"Come for me!" "You're gaining on it, Johnny." "Am I, father?" "Am I really?" "Off you go now." "Run along and practice." "He'll make a good king." "He'll be ready." "That's the way." "Come on, my son!" "Have you found religion, Henry?" "Will you look down from heaven and see who's sitting on your throne?" "I must know before I die." "There's a legend of a king called Lear, with whom I have a lot in common." "Both of us have kingdoms and three children we adore, and both of us are old, but there it ends." "He cuts his kingdom into bits." "I can't do that." "I've built an empire, and I must know it's going to last." "All of Britain, half of France..." "I'm the greatest power in a thousand years, and after me comes John." "I'm going to lose you, Henry, aren't I?" "Alais, in my time I've known... contessas, milkmaids, courtesans... and novices, whores, gypsies, jades... and little boys, but nowhere in God's western world have I found anyone to love but you." "And Rosamund?" " She's dead." " And Eleanor." "The new Medusa, my good wife?" "How is your queen?" "Decaying, I suppose." "No, don't be jealous of the Gorgon." "She is not among the things I love." "How many husbands do you know who dungeon up their wives?" "I haven't kept the great bitch in the keep for ten years out of passionate attachment." " There's Captain Marshal." "William!" "We will be holding Christmas court at Chinon." "We have asked the king of France to join us." "I want Richard there and Geoffrey." "Go find my boys and tell them." "Then go fetch the queen from Salisbury tower." "If the queen refuses?" "Eleanor?" "She wouldn't miss this for the world." "Richard." "Richard!" "Hello, Richard." "Forward!" "Forward!" "Geoffrey?" "Geoffrey." "Geoffrey!" "Father wants to see me." "Your majesty." "There's to be a Christmas court." "Yes, madam." "Where?" "At Chinon." "Henry, what if, just for once, I didn't do as I was told?" "It's going to be a jungle of a day." "If I start growling now, I'll never last." "You'll last." "You're like the rocks at stonehenge... nothing knocks you down." "In these rooms, Alais, on this Christmas, I have all the enemies I need." "You have more than you think." "Are you one?" "Has my willow turned to poison oak?" "If I decided to be trouble, Henry, how much trouble could I be?" "Not much." "I could give away your plans." "You don't know what they are." "I know you want to disinherit Richard." "So does Eleanor." "She knows young Henry's dead." "The young king died in summer, and I haven't named an heir." "She knows I want John... on the throne, and I know she wants Richard... we are very frank about it." "Henry, I can't be your mistress if I'm married to your son." "Why can't you?" "Johnny wouldn't mind." "I do not like your Johnny." "He's a good boy." "He's got pimples, and he smells of compost." "He's just 16!" "He can't help the pimples." "He could have a bath!" "It isn't such a dreadful thing to be queen of England." "Not all eyes will weep for you." "Will yours?" "I don't know." "Very likely." "All I want is not to lose you." "Can't you hide me?" "Can't I simply disappear?" "You know you can't." "Your little brother Philip's king of France now, and he wants your wedding or your dowry back." "I only took you for your dowry." "You were seven... two big knees and two big eyes, and that's all." "How was I to know?" "Hey." "What's the matter, lad?" "Nothing." " Geoff!" " Johnny!" "Is that for me?" "I love Christmas." "What difference does my dowry make?" "Let Philip have it back." "It isn't much." "I can't." "The vexing is a little county, but it's vital to me." "And I'm not." "It's been my luck to fall in love with landed women." "When I married Eleanor I thought, "you lucky man." ""The richest woman in the world... she owns the Aquitaine, the greatest province in the continent, and beautiful as well."" "She was, you know." "And you adored her." "Memory fails." "There may have been an era when I did." "Let's have one strand askew." "Nothing in life has any business being perfect." "If I say you and I are done, we're done." "If I say marry John, it's John." "I'll have you by me, and I'll use you as I like." "Ah, Christmas..." "warm and rosy time." "The hot wine steams, the yule log roars, and we're the fat that's in the fire." "She'll be here soon, you know." "Who?" "Mother." "She still want you to be king?" "We are not as friendly as we used to be." "If I'm supposed to make a fuss and kiss her hairy cheek, I won't." "What you kiss, little prince, is up to you." "I'm father's favorite." "That's what counts." "You hardly know me, Johnny, so I beg you to believe my reputation." "I am a constant soldier, a sometime poet, and I will be king." "Just you remember..." "father loves me best." "Why John?" "John doesn't care for you at all." "We love each other deeply." "None of them has any love for you." "Because we fight?" "Tell me all three want the crown." "I'll tell you it's a feeble prince that doesn't." "They may snap at me and plot, and that makes them the kind of sons I want." "I've snapped and plotted all my life." "There's no other way to be a king, alive and 50 all at once." "I'm going to fight for you." "Oh, fine." "How was your crossing?" "Did the channel part for you?" "It went flat when I told it to." "I didn't think to ask for more." "How dear of you to let me out of jail." "It's only for the holidays." "Like school, you keep me young." "Here's gentle Alais." "No, greet me as you used to." "Fragile I am not." "Affection is a pressure I can bear." "Oh, but I do have handsome children." "John, you're so clean and neat." "Henry takes good care of you." "And Richard." "Don't look sullen, dear." "It makes your eyes go small and piggy... and your chin look weak." "Geoffrey." "Is Philip here yet?" "Not yet." "Let's hope he's grown up like his father..." "Simon pure and Simon simple..." "good, good, Louis." "If I had managed sons for him instead of all those little girls," "I'd still be stuck with being queen of France, and we should not have known each other." "Such, my angels, is the role of sex in history." "That will be Philip." "Where's Henry?" "Upstairs with the family whore." "That's a mean and tawdry way to talk about your fiancee." "My fiancee." "Whose ever fiancee." "I brought her up, and she is dear to me and gentle." "He still plans to make John king." "Of course he does." "My, what a greedy little trinity you are... king, king, king." "Two of you must learn to live with disappointment." "Ah, but which two?" "Let's deny them all and live forever." "Tusk to tusk through all eternity." "Ah, my boys." "The king of France and I will shortly have a tactile conversation, like two surgeons looking for a lump." "We'll state positions, and I'll make the first of many offers." "He'll refuse it, naturally." "I'll make a better one, and so on through the holidays until I win." "For the duration of this joyous ritual you will give to your father your support." " My lord!" " Your grace!" "Welcome to Chinon." "Ah, that's better." "I was told you were impressive for a boy of 17." " I'm Eleanor, who might have been your mother." " Queen Eleanor." "All the others here you know." "I gather you're disturbed about your sister and her dowry." "Sixteen years ago you made a treaty with us." " It is time its terms were executed." " I should think so." "Our position comes to this:" "That you will either hold the marriage or return the vexing." "Alais marries Richard, or we'll have the county back at once." "That's clear, concise and well presented." "My position... well, frankly, Philip, it's a tangle." "Two years ago, the queen and I..." "for reasons passing understanding... gave the Aquitaine to Richard." "That makes Richard very powerful." "How can I give him Alais too?" "The man she marries has you for an ally." "It's their wedding or the vexing back." "Those are the terms you made with Louis." "True, but academic, lad." "The vexing's mine." "By what authority?" "It's got my troops all over it." "That makes it mine." "Now, hear me, boy." "I am a king." "I am no man's boy." "A king?" "Because you put your ass on purple cushions?" " Sir." " Philip." "You haven't got the feel of this at all, lad." "Use all your voices." "When I bellow, bellow back." "I'll mark that