ELEANOR STOOD BEFORE THE abbess’s oak table hiding her fear behind the deceptively sweet smile and innocent expression she always assumed in the presence of Authority. The abbess had not yet arrived but the very chamber itself contained a forbidding air that seemed to emanate from the tapestried walls, the silver candelabra, the carved oak chest, even the flickering ivory tapers. It was a hot August afternoon but inside these quarters there was a chill.
Eleanor had no idea why she had been summoned from the schoolroom. Images of recently broken abbey rules flocked into her mind: climbing an apple tree in the orchard, snatching a loaf of bread from the kitchen after Compline, letting a flock of chickens out of their pen to run loose over the grounds, stealing out of the dorter after Matins—too many to count. She prided herself on seeing how many rules could be broken before the Abbess of Fontevrault found out.
The door opened behind her. With unsteady fingers, Eleanor smoothed down the skirt of her black convent gown, made sure the white cap was tied securely under her chin.
“Sit down, my child.” The abbess appeared on the opposite side of the table.
Framed in a stark white wimple, the stern face with its long aristocratic nose looked benign, almost kindly. So unusual was the abbess’s expression that instinctively Eleanor knew this summons could not concern her misdeeds. Apprehension fluttered like a cluster of moths in her belly. Once she was seated, her eyes encountered the grim scenes of martyred saints depicted on the crimson-and-blue wall hangings. She quickly looked away.
“My child, I fear I have bad news for you,” the abbess said in her calm voice. “This morning an equerry arrived from the ducal palace in Poitiers to inform us that death has claimed your mother and brother.” She crossed herself. “I deeply mourn your loss but urge you to remember that your mother and brother are with the Queen of Heaven now. Requiesant in pace.”
Her mother. Dead? And little William, barely two years old? It could not be true. Eleanor tried to picture her mother, whom she had not seen since she came to Fontevrault a year ago. All she could conjure up was a gentle, retiring shadow trying to make her behave in a proper manner. But for seven of her eight years, that shadow had remained steadfast as the morning sun, predictable as the evening star. Impossible to imagine life without her. It must be a mistake. Eleanor opened her mouth to say as much but the words stuck in her throat.
“You may be excused from your lessons for the remainder of the afternoon,” continued the abbess. “I know you will want to pray in the chapel, and Sister Cecile waits outside to accompany you.”
“But I must go home.” The words came in a strangled croak. “At once. It—it may not be true.”
“I think we may assume it is. Always best to recognize the truth sooner rather than later. Your father thought it best that you stay here for the nonce. Apparently matters are unsettled in Aquitaine at the moment and—”
“Everything is always unsettled in Aquitaine,” said Eleanor. “I cannot stay. My sister, Petronilla, will need me, and then—and then there is the funeral …” She could not go on.
“In such hot weather the funeral will not be delayed.”
“I want to see the equerry.”
“Of course. He is being looked after in the guest quarters.” The abbess rose to her feet. Tall and imposing in her black habit, she exuded such a commanding aura that resistance tended to shrivel in her presence. Now, she swooped around the table like a great winged bird, settled in front of Eleanor, and tilted her chin in talonlike fingers.
“Your studies should not be interrupted. You are proving to be an exceptional student since your rebellious attitude and frivolous behavior have lessened. After a very bad start I am pleased with your progress over the last year.”
Her eyes, gray as a pond in winter, held Eleanor in a steady gaze.
“Far better not to brood unduly over your loss. ‘Idleness is the enemy of the soul,’ sayeth St. Benedict. Study diverts attention. After all, you are a maid of eight years, no longer a babe to be coddled. What says Holy Writ? ‘The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ ”
“But I want to go home,” Eleanor whispered, barely listening.
“There is no more to be said.” The abbess paused, as if debating with herself, then seemed to come to a decision. “Now, I want you to pay close attention to me. Eleanor!” The talons shook her chin with such impatience she winced.
She began to speak, obviously choosing her words with care. “Your only brother is dead. Once your esteemed grandfather, Duke William, has passed on, your father will inherit the duchy of Aquitaine. But after him, who is left? Only you and your younger sister. Unfortunately, your father’s reckless nature and outspoken temperament are well known. Should anything happen to him—Heaven forfend—you, as the eldest child, follow next in line to inherit Aquitaine. Naturally one assumes your father will marry again and have other sons, but meanwhile …” The abbess released Eleanor’s chin.
