TW01 The Ivanhoe Gambit NEW (17 page)

The latter prospect did not seem to present an insurmountable problem. Isaac had been planning on journeying back to York. He would have been en route already had not Lucas presented him with a business opportunity, one that promised not to delay him overlong. The story Lucas had given Isaac had not been too far from the truth, at least insofar as their cover story was concerned. He had told Isaac that he had family nearby, which would be Cedric, and that since he had enemies among the Normans, he had to contact his family discreetly. The vow which he had taken would be fulfilled when he once again rejoined his family and then he could reveal himself in his true identity. Isaac had accepted that. Vows were very much in vogue and many of them seemed peculiar. They served, more often than not, merely to lend an air of glamor to the knights who took them. If Isaac could be persuaded that something had happened to Lucas, perhaps he would begin his journey to York, taking Hooker and the armor with him and retracing the route that Lucas was to have taken. The merchant would not travel alone. He would hire porters and guards, thereby making the trip safer not only for himself but for Hooker as well. After seeing his own corpse, Hooker had no desire to remain alone and vulnerable.

Asking Isaac directly did not seem to be the best course to take. It would be better to work on the young Rebecca.

She came to see him when she brought his meals. It was a function that should have been delegated to a servant, but Rebecca had her own reasons for bringing him his food herself. She wanted to find out more about the mysterious white knight, the handsome stranger who had defeated all the Normans at the tournament and who acted like no knight she had ever seen, quoting the prophet Isaiah in Hebrew.

At first, Hooker thought that revealing his knowledge of Hebrew had been a mistake for Lucas. Time commandos routinely had to speak in many different languages, which was facilitated by the implant programming. It became quite automatic, so that a soldier could not only speak in virtually any language, but think in it as well. It was imperative to a soldier's survival. Lucas might not even have intended to speak in Hebrew. Given such linguistic versatility, it was easy to slip if caught off guard. The natural tendency, if reciting a quotation, would be to do so in the original language rather than to translate it. It was the sort of thing soldiers had to be on guard against. But Rebecca was more than enough to catch anyone off guard.

She was, quite simply, the most beautiful woman Hooker had ever laid eyes on. He was still young, not yet a true veteran of the time wars and his service had been such that he had not had anything in the way of significant contact with women on the Minus side. He was used to modern women. The demure Rebecca, whose mercurial temper he had caught a glimpse of when she had chased off the physicians who had wanted to bleed Lucas, was quite unlike anyone he had ever met. One moment, she displayed all the spirit and vitality of the modern woman, the next, she was reserved and shy, a woman all too aware of the place she had been relegated to not only by her sex, but by her faith. She was a woman, real, tangible and indisputably human, but at the same time, she was to Hooker an embodiment of a romantic memory, a product of a simpler and more ethereal time. To the impressionable young corporal, she represented the romance which he had sought when he enlisted in the Temporal Corps. And, reality not withstanding, he was falling in love with her.

"How did your master learn the Hebrew tongue?" she asked him. "It is not knowledge one gains quickly. On your oath, now, speak the truth! Can it be that the white knight is, indeed, a Jew?"

"A Jew!" said Hooker. "How would a Jew come to embrace knighthood?"

"I do not know," she said. "It is a mystery. Yet, even though it is forbidden, it is not unheard of for a Jew to enter into a union outside the faith. A powerful love could perhaps accomplish such a thing, although it would be wrong. If a child were born of a Jewish father and a mother who was not a Jewess, then, in the eyes of our faith, that child would not be a true Jew. Our people have been sorely used and

..." she blushed, "it sometimes came to pass that a child would be born of... of force and the father would not be known."

"But my master's father
is
known," said Hooker. "And Cedric the Saxon is no Jew."

"Cedric the Saxon! So your master
is
a Saxon, then!"

"Rebecca, I have already said too much," said Hooker.

"Oh, Poignard, I beg you, tell me his name! The secret would be safe with me. I would carry it with me to my grave if such were your master's wishes, on my God, I swear it!"

