The Autumn Throne Read Online Free Page B

arranged that we are no longer married.’
    Alienor was neither shocked nor surprised, for she had been down this dusty path before. ‘You are speaking of an annulment?’
    He shrugged. ‘Of that kind, yes.’
    ‘Let us be clear and not mince words. You do mean an annulment. What else of “that kind” is there?’
    He looked down at the twist of gold thread between his fingers. ‘Yes, if you will have it baldly stated. An annulment.’
    ‘Youwish to make me nothing.’ Her voice was low-pitched with angry contempt. ‘You wish for me to just disappear, to not exist.’ A sensation filled her stomach like heavy stones dropping, one on top of the other. She would not let him do this to her. ‘I ask myself what benefit there is to you from such an offer?’
    He shrugged. ‘I do not see why you should object. It means we can go our own ways and cease this acrimony.’
    If there was acrimony it was because he had belittled her at every turn and was still doing so. Hiving her off to a convent and denying her the right to visit her own duchy. Perhaps he was looking to take another wife – a threat she could not ignore because if a new queen bore him children, her own offspring might be endangered. She would stand in front of a sword to protect them.
    Alienor set her sewing to one side and rose to face him. ‘I have no intention of seeing our marriage annulled, not for what you offer in exchange. The prospect of a fairer prison will not sway my intent.’
    ‘You will find you have little choice, madam. I can obtain documentation to prove our marriage was consanguineous and unlawful from the start.’
    She gave a contemptuous laugh. ‘I am sure there are many reasons for us not to be married, Henry, but they were all overcome and dealt with when we were first wed. Whatever evidence you provide, I can show equal that will give yours the lie. I may not have armies at my disposal, but that matters not in this arena. After what happened to Thomas Becket, there are many in Rome who will be delighted to uphold my case. Moreover, you have to keep me alive, because after Becket, it would be too easy for men to believe you capable of murdering your queen as well as your archbishop.’
    Henry flushed scarlet, the broken veins a purple script across his cheeks. He raised his fist. ‘By God, madam, you go too far!’
    ‘Then strike me,’ she challenged with a proud toss of her head. ‘Send me back to Sarum and then explain why to “your” sons and see just how they answer you.’
    Theystood within the embrasure, heaving for breath, glaring hatred at each other.
    ‘By God, you shall give me what I want,’ he snarled.
    ‘I care not what you do,’ Alienor retorted with bravado. ‘You have already brought me low; whatever you do, makes no difference.’
    ‘Oh, but it does. Think on it well, madam. I will ask you again before this Easter gathering is over, and by then I expect you to have come to your senses. You know the outcome if you do not.’ He shouldered her out of the way, making her stagger, and stormed from the room.
    Alienor’s knees gave way. She fumbled behind her until she felt the cushion on the window seat, and sank down, trembling. Dear Christ; he wanted an annulment so he could shove her into a convent and forget her. She had very few weapons to hand, but refusal was one of them and she would fight him all the way.
    Isabel tip-toed into the chamber and approached Alienor where she sat in numb silence. On seeing her condition, she waved the other women away and brought her a cup of wine herself.
    ‘He wants an annulment,’ Alienor said stiffly. ‘He wants me to go to Amesbury and take the veil.’
    Isabel gasped. ‘Oh my dear!’
    ‘He wants to make a nun of me and take away Aquitaine.’ She trembled with her hatred and revulsion of him. ‘He says it will be honourable; he says I will have peace and freedom from strife, but people say that about death, do they not?’ She looked at the wine, its surface