Barry Unsworth - The Ruby In Her Navel

"She is being held," Alboino said.

"Against her will? On my account? But that is absurd. I knew of course there would be opposition. I am not rich, I have no title. But my birth is good, I am loyal and I have a strong arm. With her help at the beginning I could become someone to reckon with. Besides, the lady is free, she disposes of her own life and fortune."

"There is more yet to tell you. What a vale of tears is this world! How difficult it is sometimes to understand God's purposes and try to fulfil His will! Three separate pieces of information are in the hands of my brothers in the Curia, each of them useless without the others. There is your love for Alicia, there is your position of trust in a douana headed by a powerful and ambitious Saracen who seeks still higher office, and there is the fact, remoter in time but no less important, that Alicia's father, Guy of Morcone, was a close associate of Rainulf of Alife, Duke of Apulia, and played a part in the latter's uprising against King Roger in 1137. You will remember that Rainulf died before the King's vengeance could reach him, but several close to him were put to death when the rebellion failed."

"Yes, I remember learning of it. I was sixteen at the time, still in the household of Hubert of Venosa." The King's wrath had been terrible. Some details, recounted then, had lived in my mind ever since. After subduing Troia, where Rainulf was buried, he had forced the townspeople to break open the tomb and remove the putrefying body. A rope had been fastened round the corpse's neck and it had been dragged through the streets for all to see, then taken to a foul stagnant ditch outside the town and weighted and sunk there. Certain knights that had been his followers were forced to do these things on pain of blinding and maiming… "It was in that year that Alicia left for the Kingdom of Jerusalem to be married," I said.

"Not by chance, though Alicia did not know this. Her brothers, Adhemar and Arnulf, went at the same time. It was judged safer to put them beyond reach of the King's wrath, or at least the consequences of his suspicion. The father stayed where he was, living in retirement on his estates. The evidence of his involvement was kept and it ended in the archives of the Curia, where many such things end. It was kept in the hope that it might some day prove useful."

He paused and the sorrow of his face deepened into grimness. "Those were troubled times," he said.

"Better to have rooted the traitors out like a nest of vipers," Bertrand said. "That was my opinion at the time and it is my opinion now. Not the young ones of course, they had nothing to do with it."

Alboino looked at him for a long moment. "We are speaking of the husband of my dear sister, who has been dead these many years," he said. "Our zeal must take account of family affections."

Bertrand maintained his open, staring look, not seeming at all affected by the rebuke. However, he remained silent. There was an alliance between them; it was strained, congenial to neither, I saw that; nevertheless, alliance it was. Why else was Bertrand there? What purpose did his presence serve? Nightmare has no moment of beginning, we are launched on it before we know. Perhaps it was now that it came to me, not doubt exactly, but a growing sense of anguish: the things I was hearing and seeing did not match together, did not correspond among themselves; some element was lacking and there was horror in this lack.

"Where is she being held and by whom?"

Nothing changed in either of the faces that were regarding me. "The whereabouts we have not been told," Bertrand said. "Would I be sitting here if we knew?"

"It is not needful for us to know," Alboino said. "We are intermediaries only. We are promised that no harm will come to her if you comply with their wishes."

My feeling of anguish deepened. "What wishes are those?"

"We will come to it, have patience. As to those who are holding her, they are not the King's people, but they are his friends, did he but know it. As I say, the evidence was kept for a time when it might be needed. Now that time has come. My brothers at the Curia are worthy men, true servants of Holy Church. God has placed a sword in their hands for the furtherance of the faith. I am asked to be their spokesman though playing no direct part. As uncle of Alicia, and friend, as I hope, to you. It is of first importance in the eyes of the Curia to prevent Yusuf Ibn Mansur's further rise to power, it is necessary to… stop him. In order to do this they have brought to danger of death for treason Guy of Morcone and any of his family who are taken with him, and that includes my niece and the one brother who is here, Adhemar."

"But they are guiltless."

Alboino nodded. "That is so, in the strictest sense of the word. But in the eyes of those who rule us to be in a certain place at a certain time can constitute guilt enough. Would King Roger visit his wrath on the father and leave the children to thoughts of vengeance? No, with the father would go the children, consumed in the same fire."

"Her father is in the twilight of his life, his mind is gone, the head that he laid on the block could have no treason in it."

"Young man, I understand your distress and I share it, but we must not let our judgement be clouded. Will the King consult the doctors before he passes sentence? Twelve years ago Guy of Morcone's mind was clear enough."

"The King is just, his justice is known to all." The words came from me without conviction, born only from a need to delay the words of theirs, already heard, already sounding within my anguished heart, the words that would tell me what was expected of me. "He does not revive old hatreds," I said. "Past and present, races and creeds, he keeps the balance on which our state depends."

"It is here that the King has erred, and we thank God he is coming now to a better state of mind." For the first time there was harshness in Alboino's voice. "We have no need of balance," he said. "Balance is anathema. There can be no counter-weights, no scales. This Sicily is a Christian kingdom, it belongs in the universal congregation which we call Christendom. Do you know what Christendom is? Do you know what it means?"

My mind went back to the darkness at the foot of the steps below the Chapel, the hooded figure that waited me there. "That same question was asked me by Maurice Béroul when he was sent to bribe me."

"Was it so? And who is this Maurice Béroul?"

It seemed to me that the second question came a fraction too late after the first. I looked at the two as they sat there before me. They had seemed so different in my first impression, one from another. But it was a difference of the surface only. The Roman prelate and the Norman noble. One serving his Church, one serving his class, both bent on ousting the Saracen, both eager for the power and privilege that emanated from the throne. Perhaps something showed on my face – it was always a weakness of mine to show feeling too openly. I saw Alboino's nostrils draw down a little and his mouth tighten with arrogance or disdain. It was only a moment, like the briefest twitch of a mask. But in that moment I knew he felt himself above any judgement that one such as I might make of him. "Alicia's life is in your hands," he said. "It is only you that can save her." He drew from the folds of his habit a scroll tied with a thin cord. "They have appointed me to be the bearer of this."

Bertrand cleared his throat, a sound of startling loudness. He said, "My part is to guarantee your safety and the protection of your peers, as they will be – I will myself confer knighthood on you, and you will take your place in the rank you were born to. I know this has been your dearest wish. It is also within my power to grant you a fief, which you will hold in vassalage to me. Naturally also there will be a sum in gold, sufficient for the furnishings you will need. If you want to try your fortunes in the Holy Land, I will see that you are recommended. The Lord of Tripoli is my half-cousin. Once we have your signature on the document we can obtain the lady Alicia's release. You will wait for her at the palace of Favara. You will have my seal for your admittance. She will join you there. I give you my knightly word that no harm will come to her or to you. Now you will need time alone to consider."