The Wounded Hawk

Bolingbroke and Mary moved forward, Mary on Bolingbroke’s left. Mary stumbled very slightly, and Bolingbroke smiled gently at her, and held out his hand. She took it, and together they mounted the steps to kneel before the archbishop.

“Brethren!” Sudbury said in a loud voice that carried over the entire courtyard. “We are gathered here, in the sight of God, and His angels, and all the saints, and in the face of the Church, to join together two bodies, to wit, those of this man and this woman—”

Sudbury looked down on Bolingbroke and Mary, then continued, “—that henceforth they may be one body; and that they may be two souls in the faith and the law of God, to the end, that they may earn together eternal life; and whatsoever they may have done before this.”

Now Sudbury lifted his gaze and addressed the crowd. “I charge you all by the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that if any of you know any cause why these persons may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, he do now confess it.”

There was a silence. Margaret, thinking of Catherine, bit her tongue lest she should betray herself (and everything she and her brethren had worked towards), but even as she felt the words must explode from her there was a voice raised from the crowd.

“I do declare that the wrong bridegroom kneels before you, my Lord Archbishop.”

Richard.

“I swear that it would be best that I wed the lovely Mary so that Bolingbroke will not gain the strength with which to topple me from the throne.”

An utterly horrified silence fell over the crowd. Bolingbroke, half rising from his knees, turned and stared down at Richard, who was grinning insolently up at him.

Neville made to step forward, as did several other men, Lancaster and Raby among them, but just then Richard held up his hand.

“A jest only,” he said, and laughed. “I thought to bring some levity into this most sombre of occasions.”

Another silence, then de Vere giggled, and a soft swell of forced laughter ran through the crowd.

“Continue, my good archbishop,” Richard said, waving his hand. “Let us see Bolingbroke happily wedded to all this lady has to offer.”

Neville closed his eyes momentarily and took a deep breath. Sweet Jesu, what else would this demon do to ruin the day?

Bolingbroke sank slowly to his knees again, his face stiff and expressionless, then turned back to face Sudbury, murmuring a quick word to Mary, who looked shocked and distressed.

Sudbury himself was flushed, and had to take several breaths before he was ready to continue.

Richard, meanwhile, happily grinned to any who happened to meet his eye.

Few did.

“Henry,” Sudbury said, “wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife …”

The speaking of the vows continued without further interruption, although most eyes, at some point or other, darted to Richard’s grinning face, wondering what he might do next.

Once Bolingbroke had made his vows, Mary spoke hers in a clear voice, and then Sudbury blessed the ring—a great ruby set in heavy twisted gold.

Another error, thought Margaret, for that ring will never sit well on Mary’s tiny hand.

Bolingbroke then took the ring and looked Mary in the eye. “With this ring I thee wed, and this gold and silver I thee give: and with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly chattels I thee honour.”

Then he slipped the ring on the thumb of Mary’s left hand, saying, “In the name of the Father—”

A great flock of pigeons rose from the buildings surrounding St Paul’s, the roar of their wings filling the air.

Bolingbroke moved the ring to Mary’s index finger, saying, “—and of the Son—”

Margaret looked up to the sky, and the sun broke through the shifting grey and black cloud of pigeons, sending a shaft of light upon Mary.

Bolingbroke now moved the ring to Mary’s middle finger, saying, “—and of the Holy Ghost—”

There were people present there, that day, who swore ever afterwards that a tremor ran through the ground beneath their feet as Bolingbroke spoke those words.

Finally, Bolingbroke slipped the ring onto Mary’s fourth finger, sliding it firmly into position.

“Amen,” he said, and the pigeons screamed, for at that moment a hawk flew into their midst, seizing a large snowy-white bird, and rose skyward shrieking in triumph.

And as the hawk shrieked, Bolingbroke glanced again at Richard, and this time his face was as full of triumph as was the hawk’s cry.