Confused, Eleanor could not take in the import of the words. “Marry again? You mean—a new mother to replace mine?” The possibility of such a betrayal was so shattering she felt quite breathless.
“Come, don’t look so astounded. Duke William is getting on in years now, and God will soon call him to His bosom. But your father has many years left—if his headstrong spirit can be bridled—and is sure to want a male heir for Aquitaine.”
“Instead—you mean instead of me?” The world teetered on a knife-edge. A bottomless pit yawned beneath her. An unknown mother? New brothers to replace little William? Total strangers ruling in Aquitaine? The chamber whirled, and Eleanor grasped the polished wood of the table in front of her.
“That is the way of the world. Not that I approve this time-honored custom that favors sons to inherit their fathers’ lands. Women are just as capable. That is to say women of some education.”
The chamber righted itself. The abbess swooped to the door.
“I don’t want a new mother,” said Eleanor in a fierce voice she did not herself recognize. “Or a new brother. You said—if that doesn’t happen then would Aquitaine be mine?”
A long silence ensued, during which Reverend Mother regarded Eleanor thoughtfully. “What I said was that you are, at the moment, next in line. Although the likelihood of you ever ruling the duchy is indeed remote, there is no law in Aquitaine forbidding women to inherit.”
Eleanor stared at her. “So—so I could then?”
“Anything is possible. But if you want to be a successful duchess, you will need your wits about you. The English king Alfred put it very well: ‘Unlettered king, crowned ass.’ This applies to any ruler. Therefore, it behooves you to continue your education …”
Despite the turmoil bubbling inside her, Eleanor shot the abbess a grudging look of respect. Reverend Mother always got her way in the end. Nor, Eleanor realized, did she disagree. After her journey to Poitiers she would most certainly return to the convent to continue her studies. If she was going to prevent Aquitaine from falling into the hands of a stranger, she would indeed need her wits about her.
The Vespers bell sounded.
“Go now.” The abbess opened the door. “Pray to Our Lady for what you want. She knows how to answer our prayers.” A fleeting smile touched her mouth. “I will join mine to yours.”
Instantly, the severe look returned. But Eleanor, who from the beginning had regarded Reverend Mother as the most formidable opponent ever encountered, knew that she had found an unexpected ally.
After going to the St. Benoit Chapel with Sister Cecile, where she tried her best to pray, Eleanor said she did not want any supper, and went to look for the equerry. She ran alongside the high stone wall that enclosed the abbey, past the fish pond, vegetable garden, granary, mill, and dovecote. In the hazy distance she caught a glimpse of the monks’ quarters, separate from the nuns’, and a long line of black-robed figures heading for the refectory.
She reached the guest quarters where she found Conon, a young equerry with hair like thick straw, who served her father. He lay asleep on a pallet, his black boots covered with dust. Eleanor prodded him with the toe of her shoe. He woke with a start.
“Is it true? Are my mother and brother really dead?”
Conon stumbled to his feet. “Yes, Mistress.” He bowed his head and crossed himself.
“How? No one sent to tell me they were ill.”
“There was no time, as it was very sudden and unexpected. Your mother and brother went on an excursion one afternoon. It was very hot, the food they had with them may have spoiled—several servitors also fell ill and died. All that is known is by the next morning both had fever and complained of severe stomach pains. The physicians could do nothing. Within a fortnight both had died.”
Tears appeared in Conon’s eyes. Eleanor felt a heavy weight settle on her chest.
“Your grandparents are inconsolable. The entire court is plunged into mourning. It is feared your sister may pine away, so great is her grief. Duke William has even composed a lament in honor of the sad occasion.” Conon wiped his eyes and began to hum a few notes.
“And my father?”
Conon put a hand over his heart and closed his eyes. “Undone by grief. My lord has not touched food or drink for a sennight. He weeps constantly. Mistress, you have never seen such despair. It is feared he will die of a broken heart—even now they are readying his coffin—”
It was the typical Aquitainian way of describing events, most of which could be discounted. Still, there was probably a kernel of truth in Conon’s tale. In such a state her moody, unpredictable father might do anything—Eleanor suddenly had a vision of him surrounded by the slew of well-born women who attended her mother. All eager to comfort him, to become the next duchess when her grandfather, Duke William, died. Her blood froze. She must return without delay.