down." "This too:" "We are the world in small." "A nation is a human thing." "It does what we do, for our reasons." "Surely if we're civilized, we can put away the knives." "We can make peace." "We have it in our hands." "I've tutors of my own." "Will that be all?" "Oh, think." "You came here for a reason." "Don't you want to ask me if I've got an offer?" "Have you got an offer?" "Not yet, but I'll think of one." "Oh, by the way, you're better at this than I thought you'd be." "I wasn't sure you'd noticed." "Well, what shall we hang..." "the holly or each other?" "Would you say, father, that I have the makings of a king?" "A splendid king." "And would you expect me, father, to give up without a fight?" "Of course you'll fight." "I raised you to." "I don't care what you offer Philip, I don't care what plans you make." "I'll have the Aquitaine and Alais and the crown." "I'll not give up one to get the other." "I won't trade off Alais or the Aquitaine to that walking pustule!" "No, your loving son will not." "Did you hear what he called me?" "Clearly, dear." "Now, run along." "It's nearly dinnertime." "I only do what father tells me." "Go and eat." "Did I say something wrong?" "I'm always saying something wrong." "And don't pout." "I'm not pouting." "And stand up straight!" "How often do I have to tell you?" "And that's to be the king." "And I'm to be his chancellor." "Has he told you?" "John will rule the country while I run it, that is to say, he gets to spend the taxes that I raise." "How nice for you." "It's not as nice as being king." "We've made you duke of brittany." "Is that so little?" "No one ever thinks of crown and mentions Geoff." "Why is that?" "Isn't being chancellor power enough?" "It's not the power I feel deprived of." "It's the mention I miss." "There's no affection for me here." "You wouldn't think I'd want that, would you?" "Henry?" "Hmm?" "I have a confession." "Yeah?" " I don't much like our children." "Only you... the child I raised but didn't bear." "You never cared for me." "I did and do, believe me." "Henry's bed is Henry's province." "He can people it with sheep for all I care, which, on occasion, he has done." "Rosamund's been dead for seven years." "Two months and 18 days." "I never liked her much." " You count the days?" " I made the numbers up." "He found miss clifford in the mists of wales... and brought her home for closer observation." "Liking what he found, he scrutinized her many years." "He loved her deeply, and she, him." "And yet, my dear, when Henry had to choose between his lady and my lands... there is no sport in hurting me." "It's so easy." "After all the years of loving care, do you think I could bring myself to hurt you?" "Eleanor, with both hands tied behind you." "She is lovely, isn't she?" "Yes, very." "Who could I have chosen to love... to gall you more?" "There's no one." "Time hasn't done a thing but wrinkle you." "It hasn't even done that." "I've borne six girls, five boys... and 31 connubial years of you." "How am I possible?" "There are moments when I miss you." "Many?" "That's my wooly sheepdog." "Do you doubt it?" "So, wee Johnny gets the crown." "I've heard it rumored, but I don't believe it." "Losing Alais will be hard, for you do love her." "It's an old man's last attachment, nothing more." "How hard do you find living in your castle?" "It was difficult in the beginning, but that's past." "I find I've seen the world enough." "I'll never let you loose." "You led too many civil wars against me." "And I damn near won the last one." "Still, as long as I get trotted out... for Christmas courts and state occasions now and then... for I do like to see you... it's enough." "I'm famished." "Let's go in to dinner." "Arm in arm." "And hand in hand." "You're still a marvel of a man." "And you're my lady." "It's an odd thing, Eleanor." "I've fought and bargained all these years... as if the only thing I had to live for was what happened after I was dead." "I've something else to live for now." "I've blundered onto peace." "On Christmas eve." "Since Louis died, while Philip grew, I've had no France to fight." "In that lull, I've found how good it is to write a law... or make a tax more fair or sit in judgment to decide... which peasant gets a cow." "I tell you, there is nothing more important in the world." "Now the french boy's big enough, and I'm sick of war." "Do you still need the vexing, Henry?" "It's as vital as it ever was." "My troops there are one day away from paris." "That's a march of 20 miles." "I must keep it." "Henry, dear, if Alais does not marry Richard, I will see you lose the vexing." "Well, I thought you'd never say it." "I can do it." "You can try." "We have a pack of barons we should look the loving couple for." "Can you read love in that?" "And permanent affection." "My Richard is the next king, not your John." "I know you, Henry." "I know every twist and bend you've got, and I'll be waiting round each corner for you." "Do you truly care who's king?" "I care because you care so much." "Don't fight me, Eleanor." "What would you have me do... give out, give up, give in?" "Give me a little peace." "A little?" "Why so modest?" "How about eternal peace?" "Now, there's a thought." "If you oppose me, I'll strike you any way I can." "Henry?" "Madam?" "Did you ever love me?" "No." "Good." "That will make this pleasanter." "Well, I've come." "I'm here." "What was it you wanted?" "Just to talk." "We haven't been alone, the two of us, in... how long is it, lamb..." "two years?" "You look fit." "War agrees with you." "I keep informed." "I follow all your slaughters from a distance." "Do sit down." "Is this an audience, a good-night hug with kisses or an ambush?" "Let's hope it's a reunion." "Must you look so stern?" "I sent for you to say I want your love again, but I can't say it to a face like that." "My love, of all things." "What would you want it for?" "Why, for itself." "What other purpose could I have?" "You will tell me when you're ready to." "I scheme a lot, I know." "I plot and plan." "That's how a queen in prison spends her time." "But there is more to me than that." "Can't I say I love a son and be believed?" "If I were you, I'd try another tack." "I've no dammed up floods of passion for you." "There's no chance I'll overflow." "You're a dull boy, dull as plainsong." "La-la-la, forever on one note." "I gave the church up out of boredom." "I can do as much for you." "You'll never give me up, not while I hold the Aquitaine." "You think I'm motivated by love of hills and dales?" "I think you want it back." "You're so deceitful, you can't ask for water when you're thirsty." "We could tangle spiders in the webs you weave." "If I'm so devious, why don't you go?" "Don't stand there quivering in limbo." "Love me, little lamb, or leave me." "Leave you, madam?" "With pure joy." "Departure's a simple act." "You put the left foot down, and then the right." "Mother!" "Hush, dear." "Mother's fighting." "Father's finished working out the treaty terms." "How nice." "Where is your father?" "Ah, there you are." "Well, have you put the terms to Philip?" "Not yet, but we're shortly granting him an audience." "I hope you'll all attend." "Are we to know the terms, or would you rather tease us?" "Not at all." "The terms are... what are you giving to Philip, what of mine?" "Whatever you've got goes to me." "And what's the nothing Geoffrey gets?" "My God, boys, you can't all three be king." "All three of us can try." "That's pointless now." "I want you to succeed me, Richard." "Alais and the crown..." "I give you both." "I've no sense of humor." "If I did, I'd laugh." " I mean to do it." " What about me?" "I'm your favorite." "I'm the one you love." "I'm sorry, John." "I can't help myself." "Could you keep anything I gave you?" "Could you beat him in the field?" "You could." "John, I won't be there." "I'm losing too." "All my dreams for you are lost." "You've led me on." "I never meant to." "You're a failure as a father." "You know that?" "I'm sorry, Johnny." "Not yet, but I'll do something terrible, and you'll be sorry then." "Did you rehearse all this, or are you improvising?" "Good God, woman, face the facts." "Which ones?" "We have so many." "Power is the only fact." "How could I keep him from the throne?" "He'd