Denial II, Chapter 26: A Warm Welcome
Title: Denial II, Chapter 26: A Warm Welcome
Author: wastingyourgum
Characters/Pairings: Legrand, Queen Eleanor, Robin, Little John
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama, Angst
Words: ~2400
Disclaimer: BBC & TA own; we just want to play in their universe
Notes: Beta'd by robinfanatic and jagnikjen . Takes place after AU 2x13 but prior to 3x01
Introduction and chapter links for Denial II are here...
Summary: Eleanor welcomes Legrand back to Poitiers and makes him an offer...
>>-------------------->
Chapter 26: A Warm Welcome
"Le Comte de Châtellerault, Madame."
Queen Eleanor looked up from the parchment she was studying as her courtier announced her guest.
"Thank you. You may leave us." The courtier bowed deeply and retired. Eleanor waited until the door had completely closed behind him before she rose from her throne, placing the parchment on the now vacant chair.
She slowly approached the old friend who knelt before her with his head bowed. Even on bended knee his head was almost level with her chest. Eleanor couldn't resist a small smile. She'd used that fact to her distinct advantage when they'd both been much younger. She leaned over and kissed him on both cheeks.
"Guillaume. I am so glad to see you fully recovered. It's such a pleasure to welcome you back to Poitiers."
"It's a pleasure to be back, Your Grace."
Eleanor frowned. The tone of Legrand's voice far from matched his words. She moved to one of the window seats overlooking the small garden. "Join me, please."
He sat beside her, taking a deep breath of the warm spring air rising up from the grounds outside. "I have missed that smell," he said wistfully. "Each time I heard you had sent the king something, I would find a reason to visit him in case you had included some dried flowers."
"A reason?" Eleanor said. "You never used to need a reason to visit Richard. He used to struggle to find reasons to let you out of his sight rather than into it."
Legrand smiled but his voice held an undeniable edge of bitterness. "The crusade commands a lot of his attention. As do some of his younger knights."
Eleanor sighed. Richard's affections were notoriously fickle. Legrand's tenure as his favourite had been far longer than most, but its waning had always been a foregone conclusion. She knew that Richard knew Legrand's love for him went far further than just a knight's devotion to his king. She had hoped her son would be as considerate as possible to her former champion but Legrand was always going to be hurt by Richard inevitably moving on to his next lover.
"I am truly sorry, Guillaume. My sons seem to take after their father in considerations of others' hearts...and you deserve so much better."
"Better than a king?" Legrand said sadly.
"Better than a man who takes your affection and offers none in return," she answered.
Legrand choked and turned his head away.
He quickly regained his composure and Eleanor decided a change of subject might be advisable. "So you have spent all these months since I saw you last with Robin of Locksley and his famous outlaws. Tell me of them."
Legrand looked even more pained for an instant, as if he was still dwelling on the previous topic, but then he replied, "Locksley you knew already, of course, but as for his men... You met them yourself, Your Grace, and there is not much else to say. The first impressions one gains of each of them prove to be correct. They are all honest and straightforward people. Djaq, the Saracen who saved my life and Will, the young carpenter, decided to remain in the Holy Land. The king married them and they are expecting a child together."
Eleanor beamed at that news. "How wonderful! I would have loved to be there. I must send them something for the child."
"We met Brooks on the boat travelling both to and from Cyprus. He had already encountered Much and Carter previously. He is a good man, if a little...reckless."
"I understand there was another who joined you in the Holy Land?"
"Yes, Allan A'Dale. He was severely wounded trying to protect King Richard." Legrand frowned, still clearly feeling some guilt over another doing what he felt should have been his job. He is staying with Will and Djaq so she can attend to him as he recovers. He had formerly been in Locksley's group but was working for the sheriff at the time you were in England. He and the sheriff's master-at-arms, Sir Guy of Gisborne, were absent on other business at that time."
"That other business being the Lady Marian," Eleanor prompted and almost laughed at Legrand's look of surprise. "I still have my sources, Guillaume. You of all people should know that there is not much that gets past me."
"No, Your Grace. I know nothing could happen here especially, without you being aware of it." Legrand looked almost embarrassed as he said this and Eleanor had to carefully consider his possible meaning before she replied.
"You mean, have I noticed how Carter and Much are barely speaking to each other? Sadly, I have no need of intrigue to determine that. I've also noticed that since you all arrived yesterday, you do not seem to have spent much time with them or with Locksley and his men. I had assumed you had grown quite close to them."