Margaret brushed out Mary’s hair, and hoped that this night would go as well for her as the rest of the wedding ceremony and feast had gone. After Bolingbroke had slipped the ring onto Mary’s finger, Sudbury had blessed them, and the archbishop, bridegroom and bride and all the invited guests had then moved into St Paul’s to hear the nuptial mass. Once that was done (and it had been a tedious two hours, indeed), the procession had wound its way back to the Savoy, the cheers of the crowd even louder this time, if possible, and sat down to a sumptuous wedding feast in the great hall.

Now was beginning the last rite that would see Mary move legally from girl to woman, and ensure Bolingbroke could cement his claim to the lands and wealth she brought as dowry: the consummation.

Mary was withdrawn and clearly apprehensive, but Margaret (and Mary, come to that) knew she was fortunate that the ancient custom whereby six lords of the Privy Council would stay within the bedchamber to witness the consummation had finally lapsed into abeyance. Bolingbroke and Mary would be allowed privacy for their sexual union, but they had yet to endure the formal blessing of the bedchamber—with a naked Bolingbroke and Mary lying patiently beneath snowy bedsheets pulled up to their shoulders—and then, in the morning, an inspection of the sheets by three privy lords to ensure that, firstly, a sexual union had taken place and, secondly, that Mary had been a virgin when she’d come to Bolingbroke’s bed.

Bolingbroke was a powerful peer of the realm, an heir to the throne, at least until Richard could get himself one of his own body, and the Privy Council would want to be certain that any child that slipped from Mary’s womb had been fathered by Bolingbroke.

Margaret had spent a great deal of the evening blessing the fact that she’d married a minor noble and hadn’t had to endure some of the more intrusive aspects of the marriage rites tolerated by the peers of the realm.

There, Mary’s hair was done, and Margaret could tell from the movements and murmurs behind the screen where Bolingbroke was being assisted by Neville and two valets, that it was time to put Mary to bed.

“Come,” she whispered, bending down to where Mary sat before her. “Do not be afraid. Bolingbroke is a glorious man, and there is many a woman in London tonight who will be envying you.”

“Look,” Mary said, and held out her hands. They were shaking slightly.

“Well then, when you and Bolingbroke are finally left in peace, tell him that you fear, and he will be kind. Come, my lady, the archbishop and guests await outside.”

Mary rose hesitantly, just as Bolingbroke emerged from behind the screen, Neville at his shoulder.

Margaret’s and Neville’s eyes met, then they each removed the light robes that covered the shoulders of Bolingbroke and Mary and held back the sheets as they slid naked beneath.

One of the valets moved to the door of the bedchamber, and the archbishop, Richard, de Vere, Lancaster and Katherine, and some fifteen other great nobles filed in. There were grins and winks and a few whispered ribald words, but the gathering generally behaved itself as Sudbury raised his hand and blessed the marriage bed.

Margaret thought that Richard might say something more to disturb the mood of the day, and looked over to him.

Richard, as de Vere who stood by his side, was paying the ceremony no attention at all.

Instead, both men were staring at Margaret.

XII

The Feast of St Michael

In the first year of the reign of Richard II

(Thursday 29th September 1379)

—Michaelmas—

—i—

Catherine hesitated in front of the door, then opened it boldly without knocking. Philip, as naked as the day he’d slid from his mother’s womb, was just lowering himself to the similarly naked body of the woman he had pinned to his bed.

“Sweet Jesu in heaven!” Philip said, and leapt to the floor on the far side of the bed, leaving the woman, abandoned, to cover her nakedness as well as she could with the bed coverings.

Catherine grinned, then composed her face and spoke to the woman, whom she vaguely recognised as a laundress attending la Roche-Guyon.

“You may dress yourself and leave,” she said. “His grace will not require your return.”

Disconcerted, the woman looked to Philip who had donned a loose shirt and was now struggling into a pair of hose. “Do as she says,” he said, and the woman scrambled from the bed, hiding her breasts with her hands, and ran over to a far corner where her dress lay puddled.

Philip finally managed to get his hose on and stood up straight, looking at Catherine, still standing just inside the doorway.

“Sweet Jesu, Catherine, what do you here?”

