Dragonblade Trilogy - 01 - Dragonblade Read Online Free

few.

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    “They call him Dragonblade,”
Ailsa Catherine Cartingdon danced around the table in the large hall of
Forestburn Manor, the Cartingdon home. “Have you heard, Toby? Dragonblade!”
    Ailsa was ten years of
age, a frail girl with golden curls. She had an energetic mind, sharp and
inquisitive, but a weak body that kept her in bed a good deal of the time. She
was always ill with something. It had started at her birth when her mother
suffered a stroke whilst in labor; Ailsa was born blue and Judith Cartingdon
had nearly died. Only by God’s grace did either of them live through it.
    “Aye, you little
devil, I have heard it,” Toby said. “But you must not say anything to him.
Perhaps he does not like the name.”
    Ailsa stopped her
excited dance. “Why not?”
    Toby shrugged, putting
the last touch on the mulled wine. “It does not sound very flattering.”
    Ailsa resumed her
dance, ending up lying on top of the table. “And do you know what else I have
heard?”
    “I am afraid to know.”
    “I have heard that
Tate de Lara is the son of King Edward the First. They say that he was saved
from his savage Welsh mother by the Marcher lords of de Lara, who then raised
him as their own. He is the half brother of King Edward the Second and was
there when the king was murdered. And some say that Queen Isabella asked him to
marry her, but he refused, so she took Roger Mortimer as her lover instead.”
    “Where do you hear
such nonsense?” Toby lifted her sister off the table.
    “From Rachel
Comstock’s mother. She knows everything.”
    Toby made a face.
“Rachel Comstock’s mother thinks that she is God’s blessing to all of Mankind
and constantly reminds us of how she was a lady in waiting for King Edward’s
mother’s sister’s cousin by marriage. Truth be told, she was probably just the
privy attendant.”
    Ailsa giggled. “She
says that Tate should be king, not young Edward.”
    Toby paused long
enough to ponder that. It seemed like such an immense prospect although she had
heard the same thing from her father, once, a long time ago. The fact that Tate
de Lara was Edward Longshanks’ bastard son was generally accepted. He had the
height and strength of the Plantagenets but the dark features of the Welsh
princes. The more she thought on his royal lineage, the more unsettled she
became. The man she would soon be supping with had a royal heritage on both
sides that was centuries old.
    “Not a word of this at
supper, do you hear?” she said to her sister. “You have no idea the seriousness
of your words.”
    Ailsa pouted. Her
sister shoved some rushes into her hand, indicating she spread them, to keep
her busy.
    “But why must I keep
silent? I want to know what it is like to live in London and I want to know of
King Edward. Do you suppose he will marry some day?”
    “I suppose so. He
must, as the king.”
    “Could he marry me?”
    Toby put her hands on
her hips, smiling at her sister in spite of herself. “No, little chicken, he
could not. He needs a woman of royal blood, not a farmer’s daughter.”
    Ailsa was back to
pouting. “But father says we have noble blood in us.”
    Toby spread the last
of the fresh rushes before the hearth. “The best we can do is claim relation to
the barons of Northumberland. The last baron, Ives de Vesci, was our father’s
grandsire.”
    “And mother is
descended from a Viking king named Red Thor.”
    “So Grandsire Toby has
told us.”
    “Do you not believe
him?”
    Toby just smiled. She
had a beautiful smile; it changed her face dramatically. She could get her
father to agree to anything when she smiled.
    “Help me see to
supper, little chicken.”
    Ailsa forgot about
Northumberland and the Viking king. She skipped after her sister, who was more
a mother to her than her real one. Judith Cartingdon had been bedridden since
Ailsa’s birth, unable to walk, barely able to speak. The care of the infant
girl had fallen upon