Then the curse did not work/ Thomas said, returning the sword to its scabbard.
She is a beghard!' Father Medous insisted.
What is a beghard?' Thomas asked.
A heretic/ Father Medous said rather helplessly.
You don't know, do you?“ Thomas said. It's just a word for you, and for that one word you would burn her?” He took the knife from his belt, then seemed to remember something. I assume/ he said, turning back to the consul, that you are sending a message to the Count of Berat?'
Lorret looked startled, then tried to appear ignorant of any such thing.
Don't take me for a fool/ Thomas said. You are doubtless concocting such a message now. So write to your Count and write to your bishop as well, and tell them that I have captured Castillon d'Arbizon and tell them more . . .“ He paused. He had agonized in the night. He had prayed, for he tried hard to be a good Christian, but all his soul, all his instincts, told him the girl should not burn. And then an inner voice had told him he was being seduced by pity and by golden hair and bright eyes, and he had agonized even more, but at the end of his prayers he knew he could not put Genevieve to the fire. So now he cut the length of cord that tied her bonds and, when the crowd protested, he raised his voice. Tell your bishop that I have freed the heretic.” He put the knife back in its sheath and put his right arm around Genevieve's thin shoulders and faced the crowd again. Tell your bishop that she is under the protection of the Earl of Northampton. And if your bishop wishes to know who has done this thing, then give him the same name that you provide to the Count of Berat. Thomas of Hookton.“ Hookton,” Lorret repeated, stumbling over the unfamiliar name. Hookton,“ Thomas corrected him, and tell him that by the grace of God Thomas of Hookton is ruler of Castillon d'Arbizon.” You? Ruler here?' Lorret asked indignantly.
And as you have seen,“ Thomas said, I have assumed the powers of life and death. And that, Lorret, includes your life.” He turned away and led Genevieve back into the courtyard. The gates banged shut.
And Castillon d'Arbizon, for lack of any other excitement, went back to work.
For two days Genevieve did not speak or eat. She stayed close to Thomas, watching him, and when he spoke to her she just shook her head. Sometimes she cried silently. She made no noise when she wept, not even a sob, she just looked despairing as the tears ran down her face.
Robbie tried to talk with her, but she shrank from him. Indeed she shuddered if he came too close and Robbie became offended. A bloody goddamned heretic bitch,' he cursed her in his Scottish accent and Genevieve, though she did not speak English, knew what he was saying and she just stared at Thomas with her big eyes.
She's frightened/ Thomas said.
Of me?' Robbie asked indignantly, and the indignation seemed justified for Robbie Douglas was a frank- faced, snub-nosed young man with a friendly disposition.
She was tortured,“ Thomas explained. Can't you imagine what that does to a person?” He involuntarily looked at the knuckles of his hands, still malformed from the screw-press that had cracked the bones. He had thought once he would never draw a bow again, but Robbie, his friend, had persevered with him. She'll recover,' he added to Robbie.
I'm just trying to be friendly/ Robbie protested. Thomas gazed at his friend and Robbie had the grace to blush. But the bishop will send another warrant/ Robbie went on. Thomas had burned the first, which had been discovered in the castellan's iron-bound chest along with the rest of the castle's papers. Most of those parch ments were tax rolls, pay records, lists of stores, lists of men, the small change of everyday life. There had been some coins too, the tax yield, the first plunder of Thomas's command. What will you do?“ Robbie persisted. When the bishop sends another warrant?” What would you like me to do?' Thomas asked.
You'll have no choice/ Robbie said vehemently, you'll have to burn her. The bishop will demand it.'
Probably/ Thomas agreed. The Church can be very persistent when it comes to burning people/
So she can't stay here!' Robbie protested.
I freed her/ Thomas said,“ so she can do whatever she likes/ I'll take her back to Pau/ Robbie offered. Pau, a long way to the west, was the nearest English garrison. That way she'll be safe. Give me a week, that's all, and I'll take her away.” I need you here, Robbie/ Thomas said. We're few and the enemy, when they come, will be many.'
