Lionheart A Novel - By Sharon Kay Penman Page 0,147

other erotic uses for it, and she decided that she would ask about them, too. Innocence was an admirable attribute for a virgin maid, not so much for a wedded wife. She drifted off to sleep with a smile, wondering if she would dream of Michaelmas geese.

BERENGARIA JERKED UPRIGHT, torn from sleep so abruptly that she felt disoriented. It was not yet dawn, for the sky visible from the window still glimmered with a scattering of stars. Someone was pounding on the door and she could hear raised voices. Richard was already out of bed, sliding his sword from its scabbard. Striding to the door, he apparently heard enough to be satisfied there was no imminent danger, for he lifted the latch. Clutching the sheet modestly to her throat, Berengaria waited anxiously as he exchanged a few words with someone on the other side of the door, her imagination taking flight as she tried to guess what was wrong.

“Tell them I’ll be there straightaway,” Richard directed his unseen audience. “And send my squires in to help me arm myself.” Closing the door, he moved to a coffer and began to select clothes at random. “Isaac seems to have had a change of heart,” he said as he pulled his braies up over his hips. “He fled his camp in the middle of the night, leaving all of his belongings behind.”

“That wicked, deceitful man!” Berengaria was highly indignant, but alarmed, too. She’d thought that Isaac was part of their past, and suddenly here he was again, posing a new danger to Richard, threatening to disrupt their departure for Outremer. “Surely the Almighty will punish him as he deserves for this latest treachery!”

“From your lips to God’s ear, little dove,” Richard said, pulling a shirt over his head. “Have you seen my boots?”

“Over there, under the table.” Berengaria sat up, watching him in growing puzzlement. He did not seem surprised by Isaac’s flight. He did not even sound angry. “Were you expecting him to do this, Richard?”

“Well, I had hopes,” he said, sitting down to attach his chausses to his braies.

“But it was hard to believe that even Isaac could be so foolhardy. Of course,” he said with a sudden grin, “he may have been tempted by the ease of it. Had he been lodged in Limassol midst my men, it would have been more difficult to sneak away in the night like that.”

By now she was thoroughly confused. “I do not understand. You want to fight him? Why?”

“It is quite simple, Berenguela. With favorable winds, a ship can sail from the port at Famagusta to the Syrian coast in just a day.” He could see that she still did not comprehend, and said with rare patience, “It is not enough to retake Acre or even Jerusalem. Then we have to hold them in a land where we are vastly outnumbered, and we cannot do that unless we can keep the kingdom supplied with food, weapons, and soldiers. That means relying upon other Christian countries for such aid. As soon as I looked at a map, I saw that Cyprus would make an ideal supply base for the Holy Land. It would be an invaluable ally—if it were not ruled by a renegade, a man suspected of conniving with Saladin.”

She was staring at him. “Are you saying you planned to take Cyprus?”

“Well, the thought did cross my mind. How could it not? Its strategic importance was obvious to any man with eyes to see. And the more I heard about Isaac—a man so hated that he’d not be likely to have the support of the Cypriots—the more convinced I became that Cyprus would benefit as much as Outremer if he were deposed. Whilst I did not sail from Messina with the intent of taking Cyprus from him, I did mean to seize the opportunity if one presented itself.”

Berengaria was dumbfounded. “Is that why you chose Cyprus as a rendezvous point for the fleet? And why you asked Tancred for a Greek interpreter?”

“No to your first question, yes to your second. Cyprus was the logical choice, indeed the only choice, for there were no other islands beyond Rhodes. Of course I did not expect the fleet to be scattered and for certes I did not expect your ship to reach Limassol on its own.”

“But . . . but why did you agree to make peace with Isaac, then?”

“Because it seemed like I might get what I wanted without having to fight for it.