“Do take me with you when you leave, Conon.”
“But I understood from Duke William that you were to remain.”
“Please, Conon.” Her lower lip began to tremble. He had to take her. He could not refuse. “Surely you see that I cannot stay here now.”
“What will the duke say if I disobey his orders? Moreover, I travel first to Châtellerault to inform your uncles. Now, if I had a valid reason to take you with me …”
Eleanor closed her eyes, gasped, and held both sides of her head between her hands. “I will go from my wits if I cannot go home—I may fall mortally ill …” She began to sway back and forth.
Conon nodded. “Very well, Mistress, I will tell the duke that with my own eyes I saw you fall into a dead faint, and fearing for your life I undertook to disobey his orders. But in the event he does not accept this, you must intercede on my behalf.”
“I promise. Thank you, thank you.” Weak with relief, Eleanor threw her arms around the equerry. She was going home.
When Eleanor arrived in Poitiers three days later, the castle was in its usual state of uproar, almost exactly as she had left it a year ago.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Nell,” said six-year-old Petronilla without surprise when Eleanor appeared in the courtyard, covered with dust from the journey. “Maman and William have gone away and aren’t ever coming back.” Her sister’s face was streaked with dirt and her eyes rimmed with red. “No one tells me what to do now.” She threw herself into Eleanor’s arms. “I knew you would come.”
Eleanor’s whole world had tumbled apart, yet here everything appeared the same. The courtyard was still crowded with servants drawing water from the well; hens squawked loudly; falconers aired their charges; fewterers walked the greyhounds and wolfhounds back and forth. Everyone crowded around her offering sympathy; even the fat cook waddled out to hug her.
After searching through the castle, Eleanor finally found her father in the stables. A giant of a man with azure eyes and a head of corn gold hair, he gave her a gloomy, puzzled look.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at Fontevrault, Nell?”
“I—uhh—I felt I should come home, and persuaded Conon to take me. It wasn’t his fault.”
He nodded absently. “Perhaps it is for the best. I don’t know what to do about Petronilla. Not much of a homecoming, I fear.” He patted her affectionately on the head, then gave her a big hug. “I’m glad to see you, Daughter. Your poor mother—and little William—both gone.” He began to sob.
“I know, Father.” She could not bear to see him so distraught.
He gave a tremulous sigh and wiped his eyes. “What will I do? I must have an heir.” He bit his lip and shook his head. “Well, I’m off to the Limousin. The barons there are causing unrest, worse than usual. Those conniving bastards can certainly pick their moment. And the whoreson king of France has ordered your grandfather to appear before him to answer one of his ridiculous charges. Between ourselves, mind, the duke is unwell, not up to either journey, so I must go in his place. What a coil. You must look after yourself, and Petronilla too.”
“What are you doing here, Nell?” asked her grandfather, Duke William, that night at supper in the great hall of the Maubergeonne Tower.
“Reverend Mother—Reverend Mother thought I should come home.”
Her grandfather’s hair, once bright as sunlight, was now faded. His face, usually bronzed from wind and weather, looked pale and old. Duke William, whom everyone affectionately called the Troubadour, glanced at her from blue eyes not quite as piercing as they once had been. “Expressly against my instructions? I think not. If you must lie, at least learn to do it with more finesse. Still, I am glad to see you, child. I hear you are Fontevrault’s prize pupil now. Well done.”
He turned to the guests at the high table. “For a while I feared Nell might be booted out of the abbey school. Unruly behavior, I was told.” He rolled his eyes. “Distracting the worthy monks from their prayers more likely, if she’s any granddaughter of mine, eh, poppet?” He kissed the hand of a lady seated beside him—she had embroidered green ribbons plaited into her braids—winked at a smiling beauty across the table, and, although Eleanor could not be sure, squeezed the thigh of a noble’s wife sitting on his other side.
“Really, my lord,” said the archbishop of Poitou in a disapproving voice.
Eleanor suspected that if her imperious grandmother, closeted in her own quarters which she rarely left, had been present, the duke might have been more restrained. When everyone joined in the laughter that followed, she felt confused. She had come home to protect what was left of the world she had known. Her father and Petronilla were distraught, but otherwise the atmosphere was as gay and carefree as she remembered. Why did no one mourn her mother? Inside her chest a dam burst. Tears flooded down her cheeks. For the first time it was blazingly, horribly real. Her mother was dead.
