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PROLOGUE

England

April 1166

“I shall have her es of her sleeves brushed the stone floor, flowing and sweeping as she stalked across the solar “When I find that woman who tempts my husband from my side, ’twill be her bitter end!”

Judith of Kentworth, Lady of Lilyfare, did not flinch at her mistress’s fury It was not the first tiland and wife of Henry the Plantagenet, boiling with anger Nay, she did not flinch or skulk or hide from the queen’s wrath as the maids and even some of the more spineless ladies did She listened sympathetically, as a confidante and friend would do, for there were fehom the queen could truly count as both

“I will have her banished,” seethed the queen “Or married to a coarse Welshman and sent off to the mountains ”

“But hness, surely no man would be tempted from the side of a woman as beautiful and wealthy as yourself,” ventured Lady A as far fro queen as possible

Judith barely kept fro her eyes She would have turned on the boulder-headed Amice herself, but the queen, in as fine a fettle as Judith had ever seen her, was already shrieking at the hapless woman

“You fool! Do you not have eyes in your vacant head? The whole of his court knows of his wandering eye and his pinching fingers Get you out of here!” Eleanor cried Now, true tears, not those born of rage, threatened her blue eyes “Get froht!”

Judith pulled to her feet for ’twas past ti at Amice, the only other of Eleanor’s ladies to remain after she launched into her tirade, Judith snapped her fingers to send the foolish woman from the chamber

She and the queen were alone

“My lady…Eleanor Do you sit This raging cannot be good for the babe ” Judith gently took Eleanor’s slender arm, ready to release it if the queen wasn’t ready to succue chair piled with cushions Any intervention with the queen ently

“The babe ofher hands over the sown But she heeded Judith’s advice and sank onto the bean-filled cushions

“Some wine, my lady? Mayhap another apple?” The queen had shown a particular fondness for apples during this breeding ti and fresh apples were out of season The dried, bruised ones kept in the cellars beneath the kitchens did not ease her longing, but the king had had several baskets shipped from the Holy Lands

“See you, the king loves you, my lady,” Judith ree fruit to slice in two “Else he would not make certain that every ship from Jerusalem carries your apples ”