A Murderous Procession aka The Assassin

trollop near the princess.”

“Oh yes he will. I’ve preserved your virtue…” He paused. “… such as it is. I’ve told him that the Lord Mansur is a eunuch with a perfectly respectable female assistant who interprets for him. Our good bishop needn’t be made aware of the fact that Mansur speaks better English than he does. The poor old bugger blinked, but he knows eunuchs aren’t capable of pleasuring trollops-or any other woman come to that.”

“They are, actually,” Adelia said.

The king ignored her. She received a nudge in her ribs. “I’m even giving you and Mansur a nice fat purse of money to go with you.”

That was a novelty. Henry counted every coin.

When she didn’t respond, he said: “Thought of everything, haven’t I?”

“About my daughter…”

Apparently, he didn’t hear her. “There’s another matter I want you to keep an eye on… You remember a certain sword you found in a cave on Glastonbury Tor two years ago and gave to me?”

“Excalibur?”

“For God’s sake, woman. Hush, will you?” The king looked back, but the two of them had progressed out of earshot of the group behind them.

“Excalibur?” Adelia said more quietly.

“Yes, well, that’s proved another pain in the arse. I should never have put the damned thing on display The new Abbot of Glastonbury wants it back, Canterbury says it’s theirs, the Welsh are wittering for it, even the Holy Roman Empire is claiming it as a right, God knows why And the Pope wants me to go on crusade with it, as if waving it around will bring the bloody infidels to their knees saying sorry”

Despite herself Adelia was disarmed; he could always make her laugh and admire; only this Plantagenet could call the most famed sword in Christendom a pain in the arse.

So far he’d managed to resist papal attempts to make him join other rulers fighting in the Holy Land; he said he had enough trouble holding together an empire of which England was only a small part, the rest of it running from the border of Scotland to the Pyrenees.

He’d told her once: “Go on crusade and some bugger pinches your throne whilst your back’s turned.”

Adelia’s acquaintanceship with Excalibur had been equally fraught. Not realizing at the time that the skeleton she’d found in a little tomb deep in the rock of Glastonbury Tor was King Arthur’s-knowledge and proof had come later-nor that the sword lying nearby was his, she’d been holding the dirty, encrusted but still sharp weapon when she’d been attacked.

She’d raised it to defend herself-it had seemed to leap in her hand of its own accord-and Wolf, that would-be rapist and killer, had speared himself on it.

In the end, they’d left Arthur’s quiet bones undisturbed, but Excalibur she’d given to Henry, another king who, for all his faults, was bringing an enlightenment and order to his little realm of England which, apart from the Kingdom of Sicily, her home, existed nowhere else in the world.

The murder of Thomas a Becket, apparently at the king’s instigation, had cast a shadow over the Plantagenet’s reign but, in the opinion of some-including Adelia-that intransigent archbishop had deliberately sought martyrdom by opposing every reasonable reform Henry had tried to introduce for his people’s good. If anybody should inherit that symbol of the Arthurian legend, she’d thought at the time, it was Henry II.

Now he would give it away.

However, she saw that he was in difficulty, and said so.

“I hope you do,” he told her. “That artifact conveys power. It’s like the Holy Grail. Anybody who has it can claim to be the descendant of Arthur, defender of Christianity against the forces of darkness, and have thousands flocking to his banner.” He paused and for the first time in their acquaintance, Adelia saw him embarrassed. “There are… princes…” He took a breath. “Certain princes who’d like to get their hands on it, a contingency that would be… unwise.”

Princes? And then she thought: Dear God, he means his sons.

Young Henry had already made one attempt to overthrow his father and it was said that the younger boy, Richard, was even more ambitious for power than his brother.

The king became brisk. “Anyway, I’m sending it with Joanna to give to my future son-in-law and good luck to him. He’s an ally, bless him, and he’s fighting the same enemy as I am. He’ll need Excalibur…”

“What enemy?” She hadn’t heard that Sicily was at war with anyone.

He hesitated, then he said: “It’s a battle of wills, not arms. You’ll see when you get there.”

“Very well, my lord,” Adelia prompted. “But why is this my concern?”

“Because you’re taking it with you. Well, not you personally; I’m having it put inside a cross and given to someone else to carry.” Adelia got another royal nudge in the ribs. “I’m told you’ll be pleased by my choice of crucifer. He’s a surprise for you.”

“Thank you. But, again, how is that my concern?”

“You’re to use your wits, woman; you’ve got plenty of them. It’s going to be a hazardous enough journey with all the treasure I’m sending to William as dowry… God’s entrails, but this wedding is ruining me.” Henry winced in pain; he hated expending money. “However, politically, the one thing I cannot afford is that Excalibur should fall into the wrong hands on the way.”

“But if you’re disguising it…”

The king turned to look across the sun-drenched sweep of the plain to the sudden rise of ground on which stood the towers that imprisoned his wife. “The world is changing, mistress,” he said, and his voice was bleak. “The numbers of those I can trust are dwindling. Spies and ill-wishers gather to bring me down, some of them in my own household.” His energy came back. “I hope that the only ones who will know what the cross contains are you, Saint Albans, of course, Mansur, Captain Bolt, and the crucifer himself. Five of you. But we can’t rely on that.”

“My lord, I still don’t see…”

“Well, I do,” he said. “You have a nose, mistress; it can smell a rat in the privy better than any I know. Should there be anyone in Joanna’s train, anyone, with an untoward interest in what the crucifer is carrying, I want him sniffed out and reported to Bolt so that my good captain can string him up by his balls and find out who he’s working for.”

Adelia glanced sideways at him, curious and a little alarmed. This was Byzantine reasoning; the revolt of his wife and son was making him overly suspicious if the only one he could put his trust in was her disadvantaged self.

However, she might as well capitalize on obsession. “I shall keep a keen lookout, my lord, and who will suspect me if I am accompanied by my daughter…?”

“Oh, no, you don’t,” he said. “I’m keeping that child as an assurance…”

“A hostage,” she shouted at him.

“… an assurance that you’ll come back. She stays. You go. Do you understand?”

Le roi le veult. She floundered in helplessness, never resenting anyone so much; no wonder Eleanor and Young Henry had rebelled. He wasn’t her king, either; she was a Sicilian subject.

Perhaps he realized it, for he began wheedling. “Rowley has arranged for her to stay with Eleanor while you’re away, so think how the child will prosper; Eleanor has a way with girls.” He pointed to a small figure that had rambled off. “Is that her? Introduce me.”

Allie had found a dewpond and was kneeling in it, studying something on one of the rushes while the dog Eustace cavorted in its water.

“That’s a pretty butterfly, isn’t it?” Henry said. If Eleanor was good with girls, he was awkward.

Without looking up, Allie hushed him. “Not a butterfly. It’s a damselfly, a common blue,” she said, “eating a leafhopper.”

Oh dear. Retrieving her dripping child, Adelia thought defiantly: Well, how many little girls can identify insects?

And heard Emma’s reply: How many would want to?