There was a moment of silence except for the sound of her sobbing. She could see all the heads at the table turn toward her.
“It’s a great shame about your mother and brother.” Duke William crossed himself. “Tragic. But ‘Least said, soonest mended.’ Pay attention to people when they are alive, I always say, not after they’re gone. We must find you a new mother, my child, the sooner the better. Your father needs to sire an heir, and—”
Eleanor choked on a sob which silenced him.
The conversation continued. No one was paying any attention to her now. Eleanor brushed the tears from her eyes and looked around for her father’s younger brother. Raymond would surely understand and comfort her. But he was not at the high table, nor had she caught a glimpse of him since she had returned.
“Where’s Uncle Raymond?”
“Gone to King Henry’s court in England to seek his fortune,” said her grandfather. “In truth, my incorrigible young son had dallied with one wife too many. There was an irate husband at his heels, and he barely escaped over the border into Anjou.” He sighed. “Let us hope the English court has a sobering influence, and that Raymond will grow more circumspect with age.”
“I doubt it! How far can the apple fall from the tree?” someone shouted in a voice slurred with wine. “In any case, the English king has so many of his own bastards hanging about that he sets a poor example.”
Duke William repressed a smile. “Shocking. Perhaps I should have sent Raymond to the papal Court?”
A great burst of laughter followed this.
“Really, my lord, a most unsuitable conversation before the child.” The archbishop of Poitou looked down his nose.
“Quite right, quite right. The worthy archbishop is trying to help me lift the ban of excommunication I’ve labored under all these years.” He gave Eleanor a sly wink. “In exchange I have promised to mend my ways. Whatever one has done during one’s life, it is prudent to expire in the bosom of Holy Church.”
Duke William, the Troubadour, began to strum his lute and sing a canso of his own composing in the slightly cracked but always thrilling voice that Eleanor loved. Tonight, however, even her grandfather’s music could not dispel her loneliness and heartache. She had been very fond of her uncle Raymond, only eight years older than herself and a jolly companion. She missed him almost as much as she missed her mother.
Her grandfather finished his song with a flourish of chords and much applause. Then: “What was I saying?”
“You mentioned the bosom of the Church,” said the archbishop with a complacent smile.
“Ah! Less alluring than some bosoms I’ve known, I must confess. Speaking of which,” said Duke William, and he started on one of his stories.
While the hall rocked with laughter, the archbishop, red as a squawking gobbler, grabbed Eleanor’s hand and half-dragged her, protesting, from the hall.
Over the next few weeks Eleanor became increasingly aware that she might as well have stayed at Fontevrault. No one paid her any attention, including her father. He had returned after ten days, morose and frustrated, having lost a skirmish with the battling nobles of the Limousin. He stormed about the castle, refused to attend the French king’s summons in the duke’s stead, and made himself thoroughly disagreeable. Fulfilling Eleanor’s worst fears, the attendant women spent much of their time trying to console him.
“One of those silly peahens is hoping to marry him,” Eleanor said, watching Petronilla stuff her mouth with marchpane.
They were in the kitchen, where the fat cook always made them welcome.
“Don’t want him to marry again,” said her sister, spittle dribbling down her chin. “No one tells us what to do now. I like that.”
“You’ll make yourself sick with all those sweets,” said Eleanor. “I don’t want him to marry again either. No one can take our mother’s place. Reverend Mother says I’m now the heir. If father gets another son I won’t be.”
“I would rather Aquitaine belonged to you, Sister, than anyone.”
Eleanor reached over and kissed Petronilla’s sticky cheek.
Shortly after her father’s return, Eleanor’s grandmother, Dangereuse, her mother’s mother, asked to see her alone. Uncle Raymond had told Eleanor that Dangereuse had been married to one of Duke William’s vassals when the duke carried her off many years ago and installed her as his mistress in Poitiers. At the time he was married to Philippa of Toulouse, mother of his seven children, who created a storm of protest. The resulting scandal was such that in order to achieve a degree of respectability, Raymond said, his father hastily married his mistress’s daughter by the vassal to his eldest son, then sixteen years of age. Eleanor was their first child.
