Balin and Columbine (A Children of the May Novella - Book 1.5b)

Chapter Twenty: La Belle Dame

Bellina Saunce Pité returned to the great hall of Castle Spar-Longius arm-in-arm with her new friend, Dame Maledisant of the Castle Orgulous, far across the seas to the south of Britain. Although Bellina was envious of her new friend’s title, and a particularly fine set of bejewelled lace scarves she wore around her slim hips, the two had passed the hours between the close of the feast and the commencement of pre-tournament festivities in pleasant talk. Together they had dissected the behaviour of the ridiculous girl in the scarlet dress, concluding that the girl’s presumption in approaching Merlin and the Lady of the Slates had been an attempt to gain the attention of Sir Lancelot. Then they had moved on to most delightful criticisms of the clothes, faces and physical imperfections of the other girls in attendance.

Bellina was always delighted when she found someone with almost as keen an eye and sharp a tongue as her own. The two young women had laughed so long and hard that Bellina had quite forgotten to warn Maledisant that her shift was showing above her low-cut bodice, or mention that the dress itself had fallen somewhat out of fashion. Living somewhere as remote as Castle Orgulous it was no wonder that Maledisant was a little behind the times. Bellina pitied her new friend, and planned to invite the young dame to visit her in London, where Maledisant would be able to buy more current things from the best dressmakers.

The servants had removed the tables from the great hall, leaving only rows of benches at the edges of what would soon become an arena for dancing. The royal party had gathered on the raised area around King Pellam’s throne, and were talking casually as they awaited the arrival of the champion of lower lists, the official opening of the pre-tourney dance.

The two young women strolled through the crowds of knights and nobles who had gathered around the floor. Bellina’s father and Sir Garlon were talking again, standing up near the high table, only this time the Lady of Slates was with them. Fat old Lady Helen was bending down to speak in a most unladylike manner, one that emphasised how much extra weight she was carrying around her middle. Her ugly dress, which clashed terribly with King Pellam’s robe, was positively disappearing into rolls of flesh formed by her flabby belly. No wonder she had lost her lands, looking like that. Bellina tried not to look at Merlin, who was sitting near them, with his feet dangling from the raised area. The wizard reminded her of things she would much rather put out of mind entirely.

The younger women had gathered to one side of the hall, and it was towards these that Bellina and Maledisant made their way. Bellina once again assessed the qualities of her rivals. Another part of tournament tradition was that the champion of lower lists chose an unmarried girl to partner him in the first dance. Bellina had been honoured by the choice more than once, but at sixteen summers she was not getting any younger. Although she would not have admitted it, she was worried that people were starting to laugh behind her back. She feared that they were taking notice of the fact that she was unwed, and speculating on what was wrong with her.

‘Oh Lord Jesus, not again,’ said Maledisant.

‘Oh! How embarrassing, I can hardly look.’

There was a commotion amongst the gathered girls, as humungous Lady Annow (of whom the joke was that instead of ‘anough’ she said ‘annow’) supported a white-faced, sweating girl who looked ready to collapse to the floor.

‘Elaineof Astolat,’ said Bellina, ‘she’s such an actress.’

‘You don’t have to tell me, my darling Bellina,’ replied Maledisant. ‘Elaine once pretended to faint when my brother was talking weapons at table.’ She turned her hand into a wizened claw and trembled it in front of her, as if she was having difficulty raising it. ‘Lancelot, Lancelot, said Elaine, you talk of my beloved Lancelot. To which my brother replied that no, he was talking about his lances. We call her Elaine the Blank in Castle Orgulous, after what she’s got in her head.’