Berenger shot him a look. 'I don't know if he's dead yet. That is why I know this area. I walked it with him sixteen, seventeen years ago, all the way to Avignon to see the Pope. G.o.d save his memory: King Edward II was as good a man as any I have ever known.' Berenger held up his mazer in a silent toast. 'The King gave me some money, and I lived here in France for a time, but I missed England, so returned. Since then, about eleven years ago, I have been a soldier for the new King.'

'You came straight to the army after that, then?'

'No. First I was arrested and held as a traitor'

'What? Why?' Archibald choked on his wine.

'Some said I was involved in murdering his father, but our King heard that I always loved his father, and he pardoned me and had me released.'

'But no wife.'

'The army is my family: the vintaine contains my brothers. I am proud to be one of them.'

'That is a fascinating tale. Do you think the old King is yet alive?'

'I am sure he is dead. And that is good. He was old, and his son, G.o.d save him, would not need the complication of a father appearing and demanding his throne back!'

'True enough.'

'And now,' Berenger said, finishing the wine, 'I must return to the men. I thank you for your hospitality.'

'And I thank you for your candour.'

'Aye, well, some secrets are too ancient to be kept.'

'And watch out for the boy.'

Berenger was about to respond, when he saw Sir John de Sully.

'Berenger Fripper, I have been told to take you in chains.'

'What?' Berenger sprang to his feet.

'Our good Lord the Prince of Wales has heard that you feloniously slew one of his men, a respected fighter with his spearmen. His men all a.s.sert that you killed him.'

'I did.'

'Ah!' Sir John looked at him. 'Very good, Berenger. I know you. As you reminded me, we once walked together on a long journey. So, if you killed this man, you will have had a reason, I hope?'

'They'd caught our young boy and were hanging him. We had to kill the Prince's man to get to Ed and release him.'

'So you say they were tormenting your young mascot, and you took offence? I can understand that. However, His Highness is inordinately fond of his t.i.tle, you know, and of the men of his Princ.i.p.ality.'

'The Welsh were going to kill him. The proof is there on his neck, where the rope bruised and burned him.'

'Was he worth your life?' Sir John asked.

'Without him, we'd have run out of arrows in the battle. Would the Prince prefer to have lost Caen and more archers because of a lack of weapons?' Berenger asked. 'I protected our boy against those who tried to murder him. One stood in my way and I had to kill him. It's as simple as that.'

'I will speak to the Prince and we shall see what comes of it. Meanwhile, my friend, I recommend that you keep yourself out of the way as much as possible in the days to come.'

Geoff had noticed Ed's mood.

The boy had been quiet and withdrawn for days. His throat was healing, and the livid blue-black mark was turning to green and gold at the edges, but he looked like a beaten hound, slouching around with his head down: the picture of despondency.

'What is it, boy?' he asked. 'What's troubling you?'

Ed jumped at his voice. 'I was thinking of all the French in the town,' he said. His voice faltered. 'So many dead.'

'You were the boy who once told us that the only good Frenchman was a dead one,' Geoff reminded him.

'That was because . . .'

'What?'

'My parents were killed by French pirates when I was a boy,' Ed burst out. He didn't want Geoff's sympathy, but he couldn't keep his story hidden any longer. 'My father was out fishing when they arrived in several big ships, and they landed and killed everyone. My father, mother, brother all slaughtered. And for nothing!'

He could picture the scene in his mind's eye now: the ships beaching, one with a gonne in the prow that boomed and belched flames and death at the unarmed men on the beach. Horror-struck, he saw his father's friends hacked down by pirates as they stood mending nets. Others were cut down by the evil flying b.a.l.l.s from the gonne or from the deadly bolts from crossbows.

'So that's why you hate the French,' Geoff said.

'I have always hated them. I wanted to come here to kill as many as I could, but now I see them, it's hard to hate them. They look like us!'

Berenger had been sitting in the dark of a tree's shadow. 'It's a good lesson to learn, boy,' he put in. 'All people are the same, deep down.'

'But if you know that, how can you go on killing them?'

Geoff rose suddenly. 'G.o.d will know which are His own when He receives their spirits. Look around you. The good people of that city will be in a better place this night.'

The Prince's lodging was in a merchant's sumptuous house in the old city, and it was already full of his commanders. Sir John had been summoned, which surely meant that there was news about the French army.

This was a new, modern building, with chimneys and glazed windows, and Sir John eyed the place covetously. Even now, after the army had been through every chamber before the Prince could commandeer it, there were still beautiful paintings on the whitewashed walls. Scenes of biblical events, pictures of angels sitting over base sins, and one glorious tapestry which depicted the Battle of Charlemagne against the ma.s.sed hordes of the Saracens.

Sir John would have taken that first. It would suit his manor at Ashreigny.

'You like that?' the Earl of Warwick asked. He was sitting at a table, sipping wine from a mazer. The Prince and his bodyguards had not yet arrived.

'It is magnificent, my Lord.'

'Perhaps in years to come they'll have to replace it with our King's battle against Philippe.'

'You believe it will come to that?'

'That we shall finally crush them when the French meet us in battle? Yes, with G.o.d's help.'

'Yes,' Sir John said.

'You sound doubtful?'

'We have tried to bring him to battle many times before.'

'This time we shall make such a noise that even Philippe must hear it and try to stop us. And if our chevauchee fails, we shall go to Calais and lay siege to it. Philippe cannot dare to leave Calais to endure a lengthy siege. He will come and rescue the city. He must.'