Although its exact nature eluded her, Eleanor knew that her grandparents had committed a grave sin—which the Church was still trying to rectify. She had heard the servants gossiping in corners that against all reason and God’s judgment, the wayward grandmother still kept a siren hold on Duke William of Aquitaine. The adulteress did it by witchcraft, they whispered, by magic potions and spells. Not that Eleanor believed this. Still, it endowed Dangereuse with an air of mystery that made Eleanor more than a little afraid of her.
On a hot afternoon the last week in August, she climbed the winding staircase to the top of the Maubergeonne Tower where Dangereuse had her own quarters. Eleanor had not seen her grandmother since returning from the abbey—one only visited her when summoned. The chamber floor was covered with rushes mixed with crushed gillyflowers and ivory lilies. Silver basins and jugs graced the gleaming oak tables. Clad in a robe trimmed with miniver and ermine, her still-beautiful grandmother lay on a canopied bed under an embroidered green-and-gold coverlet. Her luxuriant chestnut hair, streaked with wings of white, cascaded over her frail shoulders. She extended one languid white hand. In the other, she held a silver mirror, turning it this way and that while she examined her narrow face with its high cheekbones and unnaturally pink lips.
“I am glad to see you, child.” Eleanor kissed the proffered hand which smelled deliciously of rose water. “I hope all those nuns haven’t flogged the spirit out of you?” She gave Eleanor a penetrating look. “I can see they have not. It is safe for you to return to Fontevrault before too long, and continue your education.”
When Eleanor started to protest, Dangereuse held up an imperious hand. “Do not argue. Important for a woman to be lettered. It makes her equal in knowledge. Knowledge is power.”
Still looking at the mirror, she licked a finger and smoothed down one arched eyebrow. “How do you find your father? I have hardly set eyes on him.”
Tears of bitterness welled up in Eleanor’s eyes. “My father is always gone and when he’s not he’s in a foul mood. My grandfather ignores me. The servants who are supposed to tend us are always off gossiping. I miss my mother.”
“So do I, but life must go forward.” She put down the mirror and peered at Eleanor. “Sweet St. Radegonde, I hope you are not going to start feeling sorry for yourself. There is nothing I hate more than a whining female. If you do not care for the way things are, change them.”
She ran distasteful fingers through Eleanor’s thick tangle of chestnut curls. “Just look at you! What man will pay attention to a dirty, unkempt ragamuffin? Wash your hair with vinegar.” She ran a veined hand over Eleanor’s cheeks and forehead. “Such exquisite skin, like ivory and peaches, but I see spots and freckles. Too much sun and too many sweetmeats.”
“No one notices what we eat or if we eat at all.”
Dangereuse rapped Eleanor sharply across the knuckles. “The first lesson you must learn is that it is a woman’s business to get herself noticed.”
“But how?
“How? How?” With a contemptuous snort, her grandmother picked up the mirror again. “Those that must ask will never know.”
“My father talks of marrying again. Having sons.”
Dangereuse shrugged and pulled a face at the mirror. “What of it? Men always talk of marrying and having sons. Apart from war and seduction it is their only other occupation.”
“But I could not abide a new mother—or brother.”
“Of course not.” She gave an amused cackle. “You would be pushed aside then for good, wouldn’t you? I suspect you want the duchy for yourself.”
“No! I mean, yes—I mean, I do want—”
Her eyes, pale green flecked with brown, oddly tilted at the corners like a cat—or a witch—silenced Eleanor with a withering glance.
“Foolish child! So full of yourself. How can you know what you want? What do you understand of such matters? In three centuries of rule, despite its vast array of riches, the duchy has always been a source of trouble and strife to its dukes. Aquitania, the Romans called it, for the many rivers that abound. Hah! Rivers of blood would be more apt.”
“I would hate strangers ruling here,” Eleanor whispered, baffled by her grandmother’s words. “I love the duchy.”