only take it if I didn't give it to him." "No, you'd make me fight for it." "I know you." "You'd never give me anything." "True, and I haven't." "You get Alais and the kingdom, but I get the thing I want most:" "If you're king, England stays intact." "I get that." "It's all yours now... the crown, the girl, the whole black business." "Isn't that enough?" "I don't know who's to be congratulated." "Kings, Queens, knights everywhere you look, and I'm the only pawn." "I haven't got a thing to lose." "That makes me dangerous." " Poor child." " Poor John." "Who says, "poor John"?" "Don't everybody sob at once." "My God, if I went up in flames, there's not a living soul... who'd pee on me to put the fire out." "Let's strike a flint and see." "You're everything a little brother dreams of, you know that?" " I used to dream about you all the time." " Ah, Johnny." "I'll show you, Eleanor." "I've not lost yet." "Well, mummy, if you want me, here I am." "John's lost his chancellor, has he?" "And you've gained one." "It's a bitter thing your mummy has to say." "She doesn't trust me." "You must know Henry isn't through with John." "He'll keep the vexing till the moon goes blue from cold." "And as for Richard's wedding day..." "we'll see the second coming first." "The needlework alone can last for years." "I know." "You know I know." "I know you know I know." "We know Henry knows, and Henry knows we know it." "We're a knowledgeable family." "Will Richard take me for his chancellor or won't he?" "Why are you dropping John?" "Because you're going to win." "You will, with me to help you." "I haven't yet." "I can handle John." "He'll swallow anything I tell him." "I'll take him by the hand and walk him into the trap you set." "You're good." "You're first class, Geoff." "You'd sell John out to me, or me to John, or... you can tell me... have you found some way of selling everyone to everybody?" "Not yet, mummy, but I'm working on it." "I don't care who's king, but you and Henry do." "I want to watch the two of you go picnicking on one another." "You have a gift for hating." "You're the expert." "You should know." "Dear lord." "You've loved me all these years." "Oh, God forgive me." "I've upset the queen." "We need you." "Help us." "What... and miss the fun of selling you?" "Be Richard's chancellor." "Rot." "Well, that's how deals are made." "We've got him if we want him." "He'll sell us all, you know, but only if he thinks we think he won't." "Why did I have to have such clever children?" "What's the matter, Richard?" "Nothing." "It's a heavy thing, your nothing." "When I write or send for you or speak or reach, your nothings come, like stones." "Don't play a scene with me." "I wouldn't if I could." "I'm simpler than I used to be." "I had, at one time, many appetites." "I wanted poetry and power and the young men who create them both." "I even wanted Henry, too, in those days." "Now I've only one desire left..." "to see you king." "The only thing you want to see is father's vitals on a bed of lettuce." "You don't care who wins, as long as Henry loses." "You'd do anything." "You are Medea to the teeth, only this is one son you won't use for vengeance against your husband." "How my captivity has changed you." "Henry meant to hurt me." "He's hacked you up instead." "Men coveted this talon once." "Henry was 18 when we met, and I was queen of France." "He came down from the north to Paris with a mind like Aristotle's... and a form like mortal sin." "We shattered the commandments on the spot." "I spent three months annulling Louis, then in may, in spring, not far from here, we married... young count Henry and his countess." "But in three years' time I was his queen, and he was king of England." "Done at 21... five years your junior, general." "I can count." "There was no Thomas Beckett then, or Rosamund... no rivals, only me." "And then young Henry came, and you... and all the other blossoms in my garden." "Yes." "Had I been sterile, darling, I'd be happier today." "Is that designed to hurt me?" "What a waste." "I've fought with Henry over who comes next, whose dawn it is... and which son gets the sunset, and we'll never live to see it." "Look at you." "I loved you more than Henry, and it's cost me everything." "What do you want?" "I want us back the way we were." "No, that's not it." "All right, then." "I want the Aquitaine." "That's the mother I remember." "We can win." "I can get you Alais." "I can make the marriage happen, but I've got to have the Aquitaine to do it." "I must have it back." "It's mine, and I'll never give it up." "Shall I write my will, "to Richard... everything"?" "Would you believe me then?" "Where's paper?" "Paper burns." "I love you." "You love nothing." "You're incomplete." "The human parts of you are missing." "You're as dead as you are deadly." "Don't leave me." "You were lovely once." "I've seen the pictures." "Don't you remember how you loved me?" "We were always hand in hand." "Here's how it felt." "As hot and coarse as that?" "This won't burn." "I'll scratch a will on this." ""To Richard... everything."" "Mother!" "Remember how I taught you numbers... and the lute and poetry?" "See?" "You do remember." "I taught you dancing, too, and languages... and all the music I knew and how to love what's beautiful." "The sun was warmer then, and we were every day together." "William, tell the french king I'll see him in the parlor." "Yes, my lord." "In half an hour." "Half an hour." "Good." "Of course, you know there's not a word of truth to Henry's terms." "If that's a warning, thank you." "What if it's an offer?" ""What if" is a game for scholars." "What if angels sat on pinheads?" "What if I were king?" "It's your game, Geoff." "You play it." "John." "I made this for father." "All the pieces work." "It took months." "I'm not a fool." "I know." "Now, here's my plan." "I read three languages." "I've studied law." "What plan?" "We've got to make a deal with Philip." "Why?" "Because you're out, and Richard's in." "And what kind of deal?" "A war." "If we three join and fight now, we can finish Richard off." "You mean destroy him?" "Hmm." "And mother too?" "And mother too." "Now, do we do it?" "Is it on?" "I've got to think." "You haven't time." "We are extra princes now." "You know where extra princes go?" "Down." "Well, does John want a war or doesn't he?" "Do you?" "If John asks for your soldiers, will he get them?" "If John wants a war, he's got one." "John, you hear that?" "I'm still thinking." "Let me help." "It's either Richard on the throne or you." "Do you think we'd win?" "I know it." "Henry!" "But you don't understand." "I would appreciate a little quiet confidence." "I've enough nits picking at me." "But you've promised me to Richard!" "Good God, you don't think I meant it?" "So that whole scene, all you said to John... you think I'd ever give him up when I've mothered him and fathered him and babied him?" "He's all I've got!" "How often do you people have to hear it... every supper?" "Should we start the soup with who we love and who we don't?" "I think you like passing me from hand to hand." "What am I to you..." "a collection plate?" "Or am I all you've got, like John?" "I've got to get the Aquitaine for John." " I talk people, and you answer back in provinces!" " They get mixed up." "What's the Aquitaine to Eleanor?" "It's not a province." "It's a way to torture me." "That's why she spent the evening wooing Richard, wheezing on the coals." "She'll squeeze it out of him." "My God, I'd have loved to eavesdrop." ""I taught you prancing, lamb, and lute and flute..."" "That's marvelous." "It's absolutely me." "I thought as long as I was coming down, I'd bring them." "Whatever are you giving me?" "You're such a child." "You always ask." ""To Henry."" "Heavy." "It's my tombstone!" "Eleanor, you spoil me." "I never could deny you anything." "Don't go." "It nettles her to see how much I need you." "You need me, Henry, like a tailor needs a tinker's dam." "Oh, I know that look." "He's going to say he loves me." "Like my life." "I talk that way to keep her spirits up." "Well, how'd you do with Richard?" "Did you break his heart?" "You think he ought to give me back the Aquitaine?" "I can't see why he shouldn't." "After all, I've promised him