Читать книгу The Lily and the Lion - Морис Дрюон - Страница 9

Mahaut, Countess of Artois, was in a very bad temper all the way home.

‘Did you hear what that great fool we’re unlucky enough to have for King said? He expects me to give up Artois, just like that, and merely to please him! The very idea of making that great foul Robert my heir! My hand would wither away before it signed a thing like that! They’ve clearly been accomplices in roguery for a long time past and owe each other a lot! And to think that if it weren’t for my having cleared the path to the throne …’

‘Mother …’ Jeanne murmured in a low voice.

If she had dared to say what she thought and had not been afraid of a savage rebuff, Jeanne would have advised her mother to accept the King’s proposals. But it would have done no good.

‘He’ll never get me to agree to that,’ repeated Mahaut.

Though she did not know it, she had signed her death-warrant; and her executioner was sitting opposite her in the litter, looking at her through her dark lashes.