‘This,’ Rainulf responded, once his goblet was refilled, ‘is William de Hauteville, and he is my right hand. What you say to me can be said in front of him.’
Two people reacted with disguised surprise: Guaimar because it underlined his opinion that the Norman mercenary had aged; in past times he had never needed another’s counsel. William was astonished for another reason: although he knew he had become trusted enough to give Rainulf advice, the older man had never before used that expression regarding his standing. Berengara’s reaction was different, a sort of coy sideways movement of the head and eyes, as if to say that he had, no doubt, gone up mightily in his own estimation.
‘Conrad intends to depose Pandulf.’
‘Does he?’
‘He should hang, draw and quarter him,’ spat Berengara, showing, both in the way it was said and the expression that accompanied it, a vicious side to her, up till then, amiable character. ‘I would happily cut out his heart.’
‘You would need a long blade to even find it,’ said Rainulf, spluttering at his own jest.
‘I would claw his eyes out with my own fingernails.’
Rainulf was still amused. ‘Your sister is bloodthirsty, Guaimar. I sense that you are not.’
‘I seek only the return of that which is mine.’
‘Was yours,’ the old man snarled. ‘I took it away from you.’
‘Conrad will give it me back.’
‘And if I say that he shall not, what will Conrad do then?’
‘He will add you to his enemies.’
‘Look at me, Guaimar. Do you see me tremble?’
‘You have come to offer something, sir,’ said William, in an even tone, looking at Rainulf who, in nodding, gave him leave to continue. ‘It would be best to get to that and stop this sparring, which produces nothing but bile.’ Seeing Guaimar hesitate, he added, in a much harder tone of voice, ‘You have come with an offer for the Lord of Aversa. Make it!’
‘How do you know I have come to offer no more than the fact he might live?’
Seeing Rainulf sit forward to roar at the youngster, William held up his hand: no good would come from a loss of temper. It was pleasing that Rainulf responded positively, waving to William to carry on and burying his face once more in his goblet of wine.
‘Allow me to speak for my lord. I trust that Conrad Augustus has a brain, and if he is possessed of one he will know that killing Normans is a vow often made and even more often regretted.’
‘I would not regret it,’ said Berengara, words which had her brother holding up his hand to restrain her. Defiantly she added, ‘It would provide much pleasure to line the Via Appia with hanging Norman bodies, as the Roman general Crassus once did with the soldiers of Spartacus.’
‘It would be a pleasure hard won, lady. We Normans tend to spill more blood than we lose.’ As she made to respond, William talked right over her, addressing her brother. ‘But you are not here to vent your spleen, however right you feel in doing so. I repeat what I said just now. You have an offer! Make it, let Rainulf consider it, and when he has decided on it, the response can be taken back to the emperor.’
‘It’s perfectly straightforward,’ Guaimar replied, looking at the bloated, purple face of Rainulf. ‘If you wish to keep the title of Lord of Aversa, you must loosen your ties to Pandulf.’
William was thinking this young man had a lot to learn. Before saying those words it would have been wise to find out from Rainulf what was his view of Pandulf at this time; he knew it was not high after the Wolf’s depredations at Montecassino and it had dropped even more with his inability to go to war on behalf of Byzantium. He had also laid out on the table, without gaining any leverage, the very obvious fact that he was prepared to forget Rainulf’s previous betrayal of his father, if he would change sides once more.
‘So Conrad will reinstate you?’ William asked.
‘He has assured me he will.’
‘And Capua? What happens to that after Pandulf is removed?’
Guaimar shrugged, but the answer was obvious: it would be joined to Salerno.
‘Can you be sure of the emperor’s word?’
‘As sure as I can be of anyone’s.’
‘That does not take you very far,’ William replied, with just a touch of asperity. ‘But let us say you have the right of it, and you’re installed as Duke of Salerno as well as Prince of Capua. You are saying you will confirm Rainulf in all his present lands and titles?’
‘I am.’
‘And I don’t believe you,’ Rainulf growled, before he leant forward. ‘I think like a Norman, and I know a Lombard. You will say and do anything to get rid of the Wolf, but once he is gone, and Conrad is back in his German lair, my title would not be worth a pitcher of piss.’
‘I will give you my word.’
‘You can poke your word up your Lombard arse, begging your pardon, Lady Berengara.’
She looked as though she would like to put a red-hot poker in his, then twist it.
Rainulf was not drunk, but he was drink affected. It took less and less to get him to the point of a slight slurring and he was there now. And he was trying to rile this young man, to get him to lose his temper, but he failed.
‘I am told Pandulf has so many Normans in his pay now, many of them your old levies, he could depose you if he wished.’
Rainulf belched. ‘He knows better than to try.’
For the first time Guaimar raised his voice. ‘He will try eventually, Rainulf, for I doubt he still sees you as an ally.’
‘You know nothing.’
‘I know he is wedded to treachery, and you are a potential victim, as I once was. But is it not odd that my sister and I have come to save your hide?’
‘To strip the skin off my back more like, if that look on the face of the Lady Berengara is anything to go by.’
‘A trade in insults will get us nowhere,’ William insisted.
He was actually thinking hard on what Guaimar had just said, in fact an accurate assessment of the true situation in which Rainulf found himself, and the beginnings of a solution were forming in his mind, but it had to be one kept close. He gestured to the servants that they should leave the room, Rainulf indicating they should deposit the jug of wine by his right hand. No one spoke until they had gone.
‘My lord would need some guarantees, and there is only one I can think of that will be acceptable.’
‘And that is?’
‘He must be confirmed in his title by the emperor,’ he said softly, so as not to be overheard. ‘Perhaps as a count in his own right.’
‘That is to ask a great deal.’
‘Is it? You say you wish to keep him in his title. I suspect when Conrad restores you, if he restores you and gives you Capua, you will acknowledge him as your rightful suzerain and he will, with some ceremony, confirm you in your title. Let him do the same for Rainulf and he will have imperial protection against you, and…’ William looked at the still-peevish Berengara,‘…your successors, as well as any other Lombard noble who wishes him ill.’
Rainulf nodded vigorously; what William had proposed was a thing after which any man of sense would hanker. Right now he was in possession of his fief, but he had come by it in dubious circumstances which meant only his military strength kept him in place. To be confirmed by the Holy Roman Emperor would make him legitimate: if he could get rid of Pandulf’s niece, and perhaps breed a son with another, that child would be his lawful heir.
‘Only Conrad can decide that,’ Guaimar said.
‘True.’ William leant forward now, his voice remaining soft. ‘Sir, I have no desire to diminish you, but you are a messenger. Therefore the response must be carried back to Conrad Augustus to get his answer. Your aim is to detach Rainulf from his allegiance to Pandulf. Give him the desire to do so and you will succeed.’
‘And if I fail?’