Part 9 (1/2)

That's why I'm here,” Thomas said.

And suppose you have no men left?” Sir Guillaume asked. Thomas said nothing for a while. Eventually he broke the silence. You too?”

I'm with you,” Sir Guillaume said, fool that you are. But if your cousin comes, Thomas, he won't come alone.” I know.”

And he won't be as foolish as Joscelyn was. He won't give you a victory.”

I know.” Thomas's voice was bleak.

You need more men,” Sir Guillaume said. We have a garrison; we need a small army.”

Tt would help,” Thomas agreed.

But no one will come while she's here,” Sir Guillaume warned, glancing at Genevieve. And three of the Gascons left yesterday.” The three men-at-arms had not even waited for their share of Joscelyn's ransom, but had simply ridden away westwards in search of other employment.

I don't want cowards here,” Thomas retorted.

Oh, don't be such a d.a.m.ned fool!” Sir Guillaume snapped. Your men will fight other men, Thomas, but they won't fight the Church. They won't fight G.o.d.” He paused, evidently reluctant to say what ever was on his mind, but then took the plunge. You have to send her away, Thomas. She has to go.”

Thomas stared at the southern hills. He said nothing. She has to go,” Sir Guillaume repeated. Send her to Pau. Bordeaux. Anywhere.”

If I do that/ Thomas said, then she dies. The Church will find her and burn her.”

Sir Guillaume stared at him. You're in love, aren't you?” Yes/ Thomas said.

Jesus G.o.dd.a.m.ned Christ/ Sir Guillaume said in exasperation. Love! It always leads to trouble.”

Man is born to it/ Thomas said, as the sparks fly upwards.” Maybe/ Sir Guillaume said grimly, but it's women who provide the b.l.o.o.d.y kindling.”

And just then Genevieve called to them. Hors.e.m.e.n!” she warned, and Thomas ran across the ramparts and stared down the eastern road and saw that sixty or seventy hors.e.m.e.n were emerging from the woods. They were men-at-arms wearing the orange and white jupons of Berat and at first Thomas a.s.sumed they were coming to offer a ransom for Joscelyn, then he saw that they flew a strange banner, not the leopard of Berat, but a Church banner like those carried in processions on holy days. It hung from a cross-staff and showed the blue gown of the Virgin Mary and behind it, on smaller horses, were a score of churchmen. Sir Guillaume made the sign of the cross. Trouble/ he said curtly, then turned on Genevieve. No arrows! You hear me, girl? No d.a.m.n arrows!”

Sir Guillaume ran down the steps and Genevieve looked at Thomas. I'm sorry,” she said.

For killing the priest? d.a.m.n the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”

1 rather think they've come to d.a.m.n us,” Genevieve said, and she went with Thomas to the side of the battlements that over looked Castillon d'Arbizon's main street, the west gate and the bridge across the river beyond. The armed hors.e.m.e.n waited outside the town while the clergy dismounted and, preceded by their banner, trooped up the main street towards the castle. Most of the churchmen were in black, but one was in a white cope, had a mitre and carried a white staff topped with a golden crook. A bishop, no less. He was a plump man with long white hair that escaped from beneath the golden hem of his mitre. He ignored the townsfolk who knelt to him as he called up to the castle. Thomas!” he shouted. Thomas!”

What will you do?” Genevieve asked.

Listen to him,” Thomas said.

He led her down to the smaller bastion above the gate that was already crowded with archers and men-at-arms. Robbie was there and, as Thomas appeared, the Scotsman pointed at him and called down to the bishop, This is Thomas!”

The bishop struck his staff on the ground. In the name of G.o.d,” he called out, the all-powerful Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Ghost, and in the name of all the saints, and in the name of our Holy Father, Clement, and by virtue of the power which has been granted us to loose and to bind in heaven as it is loosed and bound upon earth, I summon you, Thomas! I summon you!”

The bishop had a fine voice. It carried clearly, and the only other sound, except for the wind, was the murmur as a handful of Thomas's men translated the French into English for the benefit of the archers. Thomas had a.s.sumed that the bishop would speak in Latin and that he alone would know what was being said, but the bishop wanted everyone to understand his words. It is known that you, Thomas/ the bishop resumed, 'some time baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, have fallen from the society of Christ's body by committing the sin of giving comfort and shelter to a condemned heretic and murderer. So now, with grief in our heart, we deprive you, Thomas, as we will deprive all your accomplices and supporters, of the communion of the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He banged his staff on the ground again and one of the priests rang a small handbell. We separate you/ the bishop went on, his voice echoing from the castle's high keep, from the society of all Christians and we exclude you from all holy precincts/ Again the staff struck the cobbles and the bell rang. We banish you from the bosom of our holy mother the Church in heaven and upon earth.” The bell's clear tone echoed back from the keep's stones. We declare you, Thomas, to be excommunicated and we judge you to be condemned to eternal fire with Satan and all his angels and all the reprobates. We p.r.o.nounce you accursed in this wicked fact and we charge all those who favour and love our Lord Jesus Christ to hold you for punishment.” He thumped his staff a last time, glared defiantly at Thomas and then turned away, followed by the priests and their banner.

