Grisly Grisell; Or, The Laidly Lady of Whitburn: A Tale of the Wars of the RosesYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
History
Grisly Grisell; Or, The Laidly Lady of Whitburn: A Tale of the Wars of the Roses
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Great Britain -- History -- Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485 -- Fiction
The move in the open air had partly revived him, partly made him
feverish, and he continued to murmur complacently his thanks to Eleanor
for tending her “wounded knight,” little knowing whom he wounded by his
thanks.
On one point this decided Grisell. She looked up at Lambert, and when he
used her title of “Lady,” in begging her to leave old Mother Abra in
charge and to come down to supper, she made a gesture of silence, and as
she came down the broad stair—a refinement scarce known in England—she
entreated him to let her be Grisell still.
“Unless he accept me as his wife I will never bear his name,” she said.
“Nay, madame, you are Lady of Whitburn by right.”
“By right, may be, but not in fact, nor could I be known as mine own self
without cumbering him with my claims. No, let me alone to be Grisell as
ever before, an English orphan, bower-woman to Vrow Clemence if she will
have me.”
Clemence would not consent to treat her as bower-woman, and it was agreed
that she should remain as one of the many orphans made by the civil war
in England, without precise definition of her rank, and be only called by
her Christian name. She was astonished at the status of Master Groot,
the size and furniture of the house, and the servants who awaited him;
all so unlike his little English establishment, for the refinements and
even luxuries were not only far beyond those of Whitburn, but almost
beyond all that she had seen even in the households of the Earls of
Salisbury and Warwick. He had indeed been bred to all this, for the
burghers of Bruges were some of the most prosperous of all the rich
citizens of Flanders in the golden days of the Dukes of Burgundy; and he
had left it all for the sake of his Clemence, but without forfeiting his
place in his Guild, or his right to his inheritance.
He was, however, far from being a rich man, on a level with the great
merchants, though he had succeeded to a modest, not unprosperous trade in
spices, drugs, condiments and other delicacies.
He fetched a skilful Jewish physician to visit Sir Leonard Copeland, but
there was no great difference in the young man’s condition for many days.
Grisell nursed him indefatigably, sitting by him so as to hear the sweet
bells chime again and again, and the storks clatter on the roofs at
sunrise.
Still, whenever her hand brought him some relief, or she held drink to
his lips, his words and thanks were for Eleanor, and more and more did
the sense sink down upon her like lead that she must give him up to
Eleanor.
Yes, it was like lead, for, as she watched his face on the pillow her
love went out to him. It might have done so even had he been disfigured
like herself; but his was a beautiful countenance of noble outlines, and
she felt a certain pride in it as hers, while she longed to see it light
up with reason, and glow once more with health. Then she thought she
could rejoice, even if there were no look of love for her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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