the throne." "The boy keeps wondering if your promises are any good." "There's no sense asking if the air's good when there's nothing else to breathe." "Exactly what I told him." "Have you got it?" "Will he give it back?" "No Aquitaine for John." "I have to give him something." "Isn't some agreement possible?" "Love, in a world where carpenters get resurrected, anything is possible." "You bore him, damn it." "He's your son!" "Oh, heavens, yes." "280 days I bore him." "I recall them all." "You'd only just found Rosamund." "Why her so damn particularly?" "I've found other women." "Countless others." "What's your count?" "Let's have a tally of the bedspreads you've spread out on." "Thomas Beckett's." "That's a lie." "I know." "You still care what I do." "I want the Aquitaine for John!" "I want it, and I'll have it." "Is that menace you're conveying?" "Is it to be torture?" "Will you boil me or stretch me..." "which?" "Or am I to be perforated?" "I have the documents, and you will sign." "How will you force me to... threats?" ""Sign or I refuse to feed you."" "Tears? "Oh, sign before my heart goes crack."" "I'm like the earth, old man..." "there isn't any way around me." "I adore you." "Save your aching arches." "That road's closed." "I have an offer for you, my dear." "A deal?" "A deal?" "I give the richest province on the continent to John for what?" "You tell me, mastermind, for what." "Your freedom." "Oh." "Once Johnny gets the Aquitaine, you're free." "I'll let you out." "Think:" "On the loose in london, winters in provence, impromptu trips to visit Richard anywhere he's killing people... all that for a signature." " You're good." " I thought it might appeal." "You always fancied traveling." "Yes." "I even made poor Louis take me on crusade." "How's that for blasphemy?" "I dressed my maids as amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to damascus." "Louis had a seizure, and I damn near died of windburn," "but the troops were dazzled." "Henry, I'm against the wall." "To be a prisoner... to be bricked in... when you've known the world..." "I'll never know how I survived." "These ten years, Henry, have been unimaginable." "And now, you offer me the only thing I want... if I give up... the only thing I treasure." "Sign the paper, and we'll break the happy news." "The queen is free, John gets the Aquitaine, and Richard marries Alais." "Yes, let's have it done." "I'll sign." "On one condition." "Name it." "Have the wedding now." "What's that?" "Why, I've surprised you." "Surely it's not sudden." "They've been marching down the aisle for 16 years, and that's a long walk." "John can be best man." "That's a laugh." "And you can give the bride away." "I want to watch you do it." "Alais..." "I can live without her." "And I thought you loved her." "So I do." "Thank God." "You frightened me." "I was afraid this wouldn't hurt." "What a tragedy you are." "I wonder..." "do you ever wonder... if I slept with your father?" "My father?" "It's a lie." "But there are rumors." "Don't you ever wonder?" "Is it rich, despising me?" "Is it rewarding?" "No." "Then stop!" "How?" "It's what I live for." "I'll show you." "By christ, I will." "I'll do it." "Where's a priest?" "Somebody dig me up a priest!" "You!" "Fetch me a bishop!" "Get old Durham." "He's just down the hall." "Ask him to meet us in the chapel." "John, Richard, Geoffrey!" "What's wrong?" "What's happened?" "Richard's getting married." "Getting married?" "Now?" "He's getting married now?" "I never cease to marvel at the quickness of your mind." "You can't hurt me, you bag of bile." "But you can, father." "Why?" "Because I say so." "My lord, the bishop's waiting in the chapel." "Good." "Let's get this over with." "You'll make a lovely bride." "I wonder if I'll cry." "You sound as if you think it's going to happen." "I do." "He's only plotting." "Can't you tell when Henry's plotting?" "Not this time." "He'll never give me up." "You think I won't?" "Because you told me so." "You're not my helen." "I won't fight a war to save a face." "We're done." "I don't believe you!" "Wait ten minutes!" "Please!" "Richard, Richard, we're not... honestly, we're not!" "Please!" "We love each other." "Come on!" "It's lunacy!" "I won't do it!" "I won't!" " Lunacy!" "Let me go, Henry." "Richard, no!" " Come on!" "I won't say the words!" "Not one of them!" "It makes no sense!" "Why give me up?" "What do you get?" "What are you gaining?" "Why, the Aquitaine, of course." "What's that again?" "Your mother gets her freedom, and I get the Aquitaine." "That is the proposition, isn't it?" "You did agree." "Of course she did." "I knew it." "It was all pretense." "I believed it all." "I meant it all." "No wedding." "There'll be no wedding." "But, my boy, look." "Durham's waiting." "Marry her, for my sake." "It isn't much to ask." "Never!" "But I promised it to Philip." "Think of my position." "Damn the wedding and to hell with your position." "You don't dare defy me." "Don't I?" "You're the king of France, for God's sake." "Speak up." "Do something." "Make a threat." "Come on, frighten me." "Am I?" "Dunce!" "He never meant to have the wedding." "Come again." "You're good at rage." "I like the way you play it." "Boy, don't ever call a king a liar to his face." "I'm not a boy..." "to you or anyone!" "Boy, you came here asking for a wedding or the vexing back." "By God, you don't get either." "It's no to both." "You have a pact with France!" "Then damn the pact and damn France." "She never marries, not while I'm alive." "Your life and never are two different times." "Not on my clock, boy!" "Listen to the lion!" "Come on, frighten me." "Don't spoil it, Richard." "Take it like a good sport." "How's your bad leg?" "Better, thank you." "Your bad back?" "You're getting old." "You'll have me once too often." "When?" "I'm 50 now." "My God, boy, I'm the oldest man I know." "I've got a decade on the pope." "What's it to be?" "The broadsword when I'm 85?" "I'm not a second son now." "Your Henry's lies in the vault, you know." "I know." "I've seen him there." "I'll have the crown." "You'll have what daddy gives you." "I am next in line!" "To nothing!" "Then we'll only have the broadswords now." "This minute?" "No, on the battlefield!" "So we're at war?" "Yes, we're at war." "I have 2,000 men at Poitiers." "Can they hear you?" "Call and see who answers." "You're as close to Poitiers as you'll get." "You don't dare hold me prisoner." "Until we're all agreed John comes next, I can and will." "You're a king's son, so I treat you with respect." "You have the freedom of the castle." "The castle doesn't stand that holds me." "Post your guards." "My God, I'm king again." "Fantastic." "Are you happy for me, Geoff?" "I'm happy for us both." "You played it nicely." "You were good." "Yes, I was." "I fooled you, didn't I?" "Oh, God, but I do love being king." "Well, Henry, liege and lord, what happens now?" "I've no idea." "I know I'm winning, and I know I'll win, but what the next move is... you were scared, weren't you?" "No." "I think you were." "I was." "You mustn't play with feelings, Henry." "Not with mine." "It wasn't possible to lose you." "I must hold you dearer than I thought." "You've got your enigmatic face on." "What's your mood, I wonder?" "Pure delight." "I'm locked up with my sons." "What mother does not dream of that?" "One thing." "Yes?" "May I watch you kiss her?" "Can't you ever stop?" "I watch you every night." "I conjure it before I sleep." "Leave it there." "My curiosity is intellectual." "I want to see how accurate I am." "Forget the dragon in the doorway." "Come." "Believe I love you, for I do." "Believe I'm yours forever, for I am." "Believe in my contentment and the joy you give me." "And believe... you want more?" "I'm an old man in an empty place." "Be with me." "How beautiful you make me." "What might solomon have sung had he seen this." "I can't." "I'd turn to salt." "I've lost again." "I'm done for this time." "Well, there'll be other Christmases." "I'd hang you from the nipples, but you'd shock the children." "They kissed sweetly, didn't they?" "I'll have him next time." "I can wait." "Ah, there you are!" "My comfort and my company." "We're locked in for another year." "Four seasons more." "What a desolation." "What a