. I ought to have consulted with you first. I just assumed you’d agree, but if you do not want to—” He stopped then, for Eleanor had begun to laugh. Letting out a sigh of relief, he confessed, “Jesu, but you gave me a bad moment there! I thought you truly did not want to go.”
“Not want to go? Do you know me as little as that, Richard? I’ve always loved to travel, have always been eager to see new places and sights, one of the reasons why I found Harry’s confinement so hard to bear. I never expected to visit a Spanish kingdom, nor to see Sicily again. You are offering me a rare gift, a chance to see my son wed and to have one last adventure.”
“I knew I could rely upon you, Maman, be it to bring me a bride or keep England at peace whilst I am gone.” It had been disconcerting to be reminded that she was only four years removed from her biblical three-score and ten, a great age for a woman who’d always seemed ageless to him. It was an unwelcome thought and he was quick to push it away, for midst the turmoil and chaos that had roiled their family life as long as he could remember, his mother had been the one constant, the only island in a turbulent sea. Leaning over, he kissed her exuberantly on both cheeks, calling her his lodestar and his luck.
He would have escorted her back into the castle then, but she chose to remain in the gardens, for the sun had begun its slow slide toward the horizon and the sky had taken on a golden glow. Agreeing to let him send her ladies out to her, Eleanor leaned back in her chair, watching as he strode off. He could no more amble than he could fly, was always rushing from one moment to the next, eager to seize the day. “Just like you, Harry,” she murmured, wondering what he’d have thought of her latest quest.
It would never have occurred to her to tell Richard no. She had sixteen years’ worth of energy stored up. What better way to expend it than to bring her favorite son a wife? It was true that she was facing a journey that would have daunted a woman half her age. But Richard needed her. And it would indeed be an adventure, ending where she most wanted to be—in Sicily, reunited with her daughter. They’d learned by now that a bastard cousin of William de Hauteville had seized the crown, and Heinrich was said to be planning a military response. But they still knew nothing of Joanna, not even her whereabouts. Richard had promised that he would find her, though, and whatever had gone wrong for her, he would make right. If she had been forced into marriage with one of Tancred’s lords, as was too often the case with young widows and heiresses, he would free her from it, he vowed. He sounded so sure of himself that it was easy for Eleanor to believe, too. Only death could defeat his resolve, and Eleanor refused even to acknowledge the possibility that her daughter’s silence could have such a simple and sinister explanation. Richard would restore Joanna to them. He would not fail.
CHAPTER 8
JULY 1190
Lyon, France
Richard met Philippe at Vézelay in early July, where, forty-five years earlier, Richard’s mother and Philippe’s father had taken the cross. The two kings made a solemn pact to “share equally whatever they conquered together,” and the third crusade got under way. Most of Philippe’s lords had already departed for the Holy Land, so he had a much smaller force than Richard, who had almost seven thousand men under his command. With such a large infantry, they could manage less than fifteen miles a day, and did not reach the city of Lyon until the thirteenth.
AFTER RICHARD AND PHILIPPE and their households had crossed the wooden bridge spanning the Rhone, they set up their tents on high ground overlooking the river. Dismounting, Philippe handed the reins to his squire and then accepted a wineskin, for his mouth was so dry he could barely swallow. He felt as if he’d been bathing in dust, for smothering clouds had been churned up by horses, carts, and thousands of marching feet. The sun was a fiery white sphere in a sky bleached of all blue, beating down upon them with brutal intensity. It was hard to imagine