Catherine remained silent, inclining her head towards the hurriedly dressing laundress, and then stepped aside as the woman sidled past her and out the door.

Catherine closed the door, and then bolted it. “I have come to speak with you,” she said.

Philip had walked over to a table and poured himself some wine from a ewer. Now he held the ewer up to Catherine, his eyebrows raised.

She nodded, and he poured her a cup of wine and passed it to her as she joined him.

“Talk could have waited until morning,” he said softly, his gaze intent on her face as he sipped his wine.

“It suited me to come tonight.” She drank her wine, then handed the cup back to Philip, making sure that their fingers touched as he took it from her.

“Beware, Catherine,” he said, even more softly than previously, “for you play a dangerous game.”

His words disconcerted Catherine, not for their meaning, but for the tone of concern which underpinned them.

She had the strangest feeling that the concern was genuine.

“We all play a dangerous game,” she said, turning her back to him and walking towards where the embers of a fire glowed in a hearth. “France is in turmoil, and Isabeau has once again cast doubt on Charles’ legitimacy.”

“Who will listen to the words of a woman whose memory changes according to the price offered?” Philip walked up behind Catherine, and placed his hand gently on the small of her back.

It was a test. Move away from me now and I will know you do not have the heart for the game.

Catherine tensed very slightly—which could have meant anything—and then leaned back against his hand, which meant only one thing.

Philip drew in a deep breath. So.

“Perhaps,” Catherine said, then briefly closed her eyes as Philip’s hand slowly caressed her back. “But France needs a strong man on the throne, and whether fathered by Louis, the Master of the Hawks or the ever-cursed peacock, Charles does not have that strength.”

“And you do?”

Catherine turned within the semi-circle of his arm so that she faced him. “I am a woman, and you know Salic Law—I cannot take the throne.”

Philip’s hand was harder now, and pulled her closer towards him. “But …”

“But I can do my best to make sure that a strong man does sit on the throne.”

Philip’s hand, as his entire being, stilled. “What are you here for, Catherine?”

“I am here to propose an alliance between us,” she said, “cemented with the sweat of our bodies.”

“Sweet Jesu!” Philip said, then abruptly spun away, moving back to the table where stood the wine ewer. “What is your price?” he said over his shoulder.

“That you be loyal to me, that you cleave only unto me, that you protect me, that you respect me.”

Philip toyed with the wine ewer a while, then put it down and walked back to Catherine. He lifted a hand and took her chin between gentle fingers; his face, so dark and handsome, was unreadable. “Then be my wife.”

“No,” she said, and his fingers tightened very slightly. “I will bed with you, and walk by your side. I will be your partner in your ambitions, and I will support you.” Her voice softened, and became very quiet. “I will give you any child that comes of my body from our union. But I will not be your wife.”

His eyes narrowed, deeply suspicious. She wanted to use him for some greater plan that she would not yet elucidate. Yet, in her own way, she was also being honest with him … and with what she would give him—her partnership in his ambitions, and any child that came of her body—she would give him everything he needed to seize the throne.

Perhaps, in time, she would attempt to betray him, but for the moment …

His hand dropped from her chin, and as it did so, Catherine turned around and lifted the thick plait of her hair over her shoulder, exposing the line of fastenings down the back of her gown.

She did not speak.

Philip hesitated, then lifted his hands to her neck and slowly began to undo the hooks. When he reached the last one, just above the swell of her buttocks, he gently folded back the now-loosened fabric of her gown.

She was wearing no garments beneath.

He slid his hands around her waist and over her belly, and gently pulled her back against him. Her skin was warm and very, very soft.

“From this point,” he said, “there can be no going back. Leave now if there remains the slightest doubt.”

In answer, Catherine lifted her own hands and placed them over his beneath the material of her gown. She slid them up until they cupped her breasts, and then jumped very slightly, surprised at the sensations that flooded through her as he caressed them.

“I have no experience,” she said. “I do not know what to do.”

Philip repressed a smile, sure that these words were something Isabeau had taught her: they will inspire him to greater heat, my dear, for what man can resist being the one to induct a girl into the experience she lacks?