life's work." "Is it too much?" "Be sure to squint as you approach." "You may be blinded by my beauty." "Merry Christmas." "Is that why you're here..." "to tell me that?" "I thought you might be lonely." "Here, chancellor." "Try it on for size." "It's puzzling." "I remember my third birthday." "Not just pictures of the garden or the gifts, but who did what to whom and how it felt." "My memory stretches that far back, but never once can I remember... anything from you or father warmer than indifference." "Why is that?" "I don't know." "That was not an easy question from me, and I don't deserve and easy answer." "There are times I think we loved none of our children." "Still too easy, don't you think?" "I'm weary, and you want a simple answer, and I haven't one." "I'm so sick of all of you." "I thought I'd come and gloat a little." "Mother's tired." "Come stick pins tomorrow morning." "I'll be more responsive then." "It's no fun goading anyone tonight." "Bastard's boxed us up." "What's that, dear?" "We're his prisoners, if that interests you." "Why should it?" "I'm his prisoner anyway?" "It was... correct me if I'm wrong... but it was my impression that you wanted Henry's throne for me." "We can't win, Richard." "We've lost it this time." "You think I'm finished, do you?" "So I do." "I've suffered more defeats than you have teeth." "I know one when it happens to me." "Take your wormwood like a good boy." "Swallow it and go to bed." "I will be king." "So you will, but not this year!" "Oh, leave it, Richard!" "Let it go for now." "I can't." "It's not so hard." "Try saying after me:" "John wins, I lose." "And what if John died?" "You wouldn't dare!" "A knife." "Why wouldn't I?" "He's got a knife!" "Of course he has a knife." "He always has a knife." "We all have knives." "It's 1183, and we're barbarians." "How clear we make it." "Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war." "Not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government, nor any other thing." "We are the killers." "We breed wars." "We carry it, like syphilis, inside." "Dead bodies rot in field and stream because the living ones are rotten." "For the love of God, can't we love one another just a little?" "That's how peace begins." "We have so much to love each other for." "We have such possibilities, my children." "We could change the world." "And while we hugged each other, what would Philip do?" "Oh, good God, Philip!" "We're supposed to start a war." "If father finds out, I'll be ruined." "Steady, John." "Don't panic." "Some adviser you are." "Don't do anything without me." "Let me handle it." "He's made a pact with Philip." "You advised John into making war." "That fearless boy... he's disinherited himself." "When Henry finds out... when I tell him what John's done..." "I need a little time." "Can you keep John from Philip till I say so?" "Anything you say." "Richard, I want you out of here before this breaks." "And that means Philip." "Go to him, be desperate." "Promise anything..." "the vexing, brittany." "Once you're free and John is out of favor, we'll make further plans." "You see Philip." "You're the diplomat." "You see him, you talk to him." "You're a friend." "You know him, I don't." "And Richard!" "Promise anything." "I've got the old boy this time." "The damn fool thinks he loves John." "He believes it." "That's where the knife goes in... knives." "Knives." "Where is that mirror?" "I'm Eleanor, and I can look at anything." "My, what a lovely girl." "How could her king have left her?" "Philip?" "Philip!" "It's working out." "By morning, I can be the chosen son." "The crown can come to me." "Are you still with me?" "We'll have to fight them all." "They'll band together once this happens." "Have I got your word?" "Do I have yours?" "All England's land in France if I support you?" "Are we allies then?" "We were born to be." "I should say something solemn, but I haven't the time." "I'm off to father with news that John's a traitor." "After that... you stink!" "You know that?" "You're a stinker, and you stink." "I'll kill you!" "Ah!" "Lump." "If you're a prince, there's hope for every ape in africa." "I had you saved." "I wasn't on my way to father, but he was." "He would have gone to Henry and betrayed you." "Look, it's in his face." "It's true." "I don't know who my friends are." "Philip?" " May we?" " That's what tapestries are for." "I'll never learn." "I'll ruin everything." "Richard?" "Hello, Richard." "You're halfway to bed." "I'll wait for morning." "Come in." "Mother sent me." "Come in anyway." "Our alchemists have stumbled on the art of boiling burgundy." "It turns to steam, and when it cools, we call it brandy-wine." "I'm Henry's prisoner." "You find that charming?" "No." "Then why the charming smile?" "I thought, I can't think why, of when you were in paris last." "Can it be two whole years ago?" "It can." "I need an army." "It'll take the cold away." "I must have soldiers." "Have I aged?" "Do I seem older to you?" "They've been two fierce years." "I've studied, and I've trained to be a king." "I'll have your answer... yes or no?" "You'll have it when I give it." "You see?" "I've changed." "I'm not the boy you taught to hunt two years ago." "Remember?" "Racing after boar, you flying first, me scrambling after, all day into dusk." "Don't go." "I must know." "Will you help me?" "Sit and we'll discuss it." "You never write." "To anyone." "Why should I make you king of England?" "Aren't I better off with John or Geoffrey?" "Why have you to fight when I could have the cretin or the fiend?" "Would we fight?" "We're fighting now." "Good night." "You're still a boy." "In some ways." "Which way did you have in mind?" "You haven't asked how much your help is worth." "You'll tell me." "You can have the vexing back." "And what else?" "All of brittany." "Does that matter?" "That's Geoffrey's." "Possibly to Geoffrey." "And what else?" "That's all your help is worth." "And in return, what do you want from me?" "Two thousand soldiers." " And what else?" " Five hundred knights on horse." " And what else?" " Arms and siege equipment." " And what else?" " I never wrote because I thought you'd never answer." "You got married." "Does that make a difference?" "Doesn't it?" "I've spent two years on every street in hell." "That's odd." "I never saw you there." "You haven't said you loved me." "When the time comes." "Shh." "It's not too late at night?" "I'd hoped you'd come." "Good!" "We couldn't leave negotiations where they were." "Ah!" "I keep looking for your father in you." "He's not there." "I'll miss him." "Has Richard or the queen been here to see you?" "Does it matter?" "If they haven't yet, they will." "I want to reach a settlement." "I left you with too little earlier." "Yes." "Nothing is too little." "I'm sorry you're not fonder of me, lad." "Your father always said, "be fond of stronger men."" "No wonder he loved everyone." "I've come to you to offer peace." "Piss on your peace." "Your father would have wept." "My father was a weeper." "Fight me, and you'll lose." "I can't lose, Henry." "I have time." "Why, just look at you." "Great heavy arms." "But each year they get a little heavier." "The sand goes pit-pat in the glass." "I'm in no hurry, Henry." "I've got time." "Suppose I hurry things along." "Suppose I say that England is at war with France." "Then France surrenders." "I don't have to fight to win." "Take all you want... this county, that one." "You won't keep it long." "What kind of courage have you got?" "The tidal kind... it comes and goes." "By God, I'd love to turn you loose on Eleanor." "More brandy-wine?" "You recognize it?" "They were boiling it in ireland before the snakes left." "Well, things look a little bleak for Henry, don't they?" "You'll say yes to Richard when he comes... arms, soldiers, anything he asks." "I'd be foolish not to." "Yeah." "And withdraw it all before the battle ever started." "Wouldn't you, in my place?" "Why fight Henry when his sons will do it for you?" "Yes, exactly." " You've got promise, lad." "That's first-class thinking." " Thank you, sir." "Good night." "Good night?" "You're going?" "We haven't settled anything." "We open Christmas presents at noon." "Till then." "You can't be finished with me." "Oh, but I am." "It's