He glanced at the unmoving bodies of the men-at arms with a look of disbelief, closed the wooden door tightly behind me and said: ‘Can you walk?’ And, half supporting me, he led me down the steep path from the castle and into the dark narrow streets of Winchester itself.
For two days I hid in a back room of the Saracen’s Head, nursing my wounds with a concoction of goose-fat and herbs, waiting for the one-eyed man’s return. Thomas had collected my poniard and sword from the castle and returned them to me before disappearing off to gather information from his contacts. I wore my weapons night and day - even when I slept. Something had changed in me since that terrible night of fire and pain. I was harder; something of the boy had been burnt out of me. But I also knew myself better. I knew that I would have told them anything if Robert of Thurnham had not intervened when he did. So I vowed I would not be taken alive again to undergo more of that treatment. I would die first. On the morning of the third day, Thomas came with news.
We sat at the rough table in the common room of the tavern, eating bread and cheese. He was silent for a few moments and then he sighed and said, ‘First things first: the King is dead. God rest his soul. He died ten days ago at Chinon and his body is being taken to lie at rest in the abbey at Fontevraud. Duke Richard will take the throne now, when he decides to return to England. But that could be months away.’
I was shocked. I had known the King was ill but for my whole life Henry, God’s anointed ruler, had been a fixture of my world. I could hardly comprehend that he should be no more.
‘The castle is like a kicked ants’ nest,’ said Thomas, ‘with messengers coming back and forth. Eleanor has been formally released by FitzStephen, though she is staying at Winchester for a few more days.’ He paused, sighed and said: ‘But I have worse news than the King’s death.’ He breathed out heavily again. ‘The lady Marie-Anne has been taken. Sir Ralph Murdac and his men snatched her while she was out hawking with her ladies yesterday morning. We think that little black-haired shit-weasel is, as we speak, hurrying to Nottingham with our master’s lady. And when he gets there he will marry her.’
‘But she would never consent,’ I said. Thomas laughed, a cackle entirely without mirth. ‘Consent? She’ll have no choice. Murdac has enough priests in his pocket to marry them whether she consents or no. He wants the Locksley lands and, with the King dead, well, there is no power to stop him. If they are married by the time Richard is crowned, he will not separate them. Murdac will be a powerful man and Richard may wish for his support. If she continues to refuse the marriage, he will force her, maybe even have his men rape her. Her honour would then be destroyed and no one would have her. Even Robin might feel differently if he knew she had been Sir Ralph’s and half a dozen of his randy soldiers’ bed-partners, whether she was willing or not.’
‘I’ll murder the bastard.’ I felt the scabs on my burnt torso split. ‘I’ll cut his fucking head off.’ I was panting heavily, somehow standing over Thomas and my sword was in my hand. I said: ‘I must go to Robin now, and we must ride to Nottingham immediately!’
Thomas was infuriatingly calm: ‘Yes, we must go to Robin. But we need to think a little first. Murdac would rather have a willing bride than one whom he has violated. So we probably have a little time. Sit down before you do yourself an injury. We need to think about your traitor. My friends are bringing horses and provisions for the journey, but until they arrive, calm yourself and tell me who the traitor might be. Think! Who is he, Alan? Start from the beginning.’
I forced myself to sit down and breathe calmly for a few moments; I could feel hot streams of fresh blood running down my sides. Then I began to think.
‘After the massacre at Thangbrand’s, we thought the traitor must be Guy. But Murdac’s letter to the Queen boasting of an informant was dated February, and so it cannot be him. Guy left Thangbrand’s in December.
‘Next: I think the massacre was designed to kill or capture Robin, who was supposed to be there at Christmas time but who was, in the event, delayed, and therefore the informant must have been someone who believed that Robin would be there at Christmas. Who knew so much about Robin’s movements?’
‘Someone close to him,’ said Thomas.
‘I think it must be one of four people,’ I said, ‘his lieutenants, his inner circle: Little John, Hugh, Will Scarlet or . . . Tuck. So, who would want to see Robin destroyed? Little John . . . well, it was Robin’s fault that he was made an outlaw. He had a comfortable billet at Edwinstowe as master-at-arms, Robin ruined all that when he murdered the priest. Robin forced him to become an outlaw.’
‘I just can’t see it,’ cut in Thomas. ‘John would die for Robin. He loves him like a brother.’
