Bernard Cornwell - The Grail Quest 1 - Harlequin

Let the bastards shout,“ Will Skeat growled,'s houting never hurt a man yet.” He grinned at Thomas. Depends on the man, of course. Upset Sir Simon, didn't it?"

He was just a bastard."

No, Tom,“ Skeat corrected him, you're the bastard, and he was a gentleman.” Skeat looked across at the French, who showed no sign of trying to contest the ford. Most of them are all right,“ he went on, evidently talking of knights and nobles. Once they've fought with the archers for a while they learn to look after us on account of us being the mucky bastards what keeps them alive, but there's always a few goddamn idiots. Not our Billy, though.” He turned and looked at the Earl of Northampton, who was pacing up and down by the shallows, itching for the French to come and fight. He's a proper gentleman. Knows how to kill the goddamn French." Next morning the French were gone, the only sign of them the white cloud of dust hanging over the road which was taking their huge army back to Abbeville. The English went north, slowed by hunger and the lame horses that men were reluctant to abandon. The army climbed from the Somme marshes into a heavily wooded country that yielded no grain, livestock or plunder, while the weather, which had been dry and warm, turned cold and wet during the morning. Rain spat from the east and dripped incessantly from the trees to increase men's misery so that what had seemed like a victorious campaign south of the Seine now felt like an ignominious retreat. Which is what it was, for the English were running from the French and all the men knew it, just as they knew that unless they found food soon their weakness would make them easy pick-ings for the enemy. The King had sent a strong force to the mouth of the Somme where, at the small port of Le Crotoy, he expected reinforcements and supplies to be waiting, but instead the small port proved to be held by a garrison of Genoese crossbowmen. The walls were in bad repair, the attackers were hungry and so the Genoese died under a hail of arrows and a storm of men-at-arms. The English emptied the port's storehouses of food and found a herd of beef cattle col-lected for the French army's use, but when they climbed the church tower they saw no ships moored in the river's mouth nor any fleet waiting at sea. The arrows, the archers and the grain that should have replenished the army were still in England.

The rain became heavier on the first night that the army camped in the forest. Rumour said that the King and his great men were in a village at the forest's edge, but most of the men were forced to shelter under the dripping trees and eat what little they could scavenge.

Acorn stew," Jake grumbled.

You've eaten worse," Thomas said.

And a month ago we ate it off silver plates.“ Jake spat out a gritty mouthful. So why don't we bloody fight the bastards?” Because they're too many,“ Thomas said wearily, because we've only so many arrows. Because we're worn out.”

The army had marched itself into the ground. Jake, like a dozen other of Will Skeat's archers, had no boots any more. The wounded limped because there were not enough carts and the sick were left behind if they could not walk or crawl. The living stank. Thomas had made Eleanor and himself a shelter from boughs and turf. It was dry inside the little hut where a small fire spewed a thick smoke.

What happens to me if you lose?“ Eleanor asked him. We won't lose,” Thomas said, though there was little conviction in his voice.

What happens to me?" she asked again.

You thank the Frenchmen who find you," he said, and tell them you were forced to march with us against your will. Then you send for your father.

Eleanor thought about those answers for a while, but did not look reassured. She had learned in Caen how men after victory are not amenable to reason, but slaves to their appetites. She shrugged. And what happens to you?"

If I live?“ Thomas shook his head. I'll be a prisoner. They send us to the galleys in the south, I hear. If they let us live.” Why shouldn't they?"

They don't like archers. They hate archers.“ He pushed a pile of wet bracken closer to the fire, trying to dry the fronds before they became their bed. Maybe there won't be a battle,” he said, because we've stolen a day's march on them." The French were said to have gone back to Abbeville and to be crossing the river there, which meant that the hunters were coming, but the English were still a day ahead and could, perhaps, reach their fortresses in Flanders. Perhaps.

Eleanor blinked from the smoke. Have you seen any knight carrying the lance?"

Thomas shook his head. I haven't even looked,“ he confessed. The last thing on his mind this night was the mysterious Vexilles. Nor, indeed, did he expect to see the lance. That was Sir Guillaume's fancy and now Father Hobbe's enthusiasm, but it was not Thomas's obsession. Staying alive and finding enough to eat were what con-sumed him. Thomas!” Will Skeat called from outside.

Thomas pushed his head through the hut opening to see a cloaked figure was standing next to Skeat. I'm here,“ he said. You've got company,” Skeat said sourly, turning away. The cloaked figure stooped to enter the hut and, to Thomas's surprise, it was Jeanette. I shouldn't be here,“ she greeted him, pushing into the smoky interior where, throwing the hood from her hair, she stared at Eleanor. Who's that?”

My woman," Thomas spoke in English.

Tell her to go," Jeanette said in French.

Stay here,“ Thomas told Eleanor. This is the Countess of Armorica.”

Jeanette bridled when Thomas contradicted her, but did not insist that Eleanor left. Instead she pushed a bag at Thomas that proved to contain a leg of ham, a loaf of bread and a stone bottle of wine. The bread, Thomas saw, was the fine white bread that only the rich could afford, while the ham was studded with cloves and sticky with honey.

He handed the bag to Eleanor. Food fit for a prince,“ he told her. I should take it to Will?” Eleanor asked, for the Archers had agreed to share all their food.

Yes, but it can wait," Thomas said.

I shall take it now," Eleanor said, and pulled a cloak over her head before vanishing into the wet darkness.

She's pretty enough," Jeanette said in French.

All my women are pretty,“ Thomas said. Fit for princes, they are.”

Jeanette looked angry, or perhaps it was just the smoke from the small fire irritating her. She prodded the hut's side. This reminds me of our journey.

It wasn't cold or wet." Thomas said. And you were mad, he wanted to add, and I nursed you and you walked away from me without looking back.

Jeanette heard the hostility in his voice. He thinks,“ she said, that I am saying confession.”

Then tell me your sins,“ Thomas responded, and you won't have lied to His Highness.”

Jeanette ignored that. You know what is going to happen now?“ We run away, they chase us, and either they catch us or they don't.” He spoke brusquely. And if they catch us there'll be a blood-letting.“ They will catch us,” Jeanette said confidently, and there will be a battle."

You know that?"

I listen to what is reported to the Prince,“ she said, and the French are on the good roads. We are not.”

That made sense. The ford by which the English army had cros-sed the Seine led only into marshiand and forest. It was a link between villages, it lay on no great trading route and so no good roads led from its banks, but the French had crossed the river at Abbeville, a city of merchants, and so the enemy army would have wide roads to hasten their march into Picardy. They were well fed, they were fresh and now they had the good roads to speed them.

So there'll be a battle,“ Thomas said, touching his black bow. There is to be a battle,” Jeanette confirmed. It's been decided. Probably tomorrow or the next day. The King says there is a hill just outside the forest where we can fight. Better that, he says, than letting the French get ahead and block our road. But either way,“ she paused, they will win.”