The next day a small chest of silver coins arrived for Gesa with a message that she was to use it to pay the wages of seamstresses. Also that day Claire received a visit from Gertrude, the Countess of Flanders, Regent of Frisia, sister of the Duke of Saxony, and the very angry wife of Count Robert.
"Claire," Gertrude began after the formalities of welcome were complete, "there is a new child in the palace who is said to be staying with you."
"That would be Gesa. She is a wonder. Her care of my foot has me walking almost normally in less than a fortnight. Four months have I had the affliction. Four months of pain and much coin wasted on physicians."
"Bring her to me. I would be introduced," said Gertrude pleasantly, but the impatient tapping of her fingers on the arms of the chair made a lie of her pleasant tone.
Claire did not need to call Gesa as she entered the parlour at that moment carrying a bowl of steaming water, some linen, and her medicine bag. "Oh, I am sorry. I did not realize you had company, but it is time to apply more salve."
Both of the other women immediately switched in their minds from thinking in Flemish to thinking in Frisian. Gertrude took in the visual delight of the simple shift in flowing yellow silk offsetting the golden hair and the honey-colored skin and she groaned to herself. No wonder Robert was besotted. "You must be Gesa. I am the Countess Gertrude," she said holding her hand out to be kissed.
With Claire tut-tutting in criticism, Gesa curtsied clumsily, but then instead of bowing and kissing the outstretched hand, she took the hand in hers and gripped it strongly. She stayed stooped and turned the hand over and looked closely at it, and then at the wrist. Gesa raised her free hand and Gertrude watched it rise and found herself looking into Gesa's eyes.
Gertrude was about to complain, when Gesa's hand touched her neck softly and then moved along her jaw and behind her ear. Almost like a last insult, the girl sniffed her breath, and then dropped her hand down across her breast and rested it on her belly. She then sniffed at the rush of air the effrontery had caused.
"You are insolent, child, to say the least!" barked Gertrude.
"And you are with child, if you do not flush it with your next moon purge," replied Gesa gently. "At your age you should be more careful when you are fertile."
"Don't be rude, dear," admonished Claire faintly, " I fear the Countess is already more than upset with your actions since coming to stay. Is your visit about Robert, Countess?"
This visit was not going the way the countess had expected. Not in the least. "Child, you are trifling with my husband and I do not like it and I want it to stop. Yes, I could be with child. Since your coming he has been lustful to an extreme. I have been forced to sate him myself for fear he would otherwise ruin the four ladies-in-waiting that I have serving me."
"He must be lustful if you fear for all four," Gesa giggled. Claire stood and moved behind her and pushed down on her shoulders and told her to kneel while being scolded, and to keep her thoughts to herself. Gesa dropped to her knees and now was eye to eye with the seated countess.
"You many not know, child, but my first husband was the Count of Frisia. I had seven children by him, and now four by Robert. I was regent of Frisia for many years until my eldest son Dirk came of age. Your village is in west Frisia, no? I have seen your look in many of those coastal villages. I like your look."
Gesa made to correct the countess but Claire gave her a painful squeeze of her shoulder, and she swallowed the words.
"Your villagers are known for the beauty of their horses, their cows, and their sons and daughters. They are also known for their pig-headed stubbornness, and their belief that their version of the truth is always right. What gives you the right to visit my house, and while you are my guest, seduce my husband?"
Gesa was forming an answer, but Claire squeezed her shoulder again. Gertrude answered her own question.
'You have no right, child. If you had bedded him, I could put you in the pillory as an adulteress. While in the pillory you could be ruined by any man who wanted you, which in your case would be many. You, unfortunately are a greater problem than just an adulteress. You are teasing him to the point of sexual madness. He and I are over forty. I want to be finished with sex, while he covets younger and younger women as a way of holding onto his youth. I have daughters older than you. He has children your age. It is absurd. He is absurd."
Gesa suddenly felt her guilt. She had acted with no thought of the consequences. She had wronged this wife, this mother, and all of her children. Tears welled up in her eyes, and her nose grew rosy and started to drip. "I will stop. I will go. I am so ashamed."
"Then why, oh why, did you do it? Answer this question. I want to know."
"I met him by chance only because Raynar wanted to show me the regalia of your court."
"Raynar!" the countess interrupted, "Raynar of the Peaks? The English bowman?"
"Yes, the same, the king killer." Gesa continued, "Suddenly I was walking beside the richest, most powerful man I had ever met, and he did not treat me like a teenager, he treated me like a grown woman. Honestly, it began as a lark. I wanted to prove to myself that I had some power over the most powerful of men. It was no different with him than with a village boy. Use your breasts to get blood to his groin, then touch him there, and he is yours. It took me but five minutes to have him mewing."
"I do not believe you, child," countered the countess. "I do not believe it was that easy. Robert is constantly assailed by beauteous women, and he is always cautious. They have schemes, desires. They are spies, or worse. They wish to destabilize the state by embarrassing him, or by creating a dueling situation that will finish him, or a situation that will have him excommunicated. He has resisted the honey traps for as long as I have been with him. "
The countess touched the tears on the girl's cheeks. "What is your part in this, Claire?"
"Raynar brought her to me to have her trained for courtly life on behalf of the Countess of Serbia,"
"Spalding," corrected Gesa.
"And Spalding is where?"
"In the lowlands of England that face your own lowlands," replied Gesa.
"Continue, Claire," the countess ordered.
