"That is all, madame."
"How ridiculous! Foolish child. She will find another man soon enough, or one will find her. She is charming is she not?"
Toby risked an upward glance at the formidable senora. He had known sergeants-at-arms who would have looked prettier in her fancy gown. "Very."
"You did not sleep during the siesta break, Monsieur Longdirk?"
"The don left me on guard, madame."
"The don is a madman. We are safer now we have you. Eulalia slipped away, thinking I would not notice. She returned in a very brief time and in a very petulant mood."
"May it be that the mademoiselle suffers from constipation?"
The reply was a bark of coarse laughter that almost spooked the horse and made Gracia look around in alarm. "I don't think her problem was anything like that in the least. You and Madame Gomez are lovers?"
"No, madame." He accompanied the words with a warning scowl, but scowls bounced off Senora Collel like sleet off a limestone gargoyle.
Her eyes gleamed. "Why not? From the way she looks at you, she is yours for the taking."
That deserved no answer. He peered behind him at the mule and its mulish guardians, then forward, all the way to the don at the front. The company was moving well and staying together. He could trust Hamish to do a good job of scouting.
"Now it is my turn to ask some questions, madame, yes? Tell me about Monsieur Brusi."
She waved her fan dismissively. "Very rich, very powerful in Barcelona, a member of the Council of One Hundred. A dangerous enemy, Tobias."
"I seek no enemies, madame."
"You may have made one already in that man. He sucks life from other people. His wife hanged herself seventeen years ago. If that son of his does not escape from his father's shadow soon, he will never blossom."
Nothing surprising there. Toby had already reached the same opinion of Josep. "Father Guillem?"
The senora glanced down at him warily. "A preacher, an acolyte in the greatest sanctuary in Catalonia, indeed in all Aragon, and probably a senior one. So a pious man and probably a very learned one."
Had the renowned gossip learned no more than that?
"I think I knew that, madame, and I think he does."
She chuckled, an ominous sound. "Very likely."
"And Brother Bernat?"
Surprisingly, this time there was a longer pause, a glance even more guarded. She frowned. She glanced around, although there was no one within earshot and they were still speaking French.
"I have only suspicions, Tobias."
He did not like her use of his given name; here it implied an intimacy he had no wish for. But he did want to hear her suspicions. "Tell me those, Madame Collel, and I shall remember that they are only suspicions."
Her smile of broken, yellow fangs would strike dread into the bravest. "Why is an old man traveling with a tender child, hmm? Tell me that!"
"I cannot. There may be good reasons."
"There may be very evil reasons, also!" she said triumphantly.
"He is a friar, madame, a pious teacher of ethics."
She lowered her voice. "That is what a friar is supposed to be, yes. But is he what he says he is? I think he is an—" she paused dramatically, "—alumbrado!"
"I am not familiar with that term, madame."
She pouted, curling her mustache. "It is a foul heresy. There are ill-disposed people who travel the wild lands, Tobias, seeking out elemental spirits."
"Hexers. They harvest the elementals and turn them into demons. I know of this evil, but—"
"Not only hexers! Worse! You have never heard of the alumbrados?"
He hitched his pack higher on his shoulders, wondering what could possibly be worse than the gramarye he had met in Lady Valda or foreseen in Baron Oreste. "No."
"Alumbradismo is the worst form of gramarye, Tobias! These abominable persons do not worship good spirits and tutelaries, as honest folk do, but the wild elementals themselves!"
"Why should that be worse than hexing? It sounds dangerous, for elementals are unpredictable, but they are not evil in the way demons—"
She dismissed his ignorance with a wave of her fan. "These heretics sacrifice children to the elementals!"
Oh, that was ridiculous! What interest would a wild elemental have in human sacrifice? They just wanted to be left alone.
"I never heard of this terrible thing, madame. For what purpose do they do it?"
She rolled her eyes. "For power, of course! It is said that they make themselves immortal."
This was not even gossip—it was pure malice. He did not believe a word of it. "That is a most serious charge, madame. Have you any evidence?"
Senora Collel resented his doubts and scowled at him. "I told you I only had suspicions! But there is something very strange about that Brother Bernat and his sweet little ward. You speak with him and then come and tell me if you do not sense something very strange about him."
"I confess I already have sensed that he is an unusual man."
"There! What did I tell you!"
Hamish had never mentioned alumbradismo, and if Hamish did not know of it, then it had never been written in any book. Perhaps it was some sort of local superstition.
"I shall keep your warning in mind," Toby said. "Now tell me of the most interesting person in this company."
"The don, you mean?"
"Of course not. Madame Collel."
She laughed raucously. "So you can flatter? Ah, the woman is a terrible harridan! She was born very poor and married a man much older than herself, disgustingly rich. She has outlived three husbands. It is a well-known scandal that her household always includes a well-built young steward, whom she pays well to keep her servants in line and herself content. It is said she usually tires of these staunch youngsters after a year or so, but dismisses them with a generous requital. Have you employment in mind when you reach Barcelona, Tobias?"
He gaped at her brazen smirk. He had no idea how much she was mocking him, or if her monstrous suggestion could be at least partly serious. "Monsieur Brusi has already offered to make me a porter in his warehouse."
"I pay better, but the work might be harder."
It would indeed! "I shall keep this generous offer in mind, madame."
She chuckled. "But I do not roll in the undergrowth like Eulalia. If you wish to try out for the post, you will have to wait until we arrive. What do you think of the don?"
"He puzzles me. Is he as deluded as he pretends?"
"How can he be, unless he lost his wits in battle? He is reputed to be a good fighter." From her that was probably significant praise, but she said no more about Don Ramon. She frowned. "There is something very odd about his squire, also. He bothers me more."
CHAPTER SEVEN
By sunset they were almost out of the hills. Hamish had located an excellent campsite, sheltered by cypress trees and furnished with a small pool trapped behind an earthen dam. The water was slime-covered and bad-smelling, but it would serve to wash off the sweat and dust of the day. When Toby tried to borrow the Brusi bucket, he was reminded of his promise to curry the horses and informed that his fee for that could be the rent of the bucket. The better one came to know Brusi Senior, the nastier the old prune seemed, but the only other bucket belonged to Rafael and Miguel and the price of that one would be the captain's heart on a stick. What a jolly lot they all were!
While Hamish was building a communal fire, therefore, Toby gave Josep a lesson in caring for horses. Eulalia attended to Senora Collel's and obviously knew what she was doing—a farmer's daughter, no doubt. Each little group sat under its own tree, well apart from the others. Pepita wandered around being friends with everyone, but she was a notable exception, because there was still no sign of the adults cooperating. Rafael and Miguel had marched up to the Brusi camp and carted away their possessions without a word of thanks to anyone.