The red head suddenly surged upward. The long sword rose. David's hand went to his hip. Before the youth had climbed two steps he jerked upright. His shocked eyes glanced down at the steel dagger embedded in his throat. Then the body crumbled, blocking the stairs.
The mob of soldiers took a collective pause, and then the shouts and curses resumed at a louder, more insistent level. David reached for his sword.
He noticed an inexorable crowding forward, as if more men had joined the others and all pressed upward. The pressure on those in front became physical as well as vocal. Hands reached out and pushed the squire out of the way. The acrid smell of unleashed bloodlust permeated the closed space. He let the ruthless blood of Senlis flow to give him its cold strength.
And then, suddenly, silence began rolling up from the rear. The men on the landing looked behind them and then at each other. Bodies crushed against the walls, out of the way.
The tall, dark-haired figure of a knight wearing the King's livery stepped up into view.
Dark fiery eyes looked at David and flashed amusement and surprise. Sir Morvan waited calmly and silently for the soldiers above him to realize he wanted to pass. They jostled each other and pointed and cleared a path for him. He slowly mounted the steps until he came to the fallen squire. Glancing at David, he casually reached down and withdrew the dagger and blood began pouring from the wound. He wiped the weapon on his jerkin and joined David in front of the door.
“That is the problem with a dagger,” he said lightly as he handed it over. “Once you have thrown it, you don't have a weapon anymore.” His gaze raked over David's armor. “Nice steel. German?”
“Flemish.”
“Aren't you supposed to be in England? Northumberland, wasn't it?”
“Other business led me here.”
“And my sister?”
“I found her. Not with Percy.”
Several of the men began muttering loudly about knights always taking the best portions for themselves. Morvan all but yawned as he unsheathed his sword. The grumbling stopped.
“You are in a bad position here,” he observed.
“Aye. It is well that you arrived.”
Morvan shrugged. “Once the bridge fell, the fun was over. Rape and looting don't appeal to me, so I decided to see about this house that flew the colors of Harclow.” He glanced back at the door. “Whatever you guard, it is not worth it. Step aside and let these men have it. They cannot be controlled once they have smelled spoils and tasted blood. Thomas Holland and I have spent the last hours trying to keep women and children from being murdered or defiled.”
“I cannot step aside.” “It is just a matter of time before they find an archer. Is it truly gold as they said below?”
David shook his head and gestured to the door. Morvan opened it a crack, peered inside, and stiffened. He frowned and peered in again. Hot eyes turned on David as he closed the door. “Tell me that wasn't my sister who I just saw among those women.”
“If you insist. It wasn't your sister.”
Morvan snarled, opened the door once more, then slammed it shut. “Hell's teeth. What is she doing here?”
“Visiting friends of mine in this city. Whoever expected our army to come and sack it?”
“Once I get her out of here, I am going to kill you.”
“If you can get her out of here, you may do so.” He gestured to the men. Impatient complaints and mumbling had resumed, and he suspected that plans were being laid.
“How many are there?”
Morvan shrugged. “Twenty. Thirty.”
“Which is it? I would say it makes a difference.”
Morvan smiled wryly. “Hardly. Twenty against two or thirty against two is equally hopeless. I am damn good, David, but not that good, and my King's livery will only deter them for a while longer.” All the same, he turned to the stairs and took a battle stance. With an exasperated sigh he reached over to David's sword hand and jerked it so the weapon pointed up rather than down. “Considering how you handle a sword, it is more like twenty or thirty against one and a half. You'd best stay on my right side. That is where we put the young squires.”
Just then a quake shook the stairway. It repeated over and over. A series of grunts accompanied it, and the men on the lower landing looked behind themselves wide-eyed and then tried to melt into the wall. A massive body stepped up and a craggy face grinned at David.
“I correct myself,” Morvan said dryly. “Thirty against ten.”
“Ja, but it was hell finding you, David,” Sieg said as he climbed toward them. Two men made the mistake of not peeling away quickly enough. Sieg calmly lifted them by their necks, crashed their heads together, and let them drop. “First I went to that castle across the river, but that bishop holding it has it sealed as tight as a coffin. I tried the Guildhall where the King has set up, then figured, hell, maybe they had her here at the mayor's house.”
Indignation at Sieg's handling had made several men brave. Glinting knives were brandished behind him. Without missing a step, he reached back with his huge hand, grabbed the nearest fool, and smashed the man's head into the stone wall.
“Is Oliver with you?” David asked as Sieg joined them.
The Swede laughed and drew his sword to menace the threats forming below. His face positively glowed at the prospect of fighting all of these men. “I lost him in the streets. All these houses open and all these goods for the taking got the better of him. Said how it was a pity you weren't with him. Like old times, he said.”
Morvan raised an eyebrow at this conversation. David smiled and shrugged.
“We still need some help to move these women out,” Morvan said. “Now that your man is here, I will go and fetch some. Thomas should be nearby, and some others. You might cover my back with that dagger, David.”
He wore a more dangerous expression leaving than he had when he came. No one challenged him.
