Warlord(135)

‘What did he offer you?’ my lord said, laying down the book. I was slightly taken aback by Robin’s bluntness.

‘A hundred pounds in silver and the post of Constable of this castle.’

‘Constable, that’s good. Did he say when he would give you the silver?’

‘He offered to give Goody to me in marriage – and to let me have the money as a dowry. When we have retaken all Normandy, he will personally bless our union  .’

Robin grinned. ‘That’s our Richard. He would always rather promise money to be paid at some future date than hand over the cash here and now. But well done, Alan!’

I said nothing for a few moments. Then: ‘So you are going to Burgundy?’

‘Yes, I’m going to see this fellow’ – he tapped the book in front of him – ‘Robert de Boron, a knight who serves the Seigneur de Montfaucon. Reuben knows him, apparently – our friend has excellent connections down there – and has arranged a meeting in Avignon, which is close by.’

‘What’s the book about?’

‘It’s about Joseph of Arimathea, that blessed man who entombed the crucified body of Our Saviour Jesus Christ.’

I gave Robin a look, and he stared straight back at me, his expression grave and humble. I knew that look: Robin was trying to appear sincere. I could not help myself: I laughed. Robin joined me, chuckling and shaking his head.

‘You know why I’m going,’ he said, ‘don’t you?’

‘You want the Grail.’

He nodded.

‘In God’s name, why?’

‘I can’t fully explain. I’ve been thinking about it almost constantly since you first mentioned it to me. I could tell you that it is the most fabulous treasure in the world, an object worth a county at least, and that’s why I want it. I could say that I long to possess the vessel that Christ drank from and which held his sacred blood – but I think you would laugh at me again. I could say that owning it would make me the most powerful man in Christendom; and that taking it away from a gang of renegade Templars would give me enormous satisfaction. I could say that I have had enough of Richard’s endless petty wars and I need a new and better task to fulfil me. And all of that would be partially true. But the honest answer is, I want it, I want it with all my heart – and I will have it.’ Robin’s eyes were shining with a passion I’d not seen in years.

‘You realize that it is probably just an old bowl?’

‘That may well be. Still, I must have it.’

‘So what are your plans?’

‘I’m heading south – tomorrow, actually. I am going to Avignon to meet this Robert de Boron. He writes with authority on the Grail, and I am sure he must know more than he has written. After that, I will go on to stay with Reuben in Montpellier, then through the county of Toulouse towards the Pyrenees. I’m not sure where the trail will lead. We will see what I can discover. The scraps of evidence that I have managed to gather’ – he waved a hand at the piles of parchment on the table – ‘all seem to indicate that the legends began down there. And the Master was originally from those parts, too, if I recall rightly.’

‘You make it sound like a pilgrimage,’ I said.

‘And perhaps it is,’ said Robin.

‘So you leave tomorrow?’

‘Yes, I’m taking Little John with me, and twenty men as a body-guard – but the rest I’m leaving with you. Can you manage them? I gather there was some … difficulty at Milly.’

I frowned. The Locksley men’s hesitation in that escalade was still a sore memory.

‘I’ll manage,’ I said gruffly.

‘May I give you a piece of advice? Don’t try to get them to like you. Keep them busy. Ride them hard. If any man challenges your authority, flog him half to death. If he challenges you a second time – hang him.’

I nodded again, but did not meet his eye. I still felt a little weak-kneed at the thought of hanging a man out of hand, the way my poor father had been hanged.

‘You’ll be fine. There is one thing I am worried about …’ Robin trailed off and I looked up at him, meeting his silver eyes with a touch of anxiety.

‘I am worried that you might die …’ said my lord.

‘What?’

‘I’m concerned that, with a long truce declared, you might well die – of boredom.’

And we laughed.


We had laughed together at Robin’s jest and yet, as is so often the case with drolleries, there was some scrap of truth in it. Life is dull for a soldier in peacetime, and at times over the next few months I envied Robin and his questing in the southern lands. I took my lord’s advice about his men too, and rode them hard: patrols daily and regular arms training in the courtyard of the middle bailey, organized by Thomas. I even hanged a man – a thief who stole from his mates and whom nobody liked much anyway. I could not watch the execution, but I heard the man jeered into his grave by his fellow soldiers. I also kept the men busy at work on the surrounding lands.