"I refused, but then she saw to my foot. She is a healer. She has the touch. Raynar also. There was no hesitation with her diagnosis nor with her cure. And now I can stand, and I will soon walk without my stick."
"I meant your role in her seduction of my husband," the countess repeated.
"Oh, that. He is infatuated with the child. He comes here for his mid-day refreshments. He comes here to have privacy from the court with the excuse that he need help me teach her the ways of the court. There is teasing and some touching but nothing more. He goes back happy."
"He goes back," Gertrude's pitch rose, "as horny as a ram and can't remember where he left off with decisions of import. He pulls my ladies-in-waiting onto his lap and mauls them, sometimes in public. He comes to my bed every night and expects servicing. You are like a plague on my life, child, at a time when peace is within grasp."
"Raynar is at the monastery for a few days," said Claire. "When he returns, I will have him remove the girl from Brugge."
Gertrude was silent, so were they all. She was lost in thought and when she came back to them she said, "Don't you dare remove her. She will stay here and care for you while you teach her deportment. If I am now with child, she will care for me also. Stand up girl, and listen carefully."
Gesa stood cautiously and wiped the last tear from her cheek.
"From now on you are my retainer," ordered the countess, "so mark my words well. You will learn to be the most sparkling woman in the court. I don't care if it takes you years. You will be one of my ladies-in-waiting, which will establish a position for you amongst courtiers, but you will live with Claire until your training is complete."
She saw a sweet smile cross the girl's lips. "Don't smile. There is more. You will be one of my agents, one of my spies if you wish to use the cruder term. You will listen to the words of others and report to me what was said. If I ask you to flatter someone, or favour someone, male or female, you will do so." She waited while the girl's mind whirled. "Do you understand?" Gesa looked directly at her and nodded. "Do you wish the position, for it will require an oath."
Gesa bowed her head and made an oath of obedience to her countess.
"Now I will give you your first command. If you refuse it, then I will bear no ill will to you, and we will both dismiss your oath. Are you ready to listen?"
"I am." Gesa's voice quivered.
"For God's sake, take Robert to bed. Keep him away from me lest I lose this child. Keep him away from your sisters-in-waiting. Get his mind back on politics. Each day he will come here once for refreshments, and you will refresh him. You will tease him up and then milk him down. Now, do you want to dismiss the oath?"
Gesa was so relieved. Though Robert was an old man of forty, he was still fit and comely and desirable. She dropped her head into her countess's lap and whispered, "Thank you."
"Claire, you have heard all. What say you?"
"I will make her the most skilled courtesan west of Hungary. It will be a challenge with such a late start, but her healer's hands should be easily trained to other uses. May I use Robert as the practice model?"
"Use only Robert as the practice model," replied Gertrude, "I want no one else’s diseases coming into my bed. Do you hear me, girl? You are to be celibate, save for Robert."
"And you won't have me put in the pillory for adultery?" she asked softly.
"I wouldn't put any woman in the pillory, to be preyed on by every satyr and wretch," said Gertrude.
"To be fair, ma’am," Gesa replied, "if you did put me in the pillory, not a man would touch me."
"Are you a witch, then?" Gertrude sat back away from her, suddenly fearful.
"No, I am not a witch," Gesa replied almost in panic and too loudly, then took a deep breath and continued. "Don't speak it, lest it come true. I am just a woman, but with many friends who carry longbows."
"Go now, Gesa," Gertrude calmed herself, "and fetch us wine with which to seal this agreement." She spoke no more until the door was closed. "Claire, we must talk to Raynar and proceed only with his consent. There is more to this English village girl than she is telling. By the way, did my chest of coins arrive?"
"Yes it did, and she has kept it," said Claire. "As usual, there is more to you, Gertrude, than you are telling, but I would wager it has something to do with the forthcoming wedding of your daughter Bertha to King Philip of France."
Gertrude smiled sweetly, while her mind raced ahead to how her new spy could be best used. "Claire, Gesa is to become Bertha's new best friend. They are the same age. Make it so. They can share Bertha's French tutor, that will be a good start. And have my sons' fencing master give them both instructions in the use of a light blade."
"So, best friend or protector?" wondered Claire.
"Well put. Bertha will eventually have to make her own way in the court at Paris. She will find it easier with Gesa at her side."
"Are you sure, Gertrude? We know nothing of the girl."
"I know that men are quickly smitten with her, and she is equally quick to make them allies. I know that she is a healer, which means that she also knows poisons. I will know more when I speak with Raynar." She stood and moved closer to where Claire was sitting. "What do you think of Raynar? My husband owes him so much, perhaps his very throne, but the man refuses honors."
"I think that if I were thirty years younger I would take him for myself, and damn the consequences," Claire whispered wistfully. "Gesa has told me that his men think he was sent by the Valkyries to avenge the rape of innocents. She, however, thinks he is a man on a quest interrupted, who is impatient to restart it."
"Just now she called him a king killer." Gertrude took a deep breath. "What does that mean?"
Claire laughed. "Do not look for pretense with Raynar. He is a peasant and he is proud of it. If she called him a king killer, then he has probably killed a king. Perhaps you should take him to Paris as part of your wedding party, in case your brother-in-law, that fiend of a conqueror shows his face."
"William has problems elsewhere, but Robert's sister, Queen Mathilde, will attend. She rules Normandy as regent whenever husband William is in England. Still, taking Raynar along could prove amusing. He has a way of rattling powerful men."
"And charming powerful women," Claire added quietly.
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The Hoodsman - Courtesans and Exiles by Skye Smith