Other men had nothing like these problems. They could work at their jobs — farming, working in markets, peddling wares of various types — and never get into this kind of mess. But here he was, an innocent in a foreign land, trying to mindhis own business, and what happened? He was forced to protect and guard a man who was spying on the Queen.
Casting another look behind him, he frowned. But if the man Jack was actually in the pay of the Despenser, surely the Queen’sComptroller would have nothing to do with him? Everyone knew that the Despenser and the Queen hated each other. You didn’thave to be a musician in the palace on Thorney Island for long to see how they loathed each other. So Jack surely wasn’t withDespenser.
Shite — perhaps he was truly on the side of the Queen. That would be very embarrassing.
Ricard wanted nothing to do with either of them. No. Instead, he made his way along the alleyway to the farther end. Whathe wanted was a good pot of ale. With that in mind, he hurried down to the hall’s bar, over in the buttery, and was aboutto enter when he saw the other man.
‘Christ in chains!’ he swore. Charlie looked up, but said nothing. Didn’t even hide his face, so he must be over the worstof his shock. Ricard wasn’t, though. Ach, he’d be buggered if he’d go in there with the man who’d been in that room in London,the man who Philip and Adam said had been with Jack. Who the hell are you? he wondered, but just then some French guards shovedpast him. He saw the man’s head turn towards the door, and ducked away before he could be spotted.
Disconsolately, he wandered up the corridor from the buttery to the main door leading to the yard. Here he stood a moment,looking about, wondering where to go and what he could do.
What he really wanted was ale, but the idea of going back in there and drinking under the gaze of the man who’d seen to the murder of the glover and his wife in that little house was enough to make him feel like spewing. Better to go and finda tavern outside somewhere, but even as he had the thought he heard voices behind him, and throwing a look over his shoulderhe saw the man walking towards him.
Hurrying out, he was about to run across the yard to escape when he heard a man calling to him. It wasn’t the man behind,but someone else in the court itself. Staring about him wildly, he saw the knight, Sir Baldwin, sitting with his companionthe bailiff. The two were all but inseparable. At least he’d heard only good reports about them both. They appeared honourable,and they’d not allow some stranger to stab him to death without doing something.
With that reasoning giving him confidence, he crossed to them. ‘Sir?’
The knight looked at him, then at Charlie. ‘A handsome boy. He is yours?’
‘Um. Not really. He’s an orphan, and I thought it’d be best to save him from any further pain.’
‘Pain?’
‘His parents were murdered.’
‘Oh … Are you well, musician? You look badly flustered, like a man who’s been caught in a murder himself!’
That word was enough to send his spirits tumbling again. He remembered the threat the man had made: if the band didn’t helphim, Ricard would be accused of murder. The two bodies were there … but that was ages ago. A month — no, two? — since.The bodies may still be there, but who’d prove he had been? He was surely safe. Except he couldn’t be sure.
‘I ate some meat that was off, I think,’ he said.
‘I see,’ Baldwin said, and appeared to lose interest, to Ricard’s relief. ‘Anyway, a man is looking for a musician. I don’tknow if it was you. Ah, there he is. My lord! Is this the man you meant?’
‘Him? No. There is another man, I think his name is Jack. It was he I sought,’ the Earl said. He looked at Ricard as though daringhim to speak about their last meeting. ‘Do you know where Jack is, fellow?’
Ricard licked his lips and nodded. Silently he pointed towards de Bouden’s chambers, and watched with relief as the Earl noddedand walked off to see Jack.
‘Are you sure you are well?’ Simon asked Ricard.
Well! It was hardly the word he’d have used to describe his fluttering heart and empty, roiling belly. ‘Yes. Yes, I am well.But that man — do you know who he is?’
Baldwin grinned. ‘He is the King’s brother. Earl Edmund. Do you not know him?’
Later, when he had found a quiet corner outside a tavern where he could sit and drink from a jug of wine, Ricard looked downat Charlie, playing happily in the dust with some other children, and then rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes.If he had been a little younger, he would have wept for terror. He had no idea what to do. All he knew was that he stood tomake an enemy of the Queen or of the King’s brother, no matter what he tried.
He must be cautious, else he would find himself like Peter, thrown into a midden with his throat cut.
Jean sat in a doorway and pulled his cloak more tightly about him. The weather was more clement than it had been, but it wasstill very chill here in the shade of the tall buildings. How he longed for the summer, and long days with the sun high overhead.But perhaps he would be dead before those days arrived.
He ground his teeth as he thought how close he had come to killing Arnaud. And then those interfering fools had got in hisway and stopped him from succeeding. The damned sons of-
No. There was no point in getting bitter about them. They saw a man who was about to commit a murder and stopped him. That wasall. Ach, but the roaring voice had cut through his bowels like a dagger of ice. He’d felt as though he would die with theshock of it. He’d stood there with his knife in his hand, and hesitated just long enough for the cursed Arnaud to slip aside,and then he’d been forced to flee himself, before those two men could catch up with him. One against a rat like Arnaud wasone thing; to stand against Arnaud and two men-at-arms was quite another.
Looking up, he saw that the sky was darkening. Soon dusk would fall, and another day would be over, and his quest for revengeagainst Arnaud would be deferred for another day.
It was the only thing that lent spice to his life, now, this search for Arnaud. The man deserved to be killed for what hehad done. Poisoning the minds of men like le Vieux against him … it was so unjust! He’d never done anything to Arnaud that he knew of. He’d hated the man — but most who served as executioner were detested.That was hardly to mark him out. What had led Arnaud to seek to hurt him? Presumably just the fact that he had seen the attackon Berengar and knew what Arnaud had done to the other members of the guard at Château Gaillard. Slaying them all, all buthimself and le Vieux.
And that was the interesting thing: why did Arnaud do that? At the time, Jean had assumed that it was his evil soul demandingblood. But if that were so, what had stopped him killing? There were those who could kill without passion, perhaps, but if a man lost his reason and killed like thatfor no purpose, he could no longer be considered human. He was no better than a dog with the rage. A creature which must be destroyed, because there was nothing else to do with it.
But then a strange, niggling thought began to insidiously work its way into his mind.
What if there had been some motive other than madness which directed Arnaud to kill all the men of the guard?
No. That was impossible. He was just mad, and killed without reason.
Yet there was that strange detaiclass="underline" le Vieux had survived. The two of them had known each other before Jean had met eitherof them, that much was obvious. They had been prone to talk to each other, and the way that they reacted to each other whenthey first rescued Jean from gaol had shown a kind of mutual regard. If anything, it had shown that le Vieux was the moresenior in rank as well as age.
Le Vieux. A man with all the signs of military service, and Arnaud the executioner. Both taking men like him, like Berengar,like Pons, rescuing them from long terms in gaol and giving them all a chance at a new life, serving the Comte de Foix atChâteau Gaillard. The Comte, Jean’s old master. And yet the château was surely no part of the Comte’s territory? It was farfrom his own compté. So why was de Foix arranging for the guards up there?