Hooker took her hand. "Very well, then, Rebecca, I will tell you. And you need not swear, for I believe you are in earnest. My master has long been away on the Crusades, fighting with the king to free the Holy Land. In truth, he does not speak Hebrew, he has but some knowledge of the tongue. He consoled himself with studies, learning what he could upon his travels to keep his mind from brooding, because he had a broken heart. Cedric was ill pleased when his son chose to follow Richard, for Cedric is a prideful Saxon and he does not love the Normans. But my master saw that Richard was a fair and noble man and that he thought of English people as his subjects, to be treated equally, not as Normans superior to Saxons. A people can only be strong when they are unified. Richard went to free the Holy Land because he felt that it was just and right. Cedric thinks only of freeing Saxons from the Normans.”

"So he has displeased his father and his heart is broken," said Rebecca.

"His heart was broken because his love was doomed," said Hooker, hating himself for manipulating her. "My master was in love with Cedric's ward, Rowena, who is promised to another."

"You say he
was
in love?" Rebecca said, unable to hide the note of hope in her voice.

"Perhaps it was merely lust, though it is truly not my place to say," said Hooker. "Forbidden fruit sometimes seems sweeter. My master has come home a tired, but wiser man. He now understands that there are more important things than lustful passions."

"You still have not told me his name," Rebecca said. "Cedric the Saxon is unknown to me. I do not know by what name he calls his son."

"Wilfred," Hooker said. "Wilfred of Ivanhoe. A noble knight to whom the king, in recognition of his service, has granted a barony. Yet, with Richard away, Prince John has seized the reins of power and has taken away the lands of many of Richard's faithful knights. Just as Prince John steals from Isaac, taking loans which are really tribute, so he has stolen from my master. Ivanhoe has come to aid the king in getting back his throne and, should his identity be known, John and his followers would try to stop him.

Even now, Rebecca, I fear for his safety. He should have returned by now. He has gone to secure from Cedric his pardon and the monies to repay your father's loan. I fear something has happened to him.

Perhaps he was attacked by outlaws, or thrown from his horse to lie senseless on the road somewhere.

And here I sit, unable to go and search for him or help him!"

"Then you must depart at once," Rebecca said. "Find him, Poignard!"

"I cannot," said Hooker, averting his eyes. He couldn't look at her. She was so obviously infatuated with Lucas and he was using that against her. It wasn't fair. If she only felt that way for him, he'd desert the service, convert to Judaism and . . . but that was unthinkable. He had to control his emotions. He was a soldier and he had a job to do.

"But you
must
go seek him out!" Rebecca said.

"I am given in pledge to your father, along with my master's arms," said Hooker. "If I were to leave now, I would be an escaped bondsman and the penalty for that is severe."

"My father would not declare you outlaw," said Rebecca. "Who would listen to a Jew? And I would make him understand that—"

"It is no use, Rebecca," Hooker said. "I cannot go. My master has given his word that I will remain with Isaac and remain I must."

"Perhaps there is another way," Rebecca said. "We must go to York. We would have left already had not my father business with Sir Wilfred. We could leave at once and take the same road taken by your master. That way, if he is somewhere injured on the road, we would be sure to find him. And if not, we could leave word here for him to seek us out at York. Since you would remain with us, your master's pledge would not be broken and we could inquire about him on the way."

"But would Isaac do this?" Hooker said.

"I will convince him," said Rebecca. "Surely, he will see that he has more to gain by such an act and, if Wilfred is in trouble, it is only right that we should try to aid him. If King Richard is, indeed, as fair and noble as you say, perhaps he would treat us more kindly than does his brother, John."

"If you help Ivanhoe, then you help Richard," Hooker said. "And you will find that the king will not be ungrateful."

"I will go and speak to my father at once," Rebecca said.

When she had left, Hooker sighed and looked miserably at the food which she had brought him.

Suddenly, he had no appetite.

Maurice De Bracy and Brian de Bois-Guilbert rode slowly with a small company of men on the road that led through the forest to Torquilstone. They were in a festive mood. The sun was high and so were their spirits. De Bracy planned yet another banquet, to celebrate his new status as lord of the manor at Torquilstone. They had been riding for several hours when they came upon an unusual scene.