“So do I. Which makes us both fools. But you will not get much joy from this paradise, I assure you.” Dangereuse sniffed, then shrugged. “ ‘Wild goose never reared tame gosling.’ What else did I expect?” After a significant pause she picked up the mirror again and examined herself. “In the absence of a male heir, women may inherit in Aquitaine. Thus, there is no reason—no legal reason—why, if your father does not marry again and produce a son, you should not have the duchy. If you are clever enough. Which remains to be seen.” Her gaze left the mirror and raked Eleanor’s face. “To get what you want you must take matters into your own hands. But to do that you must first get yourself noticed. If, as a female, you cannot accomplish such a simple task then I wash my hands of you.” She leaned forward until her face almost touched Eleanor’s, who felt her heart thump. “I may not leave my own quarters, but I cast a long shadow, child. When I speak, my lord listens—”
There was a knock on the door and Duke William entered, carrying a bouquet of pink summer roses. Her grandmother quickly waved Eleanor away.
“My dearest, how lovely you look today, quite like a young maid. Nell paying you a visit, is she?” He sat down on the bed, took Dangereuse’s frail hand in his, and laid it tenderly against his cheek. “I had a sudden longing to see you with roses in your hair.”
“William,” murmured her grandmother, her face suddenly youthful and radiant.
They gazed at each other while the duke snapped off the heads of several roses and began to twine them in her hair. Eleanor knew they had forgotten her presence. She crept to the door of the chamber passionately wishing that someone, someday, would love her as much as her grandfather loved her grandmother.
She was out the door when she heard Dangereuse call out to her, “Tell my new chaplain, Master Andre, to start teaching you how to read and write Provencal. One may as well be prepared for all eventualities. In the unlikely event you surprise me.”
During the next few days, Eleanor wandered distractedly about the castle, half-expecting any moment to meet her mother round the corner of a passage, see her presiding at the high table, or sewing with her women in the solar. Despite the fact that she had bathed in a hot tub of water and washed her hair with vinegar, she was still ignored.
She ate what she wanted—omitting sweetmeats—and did as she pleased. When she fell ill after stuffing herself with unripe apples, no one seemed very concerned. She rode her pony over forbidden fences, half-hoping she would fall and hurt herself so someone would pay attention. She persuaded the head falconer to teach her to fly sparrow hawks, and no one stopped her. When she and the steward’s son were caught buck naked together examining each other’s differences, the steward thrashed his son, but just warned her to start behaving like the lady she was. As far as she knew he never told anyone of the incident. Her father and grandfather, constantly preoccupied with the never-ending troubles in Aquitaine and their bitter quarrels with Fat Louis of France, appeared to have forgotten her existence.
She could think of no way to remind them.
One day her father left on a journey to Bordeaux.
“Please let me go with you,” she begged.
“What would I do with you? I have vassals to tend to, revenues to collect, cases to judge—” He shook his head.
To her surprise Eleanor missed Fontevrault: she missed her lessons, the harmonious surroundings, the sisters gliding through the grounds like a flock of black starlings. Most of all, to her even greater astonishment, she missed the calm, authoritative presence of Reverend Mother. Her only consolation was the instruction she received from Master Andre, the young chaplain.
One day about a month after she had returned from Fontevrault, sour-faced Aunt Agnes, one of her father’s five sisters, arrived from Maillezais, ten leagues distant.
“Just look at you, Eleanor,” she said, marching into the chamber where Eleanor and her sister slept. “When was the last time you put on a clean gown? I’ve a good mind to take you and Petronilla back home with me. Your grandfather’s court is no place for untended children.” She sniffed. “You’ve only that wicked old grandmother to guide you, which is like the blind leading the blind.”
Eleanor and Petronilla exchanged fearful glances. Everyone knew Aunt Agnes hated Dangereuse. She had never forgiven her father’s mistress for displacing her own outraged mother, Philippa of Toulouse, who, heartily sick of her husband’s amorous exploits, had repaired to Fontevrault Abbey, where she had died—of frustrated rage rather than grief, wagged malicious tongues. Aunt Agnes had made Eleanor’s mother’s life miserable by cruelly reminding her that not only the Church—which had excommunicated both the duke and Dangereuse—but even the easygoing Aquitainian nobles had been shocked by their duke’s scandalous behavior. The fact that Duke William continued to live in open adultery with his mistress only added more coals to the simmering fire of Aunt Agnes’s disapproval.
Her father returned from Bordeaux, and the next day a huge number of guests arrived from as far away as Champagne and Anjou. When Eleanor slid into her place at the high table her grandfather was in the middle of a story.