‘Which brings us to Hugh. I don’t believe he would betray his own brother. Robin saved him from a life of ignominy as a penniless hearth knight. Now he has power, money and he worships Robin, too. Just watch them together. So I don’t think it could be him, either.’
‘Will Scarlet, then?’ said Thomas. I thought for a moment.
‘He was a great friend of Guy’s as well as his cousin.’ I said. ‘And Guy could have made contact with him after he joined up with Murdac. He could have been passing on messages, for money or the hope of a pardon. But I can’t believe it. Will’s just not . . . well, not bright enough to be an agent of the enemy, to burrow into Robin’s confidences, to trap him.’
‘So that leaves Tuck,’ said Thomas, with a leaden formality. And I grimaced.
‘I don’t want it to be Tuck,’ I said. ‘I love the man; he’s been so good to me. But, in all honesty, I can easily think of a reason why he might wish Robin ill.’
I didn’t know quite how to put this. So I said to Thomas: ‘Are you a good Christian?’
The ugly man smiled. ‘A Christian, yes, but not a very good one. Ah, now I see what you are driving at. Robin and his midnight woodland frolics: “Arise Cernunnos!” and all that pagan bollocks. I know Robin experiments with the old religion. Witchcraft, some call it. I heard he even sacrificed some poor sod, nearly cut his head off. But I don’t think he really believes in any of that nonsense. He just does it to add to his mystique with the country folk. To give himself an aura of supernatural power. Do you think that would give Tuck cause to betray him?’
‘I heard them arguing about it. It nearly came to blood-shed, ’ I said. We both fell silent for a while and then our musings were interrupted by a loud banging at the door. I stood up with a start and half drew my sword. ‘Steady, Joshua - that will just be Simon with the horses,’ said Thomas.
Simon had brought four horses for me and Thomas, all fully provisioned with grain for the animals and food and drink for us. The plan was for us to ride without stopping for Robin’s Caves but, in the event, the weather was so bad, constant rain and gales, and we made such poor progress through the mud, that we were forced to stop about halfway at an abbey near Lichfield, through sheer exhaustion. That day’s journey had been a nightmare for me. My scabbed sides and the burn on my arse gave me a great deal of trouble as I bounced about on the back of a horse at Thomas’s relentless mile-eating pace. In the end, despite my desire to get to Robin as soon as possible, I felt utter relief when we trotted through the gates of the abbey, sore, hungry and sopping wet. The monks asked no questions of us. We were fed a bowl of hot bean stew, our horses were rubbed down and after the brief, sparcely attended service of Compline in the gloom of the abbey church, I sank into an exhausted sleep in a narrow cot in the travellers’ dormitory. The next morning, still damp but much refreshed, though my burnt sides were still hurting like sin, we set out on fresh horses, determined that we would be with Robin by nightfall. And by late afternoon, our nags worn near to death, we were stopped by one of Robin’s patrols ten miles south of the Caves, and brought to see the man himself.
Robin, looking almost as haggard as Thomas and I, was seated at a table with a very thin man in a dark robe - a Jew, I realised with a shock like a face full of ice-cold water. He was the man I had seen in The Trip To Jerusalem, the man who had identified David the armourer for Robin and me to rob. The Jews of Nottingham, few as they were, were much despised. We called them Christ-killers and accused them of secretly kidnapping babies and using them in foul rituals. For a second, I wondered if Robin was involved in some Satanic business with this man; I would believe anything of him after witnessing that unholy blood-rite at Easter. But then I realised that their meeting was of a much more mercantile nature. As we approached the table, Robin pushed two heavy money bags towards the lean Jew and made a note on a scroll. All was made clear. This was a part of Robin’s business that I had not encountered before: usury. He lent money, ill-gotten gains from robberies, to the Jews of Nottingham and they lent it out to Christians at a steep rate of interest. Robin provided the initial funds, I had heard, but he also offered the Jews a measure of protection. If a man would not pay, Robin would send some of his hard men to visit, to make the point, forcibly, that a debt, even to a Jew, must be honoured.
