The Love Knot (19 page)

Oliver examined the weapon thoughtfully. It was an evil tool, with a bone haft and a notched blade a full handspan long. 'Fortunate that you are more handy with that staff than he was with a knife,' he remarked, as he thrust it in his saddle pouch. 'Are you bound for Darkhill?'

The giant narrowed his eyes at Oliver, considering, then gave a curt nod. 'To visit with my sister,' he said. 'I've been absent a year and eight months.'

'On pilgrimage?' Oliver indicated the pewter badges stitched to the man's brown cloak.

'Rome, Jerusalem,' came the shrugged reply. 'I made a promise to our father.'

The stranger had given enough account of himself to gain Oliver's respect and curiosity; now feelings of empathy were roused too. The gathering murk of dusk with two miles still to cover was not, however, the place to explore their common ground. 'I too have been a pilgrim,' was all he said. 'You are welcome to journey with us the rest of the way. You can use one of the remounts.' He jerked his shoulder towards the spare horses at the rear of his line.

The man eyed him then gave a jut of his beard in assent. 'My name is Godard,' he said, and offering no more information than that shouldered his quarterstaff, stepped over the body of the predator who had become a victim and advanced on the waiting horse.

The two thieves who had survived their assault on Godard proved to be outlaws who had been plotting to sneak into the village and steal some of the horseshoe bars to sell for their own gain. Whilst lying up in the forest, they had caught sight of Godard, a lone traveller, and had chanced their luck once too often. They were the sheriff's meat now and, without a doubt, would swing from a gibbet when the time came. The dead man was consigned to the care of the priest, and a length of sacking was found to make his shroud.

Godard went off to visit his family, but later that night, when all but a few rush lights had been dimmed, he returned to speak with Oliver, who was keeping warm in Darkhill's small alehouse. There was a pitcher to hand, but Oliver had taken no more than a cup from its bounty. Wits were for keeping when there was a cartload of hammered steel to be protected. His own watch was due when the hourglass had turned three times. For the moment, Gawin commanded the men on guard.

'You say you've been a pilgrim too,' Godard stated without preamble, and sat down beside Oliver. For such a huge man, he moved lightly and although considered, there was nothing slow about his actions.

Oliver pushed the jug at him. 'Rome and Jerusalem like you, and a few other places.' He parted his cloak and showed Godard his pilgrim belt. 'For my wife's soul, and my own.'

Godard pursed his lips and nodded. Oliver could see him struggling not to look impressed at the weight of pewter punched through the leather.

'Not that I feel any more worthy for the effort,' he added, 'but I saw places and things that most men will not see in their lifetime.'

'Aye,' Godard agreed, and poured himself a cupful of ale. He took a long draught and then pinched moisture from his moustache. 'But you try describing a camel to a sister who's never been further than five miles in her life. A horse with a hump don't hardly fit.'

'No.' Oliver grinned at the thought, and his companion responded with the merest glimmer of a smile, although it was hard to tell, so thick was his beard.

For the next hour they talked of their experiences, both men reticent but with each exchange the ground thawing between them. Then, in a lull, Godard refilled his cup for the third time and pushed the pitcher aside, signifying that he would drink no more. 'Are you looking to recruit men?' he asked, with an abrupt change of tack.

Oliver stared at him for a moment, nonplussed, but quickly rallied. 'Earl Robert is always looking for men,' he said, and shook his head. 'This war eats them like a foul serpent and spits out their bones. Is there not a place for you at your sister's hearth? Do you have no trade?'

Godard nodded. 'I'm a shepherd, but my father's wealth did not stretch to providing for eight sons and four daughters. If I lived here with my sister and her husband, I would be a madman within a sennight. We'd kill each other so we would.' Reaching to his cup, he drained his ale. 'But you heard me a-wrong. I asked if you yourself were looking to recruit men.'