“… so my friends, though my life has been a most colorful one, having gone on crusade and seen something of the world, fought battles which I usually lost, kept the warring factions of this duchy in one piece, my happiest moments have been spent either pursuing, seducing, or writing songs about women. As you know, to appease the Church I agreed to give all that up and mend my ways. My only consolation is that the Christian heaven will turn out to be like the Moslems’—filled with beautiful houri.”
There was much sympathetic laughter.
Then her father told about his troubles in Bordeaux, how his vassals in Angoulême resisted his authority, and the difficulties he had in getting his rents collected all over the duchy.
Tonight, decorated with lady slipper and blue larkspur, strewn with fresh green rushes, the hall looked particularly festive. The ladies sparkled in gaily colored gowns, trailing long sleeves; gold ornaments glittered on their breasts. Jugglers tossed silvery balls into the air; acrobats turned handsprings; jongleurs sang Duke William’s songs about lovely domna who bestowed their favors upon worthy knights.
But Eleanor, sitting at the high table, was miserable. In order to make herself more presentable, she had bathed again in a wooden tub of hot water, found a reasonably clean gown of buttercup yellow, and plaited her hair with a silken gold riband.
Her grandfather held up his hand. The singing came to a stop, the entertainers moved back from the center of the hall.
Duke William began to strum his lute. A visiting troubadour from Moorish Spain danced into the center of the hall and accompanied her grandfather by snapping his castanets in time to the music. The air was blue with smoke and thick with the scent of roast game; dogs scavenged for bones under the trestle tables; pages dashed up and down the hall, refilling goblets of wine, carrying smoking slices of meat.
Overcome by a sudden impulse she could never after explain even to herself, Eleanor jumped up on the wooden bench and climbed onto the long, white-clothed table. She started tapping her feet to the rhythmic sounds. For a moment there was silence; she could see every head turn toward her, catch the looks of amusement and incredulity. Her heart leapt like a doe in flight, and for an instant she thought of scrambling back onto the safety of her seat. But her gaze collided with that of her astonished grandfather, his hand briefly paused on the lute strings before continuing to play, then moved on to meet her father’s dumbfounded blue stare. Both men looked as if they had never seen her before.
Slowly Eleanor raised the skirts of her gown, higher and higher up her yellow-stockinged legs, until her knees then her skinny thighs were revealed. She twirled and dipped, stepping over and around the silver salt cellars, platters of game, roast fowl, and baked fish, the silver bowls of ripe peaches, nuts, and sweetmeats.
“Hola! Hola! That’s my girl.” Her grandfather shouted his encouragement. A look of pure delight crossed his face, and for an instant she glimpsed the golden rogue of legend. “Look at Nell, my friends, the gai saber runs in her blood! Here is a true daughter of Aquitaine!” He rose to his feet with a flourish, quickening the tempo; the castanets followed.
The gai saber—the joyous art of the troubadours—ran in her blood! Duke William had given her the highest compliment he could bestow. Eleanor’s father began to clap his hands, and soon the entire hall was laughing, applauding her, crying out their admiration.
“Disgraceful,” Eleanor heard Aunt Agnes grumble over the din. “Flaunting herself like a strumpet.”
Eleanor, vibrant, joyous, filled with an intoxicating sense of power, did not care. At last, at last she was the center of everyone’s attention.
When the music stopped her father looked up at her. “Splendid, splendid. I had no idea, my girl! How old are you now?”
“Eight.”
“How time passes! I’ve been neglecting you, Nell. We must spend more time together.”
“As Dangereuse was just reminding me, until you marry again and have a son, Nell is your heir, William, don’t forget that,” said her grandfather. “She may as well start learning what it means to inherit Aquitaine”
“Oh yes. I want to be the heir, Father. Please, please, please don’t marry again.” She climbed down into his lap, twined her arms around him, and nuzzled his neck.
There was more laughter. Duke William took one of Eleanor’s hands and kissed the tips of her fingers. “Now there’s a temptress for you, eh? Who can resist? Speaking of temptresses, that reminds me, did I ever tell you about the time I met these two randy sisters …” He was off again on one of his stories.
For the rest of the evening Eleanor remained on her father’s lap, cradled within the warm circle of his arms, so full of happiness she did not think she could contain herself. What her grandmother had said was true: In order to get what you wanted, it was necessary to take matters into your own hands.