“Did any messengers get through to warn the Comte?” David asked when Morvan had gone.
“Nay. Oliver and I stayed a few miles out on the road south as you said. They came right to us. When the King sent some men to block the news from following the French army, we finally left and gave the messengers to them. The Comte won't hear of Edward's landing for many days now.” He gestured with his sword. “I clear these men out now.”
“Try not to kill them all. They are supposed to be on our side.”
Sieg descended two steps so that he could stretch to his fullest height. He raised his dagger in his left hand and his sword in his right, glared at the men facing him, and let loose a primitive Viking war cry.
The realization that a King's knight went to get more help had already subdued the soldiers. Sieg's display of strength thoroughly discouraged most of them. Heads began bobbing and shifting as men turned and tried to squeeze down the stairs.
By the time Morvan returned with Thomas Holland and two other friends, most of the soldiers had melted away. Their arrival took care of the rest.
David opened the door and led the way into the attic.
A hysteria of relief swept the women when they saw rescue walk through the door. Several began wailing with delayed shock. Christiana ran into David's arms.
“Thank God you are whole! You saved us all, David!”
“It was your banner that did it, darling. It seems that sacking cities bores your brother, and he came to investigate your colors.”
She turned with surprise to the four knights. “Morvan!” she cried. “Thomas!”
Morvan sidled over and accepted his sister's embrace. He glanced over her shoulder dangerously at David. Christiana pulled back in time to see the look.
“Don't you dare, Morvan. He saved me, and all of the others here. The French knights and soldiers abandoned us and he put his own life between us and danger. You could not have done better.”
Morvan's expression softened as he looked at his sister. “If that is how you say it was, then I will not kill him this time.”
Thomas
Holland walked over. “There is nothing for it but to take them all to Edward. Nowhere else will be safe. But it is some ways, and the city …”
David read his expression and concern. “We will keep them between us. Christiana, gather the women and tell them what we will be doing. Tell them to look to the ground as we move.”
She nodded and went over to Heloise and her daughters first. David gestured for Sieg. “You will carry the youngest one,” he said. “Do not let her see the bodies.”
While his wife explained to the other women, David approached Heloise. She hadn't moved since they entered, and she sat on a stack of cloth looking spent and numb. Her hands clasped something. A faint glitter dangled down her skirt.
She looked up at him. Her hands opened to reveal a gold and emerald necklace. “I thought maybe, if it came to it, I could buy my daughters' safety.”
“They will be secure now, madame. I am sure that your husband is safe as well. He will probably be taken to England to await ransom like the rest of the wealthy burghers, but there is no profit in killing such men.”
She looked down on the necklace. “Please accept it. To repay you for my husband's role in taking your wife, and for your help here today.”
He had no trouble calculating the value of the gold and emeralds. But his role in the day's events was not nearly so chivalrous as the woman assumed, and he would not profit from them. “It was the arrival of my wife's brother that saved you. If you wish to express gratitude, show it to him.” He lifted her to her feet. “We must go now. Follow the instructions my wife gave you.”
The men led the ladies down the steep steps. In the courtyard they all drew their swords. Sieg had convinced the youngest girl to let him bind her eyes, and he lifted her up while she clung to him. David placed his left arm around Christiana. Then they began walking the women through the hell of death and destruction that had once been the great city of Caen.
Edward sat in the Guildhall, surrounded by clerks who carefully listed ownership of the spoils to be sent back to England. The arriving pageant of knights and women silenced the chamber. Along the way, other desperate women had attached themselves to the group, and Thomas Holland had even broken away to rescue several. Twenty women marched in on the King, flanked by sword-bearing knights.
Whatever inclinations Edward might have had regarding the disposal of these females became irrelevant. In the face of his young knights, he had no choice but to display the chivalry which he had always celebrated in his court. He formally extended his protection to them and had them sent to another chamber for safety.
David turned to go with Christiana, but the King gestured for him to stay. He dismissed the men around him and faced David over a table strewn with maps, grinning broadly.
“A splendid plan, David! God, what a victory!”
David thought of the hundreds of bodies they had just passed. People of all ages and degrees, butchered and stripped naked. The streets were covered with blood.
“Is it true that you ordered everyone put to the sword?”
Edward scowled. “It was my right when they did not surrender, and they knew it. Hundreds of our men died from their resistance. Not just at the bridge, but in the streets. Those damn stones and benches …I have rescinded the order, however. Hell, they should have yielded.”
When faced with twenty thousand, they should have. But London would not have yielded, David thought. Nor would you have wanted her to.
Edward waved off the destruction of Caen like so much flotsam of war. He beamed with delight and pointed to the map on the table. “We will be clear all the way to Paris. Their army cannot return in time and none will stop us now. No sieges will delay us once word of Caen spreads.” He frowned a little. “Do you know the river Somme, David? It worries me. We could find ourselves trapped between it and the Seine, and there appear to be no crossings except a few bridges. Damn, I should have had you make this map as well. Yours are far better.”
David walked over to procure a quill from a clerk. He returned and bent to the map, and drew two lines across the river. “Here. You can ford the river, but the water moves like a tide, so you must cross when it is low.”
