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Gurdun went to take up her hand again, but at a look from Richard forbore. The Count went on with his interrogatories, outwardly as calm as a field of snow. 'In whose name art thou promised to this knight, Jehane? In thy brother's? 'No, lord. In my own. 'Am I nothing? She began to cry. 'Oh, oh! she wailed, 'You are everything, everything in the world.
'Dear sire, my cousin, the Abbot Milo went out of Acre three weeks before the death of the Marquess. With him also went Madame Jehane; but he returned without her. This is all I know, though it is not all that the abbot knows. At the mention of her name the King took a sharp breath, as you or I do when quick pain strikes us.
'Oh, my dear life, my pride and my master, said Jehane, 'let all come to me that must come now; I am rich above all my desires, and my lowliness has been of no account with God. Now let me go, blessing His name. He would not let her go, but still looked earnestly down at her, struggling with himself against himself. 'I must be married, Jehane, says he presently.
When Jehane saw her stand on the steps of the church amidst the pomp of Normandy and England three archbishops by her, William Marshal, William Longchamp, the earls, the baronage, the knights, heralds, blowers of trumpets; when at her example all this glory of Church and State bent the knee to Richard of Anjou, and he, kneeling in turn, kissed his mother's hand, then rose and to the others gave his to be kissed; when he, vowed to her, pledged to her, known of her more secretly than of any, passed through the blare of horns alone into the soaring nave Jehane shivered and crossed herself, faltered a little, and might have fallen.
Here we are at Lammas. 'There will be a miracle, said Richard; 'I am sure of it. Go. Fairly pushing him from the door, he returned to find Jehane in a dead faint. This set him raving a new tune.
But Jehane spent part of the interval in the chapel, with her hands crossed upon her fine bosom. The God in her heart fought with Him on the altar. She said no prayers; but when she left the place she sent a messenger for Gilles de Gurdun, the blunt-nosed Norman knight who loved her so much that he said nothing about it.
'Again I say, fear nothing, Gaston cried; but Jehane strained out as far as she could. 'You must go away from here. The window is broken now, and they will find me out. Take a message to my lord. If he is free indeed, he knows me his in life or death. I seek to do him service. Wed or unwed, what is that to me? I am still Jehane. 'Your name is Red Heart, and Golden Rose, and Loiale Amye!
He was never quite the same to Richard again; but he made great friends with Prince John. With all these, and with their courtiers, who took complexion from their masters, Jehane had to hold the fair way. As a mistress who was to be a wife, the veiled familiarity with which she was treated was always preaching to her. How dare she be a Countess who was of so little account already?
The French King, the Duke, and their trains went to Paris. At bottom Richard was as deliberate as a pair of scales; and just now was acting the perfect king, the very touchstone of justice. Through all this time of great doings Jehane stayed quaking at home, sitting strangely among her women a countess who knew she was none, a queen by nature who dreaded to be queen by law.
When Gurdun squared himself and puffed his cheeks, and stood up; when Jehane, touched by Saint-Pol on the shoulder, shivered and left staring, and stood up in turn, swaying a little, and held out her thin hand; when the priest had the ring on his book, and the two hands, the red and the white, trembled to the touch Richard rose from his knee and stole forward with his long, soft, crouching stride.
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