It was Isaac of York and his party, or what had been his party. Lacking men at arms to insure the loyalty of the guards and porters he had hired, Isaac had been taken by his retainers. He had paid them half the sum in advance, the rest to be paid upon the safe delivery of himself and his goods, but these men felt that half the sum left them ahead of the game if they did not have to chance running across the outlaws of the forest. They had managed to make off with the horses and most of his belongings, but not without a price. Hooker had accounted for three of them before being wounded himself. What De Bracy and Bois-Guilbert beheld was a scene consisting of three corpses with daggers protruding from them, Hooker sitting on the ground and being tended to by Rebecca, and Isaac standing in the middle of the road and wailing.

"It is that Jew, Isaac of York," De Bracy said, "and the woman is his daughter, she to whom that white-garbed Saxon knight paid tribute at the tournament. The man who is with them I know not."

"Oh, gallant knights," wailed Isaac, running up to them and wringing his hands, "take pity on a poor Jew who has been robbed and abandoned on this lonely road! My hired porters have taken flight, fleeing with my worldly goods, leaving myself and my daughter at the mercy of the forest brigands! Surely, it is your Christian duty to stop and give aid to such as we, for—"

"Dog of an infidel!" said De Bracy. "You speak to us of Christian duty? You of that accursed race who killed Our Saviour? What care I if you've been robbed, you who have robbed so many with your usury?"

Isaac looked stricken. "No, no, valiant lords, I did not mean to give offence! Please do not desert poor stranded travelers such as we!" He clutched at De Bracy's stirrup. "We must make our way to York and if only—"

De Bracy kicked him away. "To hell with you and your whole tribe! Count yourself lucky that I do not run you down for daring to lay hands upon me!"

Bois-Guilbert reached over and touched De Bracy on the shoulder. "Hold your temper, Maurice. Let us not be too hasty, lest we waste an opportunity. This Jew is rich. It would only be our Christian duty to relieve him of his ill-gotten gains. Why not take him to Torquilstone and there make him pay ransom for his freedom?"

The color drained from Isaac's face and his mouth worked soundlessly.

"Why not, indeed?" De Bracy said. "And since we found this dog together, we can split the prize."

Bois-Guilbert smiled. "I will offer you a bargain, Maurice. Take this offal and do with him what you will to pry his riches from him. For myself, I would lay sole claim to the pretty Jewess to warm my bed at Torquilstone."

"Done," said DeBracy.

"No! No!" screamed Isaac. "I beg you, take me and do with me what you will, but spare my daughter! Do not dishonor a helpless maiden! I beseech you, do not bring her to ruin and humiliation!

She is the very image of my deceased Rachael, the last of the six pledges of her love! Would you deprive a widowed father of his sole remaining comfort? Would you soil—"

"Be still, you whining baggage!" said De Bracy, leaning down and fetching Isaac a tremendous clout upon the head. Isaac fell to the ground, unconscious.

Sitting where he was, Hooker could not hear the exchange between Isaac and the two knights, but he recognized De Bracy and Bois-Guilbert at the head of their party and knew there could be trouble.

When he heard Isaac start shouting and then saw him brought down, he knew trouble had arrived.

"Rebecca, run!" he said.

"No! I cannot leave my father!"

He struggled to his feet and pulled her, trying to get her to flee into the forest with him. Once they reached the protection of the woods, there was still a chance that, on foot, they might elude the more encumbered mounted men, but Rebecca resisted him with all her strength.

"No, I cannot abandon him, I tell you! You run, Poignard, and save yourself!"

"Hold!" cried Bois-Guilbert, riding up to them. They were quickly surrounded. "You," he said, pointing to Hooker, "what is your name?"

"I am called Poignard, my lord," said Hooker.

"You are a bondsman. How is it that you travel with this Jew?"

"He has been left with my father as a surety for the repayment of a loan," Rebecca said, "along with some possessions belonging to his master, a Norman fallen on hard times."

"What is your master's name, Poignard?" said Bois-Guilbert.

"Philip of Doncaster, my lord," said Hooker, improvising quickly.

"I do not know him. These three men," he pointed at the corpses, "you killed them?"