‘What are you doing?’
She had not moved but merely opened up her eyes and was suddenly awake. Had he been looking at her face, as most of the time he had, or turned his body facing her she might have seen the tenderness. She pulled the sheet over her, the action itself a terrible rebuke – an oeillade of disgust upon her pretty face.
‘I feel exposed,’ she said, shaking with a revulsion incomprehensible to him. He started to speak, to explain.
‘Don’t. Please go.’
And so he did. Given a little luck this night of humiliation might have passed him by, he might have found sleep easier to come by that night, she might have stayed asleep herself and all would have been well and all manner of things.
Eventually to the gentle sound of the small bells that rang the quarter-hours at Chartres he fell asleep. At six he was woken by Vague Henri and there was no time for anything but war and matters of life and death.
Redeemer General Bosco would very much have liked to be equally single-minded. But he had a visitor. At first there were too many instructions to be given and information to be taken in but finally the scrawny Redeemer was so insistent he be heard that he stopped for a moment, attentive only so that this nuisance would go away.
‘Who are you?’ said Bosco.
The man sighed, clearly unhappy about his treatment. He was a man who expected to be taken seriously.
‘I am Redeemer Yes, from the Office of the Holy Spirit.’
‘Never heard of them.’
‘We used to be the Office of Celibacy.’
‘Oh, I’ve heard of them.’
‘So you can see that this is no trivial matter.’
‘What is it you want?’
‘To help you, Redeemer.’
‘I’m trying to fight a war, you can help by going away.’
‘The church has a duty in love to help its bishops.’
‘I’m not a bishop.’
‘Its bishops and equally senior prelates to disable our celibate prelates from straying. As an act of love we of my office wish to be present with the prelate at all times to prevent any private or secretive lives. How can we ask of you, Redeemer, that all your actions as father of the church be pure and not give you the help required?’
‘Help?’
‘Constant attendance by a member of the office.’
‘In my bedroom, constant attendance?’
‘Especially your bedroom, Redeemer. But your helper will be blindfolded during the hours of darkness. And you will be provided as a further act of love with a pair of night gloves. Night gloves are…’
‘Yes, I understand,’ interrupted Bosco. His face softened. ‘I understand your concerns, of course, Redeemer. Yes. You are right to say there can be no intrusion into the privacy of someone who has no private life.’ He smiled, as if regretfully. ‘But you see I must deal with ... not a greater threat, perhaps, but a more pressing one.’
Redeemer Yes did not look as if he agreed that offences against the Holy Spirit were any more pressing than questions of survival. ‘I will be back soon, one way or another – if I am spared – and then we can give this matter the attention it deserves.’
Redeemer Yes was not entirely at ease with this. It was a matter of deep regret to him that bishops were not more welcoming to him and his office. He was obviously only trying to help but you would hardly think so. With some reluctance he agreed to return the following week and then left. As soon as he had done so Bosco called Gil over to him. ‘That Redeemer Yes. Put him on the list.’
The issue of being watched was also on the mind of others.
‘How are we going to get away now you’ve been made the Lord bloody God Almighty of Everything?’
‘What was I supposed to do – refuse? I’m all ears if you can come up with something.’
‘Oh, I can see you’re heartbroken.’ Vague Henri looked at him as unfriendly as you like. ‘You want this, don’t you?’
‘What I’d say is that as usual I can either like it or lump it. So what? I’m doing something I’m good at and it’s not as if I had a choice anyway.’
‘Lose.’
‘What?’
‘Lose!’
‘Why don’t you say it louder? I don’t think they’ll have heard you on the other side of the city.’
‘All right. Pretend I said it softly.’
‘I never heard anything so bloody daft in all my life.’
‘Why? Let the Laconics through and you said yourself they could start rolling up the trenches all the way to Tripoli. Chartres will be lost in a week and then no one to stand in their way for three thousand miles. Why are we trying to stop them?’
‘Because they’re going to roll us up with them. You know what they do, the Laconics, don’t you, to little boys? Or they would if they took prisoners. I killed Folk Antagonists by the thousand on the veldt. You think they haven’t heard all about Bosco’s Angel of Death. The Antagonists used to have twelve cards with a description of all the most unclean Redeemers who were to be killed on sight. Now there are thirteen.’
‘And I bet you were delighted when you heard: Thomas Cale, the big “I am”.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘You know damn well.’
‘I never asked you to come after me. What are you doing here?’ It was a question delivered with as much bile as he was capable of. And it stung.
‘I keep asking myself the same question.’
‘Well, it’s a pity you didn’t ask it in Memphis. Or anywhere else but here. For God’s sake, as if I didn’t have enough to worry about.’
‘I didn’t notice you complaining when I kept you alive while you played at being Fritigern the Frightful on the steps of old Materazzi’s palace. And when you charged down the hill at Silbury like the bloody stupid berk you are over that treacherous beezle Arbell bloody Swan-Neck I saved your life a dozen times while you were thrashing about like a fish on a slab.’
There was a poisonous stay. And it was Cale who spoke first.
‘I think you’ll find that at Silbury Hill you didn’t save my life above half a dozen times. But it’s good to know you were counting.’
‘I think you’ll find I had a better view of what happened there than you did.’
‘I’m not a stupid berk,’ said Cale.
‘Yes, you are,’ replied Vague Henri. ‘We need to think about how to get away and now.’
‘Now you’re the one being a berk. There’s nowhere to get away to. In case you’ve gone deaf: we’re surrounded by murderous bastards on all three sides. When we were in Memphis I didn’t notice anyone there had a good word to say for the Antagonists. Just because they’re not Redeemers doesn’t mean it’s all cigarette trees and a lie-in on Sundays.’
‘They can’t be worse than the Redeemers.’
‘Yes they can. And even if they’re not – as far as they’re concerned we’re Redeemers and me in particular. Who do you think I was fighting on the veldt – old Mother Hubbard?’
There was a knock on the door, which was instantly opened by the guard outside. It was Bosco. He was a lot less cheerful than the last time they’d seen him.
‘The Pope has confirmed your appointment, temporarily. You must sign these.’ He laid out two documents on the table.
‘What are they?’
‘Warrants.’
‘What sort of warrant?’
‘This one is for the execution of the Maid of Blackbird Leys.’
‘She’s just a girl.’
‘Clearly not. Sign.’
‘No.’
‘Why?’
‘I told you – she’s just a girl.’