Then his smile died. Isabeau was a very wise woman.

“Then let me show you,” he whispered, and slid the gown completely from her body.

It was a night of discoveries, and of unthought of marvels. Catherine had expected many things of Philip the Bad, but not the tenderness and respect and patience he showed her. They talked and laughed and were silent in turns as first he explored her body, and then encouraged her to explore his. Everything was new and wondrous for Catherine. She adored Philip’s body, surprised not only by the manner and degree in which his flesh reacted to hers, but how, in turn, hers responded to his. There was no discomfort, no pain, only the discovery of new planes of sensation and of existence; no sense of loss, only the indescribable sense of how two bodies, two souls, could merge into one.

There was one moment, one moment that she thought she would remember all her life. Philip was over her, and deep inside her. He lifted his head and shoulders back from her a little distance, his face gleaming with sweat, his dark hair falling over his forehead.

“There is only you,” he said, and somehow that touched Catherine so deeply that she began to cry, and Philip leaned back down to her again, and kissed away her tears, and cried himself.

She woke very slowly from a deep sleep. It was dark, dark night, but Philip’s gently breathing body was curled against hers and she was not alone any more.

She was not alone any more.

So much of her life had been spent alone, always fatherless, and often motherless as Isabeau abandoned her time and time again.

Bolingbroke had not fought for her … but Philip—treacherous, untrustworthy Philip—had given her this night honesty and something that was so close to love that there might be no difference at all.

She sighed and stretched slightly so that she might feel Philip’s body rub against hers. She was filled with immeasurable content. Tonight, Bolingbroke lay with Mary Bohun, and Catherine could have spent this night weeping in her bed, but she had done what Isabeau had suggested and taken her fate in her own hands.

In doing so, Catherine had discovered in Philip something of infinite value … and perhaps, of infinite danger.

Could Hal ever compete? How strong was he?

Her movement had wakened Philip, and now he stirred.

“Catherine.” A hand cupped one of her breasts, and she gave a low laugh and rolled close against him. “Of what do you think?”

Catherine grinned in the dark and leaned over to kiss his mouth. “I was considering my fortune in this past night. Few women, whether peasant or noble lady, are ever conducted so sweetly over the threshold from maidenhood into womanhood. You did not have to act so tenderly, and yet you chose to do so. For that I thank you.”

“I could not act otherwise with you, Catrine.”

The unexpected endearment drew fresh tears to her eyes, and she drew in a shaky breath.

He touched his fingers to her cheek. “And I had not thought to spend the entire night wiping your tears away. Perhaps I have not been as gentle as you imagine.”

She smiled. “Then you must distract me from my pain, your grace.”

“And how may I do that?”

She laughed as his hand stroked down her flank. “May I ask you a question?”

He gave a mock groan. “If you must.”

“I was wondering, my King of Navarre, if you have ever bedded my mother.”

His hand abruptly stilled, and after a moment he propped himself up on one elbow. “Why do you ask?”

“I was curious only, Philip, for I know how well she regards you. I do not mind if you answer with a yea.”

Philip was silent, thinking, then decided to answer honestly. “No, I have never lain with her.”

He gave a short laugh, remembering. “When I was a young lad, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years, I lusted after her madly, and put her face to every one of the peasant girls I managed to persuade to lie down in the grass. When I grew older, and had occasion to know her better, I grew to like and respect her too much to become one of the tally marks on her tapestry frame.”

Catherine reached up a hand and cupped his cheek in its palm.

“Then my mother has suffered a great loss, because I think she has been looking for you all her life.”

“And I think,” he said softly, gazing down at the planes of her face now that his eyes had become accustomed to the faint light in the room, “that both you and I, my sweet maid, have gained a great deal more than we thought this night.”

“Aye,” she whispered.

And Hal has lost a great deal, she thought, as Philip’s mouth closed gently and sweetly over hers.

Three other people lay awake that night of Michaelmas. Three other people who shared Catherine’s night of wonder.

Wat Tyler, deep in the south-eastern counties of England where he worked his secret business, paced the streets of the small village where he’d put up for the night.

