Jack Whyte - Order in Chaos

“Where have you put the boy?” He had spoken in French, without thinking, but she answered him in the tongue of the Scots.

“Och, he is much better, so we moved him into one of the small sleeping chambers upstairs. He’s comfortable there now. Still abed, but able to sit up and look about him. He is a fine young man.”

“Young man?” The idea seemed strange to Will. “Aye, I suppose he is. Man enough.”

“Aye, man enough, as you say … and fortunate. Brother Matthew thinks now that he will recover the full use of his arm and shoulder. Not today, mind you, and not tomorrow, but the wound is healing cleanly and as soon as it is closed and sound he will be able to start strengthening the muscles again.”

Will was barely listening, gazing up at the high, narrow windows on the side wall, and now he dragged a high wooden chair under one so he could climb up onto it and look down into the courtyard below, where Mungo and another man he did not recognize were hauling a dead man away by the ankles.

“We have bodies to dispose of,” he said over his shoulder. “Where would you have them buried?”

“Buried?” It was clear that she had not thought at all about that, but she was resolute nonetheless. “As far from the house as possible, I suppose, but I’ll have to think on that. It’s not something we are called upon to do every week.”

“No, I suppose not. But these are not the first such, surely?”

“The first since I’ve been here, most certainly. But there might have been others. Before I came here, I mean. This road is much traveled by warlike men, I fear. But Hector will know where they should go, if they’re not the first to be buried here. There must be such a place. I’ll ask him.”

He turned around and looked down at her, seeing the wide, white sweep of her shoulders above the scooped neckline of her gown and the way the light, from this angle, caught the high planes of her prominent cheekbones and emphasized the startling brightness of her eyes. Then, before she could notice him staring, he stepped off the chair and landed lightly on the balls of his feet.

“Who were they, these people? Do you know?”

“I have no idea. But they’re no threat now, and we have no cause to mourn them or to grieve for them, for they brought their deaths upon themselves, threatening honest folk. So sit you down and be comfortable. I’ll have the fire lit, if you like.”

Will ignored the suggestion. “So they are not from these parts? You recognized none of them?”

“No, and I know every man for miles around here by sight by now. These ones are from beyond these vales, but from which direction, your guess would be as valid as mine. All I could tell, from the roof, was that they were hungry and desperate, and too many for us to fend off. They must have been spying on us, for they crept up on us. We saw nothing until one of them showed himself by accident and one of our people happened to see him. Otherwise they would have caught us unawares and taken us without any trouble … As it was, the alarm was raised and we had time to bring everyone inside the house and bar the doors, but there was little else we could do. And so we are all in your debt for our lives. Had you not come back when you did, you might have found nothing and no one here when you returned.”

“Aye, well, we did come back, so thanks be to God. I am the grateful one. Will you not sit down?”

She cocked her head to one side, smiling at him. “I will sit if you will. But you have not even asked me if your treasure is safe.”

Will smiled. “ Your treasure, and there is no need. It must be safe, else you would not have told Tam to lodge the prisoners in the byre.”

“They are not in that byre. There is another at the back.”

“But still, the gold is safe enough, I’m sure. Your guests had not had time to break in here, let alone go prowling through the byres looking for hidden hoards, so your coffer will be where we left it.” He lowered himself into the big, soft chair, and Jessie sat in the one opposite, tucking her legs up demurely beneath her although the voluminous skirts of her gown offered only the merest suggestion of what she had done. He gazed at the slight tautening of the fabric where her knees were, and then realized what he was doing and felt the color heightening in his cheeks as he raised his eyes to hers.

“So,” she said, appearing not to have noticed, “was your journey worthwhile? I must admit I am curious, for Master Nicholas Balmyle is a man of great renown, and I suspect he summons few folk in person, save on the King’s own business. Can you tell me anything about your visit?”

Will was mildly surprised to discover that he could, and without hesitation, where only a short time before he would have balked and felt resentment at having to admit anything about the Temple to Jessie Randolph or any other woman. Now he found himself answering without demur, and told her what he had learned at St. Andrews about the vacillations of the Pope in signing and then revoking his pardon, and about the loyalty of the Scots Templars.

“So what does Master Balmyle wish you to do?”

It was not Nicholas Balmyle’s face Will saw in his mind but William Lamberton’s, but he answered her directly, attributing the Archbishop’s wishes to the former chancellor. “He wants me to strengthen and encourage the Scots brethren.”

“And can you do that? I mean, I know you can, but how will you do it without breaking your own given word to keep your presence here a secret?”

Will explained then the plan to convene the Scots Templars in Arran, to release them from their vows of chastity and poverty, and to remove all outward evidence of their identity as Templars, as he had done with his own men.

“But what then?” Jessie asked. “When you and the others have gone to Merica … how will they be able to continue their rituals? Or will they not do that any longer?”

“They will return to the mainland and we will set up a new chapter for Scotland … perhaps more than one. I will know the answer to that riddle once I have discovered the makeup and distribution of the brotherhood. So, one chapter and one meeting lodge at first. More if required.”

Her frown deepened. “But how will you do that without betraying their existence? Why change them outwardly, to be invisible, if you convene them openly as Temple knights?”

“And sergeants. Don’t forget the sergeants. But I said nothing about openness. Ours is a closed and secretive Order. No one will ever know it is there, though it will operate almost in full sight. People see what they expect to see, my lady.”

“Jessie. Please don’t ‘my lady’ me.”

“Jessie, then. If folk see men with forked beards and equal-armed crosses assembling, then they conclude that it is a Templar gathering. If they see farmers, they see a market gathering. In our case, they will see only knights and soldiers gathering openly for whatever purposes soldiers gather … and this country is at war, so no one will think further on that. And under that cloak of ordinariness, Scotland’s new Templars will conduct their business, in secrecy as always, but free of the recognition as being Templars. It will work, believe me.”

She sat silent for a while absorbing that, then nodded. “I do believe it. And if anyone can achieve what needs to be done to enable that, it is you. So you will hold this gathering within the month?”

“We will.”

“And after that? Did you ask about finding an agent in Genoa?”

“I did, and received an unexpected answer.” She frowned again and he smiled. “I was advised to take Admiral de Berenger and go to Genoa myself, to do my own negotiating and make my own purchases, with the benefit of Edward’s profound knowledge.”