The Queen said: ‘He deserves no kindness. He humiliated me bitterly for many years. If you but knew―’
‘My love, my love, I know full well. He turned from the most beautiful woman in the world to his despicable boys. But it is all over now, Isabella.
Sometimes I wonder whether we could have known the fullness of our joy in each other if we had not had to wait for it.’
She was ready to be soothed, to be made love to.
She exulted in Mortimer.
Edward was glad that the winter was over. His cousin had seen that he did not suffer too much from the cold as he might well have done. In the chamber where they met and played chess there was always a great fire and there were furs for Edward’s bed and others in which to wrap bimself when the wind whistled about the castle walls.
Lancaster was changing, growing fond of his captive. He was beginning to ask himsehf whether it had been such a good exchange of rulers after all. Even in Kenilworth there came rumours of Mortimer’s arrogance, of the blatant manner in which he and the Queen openly lived in adultery. Mortimer was not only the most powerful man in the land, he was fast becoming the richest.
Avarice had been the downfall of both Gaveston and the Despensers. But here was as greedy and grasping a man as had ever gone before.
The more dissatisfied Lancaster grew with the Queen and her paramour the more sympathetic he became towards his pathetic prisoner.
One May day when he had risen from his bed he found that visitors had arrived at the castle. He received them immediately for they came from the court. He was quickly informed that the King wished him to prepare to leave Kenilworth and join him in London. His counsel was needed with regard to the Scottish campaign.
Lancaster was surprised. ‘What of my prisoner?’ he asked. ‘Am I to bring him with me?’
Nay, was the answer. Within the next few days Sir Thomas Berkeley and Sir John Maltravers would be arriving at the castle. They would take over the Earl of Lancaster’s duties.
Lancaster nodded slowly.
He had known that at some time Edward would be taken out of his charge.
He did not greatly care for the task which lay before him of informing Edward that they were to part.
He looked with compassion on the tall thin figure— now almost gaunt, with the dark shadows under the faded blue eyes.
‘Thomas, cousin,’ murmured Edward, ‘they are going to take me away from you.’
‘It was to be expected,’ said Lancaster. I have my duties. I am to join the King.’
Edward closed his eyes and the lines of despair were obvious about his mouth. Then he opened them and the stark fear in them deeply disturbed Lancaster.
‘It is because you have been too kind to me,’ he said fiercely.
‘I am told the King commands me to join him.’
‘And we know who commands the King.’
‘It may be that you will enjoy a change of castles.’
‘Who, cousin?’
‘Berkeley. Thomas Berkeley.’
‘Did he not marry Mortimer’s daughter?’
‘I think that was so.’
‘You see, cousin. I am to be put with my enemies. Berkeley! He was no friend of mine.’
‘His lands were confiscated,’ said Lancaster. ‘I beleive they were bestowcd on Hugh le Despenser.’
Edward shuddered. ‘No friend of mine,’ he murmured. ‘And they will take me from here.’
‘To Berkeley Castle, I doubt not.’
‘Oh cousin, do not go. Do not leave me. Let us stay here together. You have made life bearable for me here.’
‘My dear lord, I must obey the King.’
‘I am your King, Thomas.’
But Lancaster shook his head sadly, and silence fell between them. It was Edward who broke it. ‘Maltravers did you say?’ he asked.
‘Sir John Maltravers. A natural choice because he married Berkeley’s sister.’
Edward shook his head. ‘Another traitor― to me. He fled from England and joined the Queen in France.’
‘It is hardly likely, my lord, that they would choose your friends.’
‘Oh, cousin, a great foreboding bas descended on me.’
‘It is the thought of change.’
‘Nay, cousin. Here I have accepted my fate. I have grown accustomed to your company which has become very agreeable to me. And now― and now― I feel closing in on me, cousin― a darkness, a horror―’
‘My lord, it is this sudden shock. All will be well. When you first came here we were not such friends― In time you and Berkeley and Maltravers―’
Edward shook his head.
‘Oh, cousin,’ he said, ‘pray God to help me.’
Lancaster took Edward’s hand and knelt and kissed it and it was as though Edward had become his king again.
‘I shall pray for you, my lord. Be of good cheer. It may well be that life will be good to you yet.’
But Edward continued to shakc his head. The deepest melancholy had settied upon him.
Lancaster had gone and his new custodians had arrivcd. Maltravers was outwardly insolent, Berkley almost shamefacedly so, as though he could not stop himself remembering that this poor emaciated man had once been his King.
‘Rouse yourself,’ said John Maltravers. ‘There is a journey to be made forthwith. Should he be bound with ropes, think you, Thomas?’
‘Let be,’ replied Berkeley. ‘He is hardly in fit state to run away from us.’
He who had once been a king before whom men bowed was now talked of in his presence as though he were a piece of merchandise to be moved whichever way suited his possessors. Humiliation indeed! But he was beyond humiliation. The terrible fear which had come to him when Lancaster had told him he was going would not leave him. He feared these men.
To Berkeley Castle they rode. How different it looked from when he had last seen it. Then he had ridden in as the King and there pageants and festivities greeted him. How different now! Gloomy! Foreboding! An impulse came to him to shout that he would not enter. Let them kill him here― on the spot. He would not go inside that stone-walled fortress. His whole being cried out against it. He wanted to turn back to Kenilworth, to beg them to send his cousin Lancaster back to him.
Maltravers jerked his head as he might to a groom.
‘Why the hesitation?’ he cried. ‘You waste our time, Edward Plantagenet.’
How they loved to show him that he who had once been their King was no longer of account!
He entered the outer court and went under the machiolated gatehouse. He wondered if he would ever come out a free man.
His horse was taken from him— a poor miserable creature to denote his state and the contrast between it and the steeds ridden by his captors was pathetic. Maltravers laid ungentle hands on him and hustled him forward. ‘This way,’ he muttered.
High-born Lancaster had never shown him such disrespect. He must now think of his days at Kenilworth as happy ones.
He was in the baronial hall— a fine place at the end of which was the chapel.
‘I would like to say a prayer,’ he said. ‘Allow me to go to the chapel and kneel before the altar.’
‘You can pray in your room,’ said Thomas Berkeley.
Maltravers sneered: ‘You should have thought more of praying when you had the time. You could have knelt before your altars then instead of before little Hugh.’
They were determined to torment him. He knew they would be cruel jailers.
He was mounting the great staircase leading to the keep and passing along a gallery when they came to a room which was heavily locked and barred.