Isabella: Braveheart of France Read Online Free PDF

Gaveston.”
    “He was my ward for some years, when he first came to England.”
    “This is why you support him against the barons?”
    “No, I do it because I support the king. That is my duty.”
    “The other barons do not see it that way.”
    “They merely smell a weak king. It has nothing to do with what they believe.”
    “You think Edward is weak?”
    “I think he is yet to prove his strength.”
    She smiles. I wish you had been my prince, she thinks, and it is as if he can read her mind, for he smiles at her. “Everyone thinks you’re just a child, but they’re wrong.”
    “And you are impertinent.”
    “I meant only that I think the king has found a great asset and does not know it yet.”
    She hears a shrill laugh from the garden and closes her eyes, trying to shut out the image of the two of them down there canoodling.
    “Don’t underestimate Gaveston either. He’s a good soldier.”
    “I don’t underestimate him. I despise him!” To her horror she realises she has just stamped her foot.
    Mortimer pretends he hasn’t seen it.
    “Why has Lancaster sided with the king?”
    “Because when Gaveston goes, he is the highest nobleman in the land and the king’s next adviser. This is his chance to get what he has always wanted. He will not stand with the other barons and lose his place in the king’s affections.” When she looks back at him she is shocked to see him appraising her in a way to which she is quite unaccustomed. He quickly looks away again.
    “You are going back to Ireland?”
    “Soon.”
    “I wish you God speed.” She picks up her skirts and leaves the room, her cheeks burning.
     
     
     

Chapter 8
     
    Edward keeps another menagerie at Langley, some other curious and disgusting animals from the Holy Land now shut up in pens and cages so that he and his friends can stare at them whenever they wish. There is a lion with a mane of hair, as well as the most curious horse she has ever seen; it would be impossible to ride, she supposes, for it has a huge hump on its back. She thinks it is deformed, but Gaveston tells her that all its fellows are like this, and this is in fact a prime specimen.
    How much does it cost to feed all these curiosities? No wonder the treasury is empty.
    The king is with the common sort again, watching some fellows muck out the yards. He wears just a tunic and breeches, no sign of a king here, but a fine figure of a man nonetheless. A boy says something to him and he laughs and grabs him in a headlock. They roll in the grass, laughing.
    Really, is this seemly?
    When he looks up and sees her there he stops laughing and climbs reluctantly to his feet. He looks like a chastened little boy. And here I am, just thirteen. He makes me feel old .
    “Don’t look like at me that,” he says to her.
    “Like what? I don’t know what you mean.”
    “It’s like having my mother trail me about. Every time you appear, the sun goes in.”
    “Because I remember I am royal?”
    “I find kingship a burden. It does no harm to laugh sometimes.”
    “It does much harm to do nothing else.”
    “You have that look about you. Can this wait?”
    “Not really. You clearly have nothing better to do, your grace.”
    He looks sulky, leans on the fence. She watches muscles ripple under his cambric shirt.
    “My father raised two hundred thousand livres for this marriage. I have received no gifts from you, no estates. I do not even have the funds to run my own household.”
    “Listen to you. You’re just a girl.”
    “I am my father’s daughter. He raised me to be a queen.”
    “You are not old enough to be a queen.”
    “Yet I have been crowned in one of your churches. Have I not?”
    He shakes his head. “It is already decided. You shall have Montreuil and Ponthieu. You don’t have to be strident about it.”
    “And what of your friend, Gaveston?”
    His manner transforms. He stands straight and glares at her. “He is my friend, and none of your concern.”
    “You