"I...thought it best to distance myself from them before they return to England and I return to the Holy Land with Much and Carter. Besides they are your guests here, whereas I am here as a member of the Royal Guard. It would not be fitting for me to socialise with them."
"Yes...your return. That is one of the other things I wished to discuss with you."
"Your Grace?"
"The captain of my Guard here has requested to be relieved of his duties. His wife is unwell and he wishes to spend more time with her. His second in command is a good man but very inexperienced."
Legrand considered the unspoken question for a moment. Eleanor knew he would not wish to appear weak and she assumed his desire to return to the crusade would be second only to his desire to return to Richard's side. She fervently hoped however that he would do himself the favour of realising both those battles - with the rigours of war and an unresponsive heart - were already lost.
Legrand turned his head at the sound of voices and looked down into the garden. Eleanor followed his gaze and saw that Locksley and his man, John, had taken a seat in the pergola and were deep in conversation.
"Maybe it is time I left those pursuits to others," Legrand said quietly. He turned to face her again. "I would be deeply honoured to serve you again, Your Grace - if the king permits me to leave his service of course."
She smiled, took one of his large hands in both of hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We both know he will do so, Guillaume. He will know his younger Guards could have no finer example in their training. Thank you."
They both looked out into the garden again at a loud burst of laughter from below and Eleanor remembered one of the other things she wished to discuss with Legrand.
"Locksley's man, John - what have you learned of him?"
A man who takes your affection and offers none in return...
Legrand knew she was speaking of Richard - and she was right - but her words could so easily apply to another. When she immediately followed that remark with a question on Locksley's gang he thought for a moment she had somehow already learned why his love for Richard had finally faded.
He tested her with a small comment about her awareness of happenings within Poitiers and was relieved when she chose to assume he had been referring to Much and Carter, less so when she noted how he had steered clear of Robin and John but he had an answer for that.
The offer of a position here at Poitiers came as a complete surprise. She must know that in effect she was asking him to retire, to admit defeat and give up hopes of a glorious death in battle. He was trying to determine the politest way to decline the offer when he heard familiar voices beneath him.
"Je m'appelle Jean."
"Very good. J'habite à la forêt de Sherwood."
From the corner of his eye, Legrand caught Eleanor also looking into the garden and could not fail to see the soft smile that lit her face when she realised it was John being taught French. She had not forgotten him, nor had her ardour diminished over time. He could hardly blame her. No matter how rough and ragged she may have remembered him being in England, John was now washed, groomed and dressed in the finest clothes money could buy. She still wanted him - it was obvious.
Legrand knew that having finally given up the son, he now must give up his new love to the mother. They would make a fine couple, he had no doubt, and he would have to resign himself to that. The only question now was whether to remain with the king he no longer loved, or join the queen and protect both her and, for a short while at least, the man he was certain he would love to the end of his days.
It was no question at all really.
"Maybe it is time I left those pursuits to others," he said, as he quietly accepted her offer - and the pain that accompanied it.
Eleanor's smile developed a predatory edge to it that Legrand knew all too well.
"Locksley's man, John - what have you learned of him?" she asked.
That I love him. That he does not - cannot - love me in the same way. That I thought I had aimed too high by loving a king and found that a peasant could be even more unobtainable.
"He is a good man. Honest. Trustworthy. A little...blunt at times but without malice." He hesitated, knowing he must say what else he had discovered but unsure how Eleanor would react.
"Go on." She had still not taken her gaze from the garden.
"He...he has a wife...and a child - a son of about twelve."
That made her redirect her attention to Legrand. "A wife?"
"Yes. He left her when he was outlawed so she would not share the same fate. She was pregnant at the time but he was not aware of it. She raised the child on her own, believing John to be dead."
"Does she still believe this?"
"No. John only recently found out about his son when the boy was arrested by Gisborne, along with the man he was apprenticed to, a cooper. John himself was captured attempting to rescue him. When the boy's mother tried to visit her son, she too was thrown into the cells with them where she recognised John. Locksley helped them all to escape and John's wife chose to go with the cooper to start a new life with him. She took their son as well."
Legrand turned and looked back down into the pergola.
"John's son was crippled in an accident when he was younger. John blames himself for that, for leaving his wife, for everything she and the boy had to endure and for them being forced to move away from their home. He does not know where they have gone and I think he has finally accepted that she is no longer his wife...but he still thinks of his son often."
