the real work is done by less attractive but very sturdy oak beams above the stonework, which carry the weight of the outer roof. The design is very elegant and precise.’
I sat and watched Estrith holding court, her audience rapt. I had heard that Torfida could enthral people in the same way and that Estrith looked just like her. She was certainly a handsome woman. She had unblemished skin, the colour of rich cream, dark eyes and black hair, now greying a little at the temples, and her face had a serenity that was disarming. She possessed a slim figure, but her feminine curves were still apparent despite her heavy nun’s soutane.
Most charming of all was her intellect and aura of mystique. A woman of mature years, she had been raised by a mother with remarkable gifts, who had passed on to her as many of them as possible, and an equally extraordinary father. They must have been an amazing inspiration through astonishing and traumatic times.
Since childhood, she had continued to learn. She had devoted her life to acquiring knowledge and ideas, enjoying nothing more than sharing her wisdom with others.
I watched her with growing wonder — a vision of beauty and someone I hoped would become a permanent fixture in our lives.
22. The Twenty-third Psalm
After much discussion and soul-searching, Estrith decided to relinquish her opportunity to help bring to life William of Calais’s dream for Durham Cathedral and instead travel to London with us. From there, assuming that King Rufus did not have an unpleasant surprise in store for us, we would go to Normandy to resume our service with Duke Robert.
Our somewhat unusual quartet of brothers-in-arms had become a yet more peculiar quintet that now included two women, one of whom was a churchwright disguised as a nun. Nevertheless, I was delighted that Estrith had joined us. She was an intimate link to Hereward and Torfida, the only blood relative still alive. She carried their wisdom — and, indeed, their mystique.
For our meeting with King Rufus, I persuaded Estrith to change her allegiance from sister of Whalley Abbey to a Scottish foundation, where there were unlikely to be any Norman links. She decided that St Andrews in Fife had a reputation worthy of her, and thus she became a holy sister of St Andrews, Scotland.
When we arrived in Westminster, the head of our escort went to the King’s palace to announce our arrival, only to be told that he was too busy with affairs of state to see us and that we were free to return to Normandy at our leisure. Relieved not to be cross-examined by an irate King, we continued on to Normandy as quickly as we could.
Once in Normandy, we agreed we would make a plan for the future. We were getting older. I was over forty, Edwin three years older; neither of us had wives or children, and the shallow pleasures of casual sex had become less and less appealing. Adela was in her fortieth year and still searching for some kind of fulfilment. Only Sweyn was in his prime, but since the death of Mahnoor he lacked the energy he had shown before and hardly ever glanced at a woman.
When we reached Rouen, we realized why Rufus had been too busy to see us. Yet again, he was fomenting trouble with Duke Robert, but this time without any real success. Robert’s patient tolerance of his brother’s aggression had won him many admirers, while his astute governance and restrained rule of the dukedom had brought it growing prosperity. Once again, he let his brother’s bravado wash over him and calmly carried on being Duke. A very frustrated King Rufus eventually returned his attention to England, where he continued to fester and plot new acts of devilment.
When we introduced Estrith to Duke Robert, he was intrigued by her and fascinated to hear the detailed account of his father’s famous encounter with Hereward at Ely. The siege was still a popular subject with the storytellers, both Norman and English, even though almost fifteen years had passed.
There was an ever-growing number of different versions of what had happened in the denouement of the siege, some highly fanciful. The Norman accounts tended to take the view that William had meted out due justice to a troublesome outlaw by killing Hereward with his own hand, while the English liked to think that somehow or other the great English hero had escaped and was still living an idyllic existence with his family deep in England’s Bruneswald.
Duke Robert was ignorant of the true events that had unfolded.
‘I had heard that my father had collapsed at Ely, but he would never talk about it, or mention what happened to your father.’
‘My Lord Duke, I have thought about those moments in St Etheldreda’s Chapel every day of my life and I still can’t decide what happened. Was the blinding light an act of God, created by Him through St Etheldreda on behalf of the worthy cause of the Brotherhood? Was it the power of the Talisman of Truth, the ancient pagan amulet my father always wore? Or was it simply a coincidence, when the sun suddenly appeared from behind a cloud? My soul tells me it was an act of God, my heart says it was the Talisman, and my head says it was a coincidence. My mother spent her life wrestling with conundrums such as these.’
‘Whatever it was, it affected my father very much and brought on a spasm of pain that put him on his back for over a week. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know what happened when he finally returned to the Chapel — but, whatever it was, it made Hereward into England’s hero and confirmed my father’s reputation as the most ruthless man in Europe.’
I had always thought that Robert secretly admired Hereward — as he would anyone brave enough to challenge his father.
Then, quite suddenly, Estrith walked up to the Duke and touched his hand, something that protocol did not allow, even for a sister of the Church.
‘Sire, please understand, I don’t have any ill will towards you or any other Norman. King William is dead, my father is almost certainly dead, the past is the past — it is over.’
Robert was not offended, nor did he pull away. He placed his hand over hers, and the son of England’s conqueror and the daughter of his nemesis embraced. It was as if they were playing out the final act in the drama that was Ely. Tears ran down Estrith’s cheeks and Adela put her hand to her face to hold back her sobs; all of us had tears in our eyes and lumps in our throats.
Robert took a deep breath and, with a fidget of mild embarrassment, changed the subject.
‘What are your plans?’
‘Estrith would like to go south to St Cirq Lapopie. She hasn’t seen her surrogate aunts, Ingigerd and Maria, in over twenty years.’
‘Do you think I could come with you?’
Robert’s response was like a bolt from the blue, leaving all of us shocked — not unpleasantly so, but certainly surprised that a sovereign duke would want to travel with a small and insignificant band such as ours.
‘But what about your dukedom and your quarrelsome brothers?’
‘Normandy more or less runs itself these days, and I’ve got the powerful barons nicely balanced in a kind of harmony, which they accept through gritted teeth. Most of them dislike Odo so much, they are mainly preoccupied with keeping him at bay. As for my brothers, Rufus needs Henry if he’s to be strong enough to unseat me in Rouen, but Henry is content building his strength in the Cotentin. He may ultimately have eyes for Normandy, but he’ll want England first, so Rufus is the one in his way, not me — at least, not yet.’
We all looked at one another and nodded our approval and, as head of the St Cirq Lapopie household, Edwin made the formal response.
‘My Lord, it would be our honour to receive you at our humble home on the Lot. But, sire, it is only a modest farmhouse.’
‘That is of no consequence, I will bring only a small retinue and we will make camp in your fields. Perhaps I’ll go and see that firebrand Raymond of Toulouse, who has been causing turmoil among the knights of Europe with his campaign to free the Holy Land from Islam.’
While Duke Robert made his plans to join us on our journey, we brooded on the news about Raymond of Toulouse’s cause.
We all thought back to the words of Themistius, the Thracian strategoi we had listened to in Sicily, when he