And Thomas felt numb. Cold and numb. Empty. It was as though the foundations of the earth had vanished to leave an aching void above the blazing gates of h.e.l.l. All the certainties of life, of G.o.d, of salvation, of eternity, were gone, had been blown away like the fallen leaves rustling in the town's gutters. He had been changed into a true h.e.l.lequin, excommunicated, cut off from the mercy, the love and the company of G.o.d.

You heard the bishop!” Robbie broke the silence on the rampart. We're charged to arrest Thomas or else share his d.a.m.nation.” And he put his hand on his sword and would have drawn it if Sir Guillaume had not intervened.

Enough!” the Norman shouted. Enough! I am second-in command here. Does anyone dispute that?” The archers and men at-arms had drawn away from Thomas and Genevieve, but no one intervened on Robbie's behalf. Sir Guillaume's scarred face was grim as death. The sentries will stay on duty/ he ordered, the rest of you to your quarters. Now!”

We have a duty . . .” Robbie began and then involuntarily stepped back as Sir Guillaume turned on him in fury. Robbie was no coward, but no one could have withstood Sir Guillaume's anger at that moment.

The men went reluctantly, but they went, and Sir Guillaume slammed home his half-drawn sword. He's right, of course,” he said gloomily as Robbie went down the steps.

He was my friend!” Thomas protested, trying to hold on to one piece of certainty in a world turned inside out.

And he wants Genevieve,” Sir Guillaume said, and because he can't have her he's persuaded himself his soul is doomed. Why do you think the bishop didn't excommunicate all of us? Because then we'd all be in the same h.e.l.l with nothing to lose. He divided us, the blessed and the d.a.m.ned, and Robbie wants his soul to be safe. Can you blame him?”

What about you?” Genevieve asked the Norman.

My soul withered years ago,” Sir Guillaume said grimly, then he turned and gazed down the main street. They'll be leaving men-at-arms outside the town to take you when you leave. But you can go out by the small gate behind Father Medous's house. They won't be guarding that, and you can cross the river at the mill. You'll be safe enough in the woods.”

For a moment Thomas did not comprehend what Sir Guillaume was saying, then it struck him with awful force that he was being told to go. To run. To hide. To leave his first command, to abandon his new wealth, his men, everything. He stared at Sir Guillaume, who shrugged. You can't stay, Thomas,” the older man said gently. Robbie or one of his friends will kill you. My guess is that a score of us would support you, but if you stay it will be a fight between us and them and they'll win.”

You'll stay here?”

Sir Guillaume looked uncomfortable, then nodded. I know why you came here/ he said. I don't believe the d.a.m.n thing exists nor, if it does, do I think we have a cat's chance of finding it. But we can make money here, and I need money so, yes, I'm staying. But you're going, Thomas. Go west. Find an English garrison. Go home.” He saw the reluctance on Thomas's face. What in Christ's name else can you do?” he demanded. Thomas said nothing and Sir Guillaume glanced at the soldiers waiting beyond the town gate. You can take the heretic to them, Thomas, and give her over to the burning. They'll lift your excommunication then.” I won't do that,” Thomas said fiercely.

Take her down to the soldiers,” Sir Guillaume said, and kneel to the bishop.”

No!”

Why not?”

You know why not.”

Because you love her?”

Yes,” Thomas said, and Genevieve took his arm. She knew he was suffering, just as she had suffered when the Church withdrew the love of G.o.d from her, but she had come to terms with the horror. Thomas had not and she knew it would take him time. We shall survive,” she said to Sir Guillaume. But you must leave,” the Norman insisted.

I know,” Thomas could not keep the heartbreak from his voice. I'll bring you supplies tomorrow,” Sir Guillaume promised. Horses, food, cloaks. What else do you need?” Arrows,” Genevieve said promptly, then she looked at Thomas as if expecting him to add something, but he was still too shocked to think properly. You'll want your father's writings, won't you?” she suggested gently.

Thomas nodded. Wrap them up for me?” he asked Sir Guillaume. Wrap them in leather.”

Tomorrow morning, then/ Sir Guillaume said. Wait by the hollow chestnut on the hill/ Sir Guillaume escorted them out of the castle, through the back alleys behind the priest's house to where a small door had been let through the town wall to give access to a path which led to the watermill on the river. Sir Guillaume shot the bolts and opened the gate warily, but no soldiers waited outside and so he led them down to the mill and there he watched as Thomas and Genevieve crossed the stone sill of the mill pond. From there they climbed into the woods.

Thomas had failed. And he was d.a.m.ned.

PART TWO.

Fugitive

It rained all night. It was a pelting rain driven by a cold wind that s.n.a.t.c.hed the leaves from the oaks and chestnuts and swirled spite fully into the ancient tree that had been broken by lightning and hollowed by time. Thomas and Genevieve tried to shelter in the trunk, flinching once when a burst of thunder sounded in the sky. No lightning showed, but the rain slashed down even more forcefully. It's my fault,” Genevieve said.