free of clouds and the wind blew steadily from the southeast, a Jerusalem wind, surely a good omen. But she’d begun to tremble, chilled by a sudden sense of foreboding, the fear that this would be her last memory of Richard: standing on the Acre wharf next to Henri, smiling and waving farewell.
AFTER STOPPING at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross to offer prayers to St Michael, whose day it was, invoking his protection for their fleet, Richard and Henri returned to the palace in a somber mood. As soon as they dismounted in the courtyard, Balian d’Ibelin appeared in the doorway of the great hall. “I was just about to send for you, Henri. Isabella’s birth pangs have begun.”
Henri gasped and dashed up the steps, darting past Balian into the hall. Following more slowly, Richard stopped beside the poulain lord. “I thought she was not due for another month?”
Balian shrugged. “The midwives may have miscalculated. Or the baby may have decided to come early.”
Richard knew little of the birthing chamber, but Henri had told him that Balian had four children with his Greek wife. “Are Isabella and the baby in danger?”
“Early births pose more of a risk to the baby, but it is always dangerous,” Balian said quietly, “always. Maria had planned to be at Acre with Isabella when her confinement began, and I’d feel much better if she were here,” he confessed. “But wishing will not make it so. We’d best go inside, for Henri will have need of us. It is likely to be a very long day.”
MEN WERE NOT PERMITTED in the birthing chamber, but that did not keep Henri from making numerous trips abovestairs to plead for news from the midwives. Emma would come out, tell him cryptically that all was proceeding as it ought, disappear back inside, and Henri would return to the hall to pace and fret. Richard tried to occupy him with a chess game, but he was too distracted to concentrate for long. After he pushed away from the table and headed yet again for the stairs, Balian came over.
“The lad has the attention span of a sand flea right now. I was the same way when Maria was giving birth to our first. Fortunately, it does get easier. May I sit, my lord? I’ve something to say to you.”
Richard gestured to a chair, somewhat warily. Balian had given Henri his full support as soon as he and Isabella were wed, but he’d stayed aloof from the crusade while Conrad lived, and Richard remembered that all too well. “I am listening.”
“I thought you ought to know what the Bishop of Beauvais is saying about you.” Richard’s mouth twisted in a mirthless smile. “I’m well aware of the lies he’s been spreading—that I am responsible for Conrad’s death, that I sent Assassins to France to murder Philippe, that I am in league with Saladin and the Devil to betray Christendom to the Saracens. I’d not be surprised if he is claiming that I’m a secret Muslim, too.”
“But do you know he is also accusing you of poisoning Hugh of Burgundy?”
“Good God Almighty!” Richard shook his head incredulously. “It is a wonder they are not blaming me for the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral!”
“Or the Great Flood or the expulsion from Eden,” Balian suggested dryly, and they found that sharing a laugh dispelled some of the lingering tension between them. “Above all, they are saying that you accomplished nothing, that your campaign was a failure because you did not recapture the Holy City. I daresay they’ll find men to believe that. But not in Outremer. Ere your arrival, the Kingdom of Jerusalem consisted only of the city of Tyre and a siege camp at Acre. Because of your efforts, our kingdom now stretches along the coast from Tyre to Jaffa, we will have an opportunity to strengthen our defenses, Saladin no longer controls Ascalon, and Christian pilgrims can worship again at the Holy Sepulchre. That may not sound like much to lazy French burghers back in Paris, but it means a great deal to those who call Outremer home.”
Henri and André had been telling Richard this, too, but he discovered now that it meant more coming from a man who was not his friend.
AS WORD SPREAD that Isabella was in labor, poulain lords began to arrive at the palace and a palpable air of tension overhung the great hall. Henri was too focused upon his own unease to notice, but Richard