Chaucer"s face keeps swimming into her head, mixed up with fleeting pictures of other people to whom she"s had debts of grat.i.tude, whom she"s seen right. Her last glance back at the hall last night, when she saw Philippa Chaucer stalk up to her husband and start questioning him, and him politely waving her away - clearly refusing an invitation to gossip about Alice - has only confirmed the warmth she feels. She owes him. He won"t regret it.
The procession is pa.s.sing out of Cripplegate to an especially deafening burst of horns, leaving the worst of the crowds behind. Alice has been focusing her mind on something pleasant she can do for someone, because she hasn"t enjoyed her ride through the City one bit as much as she"d expected. The crowd of burghers has been as hostile as any crowd might be on seeing one of its own elevated beyond what Londoners think is her rightful place. She"s seen the angry eyes, the men being muscled back from around the chariot by the sergeants-at-arms, the gob of wet landing on the side of the carriage, too close for comfort. She"s heard the low hissing, the mutters. Her golden sun-chariot is so low that she"s even made out some of the words. Not just the usual perfunctory unpleasantness due any rich n.o.bleman"s mistress: "wh.o.r.e" and "slack-legs". Today it"s all been angrier and more heartfelt. "Grave-robber", she"s heard; and "spendthrift", and "Lady of the bleeding Night", and "robbing the poor old King blind".
Thank G.o.d it"s over, she thinks. She won"t bother with t.i.tles again.
Alice looks ahead to the tussocky ground stretching away towards the hill hamlets of Islington and Sadler"s Wells. In front of her is glitter and haze: the draperies, the scaffold for the ladies, the reds and golds, the elegantly dressed crowd of waiting gentry and n.o.bility. Behind her, London: the walls of the Priory and Hospital of St Bartholomew and, further back, behind Cripplegate (where, now the citizens" noise is more distant, she can hear the anxious lowing of the cows, moved for the week from their usual pre-slaughter pasture over here at the flat western end of the field), the two vast grave pits dug during the Mortality. Wherever you are, there"s no escaping reminders of the Mortality.
But it doesn"t trouble her. She"s not going to let anything trouble her. The thought of those grave pits only reminds her of her first conversation with Edward, and makes her smile. It seems so long ago, that day, back when she was a girl, even before the Queen had taken her in, sitting on a stool, pretending to be absorbed in needlework, cautiously eavesdropping on him and William of Windsor talking. She was admiring the calm way that handsome, grizzled William of Windsor addressed the monarch, with no sign his heart must be beating faster and his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth out of sheer awe at the presence of G.o.d"s Anointed. She heard William of Windsor say something about the Mortality, one of those pious commonplaces people uttered all the time while she was growing up: G.o.d"s retribution on the Race of Adam, a curse on sin, some such.
Before she knew what she was doing, Alice remembers, she found her mouth open and herself piping up, pert as anything: "Well, it wasn"t sent to kill me. me. I was born right in the teeth of it, and I survived," and she was grinning up at the pair of them, flashing her teeth, all bravado. Then, suddenly realising what she"d done by interrupting the King"s conversation, she stopped in terror. Both men were staring curiously at her. She sensed William of Windsor"s wide-open eyes were a signal to stop. But she pushed on. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, she told herself. Seize the day. She put the grin back on her face, but she could hear her voice shake a little as she continued, with a smile: "...and I"ve lived to tell the tale through another bout of it, too...as we all have, with G.o.d"s grace. Who"s afraid of the Mortality?" I was born right in the teeth of it, and I survived," and she was grinning up at the pair of them, flashing her teeth, all bravado. Then, suddenly realising what she"d done by interrupting the King"s conversation, she stopped in terror. Both men were staring curiously at her. She sensed William of Windsor"s wide-open eyes were a signal to stop. But she pushed on. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, she told herself. Seize the day. She put the grin back on her face, but she could hear her voice shake a little as she continued, with a smile: "...and I"ve lived to tell the tale through another bout of it, too...as we all have, with G.o.d"s grace. Who"s afraid of the Mortality?"
She very nearly went on to say the next things old Aunty Alison always used to say whenever she scoffed at the plague, back at Aunty"s kiln where Alice grew up. "It"s an ill wind that blows n.o.body any good," that hard old voice echoed in her head. "G.o.d"s curse for some; G.o.d"s blessing for others. So many people gone, but we"re still here, thank G.o.d, and they left it all behind for us, didn"t they? Just waiting to be picked up. The streets are paved with gold, if you only know where to look. Fortunes to be made, a king"s ransom many times over. All just waiting for anyone with a head on their shoulders to come along and take it." But fear overcame her again. She gulped and stopped. Then there was a long pause, during which Alice wished the earth would open and swallow her.
She"d always remember the way Edward"s eyes, eventually, softened and his great golden mane started to shake as he laughed. "Then you must be one of the very few of my subjects to be so blessed by G.o.d, little miss," he said, and his great l.u.s.trous eyes sparkled at her until she felt warm all over. He added, with a laugh that included her, "Or by the Devil, of course, who knows?" and the look in his eyes told her she was allowed to laugh too. In the quietness that followed, he leaned forward, saying, very casually, yet with great courtliness, "Tell me, to whom do I have the honour...?"
