Gisborne: Book of Pawns (18 page)

I recalled
Halsham
's o
wn; green with a taint of mud.

'His father, then.
It must be that his father was fair, surely.'

'Uncle Roget’s family
came from
close by Amiens and he himself was quite fair.
He was a mercenary, one of many Henry employed with scutage monies and wh
en Henry landed in Dorset, Roget
was amongst the army with a force that came to Henry's notice for its
organisation and performance.
After the Treaty of Wall
ingford, the king rewarded Roget
with land
s and a title near to Wales. Roget reinvented himself as an Englishman and the estate of Cwm Branar became Halsham. W
hilst it was a large estate, I think he always envied my father the
richness of Gisborne's lands.'

Guy settled into
the telling and I let him talk.

'Roget
and Marie-Ann
e caught a deadly pox
when Robe
rt was about twelve years old. Roget
sickened rap
idly and died within the week.
Many others died on the estate as i
t swept through with plague strength.
Not long after, Marie Ann
e
died as well and Robert was left an orphan.'

He leaned back against the gunw
ales and folded his arms across hi
s chest, a defensive position that warned the world away.

'My mother insisted tha
t Robert live with us. The estate returned to the king and
monies
were paid from Treasury and
held in trust fo
r Robert
for when he should need such funds.
The king obviously held Roget in some esteem and rewarded the son accordingly.
'

And wilful arrogance was bred into the son from that moment.

'Did
you get on?
It is almost as if he
must have been your brother.'
I tried to envisage
twelve year old Robert and…
'How old were you, Guy?'

'He is
only
a year or two
older than myself and thus
we had th
e same education and training.
We were taught all the skil
ls a young knight needs, but as to getting on - yes and no. We tolerated each other.
Robert adored my mother
,
Ghislaine
,
and has never made a secret of the debt he owed her for taking hi
m in, but in so many other ways
he is grateful for nothing
but what he takes for himself.
Yes, he is my cousin, and yes, we lived like brother
s, but I have never liked him.
Ever.'

'And y
et you engage with him and…'

I was al
most going to say defer to him but I stopped in time
because such a statem
ent would only have demeaned Gisborne and I could not do that. Not after the previous night.

I gazed at him as he continued Robert Halsham
's
history as if I hadn't spoken.
His eyes had no vestige of emotion
, unreadable, but his jaw was quite rigid. Such a set spoke volumes and I could only presume every word
unleashed a host of memories that he had thought to leave locked in some private room of his mind and that my persistence and perhaps our relative closeness had turned the key.

'Robert left Gi
sborne when he turned sixteen.
He asked my father for his funds and
left to join the Free Lancers.
He has fought wherever the mercenaries secured contracts and was knighted aroun
d the time of Beckett's death – for what
I would p
refer not to think.
I know you wonder why I should have anything to do with a man whose principles you don't like, but whilst in
Outremer,
he
informs me he
kept an eye on my father, paying money to the Order who cared for him in his last days and arr
anging for a Christian burial.
Whatever I might think of my father for deserting my mother
and myself, I suppose I owe Halsham a debt for that at least. It was an honourable thing to do and surprising and I must show some sort of gratitude in return. In addition, he…' Gisborne stopped precipitately as though
he didn't want me to know any more.

But I was too qui
ck, some would say precocious.

'And in addition he has offered you position, hasn't he?'

Gisborne finally looked at me.
At last he seemed to acknowledge that he hadn't just been speaking to an empty
space next to him on the deck.

'My fathe
r left for the Holy Land only
a mon
th after Robert left Gisborne. Halsham said
they fought side
by side at one point which leads me to believe they developed some sort of relationship. Robert was aware
the Templars had taken over the care of o
ur estates and by various means
he eventually heard that my mother and I had been turned off and
that
during
our attempted journey to our French family, my mother had died.
Be under no illusions, Ysabel, he doesn't offer me a position in his army out
of love for
me,
or even pity. If he does it for any reason,
it is
payment of a debt to my mother.'

It
was
strange. Halsham
had his own agenda
and I found it hard to imagine that he felt any kind of
debt to Ghislaine of Gisborne but perhaps I was wrong.
Maybe he did feel great
affection for his aunt. Certainly
I would never know a
nd could only take Gisborne's word.

'So you will join the Free Lancers after we return to England?'

'He offers me wealth, Ysabel.'

Status and power, Guy.
It's what that bitter side of you craves.

My thought
s were broken by a yell from behind us
.

'Ship aft
!'

W
e turned together. In the blurred
dis
tance, a sail marked the horizon.
A crewman hopped on the rigging and scrambled aloft and eventually his shouts dropped do
wn to the decks of our vessel.

