Bernard Cornwell - The Grail Quest 1 - Harlequin

That you are the most beautiful creature in all France,“ he said. You lie,” she said, then flinched as a man shouted at her. Have they never seen a woman before?"

Not like you. They probably think you're a princess.“ She scoffed at that, but was not displeased. There were, she saw, women everywhere. They gathered firewood while their men made the shelters and most, Eleanor noted, spoke French. There will be many babies next year,” she said.

True.

They will go back to England?" she asked.

Some, perhaps.“ Thomas was not really sure. Or they'll go to their garrisons in Gascony.”

If I marry you,“ she asked, will I become English?” Yes," Thomas said.

It was getting late and cooking fires were smoking across the stubble fields, though there was precious little to cook. Every pas-ture held a score of horses and Thomas knew they needed to rest, feed and water their own animals. He had asked many soldiers where the Prince of Wales's men could be found, but one man said West, another east, so in the dusk Thomas simply turned their tired horses towards the nearest village for he did not know where else to go. The place was swarming with troops, but Thomas and Eleanor found a quiet enough spot in the corner of a field where Thomas made a fire while Eleanor, the black bow prominent on her shoulder to demonstrate that she belonged to the army, watered the horses in a stream. They cooked the last of their food and afterwards sat under the hedge and watched the stars brighten above a dark wood. Voices sounded from the village where some women were singing a French song and Eleanor crooned the words softly.

I remember my mother singing it to me,“ she said, plucking strands of grass that she wove into a small bracelet. I was not his only bastard,” she said ruefully. There were two others I know of. One died when she was very small, and the other is now a soldier." He's your brother.

Half-brother.“ She shrugged. I don't know him. He went away.” She put the bracelet on her thin wrist. Why do you wear a dog's paw?" she asked.

Because I'm a fool,“ he said, and mock God.” That was the truth, he thought ruefully, and he pulled the dry paw hard to break its cord, then tossed it into the field. He did not really believe in Saint Guinefort; it was an affectation. A dog would not help him recover the lance, and that duty made him grimace, for the penance weighed on his conscience and soul.

Do you really mock God?“ Eleanor asked, worried. No. But we jest about the things we fear.”

And you fear God?"

Of course,“ Thomas said, then stiffened because there had been a rustle in the hedge behind him and a cold blade was suddenly pressed against the back of his neck. The metal felt very sharp. What we should do,” a voice said, is hang the bastard properly and take his woman. She's pretty."

She's pretty,“ another man agreed, but he ain't good for anything.”

You bastards!“ Thomas said, turning to stare into two grinning faces. It was Jake and Sam. He did not believe it at first, just gazed for a while. It is you! What are you doing here?” Jake slashed at the hedge with his billhook, pushed through and gave Eleanor what he thought was a reassuring grin, though with his scarred face and crossed eyes he looked like something from nightmare. Charlie Blois got his face smacked,“ Jake said,'s o Will brought us here to give the King of France a bloody nose. She your woman?”

She's the Queen of bloody Sheba," Thomas said.

And the Countess is humping the Prince, I hear,“ Jake grinned. Will saw you earlier, only you didn't see us. Got your nose in the air. We heard you were dead.”

I nearly was."

Will wants to see you."

The thought of Will Skeat, of Jake and Sam, came as a vast relief to Thomas, for such men lived in a world far removed from dire prophecies, stolen lances and dark lords. He told Eleanor these men were his friends, his best friends, and that she could trust them, though she looked alarmed at the ironic cheer which greeted Thomas when they ducked into the village tavern. The archers put their hands at their throats and contorted their faces to imitate a hanged man while Will Skeat shook his head in mock despair.

God's belly,“ he said, but they can't even hang you properly.” He looked at Eleanor. Another countess?"

The daughter of Sir Guillaume d'Evecque, knight of the sea and of the land,“ Thomas said, and she's called Eleanor.” Yours?" Skeat asked.

We shall marry."

Bloody heilfire,“ Skeat said, you're still daft as a carrot! You don't marry them, Tom, that's not what they're for. Still, she ain't a bad looker, is she?” He courteously made space for Eleanor on the bench. There wasn't much ale,“ he went on,'s o we drank it all.” He looked about the tavern. It was so bare there was not even a bunch of herbs hanging from the rafters. Bastards cleaned up before they left," he said sourly, and there's about as much plunder here as you'd get hairs off a bald man.

What happened in Brittany?" Thomas asked.

Will shrugged. Nowt to do with us. Duke Charles led his men into our territory and trapped Tommy Dugdale on a hilltop. Three thousand of them and three hundred with Tommy, and at the end of the day Duke Charles was running like a scalded hare. Arrows, boy, arrows.

Thomas Dugdale had taken over the Earl of Northampton's res-ponsibilities in Brittany and had been travelling between the English fortresses when the Duke's army caught him, but his archers and men-at-arms, ensconced behind the thick hedge of a hilltop pasture, had cut the enemy into shreds.

All day they fought,“ Skeat said, morning to night, and the bastards wouldn't learn their lesson and kept sending men up the hill. They reckoned Tommy had to run out of arrows soon enough, but he was carrying carts of spares to the fortresses, see, so he had enough to last him till doomsday. So Duke Charles lost his best men, the fortresses are safe till he gets some more, and we're up here. The Earl sent for us. Just bring fifty archers, he told me, so I did. And Father Hobbe, of course. We sailed to Caen and joined the army just as it marched out. So what the hell happened to you?”

Thomas told his tale. Skeat shook his head when he heard about the hanging. Sir Simon's gone,“ he said. Probably joined the French.”

He's done what?"

Vanished. Your countess caught up with him and pissed all over him from what we hear.“ Skeat grinned. Luck of the devil, you've got. God knows why I saved you this.” He put a clay jar of ale on the table, then nodded at Thomas's bow that Eleanor was carrying. Can you still shoot that thing? I mean you've been bollocking about with the aristocracy for so long that you might have forgotten why God put you on the earth?"

I can still use it."

Then you might as well ride with us,“ Skeat said, but confessed he knew little of what the army was doing. No one tells me,” he said scorufully, but they say there's another river up north and we've got to cross it. Sooner the better, I reckon, as the Frenchies have skimmed this land proper. Couldn't feed a kitten up here." It was indeed a bare land. Thomas saw that for himself next day as Will Skeat's men moved slowly north across harvested fields, but the grain, instead of lying in the barns, had already been taken for the French army, just as the livestock had all been driven away. South of the Seine the English had cut grain from abandoned fields and their advance guards had moved swiftly enough to capture thousands of cattle, pigs and goats, but here the land had been scraped bare by an even larger army and so the King ordered haste. He wanted his men to cross the next river, the Somme, to where the French army might not have stripped the land and where, at Le Crotoy, he hoped a fleet would be waiting with supplies, but despite the royal orders the army went painfully slowly. There were fortified towns that promised food and men insisted on trying to assault their walls. They captured some, were repulsed at others, but it all took time that the King did not have, and while he was trying to discipline an army more interested in plunder than pro-gress, the King of France led his army back across the Seine, through Paris and north to the Somme.