She was so lucky in that first conversation with Edward.
At the time, she had no idea that Edward chafed as much as she did at the notion that the Mortality was divine punishment, and that there was nothing to do but lie down and die when it struck. Later she found out that the King of England had lost two children to the sickness himself - in that first bout of it, about when she, Alice, was born. But Edward was so reluctant to stay shut away from the world that, after a fretful winter in the relative safety of Oxford and King"s Langley, he came out at the height of the plague. That April, on St George"s Day, he forced hundreds of terrified knights to risk their lives coming together at his new castle at Windsor, for the first great meeting, at the giant Round Table he"d had built in homage to King Arthur, of the Order of the Garter. Edward prides himself on defying death. (Later still, once Alice and Edward were close enough for whispering, he laughed ticklishly in her ear with his story about how his ancestor, Count Fulke the Black, had married the daughter of the Devil, and about Countess Melusine shrieking and flying out through a window of the chapel, never to be seen again, when she"d been forced to go to Ma.s.s. Alice could see he very nearly believed he was descended from the Devil. It explained so much about his devil-may-care bravery, and about his luck, too. The King"s wind, they used to call it, the wind that blew him straight to France, and victory, every time he set sail across the Channel.) Of course he liked her death-defying talk, right from the start.
The chariot"s struggling over wooden planks to a platform.
Alice gathers the folds of her robe as the door opens. She can see Edward waiting for her on the dais, smiling in the distance. But Duke John is closer, on horseback, right behind her in the train of n.o.blemen. To her pleasure, it"s he who dismounts and, taking the place of the groom, comes to her door to hand her down.
"Jewels," her new friend says in her ear, with the beginnings of a smile and the beginnings of a compliment. "Beautiful ones, too." Then, in a different voice, looking suddenly taken aback: "Oh...but...isn"t that my mother"s necklace?"
"Yes...your father got it out for me last night," Alice replies, feeling slightly apologetic all of a sudden, but trying not to sound it. His mother"s jewels - perhaps she should have thought? But it only takes a moment for blessed defiance to come back to her. She"s not stealing the jewels, for G.o.d"s sake, she tells herself. His mother"s been dead for years. Why shouldn"t she enjoy them? "And the other rubies. The rings...the bracelets..." She can"t stop herself stretching out her right hand as she says the words.
"By way of an apology," she adds, when the Duke still doesn"t say anything.
How anxious Edward looked, at the end of last evening, with the noise of the dance still going on below, when he came to her, with a sleepy scrivener trying to suppress a yawn bobbing respectfully in his wake. "I regret..." He stumbled over the words, clinging to her hand, as if he feared she might vanish, like the Countess Melusine, leaving him cold and lonely in his last days. "I very much regret...a spirited woman, Joan. Too spirited at times." He paused. She waited. No point forgiving too fast. After a second, he thrust the letter at her: an order to Euphemia, another ex-demoiselle and now wife to Sir Walter de Heselarton, Knight, who"s lodged somewhere here too, that "the said Euphemia is to deliver the rubies in her keeping to the said Alice on the receipt of this our command". Alice looked up, only half believing the words dancing on the page, straight into those pale old eyes fixed on hers, mournful, humble, imploring as a dog"s, begging for forgiveness.
She blurted, "You"re giving me the jewels? Really?" This man loves me, Alice Perrers, she thought, with a sunburst of grat.i.tude, trying not to notice the slack skin or lean neck or liver spots. His love has made me what I am.
"Oh, only the rubies," Edward replied quickly, playful again, smiling with relief, but still not giving too much away. (This is why Edward"s been so good at making common ground with the merchants, she knows; because he enjoys haggling as much as they do, as much as she does. He will do till his dying day.) Forgetting the old-man"s skin, looking into his laughing, knowing eyes, she put her arms around him. "Only the rubies, my dear," he repeated, and kissed her.
That"s what she should be teaching this Duke, who hasn"t had to have dealings with merchants, who as a younger son has been left for longer in the sunlit playground of chivalry and pageantry in which princes once existed, who hasn"t had occasion to think about the realities of modern life. He"ll need to now, if he"s going to make his play for power. He"ll have to learn. Drop the ceremonials. No one owes you everything, just because of your n.o.ble blood. Pay your way into alliances, if you need those alliances. Do what you need to do. Learn to see things for what they are.
But he"s silent, still; perhaps he"s taken some terrible princely offence at humble Alice touching his mother"s jewels? Perhaps he"s too stiff-necked ever to change?
She tries again. She murmurs, with a hint of a twinkle, "I think your father chose the rubies for the colour of the wine."
At last, he seems to decide it"s all right. He nods, and smiles straight into her eyes. "They suit you," he says after a moment, making her a dignified bow, and, after another pause, as if he"s looking for the right phrase, full enough of gentillesse: "She behaved badly. My father did right. I"d have done the same myself."
Arm in arm, they begin stepping cautiously towards Edward. There"s a warmth inside Alice, and it"s not just from the lean warmth of the arm in hers.
