Dear God, what if there was a child from this? That was less easy to disguise than lost virginity. If Petronella was with child, she would have to enter a convent, at least for the duration of the pregnancy. It was of no consequence if a man sired bastards, but for a woman of their status it was a disgrace that reflected on her entire family. Their grandmother Dangereuse de Châtellerault had lived in open adultery with her lover, Alienor’s grandfather, but it had caused a huge scandal that she and Petronella carried like a stigma. As the granddaughters of a lecher and a whore they always had to be better than good, knowing that people were constantly watching for the evidence of their tainted blood to show.

She bowed her head against her clasped palms, feeling as if everything had shattered into little pieces around her; but if she was very clever, surely she could fashion the shards back into the delicate shell they had once been? No one but her need ever see the cracks.

Alienor regarded with disgust the shocked young man who had just been flung at her feet by two of her trusted knights. Seized when he returned from exercising his horse, Aimery de Niort was still clad in his riding gear, with spurs on his heels and a cloak at his shoulder clasped by a jewelled brooch.

‘Stay on your knees,’ she commanded. ‘You will not rise from them in my presence.’

‘Madam, what have I done to offend you?’ The young knight’s eyes were full of bewilderment.

‘You well know,’ Alienor replied, noting with anger how handsome he was. ‘Did you think I would not find out what you had done?’

‘Madam, I have done nothing!’ He shook his head. ‘I know not of what you speak.’

‘Do you not?’ Alienor considered having him flogged. She took the fear in his expression as guilt. ‘Then shall I mention my sister to you, the lady Petronella?’

He reddened and she saw him swallow.

‘I see you understand,’ she said. ‘I could have you whipped and strung up for what you have done.’

‘Madam, I have done nothing.’ His voice strained and cracked. ‘I but asked the lady Petronella for a keepsake. Whatever it is you accuse me of, I am innocent.’

‘I have heard such protestations before,’ she said icily.

‘If you wish, I shall swear my innocence on the bones of my ancestors. Whatever you have heard it is a lie!’

His expression was so dazed and disbelieving that for a moment Alienor’s conviction wavered. Perhaps he was a good liar too. The main thing was to be rid of him. ‘You are dismissed from my service. Take your horse and your life and go.’ She flicked her fingers and the knights manhandled him from the room, still protesting his innocence.

Alienor closed her eyes. If she thought about matters too hard she would weep.

Raoul de Vermandois put his head round the door. ‘You sent for me, madam?’

She beckoned him to enter. ‘Yes, I did. I want to ask your advice, and a favour of you.’

He looked at her warily, his shoulders tense. ‘Whatever it is, I shall be glad to help.’

She gestured him to the bench at her side. Although she had summoned him, she was not sure if she could tell him. ‘It’s about Petronella,’ she said.

Raoul’s face was expressionless. ‘Madam?’

Alienor bit her lip. ‘My sister looks upon you as she once looked upon our father,’ she said. ‘She likes you and you are kind to her.’

Raoul cleared his throat and folded his arms, but said nothing.

‘I am worried about her. She has been dallying with the squires and young knights – you must know because you have intervened at times. She does not think of the consequences – or if she does, she does not care. She must be reined in, but not so harshly that people talk. I would like you to keep watch on her as we journey back to Paris, and on any young suitors who step out of line.’

Raoul looked away. ‘I am not worthy of your trust,’ he muttered.

‘She will listen to you when she will certainly not listen to me or to Louis.’

‘Madam, I …’

She laid her hand on his sleeve. ‘I know she is difficult, but please, as a favour to me.’

He rumpled his thick silver hair and let out a resigned sigh. ‘As you wish, madam.’

‘Thank you.’ Alienor sighed with relief. ‘I do not want Louis to know about this. It would be to no good purpose – you know what he is like. I value your discretion in this matter, my lord.’

Raoul inclined his head. ‘He shall not find out from me, I promise you.’

As he bowed from the room, Alienor breathed the tension away and closed her eyes. She fervently hoped she had contained the situation.

Her next move was to have Petronella brought to her chamber where she could be watched. ‘We need to pack for the return to Poitiers and Paris,’ she said. ‘There is much to do. Aimery de Niort has left court and will not be returning. We shall not speak of the other matter again – understood?’