Let me take her back.'
She stays/ Thomas said firmly, unless she wants to go/ Robbie looked as if he would argue, then abruptly left the room. Sir Guillaume, who had been listening in silence and who had understood most of the English conversation, looked grim. In a day or two/ he said, speaking English so that Genevieve would not understand, Robbie will want to burn her.“ Burn her?” Thomas said, astonished. No, not Robbie. He wants to save her.'
He wants her,“ Sir Guillaume said, and if he can't have her then he'll decide no one should have her.” He shrugged, then changed to French. If she was ugly,“ he looked at Genevieve as he asked the question, would she be alive?”
If she were ugly,“ Thomas said, I doubt she would have been condemned.”
Sir Guillaume shrugged. His illegitimate daughter, Eleanor, had been Thomas's woman until she had been killed by Thomas's cousin, Guy Vexille. Now Sir Guillaume looked at Genevieve and recognized that she was a beauty. You're as bad as the Scotsman,' he said.
That night, the second night since they had captured the castle, when the men who had been raiding for food were all safe home and the horses were fed and the gate was locked and the sentries had been set and the supper eaten, and when most of the men were sleeping, Genevieve edged from behind the tapestry where Thomas had given her the castellan's bed and came to the fire where he was sitting reading the copy of his father's strange book about the Grail. No one else was in the room. Robbie and Sir Guillaume both slept in the hall, along with Thomas, but Sir Guillaume had charge of the sentries and Robbie was drinking and gambling with the men-at-arms in the chamber below. Genevieve, dressed in her long white gown, stepped delicately off the dais, came close to his chair and knelt by the fire. She stared into the flames for a while, then looked up at Thomas and he marvelled at the way the flames lit and shadowed her face. Such a simple thing, a face, he thought, yet hers enthralled him. If I were ugly,“ she asked, speaking for the first time since he had released her, would I be alive?”
Yes,' Thomas said.
So why did you let me live?' she asked.
Thomas pulled up a sleeve and showed her the scars on his arm. It was a Dominican who tortured me too,“ he said. Burning?”
Burning/ Thomas said.
She rose from her knees and put her arms about his neck and her head on his shoulder and held him. She said nothing, nor did he, neither did they move. Thomas was remembering the pain, humiliation, terror, and suddenly felt as if he wanted to cry. And then the hall door squealed open and someone came in. Thomas had his back to the door so could not see who it was, but Genevieve raised her head to look at whoever had interrupted them and there was a moment's silence, then the sound of the door closing and footsteps going back down the stairs. Thomas knew it had been Robbie. He did not even need to ask. Genevieve put her head back on his shoulder. She said nothing. He could feel her heart beating.
The nights are the worst,' she said.
I know,' Thomas said.
in daylight,“ she said, there are things to look at. But in the dark there are only memories.”
I know.'
She pulled her face back, leaving her hands linked behind his neck, and she looked at him with an expression of intense seriousness. I hate him,“ she said, and Thomas knew she was talking of her torturer. He was called Father Roubert,” she went on, and I want to see his soul in hell.'
Thomas, who had killed his own torturer, did not know what to say, so retreated into an evasion. God will look after his soul.“ God seems very far away sometimes,” Genevieve said, especially in the dark.“ You must eat,” he said, and you must sleep.“ I can't sleep,” she said.
Yes,“ Thomas said, you can,” and he took her hands from his neck and led her back to the dais and behind the tapestry. He stayed there.
And next morning Robbie was not talking to Thomas, but their estrangement was diffused because there was so much work to be done. Food had to be levied from the town and stored in the castle. The blacksmith had to be taught how to make English arrow heads, and poplars and ash were cut to make the shafts. Geese lost their wing feathers to fledge the arrows, and the work kept Thomas's men busy, but they were still sullen. The jubilation that