"Did you enjoy the ride through London?" she hears him murmur politely at her side. Perhaps he"s curious. He must have heard the Londoners muttering, too, from where he was, right behind her in the procession.
She nods, as n.o.bly as she can. Hardly thinking, she replies, "Of course." Then she stops. If they"re to be allies, she should learn to be as honest with him as she"ll expect him to be with her. So she dimples up at him and flutters her free hand. "Well, no...to tell the truth, I didn"t, really," she admits candidly. "They didn"t like me much as Lady of the Sun, those Londoners, did they?"
He actually shivers. It"s not just for her benefit; his revulsion for the common people of London, tramps, pedlars, fishwives, and the richest merchants in the land alike, shudders right through him, something he feels in every inch of his body and doesn"t mind her knowing. "Terrible people," he says. His voice is tight. "Howling like that, at a royal procession, the savages. They should be taught a lesson. Brought under control...flogged."
G.o.d be with them all, she thinks, suddenly buoyant again (though she does appreciate the Duke"s sympathy). They"re right, in a way, those Londoners; she agrees, she shouldn"t be out here pretending to be Queen Philippa and Princess Joan rolled into one scarlet silk package. She was asking to be called grave-robber, wearing the Queen"s necklace out here. She won"t do it again, because she enjoys London. She likes the way the London merchants work: cautiously, by consensus and committee; and purposefully, without the empty showing-off of the court. She shouldn"t forget that. She won"t next time. She"s learned her lesson.
So she shrugs, and grins invitingly, twisting her head sideways like a bird on a bush to include him in her merriment. "Oh, I don"t know," she differs blithely. "They"re often right, in London. I probably should should have kept a lower profile. Anyway, they"re so good at what they do - making money that can help you. You have to forgive them their outspokenness if only for that, don"t you?" have kept a lower profile. Anyway, they"re so good at what they do - making money that can help you. You have to forgive them their outspokenness if only for that, don"t you?"
"I can"t be doing with them," he mutters, shaking his head. There"s a stubborn look in his eyes, but she now thinks she sees - what, bewilderment? Interest? there too. "Who do they think they are?"
She murmurs enticingly back: "...though London, and its wealth, could be a great support to you, if you could only learn to accept the way the Londoners are." He turns his eyes to her. He wants to know, she sees. He just doesn"t want to admit it. She whispers, "I could show you how."
He"s definitely interested now. He stops walking. So does she.
"How?" he says, though he can"t keep the scepticism out of his voice. "They don"t like me, any more than I like them."
The idea comes on her like a flash of lightning; she hears the words drop from her lips even as she"s thinking it. "That"s because you need some good men who are loyal to you in the big London jobs," she replies quickly. "Londoners spend so much time talking to each other, and so much time listening. You need a talker inside the walls, who can influence them; someone who can quietly show them things from your point of view."
This is how to repay the debt of honour she incurred last night. She"s breathless with the cleverness of it. She"s thinking of the vacant job checking that Londoners aren"t skimping on their payments of wool tax, England"s biggest export. It"s the most important government job in the City, requiring diplomacy, financial know-how and intimate knowledge of both merchant and court life. is how to repay the debt of honour she incurred last night. She"s breathless with the cleverness of it. She"s thinking of the vacant job checking that Londoners aren"t skimping on their payments of wool tax, England"s biggest export. It"s the most important government job in the City, requiring diplomacy, financial know-how and intimate knowledge of both merchant and court life.
"For instance," she goes on, startling even herself, "You need a man you can trust in the wool comptroller"s post." She tightens her grip on the Duke"s arm. "And I know who."
THREE.
Master Geoffrey Chaucer, newly appointed Comptroller of the Customs and Subsidy on Wool, Sheepskins and Leather for the Port of London, can tell from the stillness and the shimmer on the water that it"s going to be another hot June day.
He"s early. It"s not yet properly light. But then he"s nervous.
Any minute now he"ll be joined on the jetty at Westminster by his companions for his first day in his new job - an old friend and a new. Meanwhile, all he can do is wait and listen to the bells ring for Lauds behind him in the royal village.
Soon, he knows, there"ll be pandemonium at the palace. All the servants will be up, running around, sweeping, carrying pails and boxes and bags and piles in and out of every imaginable gate and doorway, feeding horses or killing fowl for the table, smelling the bread smells rising from the ovens. The King"s court is to move to Sheen in a day or two, now that the mystery plays and celebrations of Corpus Christi are over. By St John"s Eve, not a fortnight hence, it"ll be off again, having eaten its many-headed way through the local food supplies, for a midsummer interlude at Havering-atte-Bower. Chaucer"s always liked the peace of Havering. He pulls his robe around his shoulders and steps on to the jetty, wishing he could feel more whole-heartedly happy to be leaving behind that brightly coloured wandering life.
It seems no time at all since Alice Perrers materialised beside him at one of the masques she so energetically organised for her week of spring festivities (one in which the players on the Pa.s.sion wagon were re-enacting a Crusade, with piercing cries and dramatically flowing crimson blood and a real fire engulfing the mock-castle as Saladin dropped writhing to his death. An incongruous background for conversation, he remembers thinking). She slipped a confiding arm through his, and whispered, with her eyes all persuasively lit up, that the King was minded to give him high Crown office in the City, if he was minded to accept...?
