on his chair of state and as she had feared, beside him was his mother. She could be trusted to make herself a spectator of her enemy’s humiliation.

They knelt before the King; Hugh, Isabella and every member of their family. They wept and remained on their knees while Hugh declared that he had been ill advised.

If Isabella felt a twinge of conscience she did not show it. In fact she was not thinking of the part she had played in this miserable drama so much as the hatred she felt for that pale-haired complacent woman.

Like Isabella, Blanche had kept her looks and was still beautiful – calmly so, with that purity of feature and those ice blue eyes.

She is everything that I am not, thought Isabella. The only thing we have in common is hatred.

The King was playing his saint’s role, she perceived. He liked not to see great soldiers so humbled, he said, and bade them rise. He bore no malice against Hugh, he said; he forgave him. If he would go back to Lusignan and remain the faithful vassal of the King, this revolt would not be held against him. The King would ask that he give up three castles as a guarantee for his fidelity; the King’s garrison would be in those castles and that garrison must be maintained at Hugh’s expense. Later they would review the situation and if the King had no cause for complaint the position could once more be reviewed.

Hugh kissed the King’s hand and with real tears in his eyes thanked him for his mercy.

The two women regarded each other. Blanche could not veil the triumph in her heart. Angry as she was, Isabella knew that Blanche must have no notion that murder was in hers.

* * *

Silently they rode back to Lusignan.

There was the castle, its towers reaching to the sky, its grey walls as solid as ever.

‘It might so easily have been taken from us,’ said Hugh sadly. ‘The King is generous.’

‘They were prepared,’ cried Isabella. ‘All our plans were known to them. Someone must have told them.’

‘They had their spies everywhere …’

‘So but for spies …’

All her dreams, all her hopes were gone. She would not give up, though. She cared nothing for Louis and his godly ways. Her enemy was the woman who stood there watching her humiliate herself … watching her with those icy blue eyes.

She had taken from Isabella what she had most coveted: power.

Now we are reduced to this, she thought. My husband has betrayed me. First John and now Hugh. Weaklings both of them.

But no matter. There is no weakness in me. I will have my way. She has reduced me to this. How can I hurt her as she has hurt me? What does she love more than anything on earth? The answer flashed into her mind: Louis.

* * *

Spies had ruined their plans. Spies should work for her.

It was not difficult to come by what she needed. Everything could be obtained by money.

She sent for two men – villains both of them, but she needed villains for this task.

‘What I wish of you is a delicate task,’ she told them. ‘Once it is completed you will slip away and come back to me. When I have the news I need you will be so rewarded that you will build a castle apiece and rise high above your humble station.’

‘It is a dangerous task,’ said one of the men.

‘Only if you are caught. If you are clever it will be easy. First you will find appointments in the royal kitchens. That should not be difficult. You will then know which dishes are prepared for whom and when you see one that is especially prepared for a certain person … that is all you need to know.’

‘It would depend on the person.’

‘Do you imagine that I should offer you this reward if it were for some humble knight? If you speak of this to any … and I say any … I will have your tongues cut out. Do you understand?’

The men turned pale. Isabella had an evil reputation. It was believed by some that she was a witch, for only a woman of her years could retain her beauty if she were a witch; and the power she had over Hugh de Lusignan made all marvel.

‘We understand, my lady,’ they answered.

‘Then take this powder. It is tasteless and will dissolve quickly. When you know that one special dish is going to the King, put this in.’

‘The King!’

‘I said the King. Speak of it to no one, before the deed is done and after.’

‘My lady, you ask a good deal.’

‘I know it and I will give a good deal when the news is brought to me that the King is dead.’

She dismissed them and settled down to wait.

She was pleased with her revenge.

At first she had thought of poisoning Blanche, but what good was that? At most a few hours of torment before death. No, she wanted a greater revenge for her enemy. She wanted to deprive her of what she loved more than anything on earth: her beloved and saintly Louis.

When Louis was dead, the whole meaning of life would be lost to Blanche. Her punishment would be that she would have to go on living without him.

* * *

How long the waiting was! How quiet she was! Hugh thought: Events have changed her. And he looked forward to a peaceful life. Could it be that she had indeed learned a lesson, that at least she realised that to bow the knee to a man such as Louis was no humiliation?

Each time a messenger came to the castle she was waiting for him.

What news? What news of the court?

But there was nothing of importance.

Often she wondered about those two villains. Had they become afraid? Had they put as long a distance between her and themselves as they could?

How far could she trust them? What if they talked of what she had ordered them to do?

What would happen then? It would be the end of everything for her.

She should have had their tongues cut out before she let them go. But then they would never have worked for her. They might have had their revenge.

This was a bold plan she had embarked on. But then she was bold. Was that not why she was so impatient with Hugh and all those who surrounded her?

Some day there must be news.

* * *

It came. A messenger from the court. Not the villains she had sent. But one who wished her well.

She saw the messenger coming. She went down to the hall of the castle. Hugh had seen and was there too.

‘It is someone from the court,’ he said.

‘My lord, my lady.’ The man stood there with wide staring eyes. He was looking at Isabella and there was horror and fear in his eyes.

‘Yes,’ said Hugh impatiently. ‘What news of the court?’

‘Two men have been taken in the kitchens.’

Isabella caught at the table for support.

‘They were discovered putting poison into the King’s dish.’

‘What then?’ she cried.

‘They were hanged.’

Isabella felt floods of relief sweeping over her. It had failed then but none knew.

But there was to be no comfort. ‘First they were put to the torture … they were questioned …’ The man was looking straight at Isabella. ‘They named you, my lady.’

The silence in the hall seemed to go on for a long time. It was over then. This was the end. The Spanish enemy had won.

Nothing could protect her now.

She snatched at Hugh’s sword and tried to kill herself, but Hugh was there and the sword went clattering on to the flagstones.

‘Isabella!’ he cried.

‘Let me go,’ she cried. ‘This does not concern you.’

Then she ran out of the hall to the stables and she seized a horse and rode away.

The end, she thought. This is the end. Those fools – to have been caught! If they had not … all would be well.

But what to do? Where to go?

Sanctuary. Fontevrault. No one could take her there. Even Spanish Blanche could not break the rules of Holy Church.

It was her only hope, to reach sanctuary before they took her.

She rode on, thinking of Hugh. He would come for her, fight for her, defend her. Would he? Would even he shrink from one who had planned the diabolical murder of the King who had so recently shown them so much kindness?

It was over. She realised that at last.

Her only hope now was Fontevrault.

* * *

She reached the Abbey. The nuns took her in.

They would succour her. There was refuge here for all.

They put her into a secret chamber where none could reach her.

‘I am in flight,’ she said. ‘I have sinned greatly, and I wish to pass my days in repentance.’

They believed her. They knew she was the beautiful Isabella who had been responsible for much strife throughout the land. They had not yet heard of her attempt to poison the King of France.

They left her to rest and to pray.

And she thought: So it has come to this. When a woman must spend her last years in repentance, that is indeed the end.

* * *

Alone in her secret chamber she sat brooding on the past. What was there left to her but prayer and repentance? She thought back over her life and was afraid for her sins. It was as though her carefully guarded youth dropped from her now and the years which she had held at bay were at last overtaking her.