Petronella gave her a startled look; then without a word she went to sit in the window embrasure.

Alienor followed her. ‘Petra …’ She wanted to take her in her arms and at the same time she wanted to slap her. ‘I wish you would talk to me. We used to be so close.’

‘I wasn’t the one who went away,’ Petronella said. ‘All you care about is what people will think. You’re not bothered about me, you’re just afraid of the scandal and your position and what Louis will say.’

‘That is not true!’

‘Yes it is! I’m just the annoying little sister who gets in the way. You said you would look after me, but you haven’t.’ Petronella rounded on her, eyes flashing. ‘All you want to do is be the Queen. I don’t matter.’

‘You’re wrong. You’re so very wrong. Of course you matter to me.’ A wave of guilt washed over Alienor because she recognised both the truth in Petronella’s words and the injustice of them too.

‘No I don’t!’ Petronella jumped to her feet and pushed past Alienor. ‘And I don’t care, because you don’t matter to me any more! You don’t keep your word. I hate you!’ The last words rose to a shriek. Petronella stamped over to a baggage chest and began flinging the contents around. The chamber ladies lowered their eyes and went about their duties as if nothing was wrong.

Alienor swallowed nausea. Petronella was exactly like their grandmother Dangereuse, who had been so volatile that as children they had never known from one moment to the next how she was going to react. All ordinary emotion was intensified to passion and Petronella seemed to be developing the same worrying traits as she became a woman. She would just have to keep her occupied and try to diffuse some of that raw intensity before it did any more damage. But she loved her, and the rejection was pain.

For the next several days Alienor was on tenterhooks, but as the danger faded that Petronella’s indiscretion might become a larger scandal, she started to relax. The court was preoccupied with packing for long days on the road and Louis was too busy praying and fulminating over the matter of the Archbishop of Bourges to pay attention to other undercurrents.

Alienor was relieved that Petronella seemed to have taken the warning to heart. Having gone to church and been shriven, she had since been behaving in a subdued and demure fashion. However, she was still refusing to speak to Alienor, and the quarrel lay between the sisters like an open wound that had been bandaged but was still bleeding.

Raoul was as good as his word, and was attentive to Petronella in a formal, courteous way when she emerged from the bower to socialise. He partnered her in the dances, sat with her to eat, and rode at her side as the court made use of the final days to go hunting with the hawks and dogs.

Raoul’s polite reserve upset and angered Petronella. He bowed and smiled at her with the blandness of a courtier and pretended not to notice the way she looked at him. She could not bear to think that the one occasion in the garden had been all it was – another little conquest – and that the tawdry gossip about his affairs with women where he used them and moved on was all true. She set out to bait him in an effort to make him respond and to warn him that she would not be ignored. On passing him in a corridor with other people around them, she brushed against him intimately and flashed him a bold glance. She was successful: he responded with a look composed of desire and reprimand. He was not as indifferent as he pretended. Later, she sat beside him for the main meal of the day, and under cover of the tablecloth, curled her foot around his.

Raoul withdrew rapidly as if she had burned him and gave her a slight shake of his head, which she chose to ignore.

The servants brought food from the kitchens and began setting out the dishes at the high table, including tender venison and marinated fruits on skewers with piquant dipping sauces. There was a golden cameline sauce made with cinnamon, a purple one of blackberries, and another that was warm with the taste of ginger.

Raoul served Petronella with two skewers, one of meat, one of fruits.

‘They look like a row of courtiers,’ she giggled. ‘Here’s Thierry de Galeran, and next to him the fat one is William de Montferrat. And this one looks just like Louis. See, it’s the same colour as his gown. Shall I eat him up? Hold the skewer for me.’

Raoul held the length of whittled ash as Petronella closed her teeth around a chunk of golden marinated pear and pulled it off, her action sensual, almost provocative. She chewed and swallowed. ‘Wouldn’t it be good if we could be rid of all our enemies like that?’ she said.

‘I hope you do not mean that the King is your enemy?’

Petronella shrugged. ‘I meant all enemies in general. Come, I will hold yours for you now. Who are you going to eat? That one looks a bit like Theobald of Champagne, no?’