What could he do?

Alice must not go to Richard. It was not only that he wished to keep her for himself. She was too young, too lacking in guile to be able to keep her secrets. Alice must remain and he must find some means of staving off Richard. If Eleanor started rumours he would declare that she had invented them out of her venom.

He believed he had made headway with young Henry; the boy had seemed almost affectionate to him in the last months. Richard would always be his enemy, he knew. He was too much his mother’s son for anything else. Geoffrey was inclined to follow his elder brother. They could both be more easily swayed than Richard.

He must do everything in his power to stop her passing on this information to Richard and if she attempted to turn Henry and Geoffrey from him he would let them know that she herself had led a far from exemplary life. After all, when he considered the scandals Eleanor had created in her youth how could she judge him because he had fallen in love with a young girl who happened to be affianced to one of his sons?

It was a pity it had seemed necessary to let her out of her prison. Although he realised that it was good policy, he deeply regretted the need for it.

Her period of freedom should soon be at an end, and he would be very slow to allow her to emerge again.

Eleanor quickly found an opportunity of being alone with Richard. They met in the new herb garden where they could enjoy a certain amount of privacy.

She said: ‘My dearest son, we must say what is in our minds in some haste because I do not think your father will allow me my freedom much longer. I have spoken with him and he has made me aware of his hatred. He is particularly wary of you, my son. It is because of Alice.’

‘The Princess Alice? My betrothed.’

‘I have news for you, Richard. She has become your father’s mistress and it is for this reason that he keeps her from you.’

‘He is welcome to her. I do not want his cast-off mistress.’

‘Nay, nor do you. But, my son, he must think you do. You must ask him where your bride is. You must give him no peace. The King of France must agitate for your marriage with the Princess Alice. It is the best way of harassing him. I never saw him so put out as when I mentioned her. He is crafty. He can outwit his enemies. He will lie, make promises he has no intention of keeping; but he could not hide his lust for that girl. And he is more alarmed at what the betrayal of his relationship with her could mean than he would ever be at going into battle.’

‘How long has it been going on?’

‘A year or two, I believe. I have heard a rumour that she has had a child by him.’

‘By God, and all the saints! I will let the whole world know of this.’

‘Not yet, Richard. Not yet. Feign ignorance for a while. Let him be plagued. If it were widely known, what would happen? There would be a scandal, but he would free himself in time.’ There was grudging admiration in her voice. ‘Consider what happened at Canterbury. Who else could have humiliated himself and have come through with honour almost? To be publicly whipped! Nay. What will disturb him most is the fact that there will be attempts to take her from him. So, my son, ask Louis that your marriage be celebrated. Tell him you are impatient for your bride. Let your father be fretted by continual demands that the girl be released, for depend upon it he will want to keep their liaison secret for as long as he can.’

‘I would go to him and confront him with his villainy.’

‘I know you would and your bluntness is a trait in your character which gives me some cause for alarm. I have heard of your new nickname, “Richard Yea and Nay”, they say, because with you it is always “It shall be” or “It shall not be”. You will have to learn that it is sometimes necessary to prevaricate and you could not have a better teacher in that art than your father.’

‘Would you have me behave as he does?’

‘I hate him and I love you. But hating him as I do yet I see there is a certain greatness in him. His lust will destroy him, as it has destroyed our marriage. Yet do not underestimate him for he is a formidable adversary. Fight him with subtlety. Make sure that the revenge you take is the one which will hurt him most.’

‘I will do as you say, Mother. I will not let him know that I am aware of this seduction. I will not have her but I shall let no one know this and it will only be when she is brought to me that I will refuse her.’

‘For the foolish girl I care not. All I wish is to humiliate him.’

‘How you hate him!’

‘Do you not also?’

‘From my earliest days you showed me what he is.’

The Queen laughed, well pleased. A very uneasy time lay ahead for the King.

It was difficult for Richard to keep his disgust to himself. Not that he was shocked at his father’s seduction of a young girl; Richard’s own morals were not so very stern; but that his father should have dared take the bride who was affianced to him was a personal insult.

He would be revenged, but what his mother said was true. For the time, he must do his best to feign friendship with the King, for he needed help to suppress the rebellions in Aquitaine. He had to face the fact that he was not popular there. For all that he was his mother’s favourite and it was her wish that he should be crowned Duke, they did not want him. He was not of the South. One look at that long-limbed golden-haired young man was enough to proclaim him a Norman. So many of the Viking characteristics had come out in him: his blue eyes, his golden hair, his tall figure, the manner in which he sat his horse, his immense strength. True he was a poet and loved the troubadours, but even his songs had a northern flavour. They were more like those which Rollo and his men had sung when they came sailing down the Seine to ravage France than the voluptuous ballads of the South.

The people of Aquitaine could not entirely accept him. They suspected that immense energy. He could be fierce in battle, and they were suspicious of him. They wanted Eleanor back. They understood her. They admired her elegance; and her adventurous spirit appealed to them. They had been cheated of their Duchess and although they had been assured that Richard was her beloved son they did not trust him any more than they trusted his father.

Therefore he needed help. The best thing that could have happened would have been for him to take his mother back with him.

That was something the King would not allow.

He sent for his two sons, Henry and Richard, and told them what he wished them to do.

He had solved two problems at one stroke.

Henry should accompany Richard to Aquitaine and help him keep order there.

Henry did not protest. His great desire was to get away from the leading strings which he declared his father had put him into. Once let him get away and put the sea between them, and he would be free.

So Eleanor went back to Salisbury and Richard prepared to sail for France. Before they left, Henry’s wife Marguerite went to Canterbury to pray at the shrine of St Thomas a Becket. She longed for a child and asked the saint to intercede for her.

Then the brothers with Marguerite left England.

THE YOUNG KING

There was a difference of opinion between the brothers. Richard wished to return to Aquitaine as quickly as possible for the prospect of battle always excited him. But Henry was in no such hurry. He was free of his father, or so he believed, and he wanted to make the most of his good fortune.