Michael Jecks - The Templar, the Queen and Her Lover

‘I see that your king’s friend was quite right about you, Sir Baldwin.’

‘Who? I beg your pardon, your highness, I do not understand.’

‘Sir Hugh le Despenser sent me a message about you. I was advised to look at your sword.’

‘It is here if you wish it,’ Baldwin said, but now with sadness.

Simon shot him a look. It sounded as though Baldwin was about to surrender his sword. ‘Baldwin, don’t you …’

And then he realised. On one side of the blade Baldwin had, in Simon’s view rashly, ordered a Templar cross to be engravedjust below the cross-guard. Despenser had seen it once, and now clearly he had sent a message to the King of France to showhim that this man had Templar sympathies. It was King Charles’s father who had commanded the arrest of the Order. His soncould scarcely do other than detain a man who displayed such a symbol.

‘No, Sir Baldwin — do you not know it would be the height of rudeness to unsheathe a sword in the presence of the French king?’Charles said lightly. And then he smiled. ‘I think you and I understand each other well enough.’

Baldwin was feeling light. He did not gape openly, but his hand remained on his hilt. ‘You do not wish to …’

‘No. Leave it where it is. I am a competent judge of people for myself. And I do not like this Hugh le Despenser. He is nomore honourable than any other robber pirate from the Cinq Ports, determined to line his own purse at the expense of anyoneelse. And yet you appear keen to investigate injustice, even when it may affect yourself. I think that is better. I wouldprefer you as a friend.’

‘Your highness,’ Baldwin stammered, and bowed again. He felt as though a blow from a feather could knock him over.

‘You may speak with Père Pierre … I shall consider your request. However, my affairs are my own. If he has oversteppedthe mark, I will be disappointed, but it is not a matter for you.

You have no powers to arrest him here in my realm, unless I give you the warrant for it. And I do not. So you may question him, butthat will be an end to the affair. Is that clear?’

Sir Charles woke again in a dark chamber. There were shutters drawn, because he could see chinks and slits of light from outside,and he was strapped to a bench, arms behind his back, ankles too, so that his whole body could be exposed, were they to riphis tunic and shirt open. Suddenly he had a memory of how Paul’s body had been cut from groin to breast, his entrails exposedto the air, and he felt a cold terror infect his bowels.

‘Ah. Awake? Glad to see it. So, you are Sir Charles of Lancaster, then? I have heard much about you.’

‘And I you, Mortimer.’

‘You are angry. I don’t know why. Unless it’s your man?’

‘I will have revenge for that!’

‘Sir Charles, let me remind you that you had ordered him to hack off my head and feed my body to the fishes in the Seine!I don’t think you could blame me if I’d decided to treat him in a similar fashion. However, more to the point, I didn’t. AndI don’t intend to kill you either.’

‘Then why have me trussed like this?’ Sir Charles spat. ‘You think I’ll be more amenable if you hold a knife to my belly?’

Mortimer looked at him blankly a moment. Then, ‘Oh! No, but we don’t have any chairs here. Strapping you there seemed saferfor us. However, you are unarmed. Wait!’

A pair of men threw open the shutters, and then walked to Sir Charles. In a moment or two he had been released, and he couldsit up, massaging his wrists and elbows. Looking over at Mortimer, standing comfortably a short distance away, he calculatedhow easily he could spring upon the man.

‘Yes,’ Mortimer said. ‘I didn’t bring you here at some trouble to myself just to kill you. You are the sort of man who could be very useful to me — once you get over your desire to seemy head on a spike in London.’

He paused, eyeing Sir Charles speculatively. ‘I am to leave here tomorrow, which is the reason for my urgency. You won’t beable to catch me where I am going, so do not bother to try. I swear to you on my wife’s life that I had nothing to do withyour man’s death. We caught him, and yes, we did beat him to learn why he was after me, but apart from that we did nothing.There seemed little point in antagonising the English delegation over him, and I do not wish to upset my host in this countryeither. No, I prefer to keep friends where I may. I do not have so many that I can afford to lose any more.’

‘Then what do you want with me?’ Sir Charles demanded.

‘I want you to pass on a message to Sir Baldwin de Furnshill. Tell him this: the man and woman in London were originally fromNormandy. They were cook’s maid and her husband, a leather worker at the Château Gaillard, and I think they took somethingfrom there when they left for England.’

‘What, a treasure?’ Sir Charles asked, this time more politely. A man who could tell him about a rich winning should not beinsulted.

Mortimer looked away, through the unshuttered window, out to the Seine. Then he gave a sad little smile. ‘You may not thinkso, but I do. I think Sir Baldwin will too. Tell him, this treasure is one of pride, rather than joy.’

Château de Bois

Jack was in the courtyard when Simon and Baldwin returned to the Château de Bois. He looked at them as Baldwin pointed tohim, and then the two strode across the area to him.

‘Aha, lordings, I am glad indeed to see you,’ he said. ‘And there was me thinking I’d be looking for you half the night.’

‘Shut up, fool!’ Simon grated. He took hold of Jack’s shirt and pushed him back against the hall’s wall. ‘You have to startanswering some questions, I reckon.’

‘Happy to do so, Bailiff, but if you strangle me, you may find the answers a little hard to comprehend.’

‘You work for Earl Edmund or Mortimer?’ Simon demanded.

‘Now there’s a hard one. I suppose for Mortimer first. But then, a man takes his friends where he finds them, doesn’t he?’

Baldwin nodded. ‘He had the sign of the peacock, Simon, remember? That was what Ricard said. And the peacock is the sign ofMortimer.’

‘Is that true?’ Simon asked.

‘Oh, yes, sir.’ Jack shrugged. ‘So I was told to hold it.’

‘Why did Earl Edmund get involved in all this?’

‘For that, you’ll have to ask him. I keep other men’s secrets.’

‘What are you doing here, then?’

‘Now? Packing. You see, I am not popular with the men here. The musicians don’t seem to like me, no matter what I do. So Ithink I may as well be off. I’ve never done anyone any harm.’

‘They think you killed their friend in order to take his place in their band.’

‘Did you ever hear anything so silly? Why would I do that? They had already agreed to pass me any information I wanted. Ihad no need to hurt anyone. No, I did nothing to him. But when the place became free, I thought it’d be a useful berth. Andit meant I could keep a close eye on the Queen without too much trouble.’

‘Who did kill Peter, then?’

‘Aha, now. That’s a good question. I don’t know for sure. But I do know this: Despenser has a nice property just near theditch. It’s called the Temple. I’m sure you know it.’

‘Why would he kill Peter, though?’

‘The fellow Peter was not a good companion to his mates. You see, I’ve heard that he himself went to Despenser with the news thathis friends had been blackmailed by Earl Edmund into joining the Queen again. I’d have thought Despenser would be taken withthe idea, but perhaps he was out of sorts that night. Or doesn’t trust a turncoat.’

‘Perhaps,’ Baldwin said. But there was a glint in his eye which told Simon that he had worked out something else. ‘But whotold you that?’