Crusader's Lady

‘Keep your eyes on him, lad. He can be more slippery than an oiled mackerel.’

‘Yes, lord. But if I may respectfully suggest, if you mounted we could move faster.’

Marc grunted. ‘If I mounted, you would then walk?’

The lad fell silent. Hah! Marc guessed the boy would rather concede the matter than climb down from his hard-won perch on none-too-steady legs.

Marc reached for the water skin, uncorked the vessel and took a long pull, then handed it to the boy.

‘I dare not drink, lord. I fear I will not keep it down.’

‘Better that than die of thirst. Such an end is not pretty.’

A drawbridge manned by an unseen guard blocked entry into the fortress. Marc stopped some paces away as a voice boomed from the narrow window slit in the square stone gatehouse. ‘Who seeks entry at the gate of the Templar knights?’

‘A friend,’ Marc called. ‘A knight of the Scots and a holy man of God.’

‘What names?’ the voice barked back.

‘Marc de Valery and…’ He hesitated. Would Richard reveal himself once safely inside these walls? If so, Marc would be caught in a lie.

‘…and a monk lately come from Jerusalem. Simon the…hermit.’ He ignored the king’s choked protest behind him.

‘Hermit, indeed,’ Richard muttered. The boy, Soray, twisted in the saddle and shot an interested look at the cowled figure.

‘He is not a hermit, then?’ the lad whispered. ‘I thought him one of those chosen by God.’

‘You think too much,’ Marc replied in a cold voice. Not only was Richard not a monk, he was most assuredly not a holy man. Not a man loved by the crusading barons from France and Germany.

‘Yes, lord, that is true, I do think too much. I think about the moon and the stars, about the water that bubbles out of the desert, about—’

‘Enough! Think instead where we shall sleep tonight if we are not welcomed by the Templars.’ He eyed the gatekeeper’s shadow behind the narrow window. ‘We are godly men. We seek shelter and permission to hear mass in your chapel.’

‘Christians, then,’ came the voice. ‘Of Rome or Constantinople?’

‘We speak the words of God in humble Latin, not in Greek.’ Behind him, Richard snorted in impatience and stepped his horse forward. ‘Tell the fool we demand admittance. Tell the grand master that the conquerer of—’

Marc wheeled and gripped the king’s arm. ‘Quiet!’

Richard glared at him, his face reddening. ‘You overstep, de Valery.’

‘I am commanded to protect your person. It would be well to follow my lead.’ Richard was brave, but he was arrogant. No wonder Leopold hated him.

‘Ha!’ the king shot. ‘I am leader here.’

‘It matters not who leads,’ Marc asserted, ‘but who survives. Let me negotiate our entrance, lest you nettle yon keeper. Warm honey works better than cold demands.’

Richard sat back in his saddle. ‘Ah, the honeybee has a sting! Very well, de Valery, proceed.’

But already the grinding of the drawbridge over the wide moat sounded in their ears. The king turned his head toward Marc and grinned. ‘You win. This time.’

Marc stifled an oath. Richard was more boy than man at times. How he loved a jest, a game of skill, even quarrelling with his sworn protector. How was it England had survived two generations of Plantagenets?

He led Jupiter forward over the heavy oiled planks, paused while the portcullis ratcheted noisily upward with the clanking of metal chain, then advanced into the outer bailey. Richard followed, mercifully silent for a change.

Once inside, the groaning drawbridge rose and the toothed portcullis wheel rattled its way twice around. Marc waited. He could smell the stables, the harsh scent of hot metal wafting from the smithy’s shed.

De Valery peered up at her. ‘Still seasick, are you, boy?’

She nodded, feeling tears sting against her upper lids. Her eyes burned when she retched so she knew what was coming. She clamped her lips tight together.

Just when she felt her control beginning to slip, squires tumbled out the inner gate, followed by four mounted knights armed with steel-tipped lances.

‘What in God’s name…’ Marc pulled his horse forward to shield the unarmed monk, then rode forward, his hand on the hilt of his sword.

‘Hold!’ The monk stood up in his stirrups and raised one arm above his head in an imperious gesture, as if he expected to stop the setting of the sun. A bold move for a man of God.

‘Devil-blessed fool of a man,’ the knight admonished. His eyes glittered like two blue jewels.

The monk swore. ‘You are worse than Becket. Once appointed archbishop, he thought he was king.’

‘Aye,’ muttered the Scot. ‘Beware of honest men.’

The monk spit out a laugh, but sank back in his saddle once more. ‘So it would seem. An honest man would guard a life in spite of its owner. Your pardon, de Valery.’

