Lady of the English - By Elizabeth Chadwick Page 0,56

his shoulders, fastened with a handsome bronze clasp. He had a new tunic, hose, and shoes, 139

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all of the queen’s bounty, and now bread to eat, and a jug of good ale awaiting him on a trestle outside the door.

Adeliza was the patron of the leper hospital attached to the nunnery at Wilton, and she had paid out of her own funds from her rents at Shrewsbury for the provision of more beds, care, and clothing for the patients suffering from the debilitating affliction. Her predecessor, King Henry’s first wife, had been wont to wash the feet of the lepers, kissing their sores and drying them with her unbound hair. Adeliza had never quite reached that level of piety. She believed it better to gift these poor souls with practical items such as clothes and food and a roof over their heads, and to pray for them to be healed.

Duty accomplished, she dined with the abbess at Wilton before retiring to the guest house. The nunnery was a peaceful spiritual retreat from the cares of the world. Henry was in the throes of an affair with a new mistress, the buxom flaxen-haired sister of Waleran de Meulan and his brother Robert, and Adeliza had chosen to look the other way and visit Fugglestone with her women while the affair ran its course. Henry would bed Isabelle de Beaumont, grow bored, and move on. He always did.

She sat down on the padded window seat and looked out at the abbey buildings. Sometimes she dreamed about wearing the veil and habit of a nun, a crucifix on her breast and an open prayer book in her hands, and at those times she felt immensely sad, but peaceful too.

As usual, William D’Albini had headed her escort on her journey to Fugglestone. She had heard him outside talking to the soldiers, and now he entered the guest hall, followed closely by his small black and white terrier dog, Serjeant. He glanced in her direction and bowed, but did not join her, and she was grateful because for the moment she was content to be solitary and she had a letter to read.

A messenger had arrived with a missive from Matilda while 140

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Adeliza was at the leper hospital. Adeliza had set the news aside until her duties were finished, because letters from Matilda were always a treat. Savouring the moment now, she broke the seal, opened the parchment, and began to read. A few moments later, she gasped softly and sat upright on the window seat, pressing one hand to her flat belly. Matilda wrote that she was with child and that it was due in the early spring. Tears filled Adeliza’s eyes.

She was joyful for her stepdaughter, but felt grief for herself and even a touch of resentment that Matilda had quickened while she remained barren. Her envy made her feel guilty and sinful.

“I am so pleased you have been blessed,” she said aloud, to try and banish the negative emotions washing over her.

“Madam, are you unwell?” asked Juliana, one of her chamber ladies. “Do you want something?”

Adeliza shook her head. “No,” she said, waving her away. “I will call if I have need.” Juliana retreated, looking concerned, but Adeliza was too preoccupied to notice. Henry would be delighted, she thought. Finally his plans would begin to move forward. She knew he was considering other candidates to succeed to the throne as month on month there had been no news from Anjou. He had made men swear to Matilda, but he had put his eggs in numerous baskets just in case his daughter proved as barren as his wife. Adeliza pressed her lips together.

She had come to Wilton to do her duty to the leper hospital and seek spiritual refreshment. Matilda’s news was joyful; she would fix on that and she would write a reply filled with love and congratulation. But still Adeliza felt sadness settle upon her, like a layer of fine, grey gauze.

ttt

Matilda closed her eyes, gripped the hands of the birth attendants, and pushed as the next contraction surged through her body. She knew the sensations because she had experienced them before in Speyer when she had laboured for two days to 141

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birth her deformed and stillborn son. She was terrified now, but not showing that fear to anyone. During her pregnancy and confinement she had read as many books and treatises concerning matters of childbirth as