‘But why should he be willing to do so?’ Simon asked. ‘What would it benefit the Comte to get together a band of men, andthen have them rape the Queen?’
‘Politics is a dangerous game,’ Baldwin said, watching Robert closely. ‘If the King asked him as a favour, you can all tooeasily imagine the eagerness with which the Comte would have set about his task. And Arnaud was surely a most enthusiastically. If the Comte had been asked to assist the King, he would have agreed in a hurry, just as any number of friends of KingEdward and the Despenser will rush to their aid, in the hope of great rewards to come. There is nothing surprising in that,surely. And yet the act itself was so shocking that …’
‘That the idea that it should ever come to light is deeply concerning,’ Robert said, still avoiding their gaze.
‘So the King would prefer never to hear that news of this has been spread about.’ Simon gave a twisted grin. ‘I can understandthat. It would be a little embarrassing for any man to have it known that he would willingly subject his own wife to multiplerapes, just to help him end the marriage.’
‘You think that the King entered on this scheme easily? My master was as reluctant as any noble knight would be to put thisplan into effect, but when a king is as desperate as Charles must be to produce an heir, what will he not do? What must henot do to be married and raising sons?’
‘Did your Comte meet the King himself?’
Baldwin’s question seemed to calm Robert a little. He shrugged and slumped back in his seat, wincing as his rib shifted. ‘No.It was his trusted adviser who suggested it. It was a good plot, after all. She was already guilty. We know that from theconfessions.’
‘This was the confessions of those who were accused of adultery with the two princesses?’ Baldwin said. ‘The D’Alnay brothers?They were tortured, I recall.’
‘Perhaps so. But the princesses both confessed too, and they were not tortured. No, the men were guilty, as were the women.There is no doubt about that. So Lady Blanche was already shown to have committed the offence. All the King wanted was tohave proof — after all, if the Pope was granted incontrovertible evidence that she was guilty of adultery, he could have noobjection to annulling the marriage. As did happen. The King and Blanche were divorced three years ago, and now she has beensent to Maubisson. She’s taken the veil.’
‘And the child?’ Simon asked with deceptive gentleness.
‘What of it?’
Baldwin thrust out an arm and gripped Simon’s forearm even as Simon began to move forward. He adored his children, and the thought that any man could consider the life of a childso unimportant as to merit little if any consideration was enough to drive him into an almost blind rage.
‘Robert,’ Baldwin said, ‘do you mean to tell me that all the guards were killed apart from these three — Arnaud, the old manwho is now dead, and the other fellow, the one who killed him?’
‘Yes. So I understand.’
‘That is intriguing,’ Baldwin said, ‘and a little alarming for you, of course.’
‘Why me?’
‘Well, this man called Jean, who killed your old guard at Poissy, is here today. He tried to kill Arnaud. It was our interventionwhich saved Arnaud’s life. But I do not understand all this. Arnaud told us that the guards were all killed by some fellowcalled Berengar. Yet now this other guard has turned up and is trying to kill the other men involved.’
‘What of it?’
‘Perhaps nothing, but I should be worried, if I were you. After all, the guards are all dead bar two, who seem keen to endthe lives of each other; the man who commanded this plot was Enguerrand, and he is dead. Perhaps all those who have had anyinvolvement in the plan are to be removed.’
‘Oh, that would only be-’
Robert was suddenly silent.
‘Only be whom? Perhaps only the guards, eh?’ Baldwin smiled wolfishly. ‘Aha! Yes! Arnaud picked the guards himself, didn’the? An executioner and a gaoler sent to select gaolers for a disgraced princess. Who better than the dregs of society? Afterall, it would be likely that one of them would try to rape her anyway, without any intervention. So much less embarrassing.And then, because they are all criminals from the gaols of France, they can be dispersed, returned to their gaols … oh, but that is not what you meant, is it?’ Baldwin’s tone hardened as he took in the full meaning of Robert’swords. ‘You meant that they could be removed permanently, didn’t you? They were never going to be released, were they, thesepoor devils who aided you so much. They were to be gaolers for a little while, until they conveniently raped Blanche for you,and then they could be removed and killed and forgotten. The King would not like it to become known that he had conspiredto have his wife treated in such a manner, after all. So he arranged it in a way that ensured that all evidence could laterbe destroyed. Isn’t that it?’
‘I believe so.’
‘Be very afraid, then. Because if Jean has learned or guessed this, your life will become worthless. He will seek you outand kill you too.’
Simon had been silent, but now he smiled kindly, and Robert thought for a moment that he was going to offer some comfort.But no.
‘It is worse than that, Robert. If Jean could guess that you would seek to kill all those in the castle, do you not thinkArnaud would also guess?’
‘He was to do it,’ Robert said scathingly. ‘You think he’d be worried? He is an executioner.’
‘Yes. And yet I wonder how long it would have been before he realised that of all those who were actively involved, one manwould still remain. Himself. And there is only one man alive who knows the full chain of command. You. For his own defence,if he is sensible, he must kill you. And I did think him very sensible.’
Jean had no idea who the two men had been, but he had cursed them roundly, their parents, their children to the third generation,and still his anger knew no bounds. Whatever may have happened, if only he had been able to kill Arnaud, he would have felt fulfilled.
He damned the day he was selected by the bastard. Down in Bishop Fournier’s gaol, where he had been installed after his spirited- overspirited — defence of the poor devils burned on their pyres, declaring them to have stronger religious faith than JacquesFournier himself. His words had been overheard by a zealous servant of Fournier, of course. There were spies everywhere inthose days. So Jean had been hauled off to gaol, and there he would have remained for months, if not years, had not Arnaudmade his surprising offer.
‘My master remembers you. Weren’t you with the host that travelled to the field of the Golden Spurs? To Courtrai?’
He agreed, nodding. ‘My father and brother died there in the service of the King and Comte Robert de Foix.’
‘That same comte’s son remembers you. He wishes to reward you. Be ready, and when I return, you will fly this coop.’
Jean had nodded, but did not believe him. He had seen the woman being left to die hideously on the pyre instead of being grantedthe kindness of a rope about her neck first. He did not trust Arnaud.
But the executioner had been as good as his word. When he came back, he carried a tunic and a new cloak, hood and cowl, togetherwith a good leather belt and a dagger. ‘Best I can do,’ he had explained apologetically, pointing to the roughly sewn starat the breast. The yellow star of a heretic.
Jean cared nothing. He grabbed the clothes and pulled them on, overjoyed to feel the weight of a dagger at his hip once more.Then, quietly, the two men walked out of the gaol, up the stairs, along a passageway, and finally out into the sunshine.
Arnaud walked like a man with the power to have a man sent to the gaol, and none of the guards troubled him. In the courtyard there were two horses waiting, and Arnaud went tothe first, a gentle-faced mare. He set his foot in the stirrup, and then hoisted himself upwards.