‘But he always has been soft with his daughters. We have always been able to overcome his annoyance with us.’

‘That might have been in matters of little significance. This is different.’

‘I must make him understand. He loves his grandchildren. He ought to be delighted that this child will have Ralph as a father. Come, confess, did you ever see a man more handsome?’

The Countess smiled and Isabella said with a certain amount of fervour, ‘He is indeed handsome. One rarely sees a man so well set up.’

‘Ah,’ said Joanna quickly. ‘I see you have a fancy for him.’

‘My lady,’ said the Countess, ‘Isabella has a husband and is devoted to him.’

Joanna laughed. ‘I know that well. I should have been annoyed if you had not admired Ralph. Well, now you see why I cannot have him languishing in prison. There is only one thing to do and that is to see my father, talk to him myself.’

‘Will he see you?’ asked Isabella.

‘He will if I present myself. I know him well. He loves us all too dearly not to long for a reconciliation. My dear friends, I shall leave tomorrow for the Court. No, do not try to dissuade me.’

‘We would not attempt to,’ replied the Countess with a smile. ‘We have always known that when you have made up your mind it would be useless to ask you to change it.’

‘I shall plead with him and you will see that he will relent.’

‘I pray that it may be so,’ said the Countess.


* * *

Joanna rode into St Albans on a hot July day.

She was received with some dismay for those in attendance on the King were uncertain. She was in disgrace, but she was the King’s daughter and they dared not offend her; yet on the other hand how would the King behave if they treated her as they had before the trouble?

She was now quite noticeably pregnant and she said that she was weary from the journey. She trusted she would not be denied a bed.

They were subdued before her imperious manner. No one would ever doubt Joanna’s royalty. There was an implicit demand in her behaviour to be treated with respect.

She sent a message to the King.

‘Your daughter is here. It is the first time in her life that she has been forced to crave an audience but she does so now and she hopes she will be graciously received.’

The King had heard that she was pregnant and he could not help being concerned for her health. He gave orders that she was to be well looked after and he would see her the following day.

Joanna was triumphant. He had acted as she had known he would. A show of affection, a little cajolery and she would win him over.

But when she stood before him she was a little appalled by the coolness of his expression. Never before had he looked at her in that way. It was as though he disliked her. She did not quail. She was fully confident of her powers.

He was seated on a throne-like chair which called attention to his royalty. She stood before him.

‘My lord father,’ she said, ‘I crave permission to sit.’

He nodded and she sat on a stool.

‘Why do you come here?’ he asked coldly.

‘Because you are my father though you are also the King.’

‘I do not forget it. You offend me doubly … as a daughter and as a subject.’

‘Dear Father, I cannot bear it when you look at me so coldly. I remember so much when my dear mother was alive. Ah, I would that she were here this day. She would listen to me … she would plead with you for me. How unhappy she would be to see you hating me so.’

‘She would indeed be unhappy to have borne such a rebellious daughter.’

‘You loved my mother dearly,’ she said. ‘So do I love my husband.’

‘This … nobody … whom you persuaded me to make a knight!’

‘No one deserved the honour more … nor that of being son-in-law to the greatest of kings. Father, remember … the past … the happiness we have known together. My child will be born in due course, the fruit of my love for my husband whom you have cruelly imprisoned.’

‘It was a mistake,’ the King said harshly. ‘He has his just deserts. I could find him a harsher prison which would no doubt fit his crime.’

At the thought of her husband, Joanna’s calm tactics broke down. She cried out, ‘Release him. He has done no harm. I love him, Father. You understand what that means. I persuaded him to this marriage … I forced him to it … through his love for me.’

A faint twitch which might have been of amusement showed itself at the corner of the King’s lips. He was thinking, Yes, she would have forced him to marry her. She would have selected him and then he would have had no say. That was his daughter Joanna. How could he help but admire such a daughter? She was all fire and energy. And she was not afraid either.

‘Tell me this,’ she went on. ‘Why is it not disgraceful for a man of rank to take a poor woman to be his wife, yet when a woman of rank takes a man of none it is considered so?’

