I’ve one as well. I lay in bed this morning staring at the dark folds of its curtains and worked it out most beautifully while he was still asleep. ‘Your best plan for keeping him is to make sure he gets a child on you as soon as possible, chérie,’ was Maman’s best advice while she saw to the packing for her journey home. ‘Of all the knights who take the cross, I am persuaded more than half will end by paying an amercement to forswear the oath and stay where they belong,’ she said. ‘The cost of the journey will show most of them the error of their choice. But add a warm wife with a swollen belly to the argument, and it’d be a cold sort of man who’d turn his back and ride away.’ ‘Be sure I’ll always think of you, Elise, and be there when you need me,’ was rather what I wish she’d said before we parted. But she didn’t. What Maman did was kiss me soundly on both cheeks, remind me that too kind a mistress makes for idle servants, then turn her own back on me to ride out with her laden mules.