Marc threw him a hard look and allowed the armed knights to form an escort around them. One of the men gestured, and the monk dismounted. They were moving toward the wooden steps leading to the heavy-timbered fortress when suddenly the holy man halted.

‘Do not send the servant boy to the kitchen,’ he announced. ‘He comes with us.’

Soraya saw the muscles in the knight’s jaw tighten. Before he could speak, she clambered off the destrier and slipped in between the monk and de Valery. They moved forward, the knight in front of her, the monk behind, until the armed guards wheeled their mounts away.

Squires came and took their horses away to be cared for, then the three of them clattered up the steps and were swallowed into the cold grey walls of the keep.

Chapter Eight

The vast timber-roofed hall echoed with the clank of wine cups and orders shouted to the table servants by the single burly figure at the high table. Hounds lolled on the rush-covered floor, snapping up dropped tidbits of meat and bone. The din was deafening, the sounds so loud and ugly Soraya clapped her hands over her ears. Had these Templar Knights no fine carpets or cushions on which to recline? No timbrels or lutes to calm the soul?

She watched Marc follow a servant to the high table, the holy man at his heels. Both were seated on either side of a heavyset man with sun-coloured hair. Suddenly she stood alone in the great hall that stank of sweat and wine.

‘You there!’ a pimply-faced youth yelled in the Norman tongue. ‘Sit you at the end of the servants’ table.’ He pointed toward the back of the hall where a group of chattering boys sat at a trestle far back in the shadows. Some wore Arab-style tunics and head wraps. Others, younger and bareheaded, wore ragged shirts that hung down over skinny, hose-covered legs.

‘Merci,’ she managed. The air reeked of grease and offal, and as she seated herself on the long bench, her stomach erupted. No one paid her any attention! In the zenana she would have been cosseted with cool cloths and iced sherbet while slaves cleaned the floor. Here, the hounds made quick work of her disgrace.

She sank onto the rough plank bench and lowered her head. God help me to endure this hellish place.

Only the high table was covered with a cloth. The trestle where she sat was bare wood, stained and smelly from previous meals. The other servants were fighting over a haunch of roasted meat, knocking over wine cups and scattering a bowl of sugared nuts across the table.

‘Better get busy, boy, if you want to eat.’ The voice came from a chubby red-headed youth on her left.

She answered in the Norman tongue. ‘I do not wish to eat.’

‘Then you don’t work hard enough,’ spoke a deeper voice at her right. ‘One day of service in this keep and you will beg for scraps.’

‘I am not hungry,’ she protested in a quiet tone.

‘Eat!’ he insisted. ‘Mangez!’

The others took up the cry, like a chant. ‘Mangez…mangez…mangez.’ The noise made her head buzz.

‘Let’s have a look at you.’ The red-haired boy prodded her shoulder. Instinctively she pulled away.

‘O-ho, he’s a shy one! And bony, too,’ he said, pinching her arm.

She jerked free, then leveled her gaze at each of the shouting boys, now rhythmically slapping their palms onto the table top. ‘Mangez…mangez.’

‘I will not.’ Inside she trembled with fear, but she would never let it show. Khalil’s training had taught her such control that she could endure a knife cut without flinching.

‘Oh, aye, you will eat,’ the deep-voiced boy next to her rumbled in her ear. He jabbed her in the ribs with his sharp elbow. ‘Mangez,’ he whispered. ‘Now! Or I will cram it down your throat.’

Marc looked up at the sudden noise at the far end of the hall. Some chant or other at the servants’ table. He scanned the benches until he found Soray, seated between a chunky-looking lad and a half-grown stripling with a mop of silvery hair and a curved back. As he watched, the taller boy jammed his elbow into Soray’s side. Marc’s hand closed into a fist.

The Templar grand master Giles Amaury leaned forward. ‘You were saying, de Valery?’

‘What? Ah, yes, the siege in Jerusalem. It goes badly for both sides. The Christian forces have scant food remaining, and the infidel has none, but he controls the water holes.’

He watched the white-haired lad again drive his elbow into Soray’s side. Soray twisted away, then clenched both fists and rammed them hard into his attacker’s groin. Marc winced. He almost pitied the boy.

The fat one on the other side edged away, then shot one hand out and flicked Soray’s cheek. In the next instant that boy, too, bent groaning over his belly.

The other servants at that table fell silent. Then someone across from Soray reached to fill his wooden wine cup. But instead of drinking…

The grand master tapped Marc’s metal trencher with his eating knife. ‘You are distracted, de Valery.’

Marc jerked. ‘My lord Amaury?’ Out of the corner of his eye he saw Soray deliberately dump his wine cup into the lap of one of the injured lads. God! Small though he was, Soray was both brave and clever; the lad would have made a fine knight.

