The Dragon and the Jewel Read Online Free PDF Page A

with candles to light her to bed, when she said to her nurse, “Will we be sleeping in my chamber, or has a special one been prepared for the bride and groom?”
    The shocked look on her nurse’s face puzzled her, but she didn’t expect the slap. “Such wanton words from a child!” the old servant said repressively. “The marshal is leaving for one of his own residences.”
    “No!” cried Eleanor, whirling about and running back down the marble steps. She saw with her own eyes that the marshal was preparing to depart. At the top of her voice she shouted, “My lord husband, don’t leave me!”
    All eyes swung up to her just as the nurse grabbed her most ungently. Eleanor’s little teeth swiftly bit down until the restraining hands were loosed. She ran headlong down the remaining steps, neatly eluding Henry’s outstretched arms, and began pushing her way through the startled guests toward her goal. “William! William!”
    Henry’s long legs caught up with her in three strides, and he scooped her up in firm arms. “Stop it, Maggot,” he hissed in her ear.
    She struggled frantically. “William, if you leave, I am going with you!”
    William was discomfited that the child was making a scene. Henry was handing her over to half a dozen servants, and he thought it best if he did not interfere. Eleanor was crying incoherentlynow. She was on the verge of hysterics as the numerous hands tried to restrain her.
    “William, you p-promised,” she screamed. “You promised to show me how to st-stick it in!”
    A shocked silence descended upon the hall and then a lone titter was heard. William Marshal was angry now. He strode down the hall toward the distraught Eleanor and her brother, the King of England. “Has no one had the decency to explain matters to the child?” he demanded.
    Henry shrugged and the old nursemaid looked at him blankly. William gave them quelling looks and extracted Eleanor from the grip of two servants. He set her feet to the floor, placed her small hand on his arm, and said, “Come, Countess, I shall escort you to your chamber.”
    Teardrops hung on her dark lashes like diamonds as she gazed up at William from the edge of the bed.
    “Sweeting, because of your age you cannot come to live with me. Not until you are older,” he explained gently.
    “You mean next month when I turn ten?” she asked hopefully.
    “No … not until you are a grown woman … at least sixteen.”
    She looked at him with wounded eyes. “You don’t love me. You don’t want me,” she whispered.
    “Eleanor, of course I want you. The time will pass very quickly. You are to live at Windsor and have your own household. You have so many things to learn before you can become a wife. Your days will be filled with lessons. You will be surrounded by teachers and tutors and nuns.”
    She looked horrified. “Like my grandmother Eleanor … her husband imprisoned her too. My name is a curse!”
    “Eleanor …”
    She recoiled. “Don’t call me that!”
    William bit his lip to summon patience. “Your grandparents, King Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine, had a great love story. I shall instruct your tutors to teach you history accurately.” He went down on his knees before her to appeal to her. “You are the Countess of Pembroke …
my countess.
I want you to be the most accomplished countess England ever saw. I want youto sit a horse superbly, to be able to converse in fluent French, to entertain the crowned heads of Europe. I want you to learn law so that you may sit beside me when I hold courts of dispute. I want you to learn Gaelic so that when we go to Wales and Ireland, the people will love and respect you.” He paused to search her face, to see if his suggestions were being comprehended.
    They were. “Oh, my lord earl, I shall strive to become perfect so that I shall be worthy of you. First I will polish my reading and writing so that we may correspond and you may judge for yourself the progress I shall make,” she