Nodding quick, I squeezed her hand. “Yes, Eleanor.”

She held on to my hand but looked at Essex. “She has been recovering,” she explained. “Most recently from saving all of our lives in that dreadful episode, but before that from Prince John’s unlawful detainment of her.”

“Unlawful?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.

“The king pardoned her actions, but John would not release her. I am quite displeased with him,” she said grave.

Essex frowned.

“Perhaps you would escort her for a short walk, your Grace. It so helps her strength, and yet I don’t like the idea of her walking alone in such a weakened state.”

I scowled. “Eleanor, I surely—”

“Very well,” Essex said, glaring now at me.

Eleanor nudged me, and Margaret smiled gentle at me as I walked around them, clamping my mouth shut tight to take his offered arm.

“Lead the way, my lady,” he said.

I drew a breath and led him.

We didn’t speak for a long while. We left the cloisters through the arched walkways, and went out to the church garden that neighbored the graveyard. The sun ducked behind a cloud, and I envied its ability to do it.

I looked at his hard stone face and sighed. “Why did you agree to walk with me?” I asked.

“My queen asks, and I do her bidding,” he told me.

“Yet you take the princess’s word over hers and form a low opinion of me,” I said.

He glanced at me. “She said you spoke like a wild thing.”

I swallowed. “I don’t always.”

“She said you were cruel to her.”

My brows drew tight. “Never with intention, my lord. She and I often disagreed, but she was also one of the few women who ever had an opinion. I liked that about her.” I wanted to tell him that she mocked me, that she were cruel to me and never the other way round, but I hardly thought that would sway him. “Besides, I always rather thought she and I have an enemy in common.”

“Enemy, my lady?” he said, leaning his head to me with interest.

“Do you know how I came to lose my fingers?” I asked him. “Did she ever tell you that?”

“Just that you didn’t have them,” he told me.

“Prince John cut them off me,” I told him soft. “He asked my husband to hold me still, and he cut them off with a knife. Because I displeased him.”

He looked straight ahead, a muscle bunching up in his jaw. “That has nothing to do with Isabel,” he said, defending her.

“Perhaps not,” I said. “I am not in her highness’s confidence, and I would never ask you to betray such to me. But I’ve known cruel men. They are cruel to anyone who cannot fight them back. And I cannot imagine Isabel has never witnessed that, even if he wouldn’t dare hurt her.”

Essex looked at me, his eyes heavy, dark, and guarded, and I wondered if Prince John had ever hurt Isabel.

He looked ahead, and his throat worked. “I was not under the impression you were someone who could not fight back.”

I lifted my shoulder. “He took my fingers. He tried to murder me,” I said, and Essex’s face jerked to look at me. I looked at him. “I can fight back. But more importantly, my lord, what I can never do is give up.”

“He tried to kill you. A lady of the court. A royal.”

I nodded. “And I’m sure he will try to make a liar of me—he’s clever, and he planned this, while I never had such luxury. But yes.”

“He knew of the pardon?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Perhaps.”

“But he knew of your relationship? He knew he is your uncle.”

“Yes.”

“It’s a wonder he didn’t fear Richard’s reprisal. I cannot imagine the king will take well to that.”

I looked at him. “It is a wonder,” I said back, slow and meaningful.

He drew a breath, looking ahead again. He let it out slow. “Do you know of any plans to that end?”

“Not yet,” I said. “Not so concretely.”

“You cannot win against Prince John if you do not win Isabel,” he told me.

I frowned. Were she that powerful? “Why?” I asked.

“Because if you don’t win her, you cannot win me. No matter what danger it might save her from, I won’t betray her friendship.”

My brows lifted.

“And without me, you won’t hold against him.”

I nodded. “Well, I thank you for your honesty, sir.”

He glanced round, his eyes catching to the north. I followed his gaze and saw a cloud of dust rising on the horizon. “Another noble has answered her call,” Essex said. “Allow me to lead you back.”

I nodded.

Chapter 10

Two others arrived. They were Hugh Bigod, the son of the slightly more elderly Earl of Suffolk, and, looking particularly frantic to ensure the safety of Eleanor’s ladies, Winchester. I watched as Eleanor greeted him and his eyes fell to Margaret the whole while. Margaret looked at him in the same warm way, but it were shy and unsure now. Since that man put his hands on her.

A storm rolled in on Winchester’s heels, and as much as I wanted to leave, I weren’t in a state to risk being ill by riding all night in the rain. Eleanor bid me to stay for dinner, and I obeyed.

Eleanor dismissed much of the pomp and circumstance that her guests should have observed. She called for a modest dinner with the abbot and her attendants and guests.