it had been against the odds that he did so, some of them stacked by her. He stood up and lifted Henry in his arms. Holding an infant was not a suitable role for a grown man of great estate, but in this instance, it showed the world that here was his acknowledged flesh and blood, destined to rule.
Henry laughed, showing his pearly milk teeth, and pointed to the design on his father’s blue tunic. “Lion,” he said loudly.
“My lion.”
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Geoffrey looked quizzically at Matilda. “‘My lion’? Who has been teaching him that?”
Matilda flushed. “I tell him he is my little lion. He has a wooden one for a toy and a cushion with a big golden one embroidered on it. One day he will be a king. Why should he not acknowledge the symbols of kingship?”
“Oh, I agree,” Geoffrey said. “We must foster that in him.
Next teach him ‘crown.’”
“He already knows that one.”
“Crown,” Henry said in validation of her remark, and pointed at Geoffrey’s cap with its band of gold braid. “Lion.
Crown. Mama.”
Geoffrey chuckled and shook his head. “Indeed, I can see you have been teaching him well, but I must train him further.
I suppose you have not taught him to say ‘Papa’ in any of this.”
“I am sure he will learn swiftly enough,” she replied, concealing a pang of jealousy because Geoffrey was so at ease holding their son.
“Papa.” Henry bounced in Geoffrey’s arms, and stared round with alert, bright eyes.
Geoffrey laughed. “You are right again,” he said to her.
“Usually I would hold that against you, but not today.” ttt
“Well then,” Geoffrey said later when the children had been taken away to the nursery and Matilda was settling into her chamber while the servants unpacked her baggage. “It seems no matter what we do, your father has no intention of handing over your dower castles.” He sat down near the hearth and stretched his legs towards the fire. “Neither war nor diplomacy will shift his stance.”
“He will not relinquish one iota of his power while he lives.
He will play factions off against each other and keep us all like flies trapped on his web. I tried all ways to persuade him and he 162
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would have none of it. Every time I raised the discussion he said it wasn’t the time, or he found other business.” She frowned at him. “And then you went and burned Beaumont to the ground and aided Talvas and de Tosney to rebel.”
“I was reminding him how much trouble I could give him.
Normandy is not the stable ground your father would have us believe and we are not the only ones chafing under his hand.
I refuse to be played for a fool. Your father may be a spider, but he cannot spin webs from beyond the grave. What if your barons renege when he dies? He is hoping he will live long enough to see his grandsons into manhood, but is that likely?
We need those castles. We need that foothold.” Matilda made an impatient gesture. “So what are we to do?
It is a dangerous game to stir up a wasp’s nest. My father was going to sail for England, but he has deferred that business now to deal with Normandy.”
“I know what I am doing,” Geoffrey said with irritation.
“This strife will act as a warning to your father and perturb him sufficiently to capitulate and give us our castles.”
“I doubt you will win,” she replied, thinking that he did not know her father very well at all.
He sent her a calculating glance. “I pity your lack of faith.
Your father has spent a lifetime building up his kingdom, but buildings crumble and new ones have to be erected in their stead. I may not match him yet in terms of experience and guile, but I am younger and stronger, and I have the time that is running out for him. I know he does not intend me to wear a crown—in truth, I do not much care to wear one either. You are welcome to it. But Normandy is a different matter and, sooner or later, I always get what I want.”
“Normandy is as much mine by right of inheritance as England,” Matilda said, tensing her body. She hated his arrogance.
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“Yes, but when you are queen and duchess and countess, how can you be everywhere at once? It stands to sense that I should be your deputy in this—and surely you do