been most satisfactory." "What's so satisfactory?" "Winning is." "I did just win." "Surely you noticed." "Not a thing." "You haven't won a damn thing." "Hmm." "I found out the way your mind works and the kind of man you are." "I know your plans and expectations." "You've burbled every bit of strategy you've got." "I know exactly what you will do and exactly what you won't." "And I've told you exactly nothing!" "To these aged eyes, boy, that's what winning looks like!" "Dormez bien." "You... you made my father nothing." "You were always better." "You bullied him, you bellied with his wife, you beat him down in every war, you twisted every treaty, you played mock the monk, and then you made him love you for it." "I was there." "His last words went to you." "He was a loving man, and you've learned nothing of it." "I learned how much fathers live in sons." "A king like you has policy prepared on everything." "What's the official line on sodomy?" "How stands the crown on boys who do with boys?" "Richard finds his way into so many legends." "Let's hear yours and see how it compares." "He found me first when I was 15." "We were hunting." "It was nearly dark." "My horse fell, I was thrown." "I woke to Richard touching me." "He asked me if I loved him." ""Philip, do you love me?"" "And I told him, "yes."" "Do you know why I told him yes?" "So that one day I could tell you all about it." "You cannot imagine what that "yes" cost." "Imagine snuggling to a chancred whore... and bending back your lips into something like a smile, saying," ""yes," ""I love you," ""and I find you... beautiful."" "I don't know how I did it." " No!" "It wasn't like that!" " But it was." "You loved me." "Never." "Get out." "Please." "I don't want you here." "It's no great pleasure to be here." "So the royal corkscrew finds me twisted, does he?" "I'll go tell your mother." "She'll be pleased." "She knows." "She sent me." "How completely hers you are." "You've had four sons." "Who do you claim?" "Not Henry." "Not my buried brother." "Not that monument to muck, that epic idiot." "Why him?" "Why always him and never me?" "He was the eldest." "He came first." "Christ, Henry, is that all?" "You went with Eleanor." "You never called me." "You never said my name." "I'd have walked." "I'd have crawled." "I'd have done anything." "It's not my fault." "I won't be blamed." "I only wanted you." "No, my crown." "You want my kingdom." "You keep your kingdom." "That I will." "I hope it kills you." "Thank God I have another son." "Thank God for John." "And who shall we thank for Geoffrey?" "You don't think much of me." ""Much"?" "I don't think of you at all." "Nurse used to say I had your hands." "I might have had more of you." "Try seeing me." "I haven't Richard's military skill, but he was here betraying you, not I." "I haven't John's..." "God knows what you see in John... and he's betrayed you too." "You think I'd ever make you king?" "You'll make me king because I'm all you've got." "I was to be his chancellor." "Ask him why." "I've heard enough." "For moving John to treason." "I don't doubt he offered, I don't doubt you tried, and I don't doubt John loves me." "Like a glutton loves his lunch." "You turd." "Well, John?" "It isn't what you think." "What do I think?" "What Geoffrey said." "I wouldn't plot against you, ever." "I know." "You're a good boy." "Can I go now, please?" "It's late." "I ought to be in bed." "Couldn't you wait?" "Couldn't you trust me?" "It was all yours." "Couldn't you believe that?" "Will you listen to the grief?" "Who do you think I built this kingdom for?" "Me!" "Daddy did it all for me." "When can I have it, daddy?" "Not until we bury you?" " I loved you." " You're a cold and bloody bastard, you are." "And you don't love anything." "I'm it." "I'm all that's left." "Here, father." "Here I am." "My life, when it is written, will read better than it lived." "Henry fitz-empress, first plantagenet, a king at 21, the ablest soldier of an able time." "He led men well, he cared for justice when he could... and ruled, for 30 years, a state as great as Charlemagne's." "He married out of love a woman out of legend." "Not in alexandria or rome or camelot has there been such a queen." "She bore him many children, but no sons." "King Henry had no sons." "He had three whiskered things, but he disowned them." "You're not mine!" "We're not connected!" "I deny you!" "None of you will get my kingdom." "I leave you nothing!" "And I wish you plague!" "May all your children breech and die!" "My boys are gone." "I've lost my boys." "You dare to damn me, do you?" "Well, I'll damn you back." "Goddamn you!" "My boys are gone." "I've lost my boys." "Oh, jesus." "All my boys." "Henry?" "The Christmas wine is in the pot" "The Christmas coals are red" "I'll spend my day the lover's way" "Unwrapping all my gifts" "In bed" "The Christmas mass" "Is over now" "The Christmas prayers are done" "No one else is caroling." "It might as well be lent." "When I was little, Christmas was a time of great confusion to me." "The holy land had two kings..." "God and uncle raymond." "I never knew whose birthday we were celebrating." "Henry isn't here." "Good, we can talk behind his back." "What happened?" "Don't you know?" "There was a scene with beds and tapestries, and many things got said." "Spiced wine." "I'd forgotten Henry liked it." "May I stay?" "It's your room just as much as mine." "We're both in residence." "Packed in like the poor, three to a bed." "Did you love Henry..." "ever?" "Ever?" "Back before the flood?" "As long ago as rosamund." "Ah, that's prehistory, lamb." "There are no written records or survivors." "There are pictures." "She was prettier than you." "Oh, much." "Her eyes, in certain light, were violet, and all her teeth were even." "That's a rare, fair feature..." "even teeth." "She smiled to excess, but she chewed with real distinction." "And you hate her even now." "No, but I did." "He put her in my place, you see, and that was very hard." "Like you, she headed Henry's table." "That's my chair." "And so you had her poisoned." "No, I never poisoned rosamund." "Oh, I prayed for her to drop... and smiled a little when she did." "Why aren't you happy?" "Henry's keeping you." "You must be cleverer than I am." "I've tried feeling pity for you, but it keeps on turning into something else." "Why pity?" "You love Henry, but you love his kingdom too." "You look at him, and you see cities, acreage, coastline, taxes." "All I see is Henry." "Leave him to me, can't you?" "I left him years ago." "And I thought I could move you." "Were you always like this?" "When I was young and worshipped you, is this what you were like?" "Most likely." "Child, I'm finished, and I've come to give him anything he asks for." "Do you know what I should like for Christmas?" "I should like to see you suffer." "Alais, just for you." "Alors, ma petite." "J'ai peur, maman." "No, no." "The sky is pocked with stars." "What eyes the wise men must have had to see a new one in so many." "You look cold." "I've mulled some wine." "I wonder..." "were there fewer stars then?" "I don't know." "I fancy there's a mystery in it." "What's this?" "Warm wine." "Why, so it is." "You are as beautiful as I remembered." "Off you go." "My widow wants to see me." "She came to find out what your plans are." "I know." "She wants you back." "Go to your room." "So, you want me back." "She thinks I do." "She thinks the need for loving never stops." "She has a point." "I marvel at you." "After all these years, still like a democratic drawbridge, going down for everybody." "At my age, there's not much traffic anymore." "To your interminable health." " Well, wife, what's on your mind?" " I've just seen Richard." "Splendid boy." "He says you fought." "We always do." "It's his impression that you mean to disinherit them." "I fancy I'll relent." "Don't you?" "I don't much care." "In fact, I wonder, Henry, if I care for anything." "I wonder if I'm hungry out of habit." "I could listen to you lie for hours." "So your lust is rusty." "Gorgeous." "Henry, I'm so tired." "Sleep then." "Sleep and dream of me with croutons." "Henri a la mode." " Henry, stop it." " Eleanor, I haven't started." "What do you want?" "You want my name on paper?" "I'll sign