"And he has no other love?"
Something in her voice made Legrand sharply look back at her. She was regarding him intently and he wondered if he had betrayed himself at all. At least he could answer completely truthfully.
"No. No other - save the fraternity between him and the others of Locksley's group."
"I see. Thank you, Guillaume. I think I've learned all I need to."
He searched her face for even the slightest hint of suspicion but finding none, he bowed his head in acknowledgement.
"You're welcome, Your Grace. If you'll excuse me, I should go and introduce myself to my new officers."
"Of course." She held her hand out and he kissed it as he stood up and bowed to her again, then he left.
He has a wife...
The one thing she hadn't considered. Why had she not? Of course she could not be the only woman to have ever found him attractive but the Saracen had been the only woman in Locksley's group and she had just assumed that John was unattached. Her only concern had been that his tastes were more like Richard's but no man who was not attracted to women would have blushed so much at her advances.
And then, in that last look back, she had caught him staring after her and she knew he would remember her as she would remember him until they met again.
Poor John - to miss your child's entire life.... She had missed great swathes of her own children's lives but only in their later years.
Did his wife still believe him dead? No... but then a new hope. She may not consider the man to still be dead, but she had abandoned the marriage - for the sake of her son's welfare, if nothing else. Eleanor could respect that.
She didn't know why but she continued watching Legrand as he described how John blamed himself for his family's hardships. She saw the look on his face and heard how his voice softened and it took all her restraint not to react as she finally saw what he had, up until then, been succeeding in hiding from her.
Legrand no longer loved Richard. He had found another - and his new choice was as ill-fated as his old one had always been. Unless...
"And he has no other love?"
Legrand looked at her intently as if trying to work out if she had discovered his secret but Eleanor could be made of marble when she wished.
"No. No other - save the fraternity between him and the others of Locksley's group."
He had hesitated but his words carried such finality, she was sure of their truth. John did not return Legrand's love - if he was even aware of it - and, while it pained her heart for Legrand's sake, it also eased it for her own. She felt almost certain that John would now accept her forthcoming offer.
She suddenly realised Legrand was taking his leave of her. "...If you'll excuse me..."
"Of course." She waited until he had gone then turned back to enjoying the view...
To be continued...
Author: wastingyourgum
Characters/Pairings: Legrand, Queen Eleanor, Robin, Little John
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama, Angst
Words: ~2400
Disclaimer: BBC & TA own; we just want to play in their universe
Notes: Beta'd by robinfanatic and jagnikjen . Takes place after AU 2x13 but prior to 3x01
Introduction and chapter links for Denial II are here...
Summary: Eleanor welcomes Legrand back to Poitiers and makes him an offer...
>>-------------------->
Chapter 26: A Warm Welcome
"Le Comte de Châtellerault, Madame."
Queen Eleanor looked up from the parchment she was studying as her courtier announced her guest.
"Thank you. You may leave us." The courtier bowed deeply and retired. Eleanor waited until the door had completely closed behind him before she rose from her throne, placing the parchment on the now vacant chair.
She slowly approached the old friend who knelt before her with his head bowed. Even on bended knee his head was almost level with her chest. Eleanor couldn't resist a small smile. She'd used that fact to her distinct advantage when they'd both been much younger. She leaned over and kissed him on both cheeks.
"Guillaume. I am so glad to see you fully recovered. It's such a pleasure to welcome you back to Poitiers."
"It's a pleasure to be back, Your Grace."
Eleanor frowned. The tone of Legrand's voice far from matched his words. She moved to one of the window seats overlooking the small garden. "Join me, please."
He sat beside her, taking a deep breath of the warm spring air rising up from the grounds outside. "I have missed that smell," he said wistfully. "Each time I heard you had sent the king something, I would find a reason to visit him in case you had included some dried flowers."
"A reason?" Eleanor said. "You never used to need a reason to visit Richard. He used to struggle to find reasons to let you out of his sight rather than into it."
Legrand smiled but his voice held an undeniable edge of bitterness. "The crusade commands a lot of his attention. As do some of his younger knights."
Eleanor sighed. Richard's affections were notoriously fickle. Legrand's tenure as his favourite had been far longer than most, but its waning had always been a foregone conclusion. She knew that Richard knew Legrand's love for him went far further than just a knight's devotion to his king. She had hoped her son would be as considerate as possible to her former champion but Legrand was always going to be hurt by Richard inevitably moving on to his next lover.
