I can make head or tail of this business!”
Una could only deduce that the court jester did not usually bring his revels to the competitor’s field and heartily regretted that he had done so now. He was the one person at court who dared to be downright rude to her face with impunity. She surveyed him now with dismay as he leapfrogged onto one of the acrobats and rode him like a horse about the arena with a demented look upon his face.
The crowd immediately erupted into laughter. The jester dismounted and performed three forward rolls upon the ground before leaping up like a jackrabbit.
“Hold, my good lords, my good ladies, gentles all!” he shouted, his voice carrying far and wide. “I must protest, most heartily at being left out in the cold from these proceedings. For His Majesty, the King, must needs grant me a boon on May Day, as is the custom.” He directed a look up at the royal box, and the King rolled his wrist in assent.
“Aye, that is true enough,” Wymer acknowledged grudgingly. “Good master Robkin.”
“Aha! Aha!” The jester bounded about the ring, appealing to the crowd. “Didst not thou hear that good King Wymer did promise me a boon?” The crowd murmured back an assent, curious at this late turn in proceedings. “Then, this I ask of thee my King,” the jester suddenly boomed. “That I am given sway over this tournament, in my official office of Lord of Misrule!”
Una felt the sudden frisson of excitement that ran throughout the audience. Lord of Misrule? That put a different slant on proceedings. Suddenly, Robkin held his hands out before him and clapped for attention. “Bring forth the prospect,” he yelled.
The acrobats and jugglers all looked around in great confusion, before suddenly converging on poor Otho, who was stood watching from the sidelines with some bemusement. They seized him now by the arms and bore him to stand in front of the fool.
“This?” howled Robkin. “You dare bring this before me? Nay, say it is not so!” The crowd reacted with amusement as he walked around Otho examining him like a bull at the fayre, prodding him with his long bauble stick’. “No, no,” he said, shaking his head sorrowfully. “This will never do!” He held up his hand for silence as the sounds of mirth grew from his audience. He stood a moment, cupping his chin as though in rapt concentration. Suddenly he spoke, with great deliberation. “His legs, in truth, are not bandy enough for to make him a goodly man in the stable,” he announced, slapping Otho’s calves until he was forced to jump from side to side to avoid the jingling stick, as the crowd dissolved into gales of laughter. “No, no,” he added, walking around to Otho’s back again and gesturing toward his thighs. “I mislike his stance. I’ faith, ’tis too wide! He’ll ne’er stand guard at the stable door, in truth, he’s more suited to a pigsty!”
Wymer guffawed, then seemed to remember his company. “Foolish fellow,” he said lamely.
“This groom,” the jester pronounced grandly, “is a fat-kidneyed fustilugs, unfit to mount so fine and spirited a filly.” Una could have sworn that every eye present swiveled to look at her. They knew full well her unkind nickname. There could be no mistaking that she was the butt of this joke. “I like him not!” yelled the Robkin. “I’ll see that Northern mare saddled by a worthy rider, you just see if I do not!”
Una tried to not let her dismay show, as the crowd erupted in howls and whoops of laughter. The time she had spent in the company of rough soldiers had helped her to turn a deaf ear to many a bawdy joke or rough speech. Even so, she had to make a concerted effort not to stiffen in the face of such impertinence, if not downright insult.
“I invoke the law of reversal,” the fool said knocking his staff against the ground three times. A whispering started about the arena.
“The law of reversal?” Wymer repeated slowly. He looked at Una blankly. “What does the fellow mean by that?” Una could make no answer, for her heart was suddenly in her throat.
“He who is first, is now last,” proclaimed Robkin triumphantly. “And he who was cast down in that lowest of positions, is by misrule magic, elevated now to the most revered and fortunate of men!”
A wondering chatter began in the stalls as everyone whispered and nudged each