Alys Clare - The Tavern in the Morning

‘Ah.’ Josse could understand her dismay. A country girl, an innocent, must have found the goings-on at a Plantagenet Christmas a great surprise. ‘It’s not to be taken too seriously, you know, Joanna. People drink too much, as you say, and sometimes a dalliance goes a little too far. But usually there’s no harm done.’

‘Is there not?’ she said softly.

‘A sore head in the morning, an awkward moment when you come face to face with the man or woman to whom you promised undying love the night before, or-’

‘I hope,’ she said coolly, ‘that you do not speak from personal experience.’

‘I?’ He laughed shortly. ‘No, Joanna. I do not.’

She nodded. ‘Thank you for that.’

‘So there you were, all eyes on you as you laughed and danced with your uncle Denys, and-’

‘That was why he did it, of course,’ she interrupted. ‘He made me dance where everyone could see me on purpose.’

‘What do you mean?’

She stared at him, her dark eyes glittering with emotion. ‘I might have been a prize heiffer at a market!’ she cried. ‘Look at her face! Her hair! Her young budding breasts — do you know, that rat Denys made me lower the line of my bodice! He told me it was the fashion to show as much flesh as possible, and, fool that I was, I believed him! Went along with him! Danced there, in King Henry’s great hall, with half my chest exposed!’

‘Don’t be so hard on yourself, Joanna.’ Josse put out a hand and briefly touched her shoulder; she was rigid with tension. ‘You were young, you didn’t know. Most young girls entering court life have an older woman to help them, you know. To advise on what is right and what is wrong. And all you had, poor love, was Denys.’

‘Who had his own secret plan,’ she agreed angrily. She took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘It got later and later,’ she said, speaking faster now, ‘and people — couples — began to disappear. There was a lot of laughter about the King and some woman called Bellebelle — I didn’t know which of the women around the King she was, there were always quite a few — and somebody said that he was missing a woman called Alais, who had long been his bed-warmer, and that this Bellebelle did as good a job as someone called Rosamund.’

‘That would have been Rosamund Clifford,’ Josse said, ‘only she’s dead now, and the other would be Alais of France. King Philip’s sister.’ Joanna didn’t seem any the wiser. ‘King Henry arranged for Richard to be betrothed to the King of France’s sister,’ he explained, ‘but-’

‘But King Henry seduced her first and then King Richard refused to marry her,’ Joanna finished. ‘Yes, I know about that. I remember Denys talking about it. I didn’t realise that the Alais they spoke of at court was the same woman.’ Her eyes widened. ‘There was scant respect in the gossip about her, considering she was a princess of France.’

‘Perhaps her behaviour was not of a kind to earn repect,’ Josse suggested.

To his surprise, Joanna laughed. ‘How very pious, Sir Josse! A princess should not allow her reputation to be tarnished, is that it?’

‘Indeed it is.’ Josse felt the need to defend his remark. ‘If those in positions of power do not set a good, moral example, then there is little hope of ordinary folk living decent lives.’

There was a short silence. Just as he was beginning to think he had offended her, she spoke. ‘You’re right, of course.’ She sighed. ‘Perhaps you should attend court, Josse. They could do with your influence.’

‘King Henry is dead and buried,’ he reminded her gently. ‘I doubt if his son and heir carries on his father’s traditions.’

‘No, perhaps not.’ She sighed again. ‘Oh, Josse, in view of what you have just said, you make this far harder than it need have been!’

‘I’m sorry. I did not intend to sit in judgement of — of anything that happened in your past.’

‘No.’ As if gathering herself, she paused, then went on, ‘The company were retiring, as I said. I was more than a little drunk and beginning to think I’d like to lie down. It was late, and I had been dancing for hours. Denys had his arms round me — he was helping me to stand, if the truth be known — and I said, Denys, I wish to go to bed now.’

She had gone pale, Josse noticed. Reliving that night was taking a lot out of her.

‘He said, go to bed you shall, young Joanna! and he took my hand and ran with me towards one of the stairs leading to the upper apartments. I said, not that way! Mother’s and my rooms are the other way, down the passage and out across the courtyard! but he kept laughing, saying that my night was just beginning, and when I pleaded with him to let me go, he laughed all the more and said didn’t I realise? I’d done what all girls dream of, I’d made people notice me! So I said, that was all very well, and there was tomorrow, and the next day, and countless more to enjoy, couldn’t I go to my own room now? And, again, he said no.’

She drew her knees up under her chin, hugging them close. It looked, Josse thought, a touchingly defensive gesture.

‘He took me along a dimly-lit corridor — I had the impression that there were a lot of people about, behind half-closed doors, and I could hear mutterings, whisperings, suppressed laughter and cries. Of course, I know now what was going on.’ A brief, hard laugh. ‘Denys tapped softly at one of the doors and somebody opened it. We went in. It was a big chamber, with a fire blazing and a few candles and, by one wall, a huge bed. It was rumpled, as if it had been slept in, with the covers half on the floor. In it was a man, well-built, strong-looking, with reddish hair going grey.’

‘Did you recognise him?’ Josse asked.

She shrugged. ‘I didn’t. By the magnificence of his bedchamber, I thought he was some lord or other — there were so many at court that Christmas, I got confused over which was which. He was sitting propped up on pillows, and there were two other men perched on the end of the bed. Denys said, Here’s my little cousin! and the man in the bed said, Ah, the Queen of the Dance! Come here, little maid. Denys pushed me forward, till I was standing right up against the bed — it didn’t smell very nice, sort of fusty, as if people had sweated in it and hadn’t changed the sheets — and the man in the bed reached out a hand and touched my — touched me on the top of my thighs. He said, You are a maid, are you not? Denys said, Aye, she is, and all the men laughed.’

Josse put out his hand and laid it on her arm. She didn’t seem to notice.

‘Then — then Denys started to take his clothes off, and they gave me warm wine to drink, and I began to feel even more fuddled, and the other men said, we shall all take off our clothes, and the man in the bed said, come in and join me before you get chilled, little maid.’ She bowed her head. ‘I didn’t want to get undressed, but they were laughing and joking and saying everyone was doing it, it was part of the fun and getting into bed together helped you all keep out the cold. Before I knew it, my lovely blue dress lay in a heap on the floor, and my undergarments too — and I was naked.’

Her voice dropped, as if she could hardly bear to speak of her shame. ‘I was the only one with no clothes at all, although I only noticed it when I was standing there with the men all admiring me. They said I was pretty, that I was fresh and innocent, a plum for the picking. I remember that in particular, that was when the man in the bed put his hands on my breasts and squeezed them. Then the other men picked me up, put me into the bed and, with Denys pressing up to me from behind, I was pushed hard against the man in the bed.’