The Lions of the North d-4 Read online

  “Gervase lured him back within the law.”

  “That is a matter of opinion.” Ralph heaved a deep sigh. “York was a story of gains and losses, Golde. The gains were immense but the losses are very painful.”

  “What hurts you the most?”

  “Losing Aubrey’s friendship. I cannot believe a man could change so much yet seem exactly the same. That affability never left him. Yet all the time, he was involved in his own personal harrying of the North.”

  “My sympathies are with his wife, Herleve.”

  “She will survive.”

  “I will never forget what she told me.”

  “When?”

  “That time she saw us in the chapel,” said Golde. “She said we looked so right together, like husband and wife. That touched me deeply, Ralph.”

  “Why?”

  “Why do you think?”

  He reached over to kiss her softly on the cheek.

  “We have a chapel back in Hampshire….”

  While intimate matters were being discussed at the front of the column, legal concerns dominated at the rear. Gervase Bret rode between Canon Hubert and Brother Simon. The scribe had still not come to terms with the enormity of Aubrey Maminot’s crimes.

  “I have never known such villainy!” he said.

  “Pray God you never do again,” observed Hubert.

  “My lord Aubrey was a fiend in human shape.”

  “No wonder he chose lions for his pets,” said Gervase. “He was truly one himself. He had the lion’s share of wealth and power in the city. And far beyond. Stealing land and the charters that went with it before leasing it out to the likes of Nigel Arbarbonel and his half-brother. He held them all in the palm of his hand. Aubrey Maminot was the true landlord of Sunnifa and all those others dispossessed.

  Toki climbed into the castle in search of the charters that would prove that.”

  “How did he know they were there?” wondered Hubert.

  “Ragnar Longfoot explained that to me. Toki would do anything to regain the inheritance for Inga and her mother. Because my lord Nigel held the land, Toki assumed he would also hold the charters relating to it. When my lord Nigel and his men were away, Toki slipped into the depleted castle and threatened the steward with death if he did not surrender the documents. A man usually tells the truth with a dagger at his throat. The steward confessed that the charters in question were held by Aubrey Maminot and that he was the true landlord.”

  Gervase sighed. “The success of that escapade was Toki’s undoing.

  Because he had gained entry to one fortress so easily, he thought that he could do it again in York.”

  “I am so pleased that we stayed at the minster,” said Simon. “We were spared this atmosphere of wickedness and deceit. To be in the same castle as my lord Aubrey and his beasts would have stained my soul.”

  “Evil contaminates all that it touches,” noted Hubert. “But goodness purifies. I like to feel that we leave York a much cleaner place for our visit.”

  “Oh, yes, Canon Hubert,” said Simon.

  “My lord Tanchelm did his share towards that.”

  “Amen.”

  “We will commiserate with his widow when we reach Lincolnshire.

  Her grief will be profound.”

  The three men suddenly found that they had two new companions.

  Ralph and Golde had dropped back to join them. To Brother Simon’s consternation, Golde drew up beside him and her cloak all but brushed his habit. The proximity of womankind made him blush to his roots.

  “We have come to apologise, Brother Simon,” said Ralph.

  “To me, my lord?”

  “Yes,” said Golde. “We have caused you offence.”

  “No, no,” he lied.

  “The simple fact is this,” said Ralph. “We are not wed. That troubles you. And Canon Hubert has also suffered discomfort.”

  “Spiritual anguish,” said Hubert. “Profoundly unsettling.”

  “It will not happen again,” promised Golde.

  “When we travel to another county,” said Ralph, “you will not have to ride beside such blatant immorality. Golde and I are resolved on that. We have repented.”

  “Your words move me, my lord,” said Simon joyfully. “I feel as if a great stone has been lifted from me.”

  “Yes,” said Hubert. “We applaud your conversion to the path of righteousness. How did the miracle occur?”

  “In the chapel back at the castle.”

  “One moment,” said Gervase, disappointed. “Do I understand this aright? Golde has been such a delightful companion. Are you saying that she will never travel with us again?”

  “No,” said Ralph. “I am not saying that at all.”

  “But I thought you were, my lord,” said Hubert.

  “Yes,” agreed Simon. “You promised even now.”

  “Golde will always travel beside me now,” said Ralph.

  A smile of true contentment spread across her features. Ralph held her hand proudly and beamed at the others.

  “But less sinfully.”

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