He couldn"t believe it at first. This is what Philippa most chides him for - failing to seek out preferment - and here it was coming at him without his even trying, in the person of the King"s favourite, this chirpy little barrel of fire, who was holding on to his arm and grinning slyly up at him as if they were old friends sharing some tremendous joke.
But going back to the City - even to do this responsible job, which will certainly earn him the King"s favour if he"s successful - seems in so many ways like a step back into his past that it"s thrown him into inner turmoil. This turmoil has gone with him through every one of the meetings with government officials that Alice Perrers has been whisking him through in the past few weeks. Every imagining he has of a future waking up to the cries of the City"s streets, and walking through those too-familiar lanes to a job among men he knew as a child, is accompanied by a p.r.i.c.kly cloud of difficult memories of the other life he"s become accustomed to, these past twenty years.
He might see more of Philippa if he"s to be in London all the time - and Alice Perrers has made plain he will be expected to be at his desk at the Customs House every day, checking the merchants" accounts. Philippa"s Castilian mistress, the wife of the Duke of Lancaster, likes her long stays at the Savoy (and who wouldn"t? Chaucer thinks, as the memories of those bright avenues and splendid halls fill his mind - another soft little knife in his side, another bittersweet sigh). The Lancastrian palace on the Strand, where Philippa spends so much of her time working as demoiselle to the d.u.c.h.ess, is only a boat ride away. Now, seeing Philippa is a mixed blessing at the best of times, but what most concerns Chaucer is that he might also have more time with his children, if he"s always in London, than he has while he"s been attached to the King"s court, as one of thirty esquires kept at my lord"s side to be quietly useful, plunging up and down the land on that endless crusade of cushions and silver-gilt cups, not necessarily going the same way, at the same time, as the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Lancaster"s court, or seeing nearly enough of little Thomas and Elizabeth.
That"s a good part of what"s made his eyes glitter at the prospect of this new job. What has made Philippa"s eyes glitter is learning of the extra pension he"ll be getting now for the Customs post, added to the ones the Duke of Lancaster (a better master by far than the tricky old King when it comes to payment) has already secured for both of them for their service to various members of the royal family. Between them, their income will now add up to nearly sixty pounds a year. For the first time, they"ll be comfortable by anyone"s reckoning. Philippa knows, of course, that she"ll be expected to do a little visible wifely duty in return - attending City dinners with him, from time to time, that sort of thing. But he knows her, and her suspicion of merchant ways, too well to expect that she"ll do more than the bare minimum. Still, he must be grateful. She"s told him, gently enough, that although she won"t live with him in the City (he couldn"t expect her to give up her life at court for merchants, after all) and she won"t hear of Thomas being taken away from court where he does lessons with the Duke of Lancaster"s daughters, and being sent instead to St Paul"s almonry school in the shadow of the cathedral, to mix with the sons of merchants, (which is where Geoffrey Chaucer got his his book-learning), she and the children will, at least, spend holidays with him in London. At least sometimes. He"s almost sure she"ll keep her word. At least, she will if she isn"t in a mood, as she too often is, to whisper to the children that their maternal de Roet blood is n.o.bler than their father"s, and to have her own coat of arms, not his, embroidered on their clothes. book-learning), she and the children will, at least, spend holidays with him in London. At least sometimes. He"s almost sure she"ll keep her word. At least, she will if she isn"t in a mood, as she too often is, to whisper to the children that their maternal de Roet blood is n.o.bler than their father"s, and to have her own coat of arms, not his, embroidered on their clothes.
Geoffrey Chaucer sighs. There"s no point in false optimism. He knows that really. She"s turned the children against him. More and more, he can see she has. All his absences, all his eager plans to win rewards from the King for his subtle negotiating, have left the children alone with their mother for too long, and Chaucer has come to realise he can"t trust her to represent him fairly to them while he"s gone. "You"re only nine," he said to Thomas, when he first noticed that the boy had displayed on his thin chest the three golden Catherine wheels on a red background which Philippa and her sister wear. "Too young to make decisions like this." Then he became aware of the plaintive whininess of his voice. Too late, he saw the boy"s eyes glaze over with watchful distance and the beginning of boredom. Trying to make a joke of it, Chaucer added, with a miserable attempt at a smile, "After all, you"ll have to get all your clothes reworked if they make me a baron and you start wanting my arms. Think of the expense."
The boy only blinked his wise blue eyes and said, more dispa.s.sionately than Chaucer would have liked, "Well, let"s worry about that if it happens." Chaucer winces when he remembers the unbearable kindness in the touch of the boy"s hand on his arm.
Still, the City"s close to the Savoy. That"s something to remember. And he"s on the path to favour, as it seems he hasn"t been till now, despite all those foreign missions for the King that haven"t got him anywhere near the state of worldly glory Philippa craves for him. He has to cling to the hope that this will turn out well, and that he might, in the end, make his children proud of their father.
Footsteps. At last.