anything." "You want the Aquitaine for John?" "It's John's." "It's his, it's yours, it's anybody's." "In exchange for what?" "For nothing." "For a little quiet." "For an end to this, for God's sake." "Sail me back to England, lock me up... and lose the key and let me be alone." "You have my oath." "I give my word." "Oh, well." "Well, well." "Would you like a pillow?" "Footstool?" "How about a shawl?" "Your oaths are all profanities, your words a curse, your name on paper is a waste of pulp!" "I'm vilifying you, for God's sake!" "Pay attention!" "How, from where we started," "did we ever reach this Christmas?" "Step by step." "What happens to me now?" "That's lively curiosity from such a dead cat." "If you want to know my plans, just ask me." "Conquer china, sack the vatican, or take the veil." "I'm not among the ones who give a damn." "Just let me sign my lands to John and go to bed." "No, you're too kind." "I can't accept." "Come on, man, I'll sign the thing in blood or spit or bright blue ink." "Let's have it done." "Let's not." "No, I don't think I want your signature on anything." "You don't?" "Dear God, the pleasure I still get from goading you." "You don't want John to have my provinces?" "Bull's-eye." "I can't bear you when you're smug." "I know, I know." "You don't want Richard, and you don't want John." "You've grasped it." "All right, then, shatter me!" "Let me have it." "What do you want?" "A new wife." "Oh." "So," "I'm to be annulled." "Well, will the pope annul me, do you think?" "The pontiff owes me one pontificate." "I think he will." "Out Eleanor, in alais." " Why?" " A new wife, wife, will bear me sons." "That is the single thing... of which I would have thought you had enough." "I want a son." "We could populate... a country town with country girls who've borne you sons." "How many is it?" "Help me count the bastards." "All my sons are bastards." "You really mean to do it." "Lady love, with all my heart." "Your sons are part of you." "Like warts and goiters, and I'm having them removed." "We've made them." "They're our boys." "I know, and good God, look at them." "Geoffrey..." "there's a masterpiece." "He isn't flesh, he's a device." "He's wheels and gears." "And johnny... was his latest treason your idea?" "I caught him lying, and I've said, "he's young."" "I found him cheating, and I've said, "he's just a boy."" "I've watched him steal and whore and whip his servants, and he's not a child." "He's the man we made him." "Don't share John with me." "He's your accomplishment." "And Richard's yours." "How could you send him off to deal with Philip?" "I was tired." "I was busy." "They were friends." "Eleanor, he was the best." "From the cradle on, you cradled him." "I never had a chance." "You never wanted one." "How do you know?" "You took him." "Separation from your husband you could bear, but not your son." "Whatever I have done, you made me do." "You threw me out of bed for Richard." "Not until you threw me out for rosamund." "It's not that simple." "I won't have it to be that simple." "I adored you." "Never." "I still do." "Of all the lies, that one is the most terrible." "I know." "That's why I saved it up for now." "Oh, Henry, we've mangled everything we've touched." "Deny us what you will, we have done that." "Do you remember when we met?" "Down to the hour and color of your stockings." "I could hardly see you for the sunlight." "It was raining, but no matter." "There was very little talk, as I recall." "Very little." "I had never seen such beauty." "I walked right up and touched it." "God, where did I find the gall to do that?" "In my eyes." "I loved you." "No annulment." "What?" "There will be no annulment." "Will there not?" "No, I'm afraid you'll have to do without." "Well, it was just a whim." "I'm so relieved." "I didn't want to lose you." "Out of curiosity, as intellectual to intellectual, how in the name of bleeding jesus can you lose me?" "Do we ever see each other?" "Am I ever near you?" "Ever with you?" "Am I ever anywhere but somewhere else?" "Do I write?" "Do we send messages?" "Do dinghies bearing gifts float up the thames to you?" "Are you remembered?" "You are." "You're no part of me." "We do not touch at any point." "How can you lose me?" "Can't you feel the chains?" "You know me well enough to know I can't be stopped." "I don't have to stop you." "I have only to delay you." "Every enemy you have has friends in rome." "We'll cost you time." "What is this?" "I'm not moldering." "My paint's not peeling." "I'm good for years." "How many years?" "Suppose I hold you back for one." "I can." "It's possible." "Suppose your first son dies." "Ours did." "It's possible." "Suppose you're daughtered next." "We were." "That, too, is possible." "How old is daddy then?" "What kind of spindly, rickett-ridden, milky, wizened, dim-eyed, gammy-handed, limpy line of things will you beget?" "It's sweet of you to care." "And when you die, which is regrettable but necessary, what will happen to frail Alais and her pruney prince?" "You can't think Richard's going to wait for your grotesque to grow." "You wouldn't let him do a thing like that?" "Let him?" "I'd push him through the nursery door." "You're not that cruel." "Don't fret." "We'll wait until you're dead to do it." "Eleanor, what do you want?" "Just what you want..." "a king for a son." "You can make more, I can't." "You think I want to disappear?" "One son is all I've got, and you can blot him out and call me cruel?" "For these ten years, you've lived with everything I've lost... and loved another woman through it all, and I am cruel?" "I could peel you like a pear, and God himself would call it justice." "I will die sometime soon." "One day I'll duck too slow, and at westminster, they'll sing out "long live the king" for someone else." "I beg you, let it be a son of mine." "I am not moved to tears." "I have no sons." "You have too many sons." "You don't need more." "Well, wish me luck." "I'm off." "To rome?" "That's where they keep the pope." "You don't dare go!" "Say that again at noon." "You'll say it to my horse's ass." "Lamb, I'll be rid of you by easter!" "You can count your reigning days!" "You go to rome, we'll rise against you!" "Who will?" "Richard, Geoffrey, John and Eleanor of Aquitaine." "The day those stout hearts band together is the day that pigs get wings!" "There'll be pork in the treetops come morning!" "Don't you see you've given them a common cause:" "New sons?" "You leave the country, and you've lost it." " All of you at once?" " And Philip too." "He'd join us." "Yes, he would." "Now how's your trip to rome?" "Oh, I've got you, got you, got you." "Should I take a thousand men-at-arms, or is that showy?" "Bluff away." "Ah, poor thing." "How can I break the news?" "You've just miscalculated." "Have I?" "How?" "You should have lied." "You should have promised to be good while I was gone." "I would have let your three boys loose." "They could have fought me then." "You wouldn't keep your sons locked up here." "Why the devil wouldn't I?" "You wouldn't dare." "Why not?" "Let them sit in Chinon for a while." "I forbid it." "She forbids it." "Did your father sleep with me, or didn't he?" "No doubt you're going to tell me that he did." "Would it upset you?" "What about the thousand men?" "I say be gaudy and to hell with it." "Don't leave me, Henry." "I'm at rock bottom." "I'll do anything to keep you." "I think you think you mean it." "Ask for something." "Eleanor, we're passed it, years passed." "Test me." "Name an act." "There isn't one!" "About my fornication with your father." "Yes, there is." "You can expire." "You first, old man." "I only hope I'm there to watch." "You're so afraid of dying." "You're so scared of it." "Ah, poor Eleanor." "If only she'd lied." "She did." "She said she never loved your father." "I can always count on you." "I never touched you without thinking, "Geoffrey, Geoffrey."" "The day you hurt me, I'll cry out." "I've put more horns on you than Louis ever wore." "Am I supposed to care?" "I'll kill you if you leave me." "You can try." "I loved your father's body." "He was beautiful." "It never happened." "I can see his body now." "Shall I describe it?" "Eleanor, I hope you die!" "His arms were rough, with scars here." "No!" "I can feel his