Читать книгу The Wounded Hawk - Sara Douglass - Страница 16

The Feast of St Michael

In the first year of the reign of Richard II

(Thursday 29th September 1379)

—Michaelmas—

—i—

Neither Mary’s mother, Cecilia, nor Bolingbroke, had spared any expense to adorn Mary in the finest garments possible.

And yet what a shame, Margaret thought as she carefully buttoned Mary into her wedding dress, that they did not pick something more suitable for Mary’s shy and subtle attraction.

The dress was of heavy damask, deep red in colour, and weighted down with pearls and gems that encrusted its bodice and cascaded down its full skirts and fancy sleeves. Its colour and decoration was too overwhelming for the modest Mary, and its cut too close and too cruel, for it served only to further flatten Mary’s small breasts and boyish hips.

The costume was too alive for her. Margaret could almost hear the sly whisperings of that sickening imp deep within Mary’s being. Surely the blood-red vitality of this gown would tempt it forth the sooner?

Margaret shuddered, then regretted her lapse instantly.

“Is something wrong?” Mary asked, trying to twist her head about to see what Margaret was doing.

“No. There, you are fastened in. Now, let me see that your hair is properly secured.”

Margaret sat Mary down on a stool and busied herself with the woman’s elaborate hairstyle; that it had taken Cecilia, Margaret and two other women half the morning to fix properly. Mary’s long, thick honey hair had been bound in two plaits which had been wound above her forehead. A veil, of the same rich colour as her dress, had then been laid over the crown of Mary’s head, and painstakingly pinned in place with jewelled hairpins. Then a broad circlet woven of gold and silver wires, with beautiful pale-green peridot stones gleaming within its twists and turns, was placed over both plaits, dropping low about Mary’s head to cover both her ears and holding the veil in place. The lower length of the veil was left to flow freely to halfway down Mary’s back.

The effect of both dress and headdress was stunning—or, at least, it would have been had Mary both the colouring and the regal bearing to set it off.

But Catherine would have worn it perfectly …

Margaret forced all thought of Catherine from her mind. Isabeau would have told Catherine by now—but what could Catherine do? Nothing … nothing.

And Hal. Margaret could understand the why of this marriage. It would serve him well in terms of power. But could he truly afford to alienate Catherine in this manner?

“My ladies?” A page appeared in the doorway. “It is time.”

Bolingbroke had chosen to be married not in the Savoy’s chapel, nor in either the abbey or St Stephen’s chapel in Westminster, but in St Paul’s in the west of London. It was a calculated choice, for Bolingbroke meant this to be a marriage in which the people of London could participate. The marriage would be a union between Mary Bohun and Hal Bolingbroke, and a cementing of the already strong marriage between Bolingbroke and the English commoners.

In that the Londoners loved Bolingbroke all the more for choosing St Paul’s, it was a fortunate choice. In another aspect, however, it was an appalling one.

Richard (accompanied as always by Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford) would also be attending.

At noon a great procession started from the Savoy; leading the way were Bolingbroke and Mary, Bolingbroke seated astride his great, prancing snowy destrier, Mary seated far more demurely on a chestnut palfrey mare led by a page.

Behind them rode, side by side, John, Duke of Lancaster, and Richard, who had arrived at the Savoy from Westminster by barge some hours earlier that morning. Behind them rode several peers of the realm, the Earl of Westmorland, Ralph Raby (who had made the trip from Sheriff Hutton the week previously), and Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, among them. In the group behind the great nobles rode Thomas Neville with several other of the noble attendants of the leading dukes, earls and barons.

It would be a relatively short ride from the Savoy to St Paul’s, taking perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes at a walk. From the Savoy’s gates the procession turned north-east on the Strand. A cheer went up from bystanders, for the Strand was a busy highway, and Bolingbroke smiled and inclined his head, acknowledging the cheers of the crowd.

From his vantage point just behind the leading riders, Neville could see Richard’s back stiffen.

They proceeded slowly along the Strand, passing the Inns of Court on the right. These, the great legal schools and courts of England, occupied the old buildings of the Knights Templar.

Then another, greater building arose like a great black crow hunched over its piteous prey: Blackfriars, the home of the Dominicans in London. Indeed, the analogy with the ravening crow was apt, because Blackfriars had grown so large that it had actually consumed that part of London’s wall which stretched from Ludgate down to the Thames.

Neville had to repress a shiver. Was the Prior General of England, Richard Thorseby, in there somewhere, still plotting his downfall?

A shadow fell over Neville, and he started before realising that it was the gloom cast by the height and breadth of Ludgate. He looked up at it looming above him and imagined he could hear the cries for mercy from the prisoners held within its dank dungeons.

He shook himself. What was he doing? This was a joyous day!

The instant he’d thought that, Bolingbroke and Mary, leading the procession, passed from under Ludgate’s shadow onto the wide street that led to St Paul’s, directly ahead.

The cathedral’s courtyard was crowded with Londoners, and as Bolingbroke and Mary appeared a great roar went up.

Hal! Hal! Fair Prince Hal!

And Neville, watching closely, saw Richard tense even further before shooting de Vere a dark glance over his shoulder.

Hal! Hal! Fair Prince Hal!

The crowd parted to allow the procession through, and as Bolingbroke and Mary halted, attendants rushed forward to hold their horses’ heads.

Neville himself dismounted, throwing the reins of his horse to a boy who stepped forward, and moved quickly to Bolingbroke’s side.

Margaret, who had been riding a gentle palfrey in a group a little further back from Neville, also dismounted with the aid of a page and walked to attend Mary.

As Bolingbroke dismounted, Neville made sure that Bolingbroke’s tunic—the same rich bejewelled red as Mary’s gown, although his hose and cloak were of the purest white—was straight and that his ceremonial sword and dagger had not snagged his cloak.

“Be wary, my lord,” he whispered, “for the crowd’s acclaim has Richard glowering at your back.”

Bolingbroke turned, smiled and bowed slightly to Richard, then turned back to face the cathedral while all about him tumbled the thunder of the crowd and the pealing of what sounded like the bells of most of the churches of London.

“Do you think Richard would dare stick the dagger in my back here?” Bolingbroke said.

“I think he merely makes note of the need to hone it,” Neville said, and then fell silent with the rest of the crowd as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury, appeared at the top of the steps leading into St Paul’s and held up his hand for quiet.

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.