He turns round with his most gracious smile. He bows, low, as his new friend, Baron Latimer, would expect of a fellow-courtier. It"s a practised gesture, but also a sincere one. He"s grateful to Latimer, and wants to do him honour. Latimer - the King"s chamberlain, an important man, with a glorious war record in France and fingers in every government pie - must have much else on his mind, apart from the well-being of one Master Geoffrey Chaucer, valettus. valettus. Yet the leathery-faced old baron is making this transition of Chaucer"s back to City life so painless that it often seems to the dazzled Chaucer that this is not the case. Latimer"s shown no impatience, however many times Alice Perrers has dragged Chaucer in for another briefing. He"s sat Chaucer down with him. He"s shown him doc.u.ments. He"s explained the intricacies of wool taxation. He"s performed introductions. And every act has been performed with exquisite courtesy; charm enough to make Chaucer nearly weep with grat.i.tude. Yet the leathery-faced old baron is making this transition of Chaucer"s back to City life so painless that it often seems to the dazzled Chaucer that this is not the case. Latimer"s shown no impatience, however many times Alice Perrers has dragged Chaucer in for another briefing. He"s sat Chaucer down with him. He"s shown him doc.u.ments. He"s explained the intricacies of wool taxation. He"s performed introductions. And every act has been performed with exquisite courtesy; charm enough to make Chaucer nearly weep with grat.i.tude.
So Chaucer"s glad Latimer"s coming today, to introduce him to the merchants in power in the City and settle him into his new role. He"s also glad, in a different way, that his old friend Stury has promised to come along. Sir Richard Stury, a knight of the King"s household, has been Chaucer"s friend since they were youths, boys, almost, and were both taken prisoner near Reims. Their friendship began in earnest in that week they were waiting for the ransom payments to come through. It"s never flagged. They"re two of a kind. Stury"s tall and thin and loves riding and swordplay and dancing and arguing about religion, all unlike Chaucer. But, more importantly, Stury"s a thoughtful, intelligent man, who spends most of his spare time nowadays writing poetry, as Chaucer does. They have other things in common. Chaucer and Stury are both part of the circle of young men around the King who also owe allegiance to his younger son, the Duke of Lancaster - for it is the Duke who has stepped in and spoken glowingly of them to his absent-minded royal father, who"s reminded the King to arrange pensions for them in return for their services to the Crown, who"s suggested marriages for them, and provided this favour or that, and generally smoothed out all the small difficulties that can beset a man making his way at court if he does not have a protector. Chaucer"s latest appointment is going to give them one more thing to share. They"re about to be neighbours, too. Stury has a house in the City: a riverside mansion in Vintry Ward, which he uses whenever the court"s at Westminster. He"ll often be in the City with Chaucer. They"ll read to each other, sit together of an evening, drinking and talking and looking out over the Thames, side by side.
There are moments when Chaucer feels he"s truly going to enjoy what is to come. There are moments when he feels this step back into London is going to connect him more closely to the court than he"s ever been connected before. At this moment, overcome by that feeling, he sweeps down into the deepest bow he can manage.
It"s only as he rises that he sees it isn"t Latimer, or Stury, standing in front of him.
Incomprehensibly, it"s Alice Perrers. She"s alone. She"s dressed in a simple tan travelling robe. The strong sun is casting strong shadows across her face. The breeze has tugged away her flapping veil. She"s laughing at the look of utter confusion on his face.
"Well, it"s early, and I suppose none of us looks our best at this hour...but really, Master Chaucer, it"s not gallant to goggle at me like that, as if I were the Grim Reaper come to s.n.a.t.c.h you away," she says archly. "Is it now?"
Feeling foolish, though relieved she seems to find his bewilderment amusing, Chaucer bows again, not sure if he"s making things better or worse. As he rises, he stammers, "Madame Perrers...it"s just...I wouldn"t have expected...of course, I"m honoured."
He can see now that she"s come purely to see him off - to wish him well, him, Geoffrey Chaucer. And why not? She"s been as warm, for all these weeks, as if he were her oldest friend. Still, surely it"s natural for him to be fl.u.s.tered at her suddenly appearing here now, with the old boatman he"s ordered for far too early spitting and coughing down there and giving him killer looks, with the two men who were supposed to be travelling to London with him still not here, and with him cutting a not very dashing figure hitching up his robes and helplessly waiting and even more helplessly gawping at her as if she were the Grim Reaper, as she says. Too late, he realises that was funny, and his mouth starts to twitch upwards. He still can"t believe she"s found the time, with all the royal household to run, that she"s thought to leave the King"s chamber for him.
She nods as the smile gains ground on his face, as if she"s pleased he"s still got a sense of humour. "I had to be up early anyway. I"m supervising the packing today," she says by way of casual explanation. "And it only takes a minute to run down here."
Dumbly, he nods, overcome once more.
Before he can mumble, "I"m honoured," again, she adds, more seriously, as if it were the question closest to her heart, "And I had a question for before you go. I wanted to be sure you"ve ordered a good dinner for your guests today." She gives him a piercing look, her head on one side, like a plump little bird, and waits.
