Michael Jecks - The Templar, the Queen and Her Lover

‘And Jean?’

‘He wasn’t in the guard room at that time. When I got back, he’d gone. I think he saw the bodies and just bolted in terror.There’s not every man who can cope with a slaughterhouse like that. Luckily I found le Vieux and pulled him out. He was allright after a while, and I was able to get him to a physician and have him seen to. And my own wounds, too. The man I sawwas more used to healing calves, though, I reckon,’ he said with a rueful grimace before pulling his sleeve back down overthe wounds.

‘Why would Jean hunt you down here?’

‘He had attacked and murdered le Vieux at Poissy already.’

‘I thought so. I saw him there with le Vieux.’

Arnaud shrugged. ‘I think he is still jealous of me with Blanche. Don’t know why he did that to le Vieux.’

‘And the other man, Robert de Chatillon. Why would he attack him?’

‘Well, Robert de Chatillon was the Comte de Foix’s man, and he hired us all to go to the château. Perhaps he blamed him forsetting us all there? Or blamed him for allowing the lady to be molested.’

‘But you stopped her from being attacked,’ Simon said. ‘Or so you say.’

Arnaud looked a little shifty. ‘I stopped the others from raping her.’

‘It was only you did that, then?’ Simon noted. He curled his lip. Now he was sure of the facts: the woman had been forcedto lie with this man. He raped her alone. Better that, perhaps, than a gang-rape by some number of guards, but for a womanborn noble it would be an indignity close to horror. It would be a wonder if her mind hadn’t been broken. And her heart.

‘You can think what you like. I love her, and I petitioned the Comte to allow me to sleep with her and save her from the others. He agreed. Robert de Chatillon came to tell us all, and perhaps that made Jean even more bloody pissed at me. So hetried to kill me.’

‘But why follow you all the way here and try to kill you here?’ Baldwin wondered.

‘He is a southerner. You can’t tell what goes on in their minds half the time.’

‘Well, he is free now, and wandering the streets. You must be careful.’

‘Baldwin, I do not trust this man at all. Why should that guard come seeking him? Why should he begin a blood feud after thisman raped the King’s wife? If he did, surely it’s because he wanted to stop an executioner raping a noblewoman.’

‘You don’t trust me? All I’ve done is walk down the street today, and you had to save me from an assassin. Now I’ve told youmy story, and in return you call me a liar?’ Arnaud spat. His face had grown black with anger, and now he set his hand tohis dagger’s hilt.

‘Leave your knife sheathed, Arnaud,’ Baldwin said sharply. ‘What you say is fair — but so is what my companion said. How canwe confirm your words, bearing in mind we shall need to decide how to respond?’

‘Ask Robert de Chatillon. He can confirm it all. He was the man who relayed our orders to us and paid us. Or don’t you trustthe knight who gave us our instructions either?’ he finished snidely, looking at Simon with contempt. ‘Look at me! I haveonly ever obeyed my betters when they commanded me to do their work. Yet you look down on me because I was obedient. Well,in this case, I followed my heart. I love that lady and would do nothing to harm her. That is why I did what I did. You thinkI polluted her? Blame those who are in power, who commanded all the guards to rape her. It wasn’t my doing. I saved her fromthat.’

Baldwin was feeling distinctly waspish. It was partly Simon’s distant rudeness that had made him throw a whole livre tournois at the man as he stood and stalked from the room, ashamed of his friend, himself and his all too ready dislike for the man.After all, as Arnaud had pointed out so cogently, if he did not perform his function, some other man must do it. There wasno point in dislike of the functionary. It was the reality, whether he liked it or not, of the way of all societies.

To an extent, he recognised that his anger with Simon in that little alehouse had been a reflection of his anger at his ownfeelings. In his case, he knew that it had come from the knowledge that the man sitting there in front of him, drinking hisale, had been exactly the sort of man who would have tortured his comrades and hanged a number, or burned them at the stake.The thought was repellent. To be seated at the same table was worse: the idea that he could consort with one of the men whohad helped to destroy his friends and comrades was enough to bring a tear to his eye.

He waited outside for Simon, and couldn’t help but snap grumpily, ‘What makes you think that you have some right to questionhim? He gave us a lot of information that he need not. In some ways he condemned himself.’

‘Baldwin, look at the man. I wouldn’t trust a word he said.’

‘His comments about looking down on a man who takes life legally were close to the truth, weren’t they?’ Baldwin said. ‘I cannot think how many men I have ordered to be executed over the years, and yet I feel justified in despising himfor carrying out the orders of men like me ! How can I be so hypocritical?’

‘It is easy. You and I can command a man’s life to be ended, and we can send men to the gallows, but the man who turns themoff the ladders to die does not need to enjoy the task. Did you see his face up at Montfaucon? He liked those corpses. Heis a sick man, Baldwin. His mind is warped and twisted. I trust him not at all.’

‘Before you make judgements about him, bear in mind that those who do such jobs will often be hardened. They have to be tocontinue causing such suffering. They drink themselves to oblivion before each execution, and then, afterwards, hope to forget.What you see as pleasure may be no more than a front to protect himself. A carapace that he uses to conceal his own horror.’

Simon looked at his friend. ‘You think so? I do not, and I have a good record of seeing into men’s hearts.’

‘Well, while we are here still, let us return to Robert de Chatillon to ask him, as Arnaud suggested. If he verifies Arnaud’sstory, perhaps that would also explain a little about Enguerrand’s death. If this guard felt that the orders coming from Enguerrandwere detrimental to the lady in the prison, and he did adore her, as Arnaud hinted, perhaps this fellow was following Enguerrandand killed him too?’

Robert de Chatillon was not gracious when he saw who it was who had returned. ‘Am I to have no peace today?’

‘Perhaps you will shortly,’ Baldwin said. He perched on the edge of a small table. ‘We have been talking to one of your men.’

‘My men? Who, one of the servants?’

‘No,’ Simon said. ‘The executioner. Arnaud.’

Robert twisted his face into a grimace. ‘What on earth did you want to talk to him for? I find the stench of noisome body fluidstends to follow him around a little too closely for my liking.’

That was a sentiment with which Simon concurred only too heartily, Baldwin knew, so he broke in quickly. ‘Arnaud made severalallegations: that Enguerrand de Foix was responsible for all the guards at the Château Gaillard, that there was a specificorder relating to the woman held there, that Arnaud himself persuaded de Foix to allow him to be responsible for carryingout this, um, order, and that there was a kind of mutiny there. Is it all true?’

‘You have hardly been specific enough for me to say whether it’s accurate or not. I can tell you this, though. The man Arnaudwas there. My comte did hire the guards for the castle, most of them from the south or somewhere. As to the orders about the- ah — lady … I do not know that you need to worry yourself about them.’

‘Is it true, then, that it was ordered that she should be raped?’