arms!" "I feel them!" "I feel it!" "What?" "Have I hurt you?" "Let me finish!" "You were in the next room when he did it!" "Well, what family doesn't have its ups and downs?" "I'm cold." "I can't feel anything." "Not anything at all." "We couldn't go back, could we, Henry?" "William!" "Up!" "Up!" "When the king is off his ass, nobody sleeps!" "Up!" "Up!" "Up!" "Up!" "Tell her to pack." "She leaves when it's light." "Up, up!" " Henry?" " We're packing up and moving out." "Is there a war?" "What's happened?" "Henry, what's the matter?" "Nothing, for a change." "Would you believe it?" "Where have you been all night?" "What for?" "Making us an entourage." "We're off to rome to see the pope." "He's excommunicated you again." "No, he's going to set me free." "I'm having Eleanor annulled." "The nation will be shocked to learn our marriage wasn't consummated." "Oh, be serious." "I am." "It seems that you and I are getting married." "By the pope himself." "You mean it?" "Shall I kneel?" "It's not another trick?" "The bridal party's drilling on the cobblestones." " She'll find a way to stop us." " How?" "She won't be here." "We're launching her for salisbury tower when the winds change." "She'll be barging down the river by lunchtime." "If she doesn't stop us, Richard will." "Not anymore, I've corked him up." "He's in the cellar with his brothers and the wine." "The royal boys are aging with the royal port." "You haven't said yes." "Would you like a formal declaration?" "There, my finest angle." "It's on all the coins." "Sad alais, will you marry me?" "Be my queen." "We'll love each other, and you'll give me sons." "Let's have six." "We'll do Eleanor one better." "We'll call the first one Louis, if you like." "Louis le premier." "How's that for a king of England?" "Henry, you can't ever let them out." "You've lost me." "Let who out?" "Your sons." "You've put them in the dungeon, and you've got to keep them there forever." "Do I now?" "If they're free when you die, it's the dungeon or the nunnery for me." "But, Henry, what about the child?" "Don't bother me about the child." "The damn thing isn't born yet." "If they're free, they'll kill it." "And I will not live to see our children murdered." "Henry!" "Are you going down?" "To let them out or to keep them in?" "Could you say to a child of yours," ""you've seen the sunlight for the last time"?" "Can you do it, Henry?" "I shall have to, shan't I?" "He's here." "He'll get no satisfaction out of me." "He isn't going to see me beg." "Why, you chivalric fool, as if the way one fell down mattered." "When the fall is all there is, it matters." "My barge is sailing with the tide." " I've come to say good-bye." " Does Henry know you're here?" "I've brought you each a little something." "What's he planning?" "Is he going to keep us here?" "For God's sake, mother." "I picked it out especially." " How heavy is the outside guard?" " That's taken care of." "The courtyard, the gates?" "They're putting Henry's train together, and it's chaos." "You can walk right out." "We'll go to Poitiers." "He'll expect that." "But we'll meet him with an army when he comes." "You stick close to me." "When you run, run hard." "Why run at all?" "I think we ought to stay." "Stay here?" "Till Henry comes." "He will come, won't he?" "And he'll come alone." "I count three knives to one." "You think we could?" "I'd only do it wrong." "You kill him, I'll watch." " Where are you going?" " Up for air." "Don't stop her." "You don't think I'm gonna let this happen." "If you tell, there'll be a rash of executions, and you don't want that." "No, you don't want to lose one of us, not even me." "You're clever, but I wonder if you're right." "Warn him, it's the end of us." "You warn him not, it's the end of him." "It's that clear." "Take the knives and run." "No, Geoffrey's right." "You're not an assassin." "Look again." "Richard." "Spare me that." "You brought these things." "You want him dead?" "You do it." "You unnatural animal." "Unnatural, mummy?" "You tell me, what's nature's way?" "If poison mushrooms grow and babies come with crooked backs, if goiters thrive and dogs go mad... and wives kill husbands, what's unnatural?" "Come, here stands your lamb." "Come cover him in kisses." "He's all yours." "No, you're not mine." "I'm not responsible." "Where do you think I learned this from?" "Who do you think I studied under?" "How old was I when you fought with Henry first?" "Young." "I don't know." "How many battles did I watch?" "But those were battles, not a knife behind a door." "I never heard a corpse ask how it got so cold." "What were you thinking when you fought him?" "You." "I did it all for you!" "Of your unnatural animal?" "You wanted father dead." "No, never that." "You tried to kill him." "Why?" "What did you want?" "Yes!" "I wanted Henry back." "Liar!" "I wanted Henry." "Don't trust her." "She'll warn him if she gets a chance." "Dear, dear, whatever shall we do with mother?" "It wants light." "What we do in dungeons needs the shades of day." "I stole the candles from the chapel." "Jesus won't begrudge them, and the chaplain works for me." "You look dreadful." "So do you." "I underslept a little." "We can all rest in a little while." "There, that's better." "Bright and clear, just like the morning." "Fine looking boy." "What do you want from us?" "You must be mad." "Why did you have to come here?" "Damn it, why did you come?" "You were the best." "I told her so." "You, I loved." "You're going to keep us here." "You can't ever let me out." "You know you can't." "I'll never stop." "I can't stop either." "Brave boys... that's what I have." "Come for me." "What's wrong?" "You're Richard, aren't you?" "But you're Henry." "Please, take me back." "Can't we try again?" "Again?" "We always have before." "Oh, yes, we always have." "Go on!" "Execute him." "They're assassins, aren't they?" "This was treason, wasn't it?" "You gave them life." "You take it." "Who's to say it's monstrous?" "I'm the king." "I call it just." "Therefore, I, Henry, by the grace of God," "King of the English, Lord of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, count of Anjou, Brittany, Poutou and Normandy," "Maine, Gascony and Aquitaine, do sentence you to death." "Done this Christmas day in Chinon in God's year 1183." "Surely that's not what I intended." "Children." "Children." "They're all we have." "Go on." "I'm done." "I'm finished with you." "You and I are finished." "You spare the rod, you'll spoil those boys." "I couldn't do it, Eleanor." "Nobody thought you could." "Come rest." "I want no women in my life." "You're tired." "I could have conquered europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." "Go on, get out." "Go on." "I should have killed you years ago." "You put me here." "You made me do mad things." "You've bled me." "Shoulder it yourself." "Don't put it on my back." "Pick it up and carry it." "I can." "My losses are my work." "What losses?" "I'm the one with nothing." "Lost your life's work, have you?" "Provinces are nothing." "Land is dirt." "I could take defeats like yours and laugh." "I've done it." "If you're broken, it's because you're brittle." "I've lost." "You won." "And I can't ever have you back again." "You're all that I have ever loved." "Christ, you don't know what nothing is." " I want to die." " No, you don't." " I want to die." " I'll hold you." "Henry, I want to die." "Eleanor." "I want to die." "Let me hold you." "I want to die." "You will, you know, someday." "Just wait long enough, and it'll happen." "So it will." "We're in the cellar, you're going back to prison, my life is wasted, we've lost each other," "and you're smiling." "It's the way I register despair." "There's everything in life but hope." "We're both alive." "And for all I know, that's what hope is." "We're jungle creatures, Henry, and the dark is all around us." "See them..." "in the corners?" "You can see the eyes." "And they can see ours." "I'm a match for anything." "Aren't you?" "I should have been a great fool... not to love you." "You'll let me out for easter?" "Come the resurrection, you can strike me down again." "Perhaps next time I'll do it." "And perhaps you won't." "You know, I hope we never die!" "So do I." "You think there's any chance of it?"