Chaucer feels his mouth open and close as he stumbles towards the best reply. All his vague but tumultuous hopes for his new life have vanished as soon as he hears that question. He just feels sick. He wonders if she knows how difficult he"s finding it, or if she"s just hit by chance on his worst fear for the day.
The plan is this. After being shown his desk at the Customs House this morning, he"s to play host at dinner in his new home to the Mayor and all the greatest merchants of London.
Geoffrey hopes Philippa understands how elaborate this meal should be, how London citizens are as grand as Florentine merchant princes in their habits and expectations, and how lavish they"ll expect the hospitality of the man who will dare to check their books to be.
But he"s miserably aware that there was something too dismissive about his wife"s shrug when, at their last meeting three days before, as she set off to move their cushions and tapestries and silverware into the new City apartment, he asked for a list of dishes.
"It"s all in hand," Philippa said, refusing to be drawn. When he started to say something more, she just flapped her hands at him. "It"s going to be a Friday," she added, too calmly. "Fish. Yes?" And she wafted off.
Unhappily, he thinks: I can influence most people. If only I could my wife. He lifts hangdog eyes to Alice Perrers" face, and sees she understands the whole family drama he isn"t going to tell her.
"They"ll expect the best," is all she says. Then she pats his arm, comfortingly, though the gesture reminds him, uncomfortably, of Thomas"s similar one during that other conversation. "But of course you know that, don"t you?"
He nods. He"ll just have to hope for the best. He"s glad to see, behind Alice"s back, that the two shapes he"s been looking for are finally here, and sauntering closer. He"ll feel better once they get started. He doesn"t want to have any more time to worry.
Yet unease follows Chaucer on to the river, and beyond.
He tries to relax on the mouldy cushions of the boat. He watches a swan and her cygnets float by, their beaks marked with the two lines of the Vintners" Company, and begin an altercation with a family of ducks. He flexes his fingers. He bites his lips.
Kindly, Latimer lets him be. The chamberlain starts a quiet conversation with Stury, on the other bench. But Latimer"s voice, from those earlier briefings, still fills Chaucer"s head.
England"s biggest export is wool. The wool trade has been booming for decades, even if the last couple of years haven"t been so good, what with the war. The merchants who buy wool from farmers around England and sell it overseas at the Flanders cloth markets have become both rich and powerful - the richest among them with incomes greater than those of the mightiest prince, wealth extraordinary enough to take on even the princely traders of Florence and Venice. The King, who understands the ways of his barons and peasants, but doesn"t completely understand this new kind of man - a man governed by coin, not chivalry - needs eyes and ears to help explain the merchants to him; explain how best he should love them, and how best to attract their money to him.
The King needs to know, because the King needs those merchants, now he"s up to his own eyeb.a.l.l.s in war debt; oh, how he needs them. Their wool and their taxes pay for his war. And, because, over time, he"s shown himself willing, every now and then, when his need is great, or the opportunity is tempting, to cheat them - just a little, as is his royal right, in the interests of the nation - they don"t fully trust him, any more than he fully trusts them. They might want to cheat him back. It"s to be Chaucer"s job to stop them if they try.
The two hundred English merchants run the wool export trade as a monopoly (from a headquarters that for years before the war was based, for convenience"s sake, at Calais, the English-ruled garrison mid-way between England and Flanders; only now that the war"s started again, and Flemish buyers can"t get across enemy French territory to Calais, the Wool Staple"s had to be moved to the safety of Middleburg, in Flanders itself, so the merchants don"t go broke). The Merchants of the Staple still finance the King"s garrison at Calais, even in these hard times, when they can"t actually trade there. They don"t have much choice. The King asks for their money, with tears in his handsome Plantagenet eyes, with a tremble in his elegant French, "for the sake of our beloved England". Their French isn"t as good as his, but they understand. They pay up. They make an agreement with the King as to how he"s going to repay them, one day, by letting them off some of their future wool customs dues to the Crown. It"s all signed and sealed with many-coloured wax, but no one can really hope to be repaid. But, after that, right here and now, the merchants must provide actual gold and silver, and make coins at the mint they"ve set up at Calais, and give it over to the soldiers waiting and grumbling in the salt swamps of north France.
So it makes the Merchants of the Wool Staple angry with the King if they find out he"s been cheating them - for instance by granting special licences to the Italian merchant community trading out of London, so the foreigners can bypa.s.s all the weighing and measuring and customs-paying that English merchants have to endure at Calais or Middleburg. This blithe cheating keeps the Italians happy, as they get to make a bigger profit margin while undercutting the English merchants" sales prices later, at the Flanders wool fairs. It makes the King happy, too, because how can the Italians then refuse when he asks them for a direct loan, to help pay for his war in France?