'A
nef,
full sa
il, sittin' high in the water! Canna see her colours!’

Almost immediately I recalled De Courcey
striding along the wharf, that red flash of anger implying that he would move H
ell to accomplish his mission. He wanted all of Moncrieff, even the daughter.

'It's De Courcey, I know it.' There was nothing of the lady about the way I grabbed G
is
borne’s
s
leeve and dug my nails in.
'If the ship's in full sail and it
’
s sitting high in the water, it means she has no cargo and will catch us easily in this breeze.'

'No
w don't take on so, Mistress.'
Davey'
s voice touched us from behind.
'Davey's been known to sail this ditch in a chase many a time in many weath
ers and none's yet caught him.
Besides, there's a bit of a mist coming, look you.'

T
he grey cloud of earlier had thickened and dropped low, hanging wisp
s of fog across the wave tops.
Th
e vessel
astern drifted in and out of view.

'I can sail into a creek f
rom here with my eyes closed.'
Davey grinned, his stained t
eeth showing big gaps between.
'You and the master here need to make secret landfall on English shores and I swear that's exactl
y what'll happen.'

He began to walk among the crew
,
speaking softly
,
and each man went to the hold and heaved a hogshead onto his shoulder.

'What do they do?'

T
he tone
of my voice pitched
higher
with anxiety.
The hogsheads were hefted over the
Marolingian'
s
sides, one after another splashing into the
sea
and bobbing aft.

'Don't fret, Ysabel. They're empty. They were merely subterfuge.
Davey has
been waiting for us to arrive. It was planned on my journey
to
Cazenay
.'

My mouth dropped open.

'You say?
Does this mean then, that you anticipated trouble?'

Guy raised an eyebrow.

'One can't be too cautious and
Cecilia
had given me to understand that you might become a valuable commodity.'

Holy Mother but I
was angry. All this time…

'It didn't occur to you that you might pay me the respect I deserve by t
elling me this back in Aquitaine? God, Gisborne!
How dare you?'

'Oh hush, Ysabel. Don't rant.
The c
rew will think you a harridan.
I had no idea what you were like when I met you, whether you were strong, weak, given to hysteria, the manner of a child even.
’ He grimaced.
‘Now
I think on it…’

‘Stop it.’ I punched him in the arm as hard as I could.
‘This is my life you play with.’

He had the gall to laugh bu
t became serious in an instant.

‘It seemed to me enough that you knew your father was not himself and that Moncrie
ff suffered in consequence.
And besides, you gri
eved mightily for your mother. As to the complete loss of Moncrieff, as I told you, I didn’t know till Halsham mentioned it.
If you ask me I showed a great deal of respect for you.'

'There you are, Mistress.' Davey joined us. 'Already we make extra speed.
And we've
got a thickening mist that makes us a ghost ship. We can sail
northerly wherea
s they will presume we sail westerly.
We'll be right where I want us when we he
ar waves on the English coast. We'll sail
maybe a day or so
on
until we get close by
Great Yarmouth
and then I'
ll signal to shore and one of me
mates'll row out and collect you.'

Gisborne gave me a fiendish glance.

'See, he can sail into a creek from here with his eyes closed, Ysabel
. All you have to do is trust him
.'

I spent time
huddled in a corner of the ship
, a cloak wrapped round fend
ing off the damp of the ocean.
Guy took his share of the watch in the dark hours. Just he, Davey and a skeleton crew
of rowers
whilst the others yawned, snored and filled the spaces around me with their odour.

If I lay down I could hear the sea hissing past the planks of the
Marolingian
.

‘Ysabel,’ it whispered, ‘Ysabel.’

‘What?’ I wanted to shout.
‘W
hat are you trying to tell me?’

But it just kept repeating
‘Ysabel, Ysabel,’
as though I didn’t know my own name.

I thought about
De Courcey
and why h
e chased me.
Fat
her had signed away Moncrieff so my existence should have had no bearing on it one way or the other.
Which brought my though
ts back to the beginning again -
why did
I
matter to
 
De Courcey?

When I realised the answer, my stomach dropped through the planks to sink to the ocean floor.

How naïve I was to think such an arrangement would be as simple as my father
handing over Moncrieff.

Stupid, stupid Ysabel.

My mad, thoughtless,
inexorable
father had not only given up his estates in payment, I swear that in some way or other, he had given up his daughter like a piece of coin.
How, I had no idea but it must surely be answer.

By the Saints! I hate him, h
ow I wish
he
had died instead of my mother.