Rhuddlan Read Online Free PDF Page A

of use I would be honored
to help you. I feel I am in your debt for this fine animal…I may
not have the ear of the king himself, but I speak often with the
Young King, and I know he would be interested in what you had to
say.”
    “I’ve already seen the king…” Hugh said
warily.
    “Oh, I know! But not on your business. He
only offered his gratitude for your expression of sympathy for that
arrogant cleric. But you didn’t know of Becket’s death until you’d
arrived here.”
    Hugh gazed intently at Bolsover. The younger
man held his eyes. Finally he said, “It wasn’t important. A small
matter of land.”
    Bolsover stepped closer to him. “My lord, if
it concerns the earl of Chester it must be important. I beg you to
discuss it with the Young King. Henry is growing old. I’ve never
seen him react as he did to this murder. The young king has fresh
ideas—and the support of his father-in-law, the king of
France.”
    “Young Henry is not even sixteen!” Hugh
scoffed.
    “Which is why he needs older, wiser heads
behind him. My lord, already he chafes at the bit! Henry keeps him
short of money and picks his household himself because he fears
what his son will do once he breaks free!”
    Hugh didn’t reply. He had no quarrel with
King Henry save this one nagging issue which the king seemed
reluctant to resolve, and every year that passed compounded the
earl’s frustration and growing resentment. He considered the
implications of Bolsover’s words. Perhaps he was right; perhaps it
was time for new blood.
    “Very well,” he said to the other man.
“Arrange for me to meet with the Young King.”
     
    Hugh’s father, Earl Ranulf, had also
supported Henry during the civil war and in return for his not
inconsiderable force, Henry had promised him the earldoms of
Stafford and Lincoln once he had taken the crown. But Ranulf died
in 1153, the year before Henry became king and the matter was
dropped. Hugh was only six years old at the time and was promptly
made a ward of the court, which meant Henry controlled the revenues
from the vast estates the boy would inherit when he came of age.
But Hugh’s mother, the dowager countess Maud, didn’t allow the
matter of the lost earldoms to lie quietly. She continually
harangued Hugh to convince Henry to bestow the titles and honors on
the earl of Chester as had been promised to her husband.
    A small matter of land indeed! Robert
Bolsover could hardly believe his ears as he listened to Hugh tell
his story to the Young King, who didn’t appear very interested but
shifted in his chair and occasionally gnawed on a fingernail. The
interview had been very casual and Hugh had been careful not to
reproach Henry for his oath-breaking.
    “But I don’t think he was listening, anyway,”
Hugh said afterwards. “He was more concerned with picking off the
scab on his knuckle.”
    Bolsover slipped his arm
around the earl’s neck. “It doesn’t matter. I was listening. And when the moment
comes that he needs to know it, I’ll remind him.” He grinned at
Hugh and playfully squeezed his neck in the crook of his arm.
“Greedy, aren’t you? Not satisfied with just being the earl of
Chester, you want to be earl of Stafford and Lincoln as well.”
    “I have a lot of property in Staffordshire
and Lincolnshire,” Hugh said defensively. “Most of my property, as
a matter of fact. My father staked his life for Henry to be king
and got nothing for it. It’s ludicrous to imagine these honors
shouldn’t pass to me simply because my father died before he could
collect them. And Henry hasn’t filled them. No one holds either
title now.”
    Bolsover sighed and rolled over onto his
back. “I should like to be an earl.”
    Hugh looked down at his smooth, lean chest
and smiled. How they had ended up here, in the earl’s chamber,
after the meeting with the Young King, he didn’t quite remember.
But once it had happened, he realized it was exactly what he had
hoped would happen from the