But there isn"t much the Merchants of the Wool Staple can do about being ripped off by their King, except grin and bear it and, when the King then asks them for a direct loan, too (since the Italians have been so generous), to agree, and ask to take on the Italians" loan, too, on condition the Italians have their special licences cancelled, so the English, at least, get their monopoly of wool exports back. And then they"re left shouldering a double debt burden, with no guarantee that the King might not, tomorrow or the next day, take it into his head to do another quiet little deal with another Italian to get off scot free from all taxes for a quick cash payment now. There"s nothing the merchants can do openly to let off steam. Sometimes the English merchants" apprentices, having heard unpleasant things said about the Italian merchants of London at their masters" tables, get drunk and go and beat up the nearest Italian. The apprentices are savagely punished. Hanged, often. There"s never any question of calling the King to account.
Chaucer"s job will not be to call the King to account. It will be to be the royal eyes and ears inside London. He will deal with the pre-exports: what leaves England. London is the last place a King"s man can, realistically, get at the wool due for export; after that it"s entirely in the hands of the merchants themselves. For almost the entire wool crop leaving England goes through London, where it is packed and weighed and warehoused by merchants; and it"s here that the greatest merchants live. It will be Chaucer"s job to reweigh the wool crop, sack by sack, and go through the merchants" paperwork, and to form his own view of how big the English trade in wool really is, and how much the merchants should really have paid the King for these exports, or for others, and, generally, to increase the King"s income from the City merchants in whatever way he sees fit.
"Be one of them," Latimer has told Chaucer. "Make them feel at home with you. Listen to their privy talk. You"ll know how. But always remember the reckoning. The bill for these past three years of war has been PS200,000, and the truce that"s holding now won"t last for ever. As long as you"re clearing more than 25,000 sacks of wool a year, and getting an annual yield of PS70,000 on it, England"s still afloat. More or less," and here, Chaucer recalls, the Baron"s face wrinkled into a long, mirthless grin that was more like a snarl. "At least, as long as the Pope doesn"t also come back with his begging bowl. Thirty thousand for his Italian wars, indeed. We can"t afford to pay to fight the French and for him him to wage wars too. Things are far too tight as it is." to wage wars too. Things are far too tight as it is."
The vast amounts take Chaucer"s breath away, even more than the tightness of the royal finances, the narrowness of the margins, and the King"s reliance on a mixture of charm and bullying of the entrepreneurs whose language he doesn"t even speak (the King sticks to French) to keep England staggering on. He feels naive to be so astonished by these enormous figures. But he is. Chaucer lives in small coin, on graces and favours. The sheer staggering weight of the money being talked about is beyond his ken.
And when they disembark, his welter of conflicting emotions only swirls more wildly.
He shouldn"t be surprised, he tells himself. It"s years since he"s been surrounded like this by his father"s acquaintances. He was a child. Watching these half-dozen mostly familiar faces now, the jowls and wrinkles more accentuated than he remembers, the stubble going grey or white on firmly jutting chins (though the furs on their long gowns, worn despite the heat of the day, are more splendid than ever), he feels, almost, a little boy again - the little boy his father used to get in to serve the merchants their wine in the Chaucer house on Thames Street. That smaller Chaucer used to listen admiringly to the talk about pepper imports and mackerel catches and the iniquity of the law allowing foreign merchants to retail their goods on English soil and the quality of this year"s wine from Gascony, while outside on the wharves that you could see, dimly, through the gla.s.s windows (how proud his father had been of those gla.s.s windows), the men running like ants under the winches, watching the barrels swinging down, and the flash and splash of river traffic. Back then, Chaucer knew that any minute he"d feel his father"s hand ruffling his head or patting his back. Those quiet, fond, proud touches, which in the manner of small boys trying to be big he never acknowledged, but which he always quietly put himself in the way of, are all that"s missing now.
He presses his lips and eyelids together. No point in regrets. John Chaucer, who so wanted to better himself that he spent the Mortality years trailing around France in King Edward"s baggage train buying wine for the forces, and then for the King himself, would have been proud to see his son here today, stepping up to the Wool Wharf, the powerhouse where English wealth is made, measured and exported, in the very shadow of the Tower of London, being deferred to by the powerful men he worked so hard to make his own friends.
Chaucer looks around. This year"s Mayor is in the welcoming party (a stringy grey man from a lesser guild; Chaucer has no childhood memories of him him). More importantly, the man who"s about to become Mayor for the next year is here too: William Walworth, fishmonger and alderman of Bridge Ward, a tall, ascetic-looking man with spun-gold hair and the innocent face of an angel. Chaucer remembers Walworth"s long, thin legs, crossing and uncrossing themselves, the elegant, tendony ankles, the high-arched feet, from a very distant past in which the little Geoffrey played quietly under the table with his ball or top, listening to the men"s voices. But it"s another of these familiar men - Nicholas Brembre, tall burly Brembre, now alderman for Bread Street Ward - who steps superbly forward from the furry, velvety, ba.s.s-voiced cl.u.s.ter and takes it upon himself to reintroduce the rest. Walworth just stands behind Brembre, looking avuncular. Perhaps, now Walworth has secured the mayor"s office for himself for a year, he"s letting his friend show his paces in time for next year"s selection - for, Chaucer knows, Walworth, Brembre, and the stocky, balding man at his side, John Philpot, a grocer like Brembre, are famous for sticking together and protecting each other"s interests. Between them, the three victuallers pretty much run the City. They share the mayor"s and sheriffs" jobs among themselves, year in, year out. And these are the three London men to whom the King comes, year in, year out, asking for money. Chaucer can see for himself how closely they cooperate. Even now, they"re standing together, shoulder to shoulder, making sure he sees their faces first; keeping the lesser men back.
