“He could not have come with a large force,” Simon said. “Stephen has all of the large ports under close watch. It was only sensible for him to put in at a little port like Arundel. When I think of it, it’s a perfect place for a secretive entry by a small group.”
Simon, his son, Gilbert, Hugh, Philip, and several older knights were gathered together in the room where Hugh had first met his uncle, discussing the news that Gilbert had brought. The ladies had disappeared into their own bower, leaving the solar to the men.
Bright color flamed in the cheeks of Simon Matard. “We have been waiting for so long!” he said.
“Is the empress coming to Bristol with her brother?” Hugh asked Gilbert.
“Not yet,” Gilbert replied. He rubbed his hand across the top of his close-cropped head. “My information was that the earl left her in Arundel, which is commanded by her stepmother, Adeliza, and set out immediately with a small escort for the west. He did not wish to waste time rousing his supporters.”
“And supporters he has in plenty,” Simon said fiercely.
The charcoal fire flickered in the darkening room. The candles had not yet been lit.
“He left the empress in Arundel?” Hugh asked in surprise.
“Arundel is a strong castle placed on a good defensive site. It is not easy to approach by land,” Philip said. “I had occasion to visit there once. She will be safe in Arundel.”
Hugh looked toward the shadowy face of the young knight who had been his escort. The brightest thing in the room was Philip’s hair.
“Even if Stephen besieges it?” Hugh said.
“Stephen is far more worried about Earl Robert than he is about the empress,” Simon said. He laughed. “As well he should be. Without him, she is nothing. Without her, he is still our lord whom we will follow to the death.”
“That may be so,” Hugh said mildly, “but without the empress, Robert of Gloucester is merely a subject in rebellion against his king. He needs his sister if he wishes to give his cause legitimacy.”
Simon scowled at him. Clearly any criticism of Robert of Gloucester was not going to be tolerated in Simon’s presence.
The door opened, admitting a page with a taper. “My lady sent me to light the candles, my lord,” he said to Simon.
“Go ahead,” Simon said impatiently.
Silence fell on the group as the page went around the room, lighting the fat candles that were placed on the various tables. When the boy had finally left, Gilbert asked, “What are you going to do, Father?”
Simon’s reply was instantaneous. “Go to Bristol myself and offer the earl my services. What else?”
Gilbert and Philip grinned. Clearly the prospect of action pleased them.
Simon’s eyes passed to the contained face of his nephew. “Will you come with us, Hugh?” He quirked a well-arched gray eyebrow. “Make it a family affair.”
Hugh did not reply.
Simon pressed on. “If you want to reclaim your earldom from Guy, you will need help, and Stephen is most likely to support the man in possession.” His lip curled with contempt. “It is ever Stephen’s inclination to take the easiest way. Promise Wiltshire to Earl Robert, and he will help you win it back from that murdering bastard who holds it now.”
Still Hugh said nothing.
“Will you come with us?” Simon said again.
Hugh lifted his straight black de Leon eyebrows. “Why not?” he said lightly.
“Good lad!” said Simon, and once more a grin split Philip Demain’s face.
14
The castle at Bristol was strongly built and strongly defended by Gloucester loyalists, which was the reason that Stephen had decided not to attempt it during the year before Earl Robert’s return to England. It received its lord with a warm welcome, and for the remainder of the war it would serve most effectively as the chief base of his operations.
The earl was in one of the smaller rooms off the Great Hall when the arrival of Simon’s party was announced to him. Simon was escorted to him, with Hugh at his side.
Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the greatest noble in England after the king himself, was a squarely built man of middle height. His brown hair and short beard were streaked with gray, and his brown eyes looked levelly and intelligently at Simon and Hugh as they came into the smallish room, whose walls were hung with embroidered tapestries of the hunt. The tapestries were not only there to lend beauty to the room; they also provided protection against the damp and cold of the stone walls.
“My lord,” said Simon. He went immediately to kneel in front of his feudal lord, who was seated on a backless bench that had high, elaborately carved sides. “How glad I am to see you returned to us.”
“Thank you, Simon,” the earl replied. His voice was of the middle register, calm and quiet. There was nothing at all about him that was remarkable. Even his green tunic was merely serviceable.
His eyes never once flicked toward Hugh.
“I have come to offer you my sword and the swords of all those who follow me,” Simon said.
“I am pleased to hear that, Simon.” The earl’s face remained grave. “Every sword is welcome to our cause.”
“Men will soon be pouring in to join you,” Simon said firmly. “You shall see.”
“All of my feudal vassals have been quick to voice their support,” Robert said. “I greatly appreciate their loyalty.”
He gestured to Simon to rise.
Simon got to his feet a little slowly. He was no longer a young man. “Of course your vassals will support you, my lord. But…what of the other barons and earls?”
Robert’s face hardened infinitesimally. “The two greatest men who have come forward are Miles, Constable of Gloucester, and Brian fitz Count, who has pledged us the fortress of Wallingford in the Thames Valley. Wallingford is virtually impregnable itself, and its location will be invaluable to my sister’s cause. It poses a direct threat to Oxford and will be a menace to communications with London for any royalist force operating in the upper Thames region and beyond.”
Not a large contingent, Hugh thought, and outside Robert himself, it contained none of England’s greatest magnates. It would be a considerable coup if Robert could add the Earl of Wiltshire to his list of adherents.
“My lord,” said Simon. His voice indicated that he, too, was disturbed by the lack of Robert’s support. “I bring you someone whom I think you will be very interested to meet.” He gestured to Hugh, who had been standing a few steps behind him. “Come forward, Hugh.”
Hugh moved forward until he was standing beside Simon, directly in front of the seated earl.
“This is my nephew, Hugh de Leon,” Simon announced. “He is the son of my sister and Roger de Leon, the previous Earl of Wiltshire.”
Silence fell as Robert stared at Hugh, his brows contracted. At last, “I thought Roger’s son was dead,” he said.
“So did we all,” Simon replied. “It is nothing short of a miracle that he has been returned to us. I do not know if you have heard the full story, my lord, of how my sister’s husband came to die…”
Hugh lifted his eyes to the figures embroidered on the tapestry hanging on the wall behind the earl and listened with half an ear as Simon recounted once again the tale of Roger’s murder and his own kidnapping.
The great deerhound had been most cunningly done, he thought, as he regarded the sequence of the hunt that made up the panel hanging over the earl’s head.
“I did not know this,” Earl Robert replied when Simon had finally finished. “I knew that Roger had been killed, of course, but murdered…?”
A little unwillingly, Hugh returned his attention to the conversation.
“Aye, my lord, murdered,” Simon said grimly.
“But why was this not made public knowledge?” Robert demanded. “The murder of an earl is a matter of the utmost gravity.”