The Red Knight

‘You cannot wear that without a gown,’ Diota said. ‘I can see your tits right through it, sweeting.’

Lady Mary turned away and looked out the window. I think that’s what the Queen had in mind, she thought to herself. She exchanged a look with Becca Almspend, who glanced up from her reading to smile her thin-lipped smile.

‘Sleeping on the ground under a cloak doesn’t sound any worse that being a maid in the Royal Barracks,’ Becca said. ‘In fact,’ she glared at Lady Mary, ‘perhaps in a military camp, your friends don’t come and steal your blankets?’

The Queen smiled at Lady Mary. ‘Really, Mary?’

Mary shrugged. ‘I have seven sisters,’ she said. ‘I don’t mean to take other people’s blankets. It just happens.’ Her eyes twinkled.

The Queen stretched, rose on her toes like a dancer, and then settled, arms slightly outstretched, as if she was posing for a portrait. ‘I imagine we’ll all sleep together,’ she said.

Almspend shook her head. ‘Pin your cloak to your bodice, that’s my advice, my lady.’

Diota snorted. ‘She won’t sleep under a cloak. She’ll have a feather bed in a tent the size of a palace.’

The Queen shrugged, and the maids packed.

Lady Almspend worked her way down the day’s list. The preparations of the king’s baggage train – and then of the Queen’s – had made Lady Almspend a much more important person.

‘War horses for my lady’s squires,’ she said.

The Queen nodded. ‘How goes that task?’

Almspend shrugged. ‘I asked young Roger Calverly to see to it. He has a head on his shoulders and he seems to be trustworthy with money. But he’s come back to report that there are simply no war horses to be had. Not for anything.’

The Queen stamped her foot. It didn’t make much noise, small as it was and clad in a dance slipper, but the maids stopped moving and stood still. ‘This is not acceptable,’ she said.

Rebecca raised an eyebrow. ‘My lady, this is a matter of military reality. I asked questions this morning at first breakfast in the men’s hall.’

Diota made a spluttering sound of outrage, perhaps she did it too often, but it still effective. ‘You was in the men’s hall for breakfast, you hussy? Wi’out an escort?’

Almspend sighed. ‘There aren’t any women likely to know much about the price of war horses, now, are there, Diota?’ She rolled her eyes with the effectiveness that only a woman of seventeen can muster. ‘Ranald has taken me to the men’s hall as a guest. And-’ She paused and cleared her throat a little awkwardly, ‘And I had an escort.’

‘Really?’ Lady Mary asked. ‘Sir Ricar, I suppose?’

Lady Rebecca looked at the ground. ‘He hadn’t left yet – he was eager enough to help me.’

Diota sighed.

The Queen looked at her. ‘And?’

Almspend shrugged. ‘Alba doesn’t breed enough horses for all its knights,’ she said. ‘We import them from Galle, Morea and the Empire.’ She looked at her friend defiantly. ‘Sir Ricar explained it to me.’

The Queen stared at her secretary. ‘Gentle Jesu and Mary his mother. Does the king know?’

Almspend shrugged. ‘My lady, the past week has revealed that men conduct war without women with all the efficency and careful planning that they do anything else without us.’

Diota let out a most unladylike snort.

Lady Mary laughed aloud. ‘Is there beer involved?’ she asked.

The Queen shook her head. ‘You mean to say we don’t have enough war horses to mount our own knights, and no one cares?’

Lady Almspend shrugged. ‘I won’t say no one cares. I could gurantee that no one has taken any thought for it.’

‘What of remounts?’ the Queen asked. ‘Horses die. Like flies. I’m sure I’ve heard that said.’

Almspend shrugged.

Lady Mary nodded. ‘But Becca – you must have a plan.’ Somewhat cattily, she added, ‘You always do.’

Lady Almspend smiled at her, immune to her sarcasm. ‘As it happens I do. If we can raise a thousand florins we can purchase a whole train of Morean horses. The owner is camped outside the ditch. I met with him this morning and offered for his whole string. Twenty-one destriers.’

The Queen hugged her impulsively.

Diota shook her head. ‘We have no money, sweeting.’

The Queen shrugged. ‘Sell our jewels.’

Diota stepped up to the smaller woman. ‘Don’t be an arse, sweet. Those jewels are all you have if he dies. You don’t have a baby. If he goes down, no one will want you.’

The Queen looked steadily at her nurse. ‘Diota – I allow you nearly unlimited liberties.’

The older woman flinched.

‘But you talk and talk, and sometimes your mouth runs away with you,’ the Queen continued, and Diota backed away.

The Queen spread her arms. ‘You have it precisely backwards, dear heart. If the king dies, everyone will want me.’

The silence was punctuated only by the barking of dogs outside. Diota quailed. Lady Mary pretended to be somewhere else, and Becca opened her book.