Chaucer remembers Brembre best, from childhood. All that dark energy, those forceful gestures, years ago, once rather frightened little Geoffrey. But now Chaucer has adult eyes in his head, and what he sees with them is that Brembre has become golden. Almost physically golden. The grocer"s skin is gilded, as if by the sun, or (perhaps more plausibly for a man who spends his daylight hours in warehouses, checking his inventories of pepper and saffron and pomegranates) just by good fortune and soft living and ambition satisfied. He"s smooth and honeyed with success. His blue eyes sparkle as brightly as ever, his face is as animated as Chaucer remembers it being long ago, though his large, regular features seem bigger and smoother, his black hair is silver-streaked, and success has slowed the man"s once rapid, excitable speech into a deeper, calmer purr. "My dear Geoffrey," he says, very warmly, putting an arm around Chaucer"s back, as if claiming ownership. "We are all delighted to welcome you back to London."
Chaucer feels the muscle on that arm even through the gown; it"s as if Brembre, despite his peaceful calling, is made of iron. Brembre has straight, thick, dark eyebrows too; smooth jet-black, like his smooth hair once was. He raises one of these determined eyebrows, and smiles directly into Chaucer"s eyes. Chaucer feels exhilarated by that frank, compelling gaze. "And I", he says, finding his voice, borrowing the warmth of his tone from that of the merchant, "am delighted to be once again among the kind of men I can do business with."
They murmur appreciatively.
Here"s where the future will happen, Chaucer sees, as, bowing his big square head in exaggerated respect, Brembre propels him, with a large, warm, clean hand, to where he will sit, inside the Customs House, now he is comptroller.
Across the room, behind the wall of velvet-clad shoulders, stands an enormous desk. Over there, the merchants of London, every day, write down on the Roll exactly how much wool has been weighed and dispatched, and what taxes have been charged on it. Over here, but separately, at a second enormous desk, Chaucer the comptroller will keep his own independent record in the Counter-Roll. Once a year they"ll compare Roll and Counter-Roll. With all the tact at his disposal, Chaucer will have to tackle these powerful financiers over any discrepancies, and make the sums add up to the King"s satisfaction.
Chaucer takes a deep breath to calm his fast-beating heart. Bowing again to the gathering, he says, skittishly, "So, masters, let me try my seat for size," and acknowledges their rumbles of laughter with a bow as he gathers his robes in his hands and sits down behind his desk.
He"s glad to be seated while they"re standing - all those big, well-covered men with enormous hands and strong bodies that don"t notice the heat, despite their long furry gowns. They remind him of a flock of waterfowl - geese, or swans, or herons - all so large, yet so implausibly smooth in every movement. They"re tougher than their peaceable gowns make them seem. For all their puffed-up chests and dignity, he can imagine any or all of them mercilessly pecking out the eyes of any impertinent lesser bird, any duck or moorhen or coot that gets in the way of their majestic glide through the waters they rule. And how they"re devouring him with their watchful eyes, all of them, he thinks, suddenly. They"re no fools. They"re wondering if he"ll be trouble. Sizing him up.
Behind him, he"s aware of Latimer and Stury, his court friends, giving Walworth and his merchant friends the same beady looks the merchants are giving him. They"re wondering whether Chaucer will be tough enough to stand up to the merchants. They"re sizing them them up. up.
Chaucer knows, secretly, that his court friends are right to worry about his loyalty. A part of him feels he"s come home as he looks at these smooth merchant faces. When, a moment ago, Brembre has flamboyantly presented his stout friend as "my worshipful colleague, John Philpot, a grocer like myself...alderman for Cornhill Ward...you may recall?" Chaucer knows he"s only just managed to find it in him to refrain from laughing in pure delight. For of course he knows Philpot, and definitely knows of him - he knows that Philpot and Brembre are financing a fleet for the south coast, and have also just reshaped the City"s trade a.s.sociation for victuallers, giving it the new name of grocers and spending fortunes on setting it up grandly.
But that"s not why he"s having to struggle to keep the merry grin off his face. The grin"s because of the memory that pops unbidden into Chaucer"s head of Philpot"s smooth hand reaching out towards him, pa.s.sing over a gingerbread man with a silvery crown on its head, and of that soft voice, quivering with amus.e.m.e.nt, saying, "Don"t make yourself sick now, my boy."
Chaucer can"t choke off that memory altogether. He isn"t able not to p.r.o.nounce the words "Dear Uncle John" with a rush of real affection, or to refrain from saying, out loud, "Why, of course. We"re old friends." And even he"s surprised to find himself embracing both princes of grocers with such affection that, for a dangerous moment, he feels the mercantile deputation melt and relax, while the courtiers behind him bristle. He"ll have to get a grip: to reapply his courtly manners and his air of polite watchfulness, before any of them take him for a pushover. Forget the gingerbread. He has a job to do.