‘My dear lord,’ Lady Adelie replied, ‘you are truly welcome in my house, and whatever feast or entertainment I offer you, be assured it is offered out of love and respect and not out of obligation. My only fear is that your arrival in such hasty manner, and without your usual retinue, foretells some heavy and terrible tidings.’
‘I regret to say that it does, madam,’ Edmond said. He sighed, fiddling a little with his wine cup before resuming. ‘The south-east, from Dovre to Cantuaberie, is struck with plague. We have heard rumours of it in France and further east, but had hoped our realm should be spared. Not to be, I am afraid.’
‘We should have closed the ports months ago,’ Scersberie said.
‘Well enough to say that now,’ Pengraic said, ‘but then we did not understand how vilely this plague spreads, nor how long it takes to show its evil nature.’
‘My lords,’ Lady Adelie said, ‘please, tell me more. What plague? How dire, that my lord king had to flee Westminster?’
Edmond indicated that Pengraic should respond.
‘My lady,’ Pengraic said, ‘my lord king’s council has, for the past several months, received reports of a plague that had spread west from the lands of the Byzantine Empire, through the Hungarian and German duchies and into the French duchies — even the Iberian states of Aragon and Navarre have not been spared. The rumours spoke of terrible suffering —’
‘How so?’ said Lady Adelie.
Edmond shook his head slightly at Pengraic, and the countess turned to the king.
‘My lord,’ she said, ‘I must know. I carry the responsibility of this household when the earl my husband is not present. I cannot manage it weighted by ignorance.’
Pengraic flicked a glance at me before continuing, and I felt my stomach turn over. Not at the thought that he might be angry at me, or not trust me, but at the words he was now about to speak. Somehow even then I knew the horror that awaited us.
‘The sickness begins mildly enough,’ said Pengraic. ‘A feeling of malaise, then a cough. Then, a yellow phlegm expelled from the lungs.’
‘And not any phlegm,’ said Scersberie, ‘for it is not moist at all, but of a dry, furry nature.’
‘From then the sickness spreads rapidly,’ Pengraic said. ‘Once a man begins to cough the yellow phlegm, his body rapidly succumbs. Eventually, the yellow … fungus … spreads over most of his body.’
He paused. ‘And then the final horror, Adelie. This “fungus” seems composed of heat, for all too often it bursts into flame and the sufferer is burned to death in his or her sickbed.’
‘Terrible,’ said Summersete, shaking his head. ‘So many houses burned to the ground. An entire town, so I have heard, in the south of France.’
Sweet Mary, I thought. And what of all the souls burned along with the houses? Have you no thought for them?
Lady Adelie’s face was shocked, as I am sure mine was. ‘This is of the Devil!’ she said. ‘What else can explain it?’
I think she expected her husband to respond, but his eyes were downcast to his interlaced fingers in his lap and he did not speak.
‘Indeed,’ said Edmond. ‘Nothing but the Devil could be behind such horror. No one has ever seen the like.’
‘God’s mercy upon us,’ Lady Adelie murmured. ‘How is it spread? By touch? By a miasma in the air?’
‘We do not know,’ said Edmond, ‘but physicians believe that a man can be infected many weeks before any symptoms show. We had thought England safe, for there were no cases here, but it was merely that the infection had arrived weeks before any started to cough or grow the evil fungus.’
‘Or burn,’ said Summersete, and I thought he had a horrid fascination with the flames. Initially I had liked him for his youthful handsome face, but now I realised those pretty features covered a dark nature.
‘Dovre and the south-eastern villages and towns are now infected,’ said Edmond. ‘People are dying, many more are coughing up the furry phlegm. Unrest spreads.’
‘I do not doubt it,’ Lady Adelie said, making the sign of the cross over her breast. ‘Are we safe here? What can we do to protect ourselves?’
‘You are not safe,’ said Pengraic. ‘Not from the plague, not from the unrest. You and the children, and whatever of the household you wish, must depart for Pengraic Castle as shortly as you may. The Welsh Marches are isolated and safe.’
‘No!’ cried Lady Adelie. ‘I cannot! I am troubled enough with this child. I cannot undertake such a long journey back to —’
‘You must, madam,’ said Stephen, and I jumped a little at his voice, for I had almost forgot his presence. ‘You risk all — your life and that of my brothers and sisters — if you stay here.’
‘But —’ Lady Adelie began.
‘You will return to Pengraic Castle,’ said the earl. ‘It is your safe haven. Nothing, not even the plague, can leap its walls.’
‘And you?’ Lady Adelie said.
‘Pengraic will stay with me,’ said Edmond. ‘I am raising men at Oxeneford — my main party has gone there, while my queen and sons have gone north to Elesberie — and I detoured to Rosseley with your husband only to add my voice to his that you depart for Pengraic Castle.’
‘Stephen will stay with you,’ said Pengraic. ‘Edmond and I will ride with you as far as Oxeneford, and from there Stephen can escort you in a more leisurely manner to Pengraic.’
‘And what of the Welsh?’ said Lady Adelie. ‘If they think England is in disarray may not that renegade Welsh oaf who calls himself prince, Madog ap Gruffydd, lead his army on Pengraic? The castle sits on a direct route from the heart of Welsh darkness into England. Do you save me from plague only to risk me to Madog? Raife, you are sorely needed at Pengraic yourself!’
‘Madam,’ said Scersberie, ‘Madog is currently in the north of Wales. I shall need to deal with him, if any.’
‘Your words speak your doubt for our son’s abilities,’ said Pengraic. ‘Stephen is well enough the knight and castellan to keep you safe at Pengraic. And he has the garrison commander there to aid him. Ralph d’Avranches comes from a long line of Marcher Lords, both in this land and in our homelands of Normandy. He could hold a castle against the forces of the Devil himself.
‘Where is your courage, Adelie?’ Pengraic finished. ‘It is not for you to be so fearful.’
‘I fear for my children,’ Lady Adelie said softly. ‘And for this child I carry. But … I shall do as you wish, my lords. Maeb? Will you fetch Yvette? I think I shall need to rest.’
I nodded, rising and starting for the door, my mind whirling with everything I had heard.
‘Maeb.’
It was Pengraic, and I turned back to the group.
‘Remember your oath that you should not speak of what you have heard in this room. If fear spreads, then you endanger your lady’s life.’
‘I shall remember, my lord. I will not speak of it.’
With that, I left the solar and sought out Mistress Yvette.
Of what they spoke when I had gone I do not know.
CHAPTER SIX
I found Yvette and she went to Lady Adelie.
I