He was furious both with Catherine and with Bolingbroke.

Subtlety would never work, not now that Catherine had lain down with Philip. Etienne had been right all along—the thunder of revolution in the streets was a sounder means to accomplish their ends than Bolingbroke’s pretty subtleties.

Margaret lay next to her sleeping Tom, tears of joy and envy-sliding down her cheeks. She had not thought Catherine would do this—and what she had done would threaten everything they had fought so hard for—but Margaret was glad Catherine had found some measure of happiness at last … and what happiness she had found!

Bolingbroke also lay awake, Mary silent and still beside him.

He was beyond fury. An awareness of what Catherine was doing had come to him as he had turned to Mary when the door closed behind the last of their well-wishers.

As Philip had laid hand to Catherine, so Bolingbroke had laid hand to Mary.

As Philip’s mouth had claimed Catherine’s, so Bolingbroke’s had claimed Mary’s.

As Philip had entered Catherine’s body, so Bolingbroke had entered Mary’s.

As Catherine cried out in laughter and wonder, so Mary had screamed in pain and fear.

And as Catherine had caught Philip more closely to her, so Mary had fought, unsuccessfully, to push Bolingbroke from her.

Bolingbroke had known Mary was fearful, and had meant to be kind and patient with her. But, as awareness of Catherine’s actions came over Bolingbroke, blind fury, and an even worse jealousy, had swept through him and his hands and body became hard and unforgiving, and every one of Mary’s fears had been realised.

He had tried to comfort her, afterwards, but what could he say?

What could he say?

And so they lay there, Bolingbroke and his wife, through that long night of Michaelmas, each wondering what lay ahead for their loveless marriage.

And that deep-buried imp chuckled, and peeped into the future, and saw the merry mischief it could make.

XIII

The Feast of St Jerome

In the first year of the reign of Richard II

(Friday 30th September 1379)

Bolingbroke had waited only for the first stain of dawn in the east before he rose from his marital bed. As soon as he had dressed there came a tentative knock at the door and Margaret entered, her eyes studiously averted from Bolingbroke.

“My Lady Neville,” Bolingbroke said in a harsh voice, as Margaret gathered up a robe for Mary.

She finally looked at him.

He could say nothing about Catherine in front of Mary, but he needed to lock eyes with Margaret, if only to share his silent anguish and anger.

She returned his stare evenly. What did you expect? Did you think she would sit on her hands and weep and wait?

The skin about Bolingbroke’s eyes tightened. “My lady wife requires your comfort, Lady Neville,” he said. “It seems that I have discomforted her during the night.”

And with that he was gone.

As soon as the door closed behind him Mary put a trembling hand to her mouth, and Margaret sat down on the edge of the bed and gathered her into her arms.

Neville found Bolingbroke in the courtyard of the Savoy at weapons practice just as the bells of Prime rang out over London. The city was waking into life: barges plied the river, the cries of the fishermen and coal merchants drifting soulfully over the palace walls; carts and hooves rattled down the Strand moving produce into the markets; whores drifted into shadowy rooms to sleep off their night’s labours just as priests flung open the doors of London’s parish churches to face the sins of the city.

Neville halted in the shadows of an archway and watched.

Bolingbroke was dressed in a fortified leather tunic that hung down over his thighs, and thick studded gloves. A chain mail hood hung over his head, flowing over his shoulders and upper chest. In his hands he had a great sword, and with this sword he was trading blows with a sergeant-at-arms. Or rather, he seemed intent on murdering his sergeant-at-arms, who was clearly tiring.

Even as Neville moved forward from the shadows, the man slipped to the ground, and Bolingbroke stepped forward and raised his sword in both hands.

His face was twisted, his eyes blank.

“Bolingbroke,” Neville said softly, seizing Bolingbroke’s wrists in both his hands. “Cease. This man is not your enemy.”

Bolingbroke tore himself free, the sword clattering to the ground, and whipped about to face Neville.

His eyes were furious. He began to say something, then he visibly fought for control, finally forcing the fury from his gaze.