‘You are a princess. He is nobody. You must ask my permission to marry. You flouted me … and the whole country. There were many seeking your hand.’

‘Seeking to better themselves by a royal alliance. My lord, I married once to please you. You gave me to an old man.’

‘Gilbert was good to you.’

‘What else could he be? He did well, did he not, to marry the King’s daughter? But I married him to please you. I took this ageing man because he was important to your schemes. I lived with him, I bore his children, then he died. Now why should I not marry according to my choice?’

‘You should never marry except where I say you may.’

‘How unfair it is. So I am to be denied love, am I, because I am a king’s daughter? One marriage for state reasons … I accepted it. But I claim the right the second time to choose for myself.’

‘You have no right,’ shouted the King. ‘You will do as I say.’

‘You cannot break up our marriage. Ralph is my husband. Nothing you can do to him will alter that.’

‘He can remain my prisoner. You will be stripped of your possessions. You will have to learn what happens to any who disobey the King.’

‘I see I am mistaken. I thought I had a loving father. How we loved … once. When our mother was there and the girls and little Edward … How we trusted you; how secure we felt in your love. But it was tender blossoms was it not, destroyed by the first cold wind … like buds in Maytime … beautiful but delicate.’

She put her hand on her body where she could feel the child.

‘My lord … perhaps my women …’

The King was beside her. ‘What is it?’

She waved him aside. ‘It is as though the child feels the unkindness of its grandsire.’

‘You should be taken to your apartments.’

She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Goodbye, Father; you are a hard man. I could not have believed …’

The tears welled into her eyes and suddenly she threw herself into his arms.

‘I cannot bear it,’ she said. ‘Not my dear, dear father …’

He put his lips against her hair. How beautiful she was! How fierce in her passion! He would not have had her otherwise. The wild one, his dear daughter. So proud he had always been of her.

She clung to him. She would not let him go. Not that he showed any sign of forcing her to do so.

‘Tell me I am forgiven,’ she murmured almost incoherently. ‘Then I will go away … Perhaps I may join my husband in his prison … Your grandchild will be born in captivity but at least I shall be with my husband …’

‘Have done!’ said the King gruffly.

‘Oh, Father, I believe you love me a little after all.’

‘You are my beloved child and you know it,’ he said.

She put her arms about his neck and her face was radiant.

‘Still … your beloved child?’

‘You will always be that.’

‘Oh, my dear father, how happy you have made me.’

‘My dear child, I have been so grieved that there should be this unhappiness between us.’

‘It must be no more. Dear Father, let me tell you how I love my husband. You will love him too if you will but see him. You must love someone who loves your daughter so dearly and has brought her such happiness. Father, to make me happy, will you give the order for his release?’

He took her hand and kissed it. ‘I suppose I must do this as my imperious daughter commands it.’

‘None commands the King, but in the goodness of his heart and his love for his children he could not let them continue heart-broken. I want to visit all our mother’s crosses and give thanks at them because you have forgiven me. I want to take my husband there so that we can both give thanks to her. If you will love me again I can be the happiest woman on earth.’

‘I never ceased to love you.’

It was her turn to punish him. ‘It seemed you did. Our mother must have wept in Heaven at your harshness to me and mine.’

He winced a little. He was wondering what Eleanor in Heaven was thinking of his plans to marry again, of his longings for the beautiful Blanche, the most lovely princess ever seen, they said.

He felt uneasy because his desire for Blanche seemed like infidelity to Eleanor.

‘She will rejoice now because we are good friends,’ Joanna said. ‘I am sure she is looking down on us now and weeping with joy.’

She would understand, he thought. Eleanor had always understood. Had she lived he would have remained her faithful husband until the end of his days. But she had gone and he was alone, and Blanche by all accounts was so beautiful.

He said: ‘Your husband shall be released, your lands shall be restored.’

She clung to him, kissing him, exultant in her triumph. How right she had been. Strength, sternness, Plantagenet temper – none of that could stand out against her wiles. His sentimentality had helped her of course, his family feeling. But it was her skill which had played on that.