"I am truly sorry, Guillaume. My sons seem to take after their father in considerations of others' hearts...and you deserve so much better."
"Better than a king?" Legrand said sadly.
"Better than a man who takes your affection and offers none in return," she answered.
Legrand choked and turned his head away.
He quickly regained his composure and Eleanor decided a change of subject might be advisable. "So you have spent all these months since I saw you last with Robin of Locksley and his famous outlaws. Tell me of them."
Legrand looked even more pained for an instant, as if he was still dwelling on the previous topic, but then he replied, "Locksley you knew already, of course, but as for his men... You met them yourself, Your Grace, and there is not much else to say. The first impressions one gains of each of them prove to be correct. They are all honest and straightforward people. Djaq, the Saracen who saved my life and Will, the young carpenter, decided to remain in the Holy Land. The king married them and they are expecting a child together."
Eleanor beamed at that news. "How wonderful! I would have loved to be there. I must send them something for the child."
"We met Brooks on the boat travelling both to and from Cyprus. He had already encountered Much and Carter previously. He is a good man, if a little...reckless."
"I understand there was another who joined you in the Holy Land?"
"Yes, Allan A'Dale. He was severely wounded trying to protect King Richard." Legrand frowned, still clearly feeling some guilt over another doing what he felt should have been his job. He is staying with Will and Djaq so she can attend to him as he recovers. He had formerly been in Locksley's group but was working for the sheriff at the time you were in England. He and the sheriff's master-at-arms, Sir Guy of Gisborne, were absent on other business at that time."
"That other business being the Lady Marian," Eleanor prompted and almost laughed at Legrand's look of surprise. "I still have my sources, Guillaume. You of all people should know that there is not much that gets past me."
"No, Your Grace. I know nothing could happen here especially, without you being aware of it." Legrand looked almost embarrassed as he said this and Eleanor had to carefully consider his possible meaning before she replied.
"You mean, have I noticed how Carter and Much are barely speaking to each other? Sadly, I have no need of intrigue to determine that. I've also noticed that since you all arrived yesterday, you do not seem to have spent much time with them or with Locksley and his men. I had assumed you had grown quite close to them."
"I...thought it best to distance myself from them before they return to England and I return to the Holy Land with Much and Carter. Besides they are your guests here, whereas I am here as a member of the Royal Guard. It would not be fitting for me to socialise with them."
"Yes...your return. That is one of the other things I wished to discuss with you."
"Your Grace?"
"The captain of my Guard here has requested to be relieved of his duties. His wife is unwell and he wishes to spend more time with her. His second in command is a good man but very inexperienced."
Legrand considered the unspoken question for a moment. Eleanor knew he would not wish to appear weak and she assumed his desire to return to the crusade would be second only to his desire to return to Richard's side. She fervently hoped however that he would do himself the favour of realising both those battles - with the rigours of war and an unresponsive heart - were already lost.
Legrand turned his head at the sound of voices and looked down into the garden. Eleanor followed his gaze and saw that Locksley and his man, John, had taken a seat in the pergola and were deep in conversation.
"Maybe it is time I left those pursuits to others," Legrand said quietly. He turned to face her again. "I would be deeply honoured to serve you again, Your Grace - if the king permits me to leave his service of course."
She smiled, took one of his large hands in both of hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We both know he will do so, Guillaume. He will know his younger Guards could have no finer example in their training. Thank you."
They both looked out into the garden again at a loud burst of laughter from below and Eleanor remembered one of the other things she wished to discuss with Legrand.
"Locksley's man, John - what have you learned of him?"
A man who takes your affection and offers none in return...
Legrand knew she was speaking of Richard - and she was right - but her words could so easily apply to another. When she immediately followed that remark with a question on Locksley's gang he thought for a moment she had somehow already learned why his love for Richard had finally faded.
He tested her with a small comment about her awareness of happenings within Poitiers and was relieved when she chose to assume he had been referring to Much and Carter, less so when she noted how he had steered clear of Robin and John but he had an answer for that.
The offer of a position here at Poitiers came as a complete surprise. She must know that in effect she was asking him to retire, to admit defeat and give up hopes of a glorious death in battle. He was trying to determine the politest way to decline the offer when he heard familiar voices beneath him.
"Je m'appelle Jean."
"Very good. J'habite à la forêt de Sherwood."