Edward rubbed his hands together. “Splendid. We have the constable and chamberlain, you know. Rich ransoms there. I am sending them and the other hostages downriver in the morning, along with the spoils. Shipfuls of it. By the way, where are those weapons?”
“Nearby in the town of Bayeaux.”
“Excellent. We will be going there next.”
“My man will come and show you their location.”
“Not you? You must join us. This will be a glorious campaign.”
“My role is over. I would like to return to London with my wife.”
Edward regarded him, and a different expression replaced his glee. “You sacrificed much to remain loyal to me, David. I do not forget such things. During the last two days I have been knighting men whom I never met before. Let us do it now. Take the place assured by your blood and earned by your loyalty.”
“I am honored by the offer, but I prefer that you did not.”
Edward looked a little annoyed. David smiled amiably. “I do request some other favors from you, however, if you feel moved to grant them.”
The King's eyebrows rose.
“When I return to London, I will bring your treasurer one third of the price of the license which you granted me.
The next third will come in two years, and the rest four years hence, as I first suggested.”
“You have already paid …”
“Nay. That was the bride price for Christiana. I wish to turn that story into the truth, and I ask that you never reveal our original bargain. She is never to know.”
Edward laughed. “The girl has won your heart, has she? Well, I would be fool to turn down another thousand pounds. It will be as you request. And the other favors?”
“I ask that you remember your oath to help reclaim Harclow, and aid her brother as you can when the time comes.”
Edward looked down thoughtfully before nodding.
“Lady Catherine must be removed from London,” David added. “She knows too much, and my continued value to you, should you require me, will be compromised by her.”
Edward grinned. “I wish you could have been there when she came to tell her tale. I let her spin on and on. A clever woman, I suspect. I've never much cared for clever women. I have already sent her to Castle Rising to attend on my mother. She will be held in close confinement with her there. Those two can drive each other mad with their schemes. The merchant, Frans, is enjoying less comfortable accommodations until I return and he is ransomed. The disadvantages of being a commoner.”
“I would like Christiana and myself to go downriver with your people in the morning.”
“Of course. I will give you some documents to bring back. We found written plans for the invasion of Southampton. I will have the priests read it from the pulpits so the people know how close England came to seeing French troops on her soil.”
The Earl of Warwick entered then, and Edward turned to greet him with a new spurt of excitement. David took his leave and made his way to the chamber which held the women. Sieg waited outside its door.
“You will go to Bayeaux with the King before heading south,” David explained.
“Ja. You want me to show him where the gonnes are?”
David nodded. He reached into his pourpoint and withdrew some folded parchments. “Here is Theobald's recognition and the French king's permission for my succession at Senlis. You already have the ring and the drawing. Wait until he has already learned of my betrayal. You will not be safe if you bring that news. You may not be safe in any case once he sees that the ring's stone is pink, and is his and not his brother's.”
“I know what to do.”
“Will you come back to London afterward? Today you more than repaid that debt you always claim you owe.”
“Hardly repaid, David. Those Mamluks were se
t to kill me. If you hadn't planned that escape …”
“Morvan and I could not have held them off today.”
“Ja, well, I may join this war for a while. When the French finally catch this army, the battle should be wonderful. I will send word to you if I don't return by fall.”
David looked to the documents held in the massive hand. “Be careful, my friend. In this one thing, I cannot guess how he will react.”
CHAPTER 23
MEN CROWDED THE docks, carrying looted goods to the waiting boats. The spoils had been listed and assessed, and now it all headed back to England.
David stood amidst the fruits of war stacked on one of the piers. A river breeze offered some refreshment from the stench of death hanging over the city. An open box of silver plates glittered ten paces away in the summer heat.
He watched as Christiana walked down the dock to meet her brother. He could tell that this leave-taking weighed heavily on her. She had seen far too much of war's ruthlessness last night, and knew that Morvan might not survive this campaign.
David could not avoid contemplating the implications of that. He did not even try to. The son of Senlis was incapable of ignoring the fact that it was in his interest to have Morvan Fitzwaryn never return to England.
For with Morvan gone, Christiana became the heir of Harclow, and one day Edward would indeed reclaim the lands in the name of his dead friend Hugh Fitzwaryn.
With Morvan gone, David de Abyndon, bastard son of the noble Theobald of Senlis, would become the lord of Harclow as Christiana's husband.
Being an English knight was one thing, being an English baron was quite another.
But in truth, the land and status were the least of it. The merchant in him knew the real value of Harclow. He had been there, just as he had been to most of the estates along the Scottish border. He alone knew that in the hills of Harclow and other Cumbrian lands there were many caves, ancient caves, in which animals had lived since time began. And in the caves of Harclow alone there lay an earl's ransom of the rare stuff called saltpeter that was essential to make powder for gonnes.
And he had paid King Edward one thousand pounds for the right to be the crown's exclusive agent for the purchase and sale of saltpeter, and had taken Christiana Fitzwaryn to wife in order to hide the arrangement.
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