Oliver snorted with dark amusement. 'Not unless they want paying in beans! My own patrimony lies in a stranger's hands, and until I can regain it I'm beholden to Earl Robert for the money in my pouch and the clothes on my back - Jesu, even the oats and stabling for my horse.' The bitterness in his own voice surprised him. Nor was it the ale talking, for he had consumed no more than a quart.

'You're not beholden to him,' Godard said in his measured way. 'You give him your service, and he only repays what is owed.'

Oliver shrugged, acknowledging the point without any great conviction. His hand twitched towards the flagon and then withdrew. He looked at Godard, taking in the taciturn but honest features, and the sheer bulk of the man. All he knew of him was that he was a doughty fighter who would not cry over spilt milk, that he could look after himself, and had a healthy sense of duty, if not respect, towards members of his family. What was more important, Oliver felt that he could trust him.

'Why are you staring?' Godard asked suspiciously.

Oliver folded his elbows on the ale wife's old, splintered trestle. 'I am not looking to "recruit men" as such. If I did, it would be for the Earl because, as I have said, I do not have the coin to employ them. But if you are interested, I could afford to pay you to perform a certain task for me.'

The large man raised his brows. They were thick and dark, just beginning to salt with grey. 'That depends what it is.'

'It might be dangerous,' Oliver said, 'but it is very important to me.' And told him what he intended.

Throughout a bitterly cold snap, Catrin nursed Ethel devotedly, massaging her stricken hand, keeping up her spirits, and watching with relief as the old lady began to rally and recover some of her old sparkle. Fortunately, there was a lull in her summons to women in labour. She attended a couple in the camp, both during the day, and was escorted to and from one in the town, also during the hours of daylight.

Catrin knew that the lull would not last. There were several women in the camp who were heavy with child, and she knew of at least four more in the town.

'And go you must when they summon you,' Ethel admonished, wagging the forefinger of her good hand when Catrin expressed her worry. 'Don't you mind about me. You just make sure you've got someone to accompany you there and back.'

But Catrin did mind. Although Ethel appeared to be on the mend, she was still visibly frailer than she had been at the onset of autumn. It was almost as if she was a tree, slowly losing its leaves one by one. It was a fancy that Catrin tried to ignore, but seeing Ethel every day made it impossible. She did her best to hide her worry, and Ethel tried to conceal her weakness from Catrin, but neither woman was deceived.

In the third week of December, Catrin returned from buying fish and vegetables in the town to find an enormous stranger sitting with Ethel and warming his hands at their fire. An imposing quarterstaff was propped outside and tied to one end was a travelling bundle.

Ethel was smiling crookedly, a tiny trickle of saliva at the corner of her mouth. When she saw Catrin, her eyes lit up and she beckoned vigorously. 'Just look what Oliver's sent us!' she cackled. 'A fine, strong man!'

The stranger rose to his feet, but remained hunched over since the roof of the shelter would not accommodate his massive height. 'My name is Godard, mistress,' he announced in a gravelly voice. 'And I have been employed by Lord Pascal to be your protection, should you have need. He said to tell you that as far as he is concerned, my arrival here has buried the bone.'

Catrin started, her mouth open. His very size was cause for wonder, but what he had just said left her speechless. She did not know whether to be pleased or indignant.

'You should bury the bone too,' Ethel said from her stool and tucked her cloak more securely around her affected hand. 'No point in fighting when there ain't no need.'

'I can look after myself,' Catrin said, the words emerging with the flatness of oft-repeated litany. Ethel's mention of 'fighting' made her think of 'trysting' too, and she knew without recourse to a gazing glass that her cheeks were pink.

The huge man stooped a little further in acknowledgement. 'My lord told me that I was not to interfere with your independence, only that I should make sure you lived to enjoy it.'

Ethel gave a snort of amusement and Catrin scowled in her direction.

'Bend, girl, before you break,' Ethel warned, and again the forefinger wagged.

Catrin sighed heavily, but she knew in her heart that Ethel was right. And if the truth were known, the thought of having such a giant at her side, if she had need to go out into the city at night, was comforting. 'Then be welcome, and best be seated before you break your back.' She gestured at the stool, and wondered where on earth he was going to sleep. There was certainly no room in Ethel's shelter to house his great bulk.

