‘You would have told me your great secret?’ she teased. ‘I mean, eventually?’
‘We had to be sure. Theodore here, like Brother Norbert and Alberic, has journeyed to Jerusalem; he too has learnt about the rumours.’
‘Hugh, what rumours?’
‘We are journeying to Jerusalem,’ Godefroi began, ‘to liberate Christ’s fief from the Turks who occupy the Holy Places…’
‘Godefroi,’ Eleanor smiled, ‘I know where we are going and why.’
‘Do you?’ Hugh asked. ‘Eleanor, there are as many reasons for being on Crusade as there are cross-bearers. Bohemond of Taranto wants to carve out a principality. He failed to do so in Italy, Sicily or Greece. The same is true of our other leaders. Robert of Normandy held a duchy but he became bored, preferring the excitement of travel and the roar of battle to governing lands. The same applies to us. Did you want to stay in Compiègne till some knight offered for your hand, whilst we whiled away our days at tournaments, launched chevauchées against our neighbours and waited to be summoned by Count Raymond for another sortie into Iberia, or by King Philip because of a border dispute with Flanders?’
‘Eleanor,’ Theodore added, ‘you of all people must realise this: the liberation of Jerusalem and the recapture of the Holy Sepulchre is a vision as sacred as that of any man or woman wishing to leave this life to serve God as a monk or a nun. To fight your way into heaven,’ he smiled, ‘is an ideal worthy of any knight.’
‘Yet there is more?’
‘There always is, sister.’
‘You have taken the oath?’ Eleanor asked.
‘I am one of you,’ Theodore replied, ‘for the same reason as you, but yes, there is more. I am a son of a Norman knight and a Greek mother who died shortly after giving birth to me. My father married again. He made it very clear in letters and proclamations that the offspring of his Norman wife would inherit.’ He pulled a face. ‘So I began to travel. Believe me, adelpha’ — he used the Greek term for sister — ‘it was wonderful to wander, to be free, to see the marvels of Constantinople, to visit the ruins of Athens and stand in the nave of St Mark’s in Venice or the great cathedrals of Rome. Yet there was something else.’ Theodore spread his hands. ‘You and I have a great deal in common. I, too, started to search for something substantial to my faith, something real-’
‘As did Anstritha,’ Eleanor interrupted. ‘She also had her secrets.’ She quickly described her conversation with Fulcher. ‘Did you know anything about this?’ She turned on her brother.
‘Yes, yes.’ Hugh refused to meet her eye. ‘Let me explain, Eleanor, why we took you to Hagia Sophia. Holy Wisdom.’ He laughed sharply. ‘That is what this is all about. Either Holy Wisdom or Holy Money! Every cross-bearer in our company has his or her own reason for this journey. Some of these we know.’ Hugh paused as if listening to the sounds drifting from the tavern below or the smelly alleyway outside. He circled his hands. ‘One reason perhaps could unite us alclass="underline" relics.’
‘Relics?’ Eleanor queried.
‘They are in great demand,’ Theodore explained, ‘by both the angels and the demons, which is,’ he drummed his thickset fingers against his wine goblet, ‘why I am here, along with your brother, Godefroi, Alberic and Norbert.’
Eleanor stared at the lancet window. The piece of stretched linen had been removed to let in the light. She quickly recalled the stories about various churches and their hunger for relics.
‘Pieces of bone,’ she murmured. ‘Shards of cloth, dried flesh, flakes of skin.’
‘True,’ Hugh replied, ‘but listen, Eleanor! Norbert has travelled to Outremer. He has been to Constantinople and visited Jerusalem.’
‘As did Anstritha.’
‘So I understand, but let me explain. Norbert was expelled from his monastery because of his mockery of certain relics held by his community. He was not stripped of his orders, just given licence to leave. At first he considered preaching against the veneration of what you call pieces of bone and shards of cloth; then he met Alberic and they both came to Constantinople.’
‘What!’ Eleanor exclaimed.
‘Alberic left his parish church for this Crusade. He claims he is in the thirtieth year of penance for the betrayal of his master. He was born of noble Saxon family and became a member of the housecarls, the personal bodyguard of Harold Godwinson the Saxon king defeated by William the Norman at the battle of Senlac thirty years ago. Alberic has described, how, in the final moments of the battle, as the sun set that October day, the Saxon line finally buckled. He believes he should have stayed and died beside his master. Instead he fled. For a while he sheltered in the wild wastes and the great forest that border the southern coast of England. He became a hermit, torn by guilt, a desire to make reparation, to seek forgiveness for what he still regards as a betrayal. For a while he called himself Judas. Eventually he found that even living in his own country, however reclusive he remained, only deepened the wound. So he took ship to France and wandered the roads. He eventually met Norbert, who recognised him as an educated man. After a prolonged stay at Soissons, Norbert arranged for Alberic to be ordained…’
‘Do Alberic and Norbert know you are telling me this?’
‘Of course,’ Hugh smiled. ‘Norbert asked you to speak to Fulcher; he later heard that man’s confession.’
‘And would you ever have spoken?’ Eleanor accused.
‘Yes,’ Hugh insisted, ‘but as I shall explain, there is also great danger in all of this. Anyway, Alberic and Norbert took to wandering. They witnessed all forms of cruelty and began to doubt the truth of religion, any idea of a loving God or the Incarnation of the Christ.’ Hugh sipped at his wine. ‘Little wonder,’ he added. ‘I have been down the same path myself. At last they visited Jerusalem, where they sheltered for two years next to the Holy Sepulchre.’
‘They were not persecuted?’
‘Contrary to belief,’ Theodore spoke up, ‘the Turks regard Christ as a great prophet. The real persecution took place under the mad caliph Al-Hakim, who treated his own subjects as barbarously as he did others before going completely mad and declaring himself God. No, Alberic and Norbert were left alone. During their stay they heard rumours about great treasures in Jerusalem, relics of the Passion that would prove not only that Christ died but that he rose from the dead. I, too, have heard similar stories.’
‘According to Alberic and Norbert,’ Hugh continued, ‘who have studied manuscripts such as the Life of St Nino, beneath the Dome of the Rock where Solomon’s Temple once stood are sealed chambers that used to house the stables of the great Jewish king. In there lie marvellous relics closely associated with the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord. The two of them faithfully collected these stories, and it rekindled their faith. As Norbert remarked, what use debating about logic or philosophy? Instead they recalled the words of St Pauclass="underline" “If Christ has not risen, then all that we do is in vain.” They concentrated on this: whatever cruelty ravished the earth, whatever terror stalked, if the Lord Christ came out from His tomb glorified and resurrected, then there were hidden, greater truths. Think, Eleanor! If someone arrived here now and could prove that Jesus of Nazareth remained a corpse, what use is there in us being here? What use the Mass, the Eucharist, the Sacraments, the Gospels? We’d all go home. However, if Christ did rise from the dead, leaving all other questions aside, that is our faith. If such relics exist, the Holy Sepulchre must be liberated. It must become the centre of the Church, and if beneath the Dome of the Rock lie true relics, evidence for Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, then…’ Hugh held his hands up, ‘why shouldn’t we go to Jerusalem?’