From that moment on her life changed. Aunt Agnes left Poitiers without her, predicting dire consequences for Eleanor’s future. Eleanor returned to Fontevrault but whenever she came home she was always the center of attention, petted and spoiled by her father and grandfather, who taught her to play the lute and sing a few of his songs.
Her grandmother died a year later when Eleanor was nine. Duke William followed her within six months. Eleanor’s father became Duke William X of Aquitaine. There had been several half-hearted attempts on her father’s part to find a suitable wife, but for one reason or another nothing had come of his efforts—thus far. People shook their heads and said it was the will of God.
When she was ten the new duke took Eleanor with him on a progression through his duchy.
“All the vassals of Aquitaine must now pay homage to me as their overlord, just as I myself will have to pay homage to the king of France, God curse him,” he told Eleanor. “I want you to see for yourself what is involved.”
Followed by the usual retinue of scribes, clerks, scullions, cooks, troubadours, and knights, she rode on her father’s horse in front of the saddle, at the head of the long column. After trotting through the forests of Poitou, they visited the armoury at Blaye, then the Abbey of Saintes where Aunt Agnes, now widowed, had become a nun.
She had lost none of her sourness. “This child should be home learning needlework and how to make simples, not making progresses through the duchy. You will rue the day, Brother.”
Fortunately, her father paid no attention to his tiresome sister and they continued their journey. In village after village she watched him collect his rents in the form of pigs, chickens, sacks of flour.
At the grape harvest in Cognac, Eleanor treaded the grapes with the villagers, while her father supervised the loading of casks from last year’s harvest onto the carts.
“Come back next year, little duchess,” the people called out when she left, doffing their caps to her. “Now you are one of us.”
“Little duchess,” she repeated to herself, cherishing the words.
Next they visited the purple hills of the Limousin, where Eleanor met the quarrelsome barons she had heard so much about, watched her father renew their oaths of loyalty, and judge a case between two petty lords over water rights. When she sang a few of her grandfather’s songs for these fierce nobles, they cheered her.
“You have the great gift the Troubadour had,” her father said as they turned southwest toward the capital, Bordeaux. “You know how to win over your subjects.”
Eleanor was not sure what gift he meant, but she noted that her father’s quick temper and sometimes rash behavior did not endear him to his vassals.
By September they returned to Poitou. They stopped first at the fishing village of Talmont, perched on a rocky headland that overlooked the sea, where her grandfather had kept his falcons. Here she listened to her father talk to fishermen about boats and nets and how large a catch might be expected that season.
“You see how varied each part of our duchy is,” he said, lifting her down from his horse. “And you have not yet seen half of Aquitaine. From Poitou to the Pyrenees, the people are all vastly different.”
Taking her hand he led her to the edge of the cliff. It was very hot, the sky a bowl of burning blue. Not a breath of wind stirred the air. The duke turned away from the gently lapping waters that washed the red rock and pointed to the far-off hills melting into a silver horizon.
“The dukes of Aquitaine have ruled here since time out of mind, Nell. And we will go on ruling as long as we keep ourselves from being swallowed up by greedy overlords like the king of France, and hold our unruly vassals in check. We belong to ourselves and always have. This land is in our blood and we can never be free of it.”
Duke William bent down and picked up a piece of rust-colored rock lying on the cliff’s edge. It shimmered like a gem in the sun.
“On this very cliff where we now stand, the Romans founded a village; the Goths forged weapons from the flint rock; the Arabs rode their stallions to the cliff edge.” He solemnly pressed the rock into her hand. “This is the most affluent fief in all Europe, a sacred trust passed on from generation to generation. I intend to marry again and have a son. But through some extraordinary stroke of fate, should this priceless jewel become yours, heed my words, and guard our heritage well.”
A male heir. Eleanor had hoped that if she loved her father enough, she might somehow avert that dark cloud hanging over her life.
It could not, it must not happen.
Thus far Our Lady—and other spirits perhaps—seemed to be answering her prayers.
From the moment she made the decision to dance on the table, felt the surge of power crest like a rolling wave within her, Eleanor had known in the very marrow of her bones that her destiny and Aquitaine’s were bound together for all time. She must protect it, love it, die for it even, whether she would or no.