Great Britain -- History -- Medieval period, 1066-1485 -- Juvenile fiction; Guilds -- Juvenile fiction; Middle Ages -- Juvenile fiction
But the stones would not stay in place. Roger tried plastering them with
mud, then with clay. Neither would hold when dry. Then he saw a workman
repairing part of the garden wall, and in an evil moment borrowed some
of the mortar while the man was gone to his dinner. He had just set it
down near the mount when Collet came to call the children to their own
dinner. The bucket remained there, and Lady Ebba's old gray cat,
chasing a hound she had discovered near the hole where her kittens were
secreted, bounced off a wall and fell into the mortar--fortunately hind
feet foremost. The indignant Jehan came searching for his bucket and
kicked the pile of stones in all directions, Lady Ebba made stern
inquiry into the misfortune which had come to her cat, and wall-building
was abandoned.
For a week or more, Roger gardened, fished and practiced archery in a
somewhat subdued fashion. Lady Philippa, watching Eleanor's brown head
and the boy's tousled tow-colored mop, as they consulted over a boat
Roger was making, smiled and sighed. She wished that Alazais were there
to see them play together.
Not long after the disastrous building incident Sir Walter appeared one
day with surprising news indeed. Sir Stephen Giffard, the elder brother,
was about to marry and come to live in the old Norman chateau. The new
chatelaine was a rich widow of Louvain. Sir Stephen and Lady Adelicia
would be the lord and lady of the castle, and would have the tapestry
chamber.
“Oh, moth-er!” cried Eleanor piteously. No other room in the castle
would ever be so pleasant. She could not understand her mother's
untroubled acceptance of the change.
“But my dear child,” Lady Philippa went on, “we shall not be here; we
are going away. King Henry has given your father a great estate in a
wild country in the west of England, and he is building a castle for our
home. You will be an English maiden, sweetheart, and have your tapestry
of Saint George for your very own room.”
Eleanor's eyes were starlike. Then her mouth began to droop a little.
“Is Roger to stay here?”
“Roger will be with us. His father's castle is only a few leagues from
ours, and he is going to leave Roger at our home for a year or more
while he is away.”
This made it quite perfect. Roger rejoiced openly at the prospect of
going back to England. In stray moments Eleanor wondered a little how
Lady Ebba liked it. She rather doubted whether Lady Adelicia would be as
content there as her mother.
When they rode away from the old Norman gateway for the last time
Eleanor laughed gleefully: “I don't care where we go, mother,” she
whispered, “we've the roots and seeds from your garden, and we shall
have a tapestry chamber!”
THE CASTLE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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