**
It was close to midnight. The inn was at its rowdiest. Suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder and a voice whispered, ‘Isn’t it time for matins?’
She swung round. ‘I told you not to follow me, Hubert.’
‘In most things I’m your obedient servant but not on this occasion. Let’s go.’
‘I need to speak to the girl Taillefer was with last night.’
‘Who was that?’
‘Yolande.’
Hubert said nothing. He simply closed his eyes in exasperation, turned on his heel and walked away. She expected him to leave then but to her surprise he went over to the innkeeper and she saw him mutter something. Money changed hands. He’s settling his bill and then he’ll leave, she thought.
But instead the innkeeper went into the back room, re-emerging a moment later with the girl she had seen earlier. To her even greater astonishment Hubert put his arm round her and led her into the back room.
‘That’s him sorted,’ sniggered the woman beside her, having watched this charade with interest. ‘I wondered who he was queuing for. You should have taken your chance when you had it.’
Her companion grunted, ‘Pretty face, that Yolande. She certainly pulls in the punters.’
For that he got a slap from his woman.
**
The great bell in the tower over on Villeneuve had boomed out its count of twelve.
Hildegard stood in the doorway of le Coq d’or preparing to hurry out into the rain to cross back to the palace gatehouse when Hubert came up behind her and put his arms round her in a blatantly familiar fashion.
‘Don’t come near me!’ She knew it was him before she even turned because she recognised the alluringly masculine scent of limes and sandalwood he used.
She swivelled to face him. ‘Go away!’
A faint smile flickered over his lips at her response. ‘Tonight I’m your disobedient servant. You’ll thank me tomorrow. There are three or four blackguards giving you looks I wouldn’t want if I were you.’
‘Nonsense.’
‘It’s not nonsense, Hildegard. Just step outside now, into the rain with me. It’s dark away from the lights of the inn. We’ll hurry and we’ll pretend you’re my woman.’
‘I don’t need a man to protect me. I’ve got a knife.’
‘We know about the usefulness of knives,’ he observed, ignoring her attempt to pull away. ‘Put your hood up. This rain is really coming down.’
Resigned to leaving with him but determined to get away as soon as they reached the palace gatehouse, she allowed him to put his arm round her and lead her away from the lights of the inn.
They had gone no further than a dip in the lane that led to the palace when there was a scuffle behind them. Hubert staggered back and Hildegard felt some other hands grip hold of her and a voice in French said, ‘I’ve got her.’
Then her attacker was trying to drag her away, along the lane to where it met the bridge and she was kicking out but failing to free herself. A gasp of someone receiving a hard blow confused her. They were attacking Hubert. There were shouts. More sounds of bone on flesh. Shapes appeared and disappeared in the darkness of the unlit lane.
There were three of them. No, four. The one holding her tried to drag her towards the bridge. She turned and smacked one hand hard against the side of his head, catching him off balance and as he stumbled she nearly managed to free herself but then one of the others grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back. A voice somehow familiar shouted, ‘Watch out, the bastard’s armed!’
Then it was a chaos of movement in the darkness. Grunts. A howl of pain. Someone on the ground coughing up the contents of his stomach.
All at once her arms were released and Hubert was beside her. ‘Can you run? I’ll hold them off.’
‘Ridiculous!’ She drew her knife.
A second glint of steel must have made the men hesitate. Hubert lunged as a shape burst from the shadows and launched himself in a full-on attack but then, as Hubert parried and sent his opponent’s sword clattering to the ground, the attackers must have realised the fight wasn’t worth the risk. As suddenly as they had appeared they vanished into the night.
Hubert was licking one of his wrists as they entered the gatehouse a few minutes later. She had a close look at it underneath the fitful light of a cresset, saw with relief that it was no more than a graze.
‘I’m sorry.’ She pulled a face. ‘If you say, I told you so, I shall scream.’ She gave him a rueful smile.
‘No hard feelings. Luckily we had the advantage of darkness. They didn’t know whether they were stabbing each other or us.’
‘I should have listened to you. I’ve been warned often enough today about that place.’
‘I had a better view than you and could see how things were shaping up.’
Then she remembered the age he had spent with the whore, Yolande. ‘I’m sure you had a different view while you were in that back room.’
‘I did.’ He grinned. ‘Come up to the Tinel - we both need a drink after all that - and I’ll tell you what she said.’
**
They shared a jug of warm spiced wine in the echoing refectory with sleepy night staff floating among the empty tables and dreamily wiping up around them. It seemed unreal to be sitting with Hubert in such surroundings.
He reached out when the servant had moved out of earshot and took her hands in his. ‘Were you hurt just now?’
She shook her head. ‘Only my pride. What a fool I was. I owe you.’
‘It’s a debt I shall call in one day.’
‘I’m duly warned. But tell me what that girl said to you.’
‘She knew Taillefer. He was one of her regulars. Yesterday he asked her to let him know if anybody had been in trying to sell anything valuable. Something stolen from his master, le duc.’
‘Le duc de Berry’s a known collector of beautiful objects.’ She nodded.
‘She promised she would, the inn being one of those places where stolen goods change hands. Then last night a stranger came in looking for a buyer for a dagger. A rich piece, jewelled, clearly once the property of a nobleman. She got the message to Taillefer and he came back just after midnight. She said to him, apparently, “you’re eager, you were only in here a few hours ago,” and he said, “I’ve been locked out.” Note this, “My usual way must have been discovered. I’ll have to stay here till morning so I hope you’ll give me a bed.”’
‘That would cost him,’ she observed dryly.
Hubert smiled. ‘These girls are often willing to work for very little.’ Hildegard drew back. ‘Or so I’m told,’ he added, seeing her expression.
‘Go on, Hubert. Your activities are hardly my concern.’
He frowned. ‘Surely you’re not suggesting I’d ever break my vows with a whore?’
‘It’s the practise here. That’s plain to a blind man. Look at Cardinal Fondi. He’s not the only one.’
‘Fondi is - I’m not of these people, anyway. I’m - ’ he broke off. ‘Let’s not wrangle. I have something important to tell you - that is if you’re still intent on finding Taillefer’s killer?’
‘Of course I am. I’m sorry, Hubert, I’m still shaken by what happened just now. Nothing seems real. That voice - one of the attackers - I’m sure I recognised it. I just can’t place it.’ She shivered.
‘You think they were more than casual footpads?’
‘I don’t know. But do go on. Tell me what else she said.’
‘Well, Yolande told Taillefer about the stranger with a jewelled dagger for sale and she thought it was that that had brought him over last night, that - and not being able to get back into the palace. She said he was interested enough to try to buy the dagger but the man would not sell unless he had gold for it, and of course, the boy didn’t have gold.’