Robin looked up and saw us for the first time. He smiled wanly. He looked as if he had not slept for days. ‘Thomas, Alan,’ he said. ‘Greetings. You know Reuben, of course?’ We both bowed stiffly to the Jew, who smiled back at us. He had a dark, lined, leathery, but immensely likeable face; black hair and a short, neatly trimmed beard. His twinkling brown eyes radiated goodness and, God knows why, but I immediately trusted him. ‘Am I correct in thinking that I am addressing Alan Dale, the famous
trouvère
?’ Reuben said, rising to his feet and making a bow in return to ours. I blushed; I knew he was teasing me but it was done with such good humour that I did not mind. ‘Not famous yet,’ I said, ‘but I am hoping, one day, to become at least competent.’
‘Such modesty,’ Reuben said with another smile, ‘a rare and valuable quality these days in the young.’ He bowed to Thomas, who grunted something unintelligible. ‘Sadly, my friends, I must now leave you,’ said Reuben, and he scooped the heavy money sacks from the table as if they were filled with air. I realised that he must be very strong for such a lean man. He bowed low to Robin, who stood and returned the bow, as if to an equal, and then the Jew walked out of the cave, packed the silver in his saddlebags, mounted his horse in one lithe movement, and cantered away into the dripping night.
At Robin’s invitation, we sat at the table. He looked at our mud-splattered, exhausted faces and said: ‘You’ve come to tell me about Marie-Anne.’ His voice seemed strained, his whole body drooped with misery. We nodded. ‘I know about that,’ he said. ‘Reuben told me. We are riding for Nottingham at dawn. But . . . but there’s something else, isn’t there?’ I nodded again and, haltingly, I outlined my theory about the traitor in the camp. Robin listened in silence. As I finally came to a stop, he sighed, a long deep shuddering exhalation. ‘I see,’ he said. ‘Well, thank you for bringing this to me, Alan. It’s something I’ve suspected for some time, since Thangbrand’s in fact. And I think I may know who our man is.’ He sighed again. ‘I must ask you two, on your honour, not to speak to anyone of this.’ He stared at Thomas and then at me, his silver eyes boring into my head. ‘Say nothing about this to anybody,’ he repeated. We both nodded. And he continued: ‘But first we must recover Marie-Anne; so get some food, get some sleep and be ready to ride at dawn. It’s good to have you back, Alan,’ and he smiled at me, his silver eyes glowing in the candlelight. It was a brief glimpse of that golden, carefree smile of yore, shining like a beacon through his misery. At once I felt the old familiar glow of affection for him.
‘It’s good to be back,’ I said and smiled back at him.
Then Robin looked a little more closely at me. ‘You are hurt,’ he said, the concern strong in his voice. I stared at him. How did he know? I thought I had hidden the discomfort of my torture wounds perfectly. ‘I will get someone to fetch Brigid,’ he said. ‘And don’t trouble yourself too much over this business about the traitor, Alan. All will be well.’
An hour or so later, Brigid took me to a small cave away from the main camp and, by the light of a single candle, she bade me strip so that she could examine my wounds. After anointing them with dark, musty smelling tinctures and binding the worst burn on my right side ribs with a cold moss poultice, she made me bend over while she examined the burn inside my buttock. I was unwilling but she told me not to be childish and, reluctantly, I obeyed. As I leant forward, hands on knees, and could feel her hot breath on the back of my legs, an image of her naked painted body at the pagan sacrifice sprang into my mind. Oh God, and, as if I had not had enough humiliation, I could feel an uncontrollable stirring in my private parts as her long fingers gently daubed something cool on the small burn between my cheeks.
‘All finished,’ Brigid said brusquely, and she stood up. I straightened and hurriedly fumbled for my drawers in an attempt to hide my fully erect member. These days I would be proud, overjoyed even, to sport such a tumescent organ; but in those youthful years I seemed to have a swelling in my drawers at least half the time, and I thought it a cause for shame. Brigid just laughed and, looking directly at my wayward organ as I desperately tried to cover myself, she said: ‘You should have stayed longer at the spring ceremony of the Goddess, rather than slipping away like a thief that night. Instead of wasting your sap mooning over Marie-Anne, you might have made some pretty young girl very happy.’
I was speechless with embarrassment. I’d thought that hardly anyone had known I was there at that pagan blood-festival, as I had my hood pulled forward, and had shunned the firelight. But, evidently, my participation was common knowledge. I felt humiliated; twice in a handful of days had I been as easily stripped of my tender dignity as a dead rabbit of its fur, and so, stung, I snapped: ‘I’d had my fill of the murder of innocents and had no mind to watch more blood-drenched blasphemy.’