Lords of the White Castle Read Online Free PDF Page A

about, Marjorie, the one who nearly knocked Prince John's wits from his skull.'
    'I didn't,' Fulke protested, wondering with dismay and curiosity how it was possible for news to spread so quickly.
    'Mores the pity' Marjorie said acidly. 'And looks like you took a drubbing yourself.'
    'I .. "
    'The Prince smashed him in the face with a chessboard,' announced the youth with the relish of one with a tale to tell.
    Jean grinned and tapped an egg on the side of the bowl. 'There's no need to listen at doors to hear gossip. You just come and sit here for an hour. They'll tell you everything: whose wife is bedding whom, who's in favour, who's out—even the colour of the King's piss in the morning.' He ducked the playful swipe of Marjorie's hand. 'And they'll feed you better than the royal table, even if you do have to shell eggs for it.'
    'Might do Prince John good to shell eggs,' Marjorie said, nodding approval at Fulke. 'I'm sorry for your injuries, but right glad that you've had the courage to answer him back. Someone should have shaken some decency into him long before he left the nursery. If you ask me, Queen Eleanor bore one child too many'
    'Rumour says that Queen Eleanor thinks so too,' Jean remarked. 'She was five and forty when she bore him and King Henry was sporting with a young mistress.'
    'Oh aye, small wonder the boy's turned out a rotten apple,' Marjorie sniffed. 'The parents at war, the brothers at war. It's easy to believe that tale about them coming from the devil.' She crossed herself.
    'What tale?' Fulke asked.
    Marjorie set a trencher before the youths and ladled out two generous helpings of roast boar in a spicy sauce from one of the cauldrons, adding a small wheaten loaf each. Feeling almost nauseous with hunger, Fulke needed no encouragement to take up knife and spoon and set to, the only difficulty being that he could not breathe and chew at the same time.
    Marjorie brought a second bowl of eggs to the table and sat down to shell them. 'A long time ago, one of their ancestors, a Count of Anjou, fell in love with a beautiful woman called Melusine.' She pitched her voice so that those around could hear. Songs and storytelling were an integral part of work in the kitchens. They helped to pass the time and made the work more pleasurable. 'She had the palest silver hair as if spun of moonlight and eyes so green and clear that a man could swim in them—or drown. The Count married her and they had two children, a boy and a girl, both as comely as their mother. All was well except that the lady was reluctant to attend church. If she did, she would never stay for the mass, but always slip out of a side door before the raising of the host. Some of the Count's companions became afraid that her beauty and her hold upon their lord was unnatural—that the lovely Countess was using the black arts . 'Marjorie paused for dramatic effect. Fulke belched softly into the silence and licked his fingers. Marjorie cracked an egg against the side of the bowl.
    'Then what happened?' he prompted.
    'They decided to test her by forcing her to stay in chapel throughout the mass. All the doors were barred and armed guards set before them. When the time came for the raising of the host, sure enough, the lady made to depart, but of course, she could not escape. The priest sprinkled her with holy water, whereupon she uttered an unearthly scream. Her cloak became the wings of a huge bat and she flew out of the window, never to be seen again. But she left her children behind and they carried her demon blood in their veins. The boy grew up and became Count of Anjou after his father, and he was our King Henry's great-great-grandsire.' She nodded her head in confirmation.
    'You don't believe it?' Fulke said sceptically.
    Marjorie swept the eggshells off the table into her apron. 'I only know what I've been told, and there's no smoke without a fire.'
    'There's a family legend that my own grandsire fought a giant, but it's only a tale he invented to