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is to marry then?’
    â€˜The King no less.’
    â€˜My father? He is an old man.’
    The Emperor smiled. ‘He is some seven years younger than I.’
    For a moment her eyes were cruel. She wanted to say: ‘And that is too old for marriage.’ But she curbed her tongue.
    â€˜It is but two years since my mother died.’
    â€˜It is a reasonable time for mourning. And since your brother’s death . . .’
    She nodded. Since her brother’s death! The foundering of the White Ship had had its effect on all of them, and that which had brought despair to her father had set hopes soaring in his daughter’s heart.
    â€˜So it is the need to get an heir,’ she said and there was a constricted feeling in her throat which had its source in bitter anger. He would marry again, get a son, and that would be the end of Matilda’s hopes.
    â€˜Of a certainty,’ replied the Emperor. ‘For what other reason should he wish for marriage? He has chosen the lady.’
    â€˜And who is she?’
    â€˜Adelicia of Louvaine.’
    â€˜I know nothing of her.’
    The Emperor smiled again. ‘Your father would not think it necessary to ask your approval, my love.’
    â€˜Adelicia of Louvaine,’ she repeated. ‘Is she young? Is she likely to give him an heir?’
    â€˜You may rest assured that as far as these mysteries are known to men the answer to that is yes.’
    She wanted to rage; she wanted to throw her pillow at this old man. It was always difficult to control her violent temper. Stephen had laughed at it, Stephen who was always calm and amiable.
    She said: ‘I will rise now. I must offer my congratulations to my father.’
    The Emperor nodded. ‘We must both do that.’
    Unsteadily he rose. He looked at her and she thought he was coming to the bed. She drew her thick brows together in a frown and he turned away.
    She would shout at him in a moment. She was so infuriated. Her father to marry! What if the new bride proved fertile! She could have many sons. And Matilda, who had been one step from the throne, would be pushed so far back that she could never hope to reach it.

The Wedding and Coronation
    PRINCESS ADELICIA OF LOUVAINE knew that something important was about to happen for envoys from a foreign land had arrived at her father’s castle and there had been much serious talk between them and her parents; that the matter concerned her she was also aware and when a Princess became a matter of State this could mean one thing, and that was marriage.
    She had been expecting it for she had passed her seventeenth birthday. That she was not already married was doubtless due to the fact no suitor had yet been considered worthy of her. Her mother had descended from great Charlemagne himself, a fact which she neither forgot herself or allowed her family to.
    Her sister was watching her covertly, but Adelicia pretended to be absorbed by her needlework, for which she was famed. Such work as she did with silk and gold thread was considered to be a woman’s greatest asset. In the long ago days when she had been no more than five years old her governesses used to say to her: ‘Now, Adelicia, that will not do. You will never have a grand husband if you do not persevere with your needle.’
    She wondered why husbands should set such store by fine needlework; and if that was all hers looked for, he should be well pleased. The standard she had worked for her father to carry during the battle was said to be a masterpiece.
    Her sister said: ‘They say the messengers have come from England.’
    â€˜From England,’ repeated Adelicia. She knew of England, of course. Who did not? The King of England was often in Normandy which he had taken from his brother. The King of England, who was also the Duke of Normandy, was one of the most powerful men in Europe.
    â€˜I wonder on whose behalf they come,’ went on her sister. ‘It