Free The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer

of this there came in three young men, solemn-eyed, lanky youths, who knelt before the Duke while their father proudly told over their names to his liege-lord.
    ‘Behold your lord!’ he admonished them. ‘You will be his escort. On your lives, leave him not till you have brought him safe to Falaise!’
    ‘On our heads be it,’ the eldest of them said in a deep, serious voice, and put his hands between the Duke’s.
    So they rode at length to Falaise, leaving Hubert to lead the pursuers off the track. This he did so guilelessly that at the end of an hour’s tricky riding, when he left the hungry band, they still believed him their well-wisher, and zealously followed up the road he had indicated.
    At Falaise the Duke stayed only a night. The town was a loyal outpost in the middle of hostile territory, and news came in soon enough. All the land west of the Dives was in open revolt under Néel de Saint-Sauveur, and Ranulf, Viscount of Bessin, while in Bayeux Guy, the son of Count Raymond of Burgundy, was declared the true ruler of Normandy by right of his mother, Alicia, the daughter of Duke Richard II. His manifesto was made public, wherein he denounced William as base-born and unfit to govern. William showed his teeth when he heard of it, and rode at once to Rouen, escorted by a bodyguard of picked men.
    The capital welcomed him with loyal alacrity. He was met with great pomp by his uncles, William, Count of Arques, and Mauger, the Archbishop of Rouen, riding in splendour at the head of the faithful vassals. Strangely in contrast to this cavalcade the young man in the plain tunic and flowing mantle reined in his horse hard upon its haunches, and stiffly returned the salute of half a hundred men. He lodged in the episcopal palace, and all that evening he sat in conference with his uncles: William, hostile, yet for the moment loyal; Mauger, sleek man, setting his finger-tips together, and regarding their whiteness in meditative silence. My lord Bishop kept great state, and housed his nephew royally. William lifted his brows at the wealth of gold plate and costly hangings, but said nothing. Raoul, wandering over the fine palace, caught a glimpse of an opulent lady, who wore silk and many jewels, but he also held his peace.
    At the conference it was decided that the Duke should ride to the Court of King Henry, who lay at Poissy, and there petition his aid against the rebels.
    The Count of Arques misliked the scheme, and spoke hotly of past wrongs. ‘ Allancz al roy? ’ he repeated. ‘Go to the King? Heart of a man, are we to forget how Henry seized Tillières? I would not trust the French Fox, no, not I!’
    But Mauger smiled, and said smoothly: ‘This is to bind him to us. He dare not refuse.’
    ‘So I think,’ the Duke said. His deep voice sounded oddly after Mauger’s silken speech. ‘I will not nurse up old hostilities towards my suzerain.’
    He was gone again the next morning, riding at the head of an escort to the French border in his usual headlong way. He made his knights feel breathless, but they admired him. It was a tired but a proud company that at length reached Poissy, and reined in before the drawbridge of the castle. A herald cantered forward to the very edge of the bridge, and shouted his announcement in a voice like a clarion: –
    ‘William, by the Grace of God Duke of Normandy, craves audience of his Most Puissant Majesty Henry, King of France!’
    Poissy was startled; as the Duke’s troop rode into the bailey men had already run to warn the King’s attendants of this unexpected coming. Within an hour of his arrival William was ushered into the King’s presence. He stalked in, attended by the Lords of Arques, Gournay and Montfort, and by three knights, of whom Raoul was one, and found the King seated on a dais in his chair of state, with his nobles round him.
    William’s hawk-gaze swept the hall. He advanced into the middle of the floor, and knelt stiffly, looking into the King’s