‘Warfare is men’s business and you should not meddle.’ Louis gave a dismissive wave of his right hand. ‘If he has sent you to plead on his behalf, then his cause is worthless. I only take advice from men I trust, and certainly not from you.’
‘You insult him, and you insult me.’
‘I insult no one; I speak as I find.’ He flashed her an angry look. ‘You both have your agendas and I will not be a pawn.’
‘You are already a pawn,’ she said scornfully. ‘The men of your own faction play their power games with you, but you are so much in their thrall that you do not see it, or perhaps you do not want to see it.’
‘I am my own man,’ he snapped.
‘And on your own. How much of a man are you, Louis? How much of a king? I have seen precious little of either in you.’
‘Enough!’ He cast down the stylus with a metallic clatter.
Alienor made a throwing gesture that rippled her long silk sleeve. ‘If you go to Jerusalem, you go alone. I am staying in Antioch.’
‘You are the Queen of France and by God you will go where I go.’
‘I will not.’ She stood tall. ‘It is finished between us, Louis. I want our marriage annulled.’
A look of astonishment crossed his face, swiftly followed by fury. ‘Your uncle has put you up to this, hasn’t he?’
‘He has no need to. I am the one broaching the subject. Our marriage is consanguineous – something we both know and have ignored, but clearly God has not looked on our match with favour. Better we part now than drag it like a corpse behind us for the rest of our lives.’
‘Is this what you and your uncle have been talking about at all hours of the night?’ Louis demanded. ‘By Christ, you are unfaithful and unchaste.’
‘Then why keep me when I am so unsuitable?’ she spat. ‘Why stay wed to a wife you neither trust nor desire? You would be free to beget a son on someone else if you set me aside. Your barons and clerics would no longer have cause to make their petty complaints about me. This is a practical time to agree an annulment. You can hand me into the keeping of my uncle and it will be an honourable exchange – the more so since his wife is your own second cousin.’ She saw the glint of uncertainty in his eyes and pressed home her point. ‘Do you really wish to continue with this travesty of a marriage? If so, you have given no sign of it since we set out from Saint-Denis.’
He looked away. ‘I took a vow not to sully myself, you know that.’
‘Sully? Does that not say it all?’ Her anger burned very close to white heat but somehow she held it down.
‘I will have to consult with my advisers,’ he said.
‘You mean seek their permission?’ Alienor scoffed. ‘Do you have to do everything by order of Abbé Suger and that codless Templar? Does Thierry de Galeran rule your mind as well as your bedchamber? You say you are your own man? Well, prove it.’
Louis gave her a look filled with distaste. ‘I am God’s man first, and it is His will I do.’
‘Then ask Him.’
‘Let me be,’ Louis said through clenched teeth. ‘I will give you an answer when I am ready.’
‘Do as you will, but know this: I am not going with you. My choice is made and I am staying here in Antioch.’
As she left the chamber, Thierry de Galeran was waiting to go in and from the look on his face had plainly been eavesdropping. He wore a soft silk robe embroidered with small silver crosses, and over the top, incongruously, his scarred leather swordbelt. Alienor gave him a glare filled with loathing. ‘It is for the best,’ she said. ‘Tell him that while you are both at your prayers.’
Thierry returned her look before sweeping a supercilious bow and entering the chamber.
Slumped in his chair, Louis glanced up as Thierry closed the door. ‘You heard?’ He pinched the bridge of his nose.
‘Some of it, sire,’ Thierry said cautiously.
‘She wants to dissolve the marriage on the grounds of consanguinity and stay here when we leave.’ Louis lowered his hand and looked up. ‘I am half inclined to grant her wish.’
Thierry frowned and hitched his belt. ‘I advise you not to be hasty, sire. If you agree, it will damage your prestige. People will say you cannot keep your wife and that another man has taken her away, albeit that the man is her uncle. It would mean that the men of Aquitaine would look to Antioch for leadership, not France. You are Aquitaine’s overlord in law, but if the Queen repudiates you, your position will be difficult.’
‘She is a thorn in my side.’ Louis’s expression contorted. ‘And all the more painful because I still remember the beauty of the rose.’
‘Many beautiful things are sent by the Devil to do us harm,’ Thierry said. ‘Look at the beauty of a viper’s gleaming skin, but know that it has a deadly bite. And did not the serpent entice Eve into tasting the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and did she not then persuade Adam to eat of it?’
‘I will write to Suger,’ Louis said with a sigh. ‘He will advise me, but you are right. In the meantime she should not remain in Antioch.’
‘I do not think you should bring your army into Antioch. Rather let them join us further on.’
Louis’s gaze sharpened. ‘What are you saying?’
‘Sire, I have heard disquieting rumours.’
‘What kind of rumours?’
Thierry screwed up his face as if he had been drinking vinegar. ‘I believe that the lord of Antioch plots against you.’
‘Think or know?’ Louis’s breathing quickened and panic tightened his chest.
‘I have seen the Prince trying to drive a wedge between our people. He speaks fair words in your brother’s ear, and I believe he is plotting with the Queen too.’ Thierry’s tone dripped with revulsion. ‘I suspect Raymond and the Queen have been inappropriate together. I have seen them sitting as close as lovers, alone without attendants when everyone else is asleep.’ His voice slurred a little on excess saliva. ‘I have seen them embracing. She has behaved inappropriately with other men too. Geoffrey de Rancon was in her chambers until long after midnight on the night before he left Antioch, and my spies report that they parted tenderly. It makes me wonder if what happened to the vanguard on Mount Cadmos was purely an accident.’
Louis stared at him in horror. ‘By Christ and Saint Denis, are you sure of this?’
‘Sire, I would not have spoken if I did not have grave doubts. I say we should leave Antioch the moment our army comes within reach and ride immediately for Jerusalem, bringing the Queen with us. With her at your side, her uncle will not dare to move against us, and where she goes, the men of Aquitaine will follow like drones.’
Louis swallowed. ‘What do you advise?’
‘That we make plans to leave by stealth the moment we know our troops are close. We shall need to move swiftly and only tell the people we trust. Raymond cannot stop you riding away, nor can he prevent you from taking your own wife. You must remove her from his influence and keep her at your side where she will have no opportunity to plot and scheme.’
Louis felt sick. He could not encompass the enormity of what he was being told. He did not want to believe it, and yet Thierry was his eyes and his ears and could nose out plots like a rat discovering a piece of rancid cheese. He had had a sense of danger for a long time now, and it did not surprise him, but he did feel very afraid.
‘Let me deal with it, sire,’ Thierry said smoothly. ‘I shall make sure that the Queen is ready to leave when the moment comes.’
Louis nodded, relief flowing through him. ‘You always know what to do for the best,’ he said.
31
Antioch, March 1148
The night was close and Alienor had told her women to leave the shutters open to encourage what little air there was to circulate. Somewhere in that vast, spangled darkness, Geoffrey was on the road. She remembered their conversation about the stars on the plains of Hungary, and hoped he was making swift progress.