From the corner of his eye, Legrand caught Eleanor also looking into the garden and could not fail to see the soft smile that lit her face when she realised it was John being taught French. She had not forgotten him, nor had her ardour diminished over time. He could hardly blame her. No matter how rough and ragged she may have remembered him being in England, John was now washed, groomed and dressed in the finest clothes money could buy. She still wanted him - it was obvious.
Legrand knew that having finally given up the son, he now must give up his new love to the mother. They would make a fine couple, he had no doubt, and he would have to resign himself to that. The only question now was whether to remain with the king he no longer loved, or join the queen and protect both her and, for a short while at least, the man he was certain he would love to the end of his days.
It was no question at all really.
"Maybe it is time I left those pursuits to others," he said, as he quietly accepted her offer - and the pain that accompanied it.
Eleanor's smile developed a predatory edge to it that Legrand knew all too well.
"Locksley's man, John - what have you learned of him?" she asked.
That I love him. That he does not - cannot - love me in the same way. That I thought I had aimed too high by loving a king and found that a peasant could be even more unobtainable.
"He is a good man. Honest. Trustworthy. A little...blunt at times but without malice." He hesitated, knowing he must say what else he had discovered but unsure how Eleanor would react.
"Go on." She had still not taken her gaze from the garden.
"He...he has a wife...and a child - a son of about twelve."
That made her redirect her attention to Legrand. "A wife?"
"Yes. He left her when he was outlawed so she would not share the same fate. She was pregnant at the time but he was not aware of it. She raised the child on her own, believing John to be dead."
"Does she still believe this?"
"No. John only recently found out about his son when the boy was arrested by Gisborne, along with the man he was apprenticed to, a cooper. John himself was captured attempting to rescue him. When the boy's mother tried to visit her son, she too was thrown into the cells with them where she recognised John. Locksley helped them all to escape and John's wife chose to go with the cooper to start a new life with him. She took their son as well."
Legrand turned and looked back down into the pergola.
"John's son was crippled in an accident when he was younger. John blames himself for that, for leaving his wife, for everything she and the boy had to endure and for them being forced to move away from their home. He does not know where they have gone and I think he has finally accepted that she is no longer his wife...but he still thinks of his son often."
"And he has no other love?"
Something in her voice made Legrand sharply look back at her. She was regarding him intently and he wondered if he had betrayed himself at all. At least he could answer completely truthfully.
"No. No other - save the fraternity between him and the others of Locksley's group."
"I see. Thank you, Guillaume. I think I've learned all I need to."
He searched her face for even the slightest hint of suspicion but finding none, he bowed his head in acknowledgement.
"You're welcome, Your Grace. If you'll excuse me, I should go and introduce myself to my new officers."
"Of course." She held her hand out and he kissed it as he stood up and bowed to her again, then he left.
He has a wife...
The one thing she hadn't considered. Why had she not? Of course she could not be the only woman to have ever found him attractive but the Saracen had been the only woman in Locksley's group and she had just assumed that John was unattached. Her only concern had been that his tastes were more like Richard's but no man who was not attracted to women would have blushed so much at her advances.
And then, in that last look back, she had caught him staring after her and she knew he would remember her as she would remember him until they met again.
Poor John - to miss your child's entire life.... She had missed great swathes of her own children's lives but only in their later years.
Did his wife still believe him dead? No... but then a new hope. She may not consider the man to still be dead, but she had abandoned the marriage - for the sake of her son's welfare, if nothing else. Eleanor could respect that.
She didn't know why but she continued watching Legrand as he described how John blamed himself for his family's hardships. She saw the look on his face and heard how his voice softened and it took all her restraint not to react as she finally saw what he had, up until then, been succeeding in hiding from her.
Legrand no longer loved Richard. He had found another - and his new choice was as ill-fated as his old one had always been. Unless...
"And he has no other love?"
Legrand looked at her intently as if trying to work out if she had discovered his secret but Eleanor could be made of marble when she wished.
"No. No other - save the fraternity between him and the others of Locksley's group."
He had hesitated but his words carried such finality, she was sure of their truth. John did not return Legrand's love - if he was even aware of it - and, while it pained her heart for Legrand's sake, it also eased it for her own. She felt almost certain that John would now accept her forthcoming offer.
She suddenly realised Legrand was taking his leave of her. "...If you'll excuse me..."
"Of course." She waited until he had gone then turned back to enjoying the view...
To be continued...