Giles Amaury paused to catch Marc’s eye. ‘And then that ninny Richard of England cut a swath through the enemy as if he were scything a wheat field. There were Christians among the Muslim ranks, but even so, he cut down every man. Christians!’

Marc sent a covert glance toward the monk on Amaury’s other side. Richard’s head was bowed. The robe-covered arm did not so much as twitch, but the fingers of the extended hand drummed rhythmically against the table covering.

‘True enough,’ Marc said slowly. ‘England’s king may be a better leader than a statesman. But, faced with an ambush of mixed troops, only a fool would stop to separate out the chaff.’

‘The man is dangerous,’ the grand master shot. ‘A fool in fine armour.’

Marc set down his flagon of sweet Cyprus wine with a clunk. ‘Richard may be many things, but he is not a fool.’

The king’s fingers stilled. ‘I think, de Valery, that your young servant needs rescuing from yon table.’

Marc strained his eyes but could see nothing further amiss. ‘I think not. The lad has declawed the lions, both of them.’

Richard’s penetrating blue eyes sought his. ‘Look again.’

It was an order, not a polite request. Marc understood at once. Richard would be private with the Templar grand master.

‘You are right,’ Marc amended. ‘Young Soray looks to be in need of…direction.’ In truth, young Soray had things well in hand, but Marc quickly excused himself and started across the hall toward the servants’ table.

‘De Valery!’ the grand master abruptly called at his back.

Marc halted.

‘I would not wish you to roam freely about this keep. My servant will conduct you to your guest quarters.’

A moment of silence, then the low murmur of voices resumed, the disguised king’s and the grand master’s. What mischief was Richard stirring up now?

A paunchy, grey-haired man in a white surcoat appeared out of the gloom, sidestepping both hounds and refuse without breaking his stride. ‘This way, sir knight. Follow me.’

Marc stopped at the servants’ table and spoke at Soray’s back. ‘Come on, lad. To bed.’

Soray scrambled off the bench, resisting the impulse to throw her arms around her rescuer. ‘Oh, thank you, lord. Thank you!’

‘That tired, are you?’ he said, an edge in his low voice.

‘Oh, no, not tired,’ she blurted. ‘But I have been…quite busy here.’

‘Ah,’ said her knight. ‘Commendable aim you have.’

She gaped up at him. ‘You saw?’

‘I saw.’

Soraya flinched. His world, even the small part of it she had seen, was ugly beyond words, full of rudeness and noise and awful smells. She hated it.

But she did not hate him. On the contrary, she was beginning to like him. He roared and grumbled, but he did not strike. He fed her, warmed her at his fire, protected her from angry merchants…even laughed at her remarks. Apparently he found her acceptable company.

She followed him out of the great hall and up a winding staircase, the stone steps unevenly worn with long use. Up and up it went, curving always to her right. By the second landing, she was so dizzy she feared she would stagger off the edge. Blindly she reached out toward her knight, caught a handful of his tunic and held on.

‘Better than the tail of a horse, is it?’ he said over his shoulder. The amusement she heard in his rough voice made her grin.

‘Much better, lord,’ she said at his back. ‘A horse could never climb such steps as these.’

He chuckled and shortened his steps. ‘But a horse has no need for guest quarters in a Templar keep.’

They both laughed.

On the next landing, the grey-haired man led them down a short hallway, through a wooden door that screeched on rusty hinges and into a small chamber with a single window cut into the stone wall.

‘Here it is, my lord,’ the man puffed. ‘Fine view. See all over the city, you can.’ He surveyed Soraya with a measuring eye. ‘Mind you don’t lean out too far past the shutters, boy. Many a young page has found himself swimming upside down in the moat.’

She stared at the window and fought down a shudder.

‘Anything you be wantin’ from the kitchen my lord?’

‘Hot water and soap,’ de Valery replied.

‘I’ll send it up with a page. Don’t think I can manage this climb more than once a night.’

Water and soap? ‘You would bathe?’ she blurted. Here, in front of her?

‘I would,’ he snapped.

‘Now?’

‘Aye, lad, now,’ he growled with impatience. ‘What better time?’

The old man started for the door. ‘You’ll be wantin’ a large tub for the likes of one tall as yerself. I’ll see to it.’

From the rank smell of bodies in the dining hall, she knew that knights did not bathe often. She caught her lower lip between her teeth. In a few moments de Valery intended to disrobe; as his servant she would be expected to help him shed his garments and then…

She swallowed hard. She had never before seen a full-grown man naked.

‘What ails you, lad? Help me get these boots off.’

She ducked her head and tugged at the spurs and the tarnished buckles on his blackened leather boots.

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