Sir John nodded. He was too old to be concerned about riding into battle. He had done so many times. Sometimes the outcome had been magnificent, but he could still recall other, less happy days the disaster of Bannockburn, for instance. He had no wish for a repeat of that. But in recent years Edward III had brought the English to one victory after another. Even on the sea the English succeeded, no matter what the odds.

The French had the largest army in Christendom: thousands of knights and well-armed men who could be called upon. There was no doubt that they must beat the English if they met on equal terms. However, the English had superb archers. The French had encountered English archers before, but never on such a ma.s.sive scale as King Edward planned.

'We shall whip them,' the Earl said smugly.

There came the sound of marching and the rattle of armour and mail, and the door opened to show the Prince. He looked around the commanders with a firm eye.

'My friends, I am glad to see you all here. Where is Northampton? Oh, there you are, my Lord. We have news. Apparently our friend Philippe is gathering men to defy us. Excellent! He has no idea what he is going to find, does he? Page, fetch wine for my guests. Quick about it.'

'Where is he, Your Highness?' the Earl of Warwick asked.

'He has met with his men at Rouen. The Oriflamme is to be raised against us, apparently, so when we defeat him, we shall be proving ourselves invincible compared with his ancestors. It will be a glorious battle, my friends!' he said, breaking into a broad grin.

The wine arrived, and the Prince had all their goblets filled, then proposed a toast: 'To the ruin of Philippe and the two crowns united!'

Sir John raised his goblet and prayed silently to St Boniface for his aid in the coming battles. They would be hard, he had no doubt. Yet he found himself warming to this young Prince.

Perhaps Edward of Woodstock was not so callow as Sir John had feared.

Clip had traded some fur for a small sack of oats, which he had brought back from the coast like a war trophy. It was stored carefully in the vintaine's box in the cart, and that night the men squatted contentedly at their fires and watched as their little oaten cakes cooked.

Berenger was still in pain. The scabs covering the wound in his shoulder had pulled away during the fighting for Caen. He lifted his shirt to look at it, but before he could do so, the old leech arrived at his side and studied the wound carefully.

'I'm all right,' Berenger said gruffly.

'Which is more than we will be,' Geoff said. He had removed his cake from the fireside and now stood eating it, watching how the leech probed and tested.

'What is that supposed to mean?'

'It's all wrong to have that girl come with us. She will bring bad luck you know that. Wisp told us all that we were taking a course that would end in disaster, and he was proven right.'

'She saved the Donkey, Geoff. It could- will you stop doing that, you clumsy old goat!'

The leech gave Berenger a contemptuous sneer and continued with his ministrations.

'If Granda.r.s.e hears what Wisp said you know, about the chevauchee being doomed when he saw that cat he'd have her out on her ear in a blink, you know that.'

'What's it got to do with Granda.r.s.e?'

'We have the boy with us. I like the Donkey, but he isn't exactly blessed with fortune, is he? He's hardly a safe mascot.'

'If we discard the fool, he'll be dead in a day.'

'He is bringing us bad luck, and so is the girl.'

'What?'

'You can't trust women, you know that.'

'I never thought to hear you say that. You are always so happy with your wife.'

'Yes, well . . . I was.'

Berenger gave him a close look. 'Is there something wrong, Geoff?'

Geoff looked up again. 'Frip, all women are the same, and this French one's more dangerous than most. She loiters with us, but she isn't one of us. She's French.'

'So?'

'I could get rid of her: no one need know no one.'

'No! Leave her. I will see what I can do. And don't mention her or Wisp's words to Granda.r.s.e.'

'If you're sure,' Geoff said.

He left Fripper there, staring sadly at the fire while the leech, all but forgotten now, muttered to himself, mopping and cleaning the wound.

Geoff nodded grimly. The French b.i.t.c.h had to go. If Frip wouldn't do it, he would have to take on the job himself.

At the Prince's lodging, Sir John listened as the commanders moved on to a discussion of the King's plan of campaign.

'We shall be leaving here early in the morning. Be ready before dawn,' the Prince said.

'We march in our normal battle order?' Sir John asked.

'Yes. We will lay waste to the broadest area. Our men will devastate every farm, village, town in our path. The people must be shown that Philippe cannot protect them, therefore to be safe, they must enter our King's Peace.'

'I heard that Bayeux tried that yesterday,' the Earl of Northampton said. He scratched his ear. 'Did you hear of that, my Lord?'

The Prince chuckled with delight. 'Absolutely! The city was so petrified of our army that they sent fifteen of their bourgeois to meet the King. They hadn't seen a single Englishman threaten them, but the news of our rampages across the countryside were clearly too shocking for them to wait for us to come and take their city even though we have already pa.s.sed it!'

'Did the King accept their allegiance?' Sir John said.

The Earl of Northampton laughed. 'No, he was much too sharp for that. He refused it. Politely, but firmly. He told them that he was not going to leave men dotted about the country to garrison little towns and cities like theirs; he was marching to fight their King, so he could not promise to protect them yet. However, he would be glad to take their oaths of allegiance and protect them fully once Philippe has been defeated.'

All present laughed at that. Soon afterwards the men were dismissed, and each returned to his own billet. While the Prince was still in a happy, cheerful mood, Sir John sought him out.

'Your Majesty, there is one matter I should wish to discuss: Berenger Fripper.'

'You have caught him already? Good.'

'I know where he is, my Lord. However, I would not have him punished.'

'Where will the army's discipline be without the guilty being punished?'