As if reading her mind, he said, 'I've arranged to lodge with the kennel-keeper. His daughters have not long married and there's sleeping space on his floor. It's only across the bailey should you need to summon.'

Catrin nodded, feeling relieved. 'Oliv . . . Lord Pascal, is he well?' She ignored the sudden sharpness of Ethel's stare.

'Indeed he is, mistress.' Godard held out his hands to the fire. 'He said to tell you that he is sorry that he cannot be here himself to continue with your lessons ...' He frowned, seeking the memorised words. 'He said that you make far better company than wagonloads of horseshoe bars and he hopes to be home before the Christmas feast.'

This time the pinkness in Catrin's cheeks was accompanied by a flush of warmth through her body. 'I'll be pleased to see him,' she murmured and looked down at her hands where Lewis's gold rings still shone on her finger.

Godard took his leave shortly after that, and Catrin made Ethel a hot posset of milk and honey, sprinkled with nutmeg. 'Only ten days to the Christmas feast.' Ethel looked thoughtfully at Catrin. 'Be a good excuse to use that scented soap you were given, eh?'

Catrin scowled at Ethel from beneath her brows. 'What is that supposed to mean?'

'Whatever you take it to mean, girl, but I think you know.' Ethel laboriously raised her left hand and held it against the hot side of her cup. Her eyes gleamed. 'He's sent you your first gift early.'

Catrin glanced over her shoulder. 'My bodyguard, you mean?'

'Aye.' Ethel took a one-sided sip of the hot posset. 'The question is . . . what are you going to offer him for the twelve days of giving, in return?'

Fortunately, at that juncture, a woman came asking for some cough syrup for her sick child, and Catrin was spared the problem of answering.

Christmas Eve arrived and there was no sign of Oliver. Despite, or perhaps because of, the continuing civil war, Bristol was in a fever of anticipation and celebration. Rumour abounded that Empress Mathilda herself was coming to Bristol for the Christmas feast. The cooks were run off their feet, their cauldrons and ovens so busy that they had no time to feel the bone-deep cold that settled in a white mantle of hoar over the land. Cartloads of firewood and charcoal made their way through the keep gates daily and were devoured by the numerous fires - great logs for the hall, smaller pieces of split branch for the fires in the private chambers, and charcoal for the braziers and the forge.

Catrin attended at several more childbirths, and was glad of Godard's company. He spoke little, but his very presence was comforting, and her initial indignation at Oliver's sending him vanished. Sometimes he would eat at their fire, but even then he was about as forthcoming as an ox. He split wood for them and drew water. When Richard came visiting he showed him how to wrestle with a quarterstaff, much to the boy's delight, and near dusk on Christmas Eve presented him with a cut-down version of the weapon.

When thanked, he just shrugged and looked a trifle sheepish. 'I've nephews of your age,' he said gruffly and turned away to pump the fire with the bellows, signifying that the matter was at an end.

Not long after that, Catrin was called away to a labouring woman. When she returned it was almost midnight, clear, bright and cold. Ethel was sound asleep beneath her covers and the fire had been banked by a neighbour to last until dawn. Godard took his leave and retired to his own bed.

Lantern in hand, Catrin gazed around the bailey. Apart from the guards on patrol and a pen of sheep awaiting slaughter, it was empty, everyone buried under their blankets for warmth. It was one of the strands of a midwife's existence, seeing a world that others slept through. Tonight, on the eve of the celebration of the Christ child's birth, she should have felt a sense of quiet satisfaction, but her pleasure was marred by a stronger sensation of emptiness. Oliver had not come, and anticipation was becoming anxiety and disappointment. She could not celebrate without him. The realisation hit her like a lungful of the crystalline air. It was too late to step back; she was trapped.

With a heavy sigh, she turned to push aside the screen, and had to stifle a scream as she realised she was not alone. A cowled figure was standing beside one of the shelter's wooden supports.