Читать книгу The Agincourt Bride онлайн | страница 41

‘Not noble blood but sweet enough,’ he conceded, smacking his lips. ‘Unfortunately I have no time to savour it now but I will remember – Guillaumette, the slut …’

He slipped the gauntlet back on and his mood immediately became businesslike. ‘There will be changes here. The king’s affairs must be put in order. I will leave a guard on these royal children. See that they do not venture out.’ Then he turned on his heel and was gone. His threat echoed in my head, ‘I will remember – Guillaumette …’

Catherine stared after him, her pretty little face twisted into an expression of loathing. ‘Who is that man, Mette?’ she asked in a thin, fierce voice.

‘That is the Duke of Burgundy,’ I told her, struggling to control my voice.

‘He is a bad man,’ she responded, her voice rising in passion. ‘I hate him, hate him, hate him!’

Young though she was, I often wondered if Catherine had a premonition about the Duke of Burgundy. It was many years before she was to encounter him again, but his image was to haunt her dreams as vividly as mine.

To my surprise, most of the palace servants saw Burgundy’s arrival as a boon and it must be said that he did impose some much-needed order. The sight of the Burgundian cross of St Andrew fluttering on every tower and gatehouse alongside the royal lilies made me feel distinctly uneasy, but it held no sinister overtones for the mass of scullions, chamberlains and varlets, who were only too happy to start pocketing regular wages for a change. In the nursery we even received a visit from a household clerk enquiring after our needs and, amazingly, within hours the children received new clothes, two tire-women arrived to scrub the floors and stairways and decent food and hot water were brought to us regularly. Several luxury items were also brought to the children, including a beautiful miniature harp which had apparently been sent to Charles months ago by his godfather, the Duke of Berry. It seemed that Burgundy’s agents must have caught up with la Bonne and le Clerc and recovered the goods they had looted. Having felt the violence of the duke’s anger myself, I shuddered to think what punishment had been meted out to that thieving pair.