Order In Chaos. Jack Whyte

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СКАЧАТЬ yes.” He hefted the empty glass in his cupped hand. “Those Benedictine monks must deal in magic. I have never had the likes of this before…my head is swimming.” He waved his hand, dismissing that topic. “And that was nigh on two years ago. What happened to the Baroness at that time?”

      “Her people saved her.”

      “What people, and how?”

      “She and Etienne traveled at all times with a bodyguard of Scots, assigned to them by Lord Thomas Randolph himself. They were as loyal as wolfhounds, and as savage. Etienne took half of them with him when he went to Paris. They were with him when he was arrested and were cut down by the King’s Guard when they tried to intervene. But they trusted no one and had posted a rear guard outside the gates to keep watch. The watchers saw what happened and returned directly to Le Havre, where they commandeered a ship and took their lady off to safety. To her home in Scotland, though, not in England. As I say, they trusted no one, and Edward of England had been waging his war against the Scots for years, so the Baroness’s bodyguard chose to return her to her home and not to risk the goodwill of the English. I knew nothing of any of this at the time.

      “Eventually, the letter I had sent to Etienne was forwarded to the Temple in Edinburgh from the Temple in London, but by then a good six months had elapsed. And then, completely unexpectedly, Lady Jessica sailed into La Rochelle, just over a month ago, to reclaim the treasure we held in trust for her, as my brother’s widow.”

      “It must be a deal of money.” Sinclair’s tone was ironic, but St. Valéry nodded.

      “It is. Six large chests of gold, in bars and coin, and five more of silver, bars and coin. Sufficient to ransom a king…or to support one in a time of desperate need…

      “The Lady Jessica is quite open about her intentions. She intends to give the gold to Robert Bruce, your King of Scots. That is her absolute right, of course, but it entailed another problem that I had not foreseen. I required a password to release the money properly, and only Etienne could have known what that might have been. And so I sent another letter to Theodoric de Champagne in Marseille, explaining my dilemma and requesting the word from him, since he had the only duplicate. He sent it without commentary or demur, having been instrumental in launching this entire adventure, but in the interim the Lady Jessica decided that while waiting, she would visit my mother in Tours. My brother’s widow is a strong-willed woman and was convinced there would be no danger entailed, provided she went alone with only the smallest escort for protection.”

      “And?”

      “She was denounced and betrayed. A steward in my mother’s household was in the pay of de Nogaret. He sent off a messenger to Paris, but then was foolish and arrogant enough to demand that the Lady Jessica stay where she was when she prepared to leave. My youngest brother, Gilbert, killed the man and fled, leaving a trail and allowing Lady Jessica to make her escape.” St. Valéry paused, then continued in a level voice. “We have not heard from Gilbert since he disappeared, but we hope he is still alive. In the meantime, the Lady Jessica has been hunted all over France, and had it not been for your kinsman Tam Sinclair and his assistance today, she would have been captured trying to enter La Rochelle. The three men you saw killed were with her. She had hired them to smuggle her into the city, but they panicked when the guards began to check their handcart a second time, for they knew they were discovered.”

      “So now you wish me to escort this lady back to Scotland.”

      St. Valéry looked straight at Sinclair. “I do, but not alone. I will be coming with you, bear in mind. And with her you will accompany and safeguard the treasure for the King of Scots. It is my good-sister’s, and it is of incalculable value, and if it remains here, de Nogaret will seize it and he will have won a sizable victory even should he fail in all else.” He hesitated. “It is already loaded aboard my galley, along with a lesser treasure of our own.”

      “A lesser treasure? May I ask what that is?”

      “Aye, there is nothing secret about it. It is our own reserve of specie, gold and silver bars and coin, stored against redemption of letters of credit. I cannot leave that behind for de Nogaret, either, for it would be the first thing he seized in his master’s name, and Philip Capet already has more than enough of the Temple’s funds.”

      “Of course, I had forgotten the funds each commandery holds in trust. How much is there?”

      “Not as much as in the Baroness’s treasure, but far too much to leave behind. Six large chests, containing twelve thousand gold bezants.”

      Will whistled. “We will be the most treasure-laden fleet on the seas.”

      “Aye, we will indeed…provided, of course, that events tomorrow fit with your warning.”

      “Aye, well they will, my lord Admiral. This atrocity with Godwinson has convinced me of that.”

      “I agree with you. But I am beginning to wonder what is detaining de Berenger and Montrichard. Is that empty? Good. Give it to me, then, and I’ll hide it from sight, along with the bottle.”

      No sooner had St. Valéry moved to do so than there was a knock at the door, and a young monk admitted the admiral’s two deputies. The admiral bade them welcome and then instructed the young monk to go upstairs and awaken his female guest, bidding him to say nothing of the events that had occurred while she slept, and to ask the lady to be good enough to join him as soon as she could make ready.

      Behind him, Sir William stared straight ahead into the fire, his head spinning strangely, his thoughts dominated by the image of the wide-eyed woman at the city gates.

       THE DEVIL’S WORK

      1

      Jessie Randolph came awake instantly, and her heart began to race with fear the moment she realized she had no idea where she was. Wherever it was, it was cold and stygian black, not a glimmer of light to dispel the darkness or cast the faintest shadow, and the surface she was lying on was rock hard. Her head was raised, because her neck was uncomfortably angled, so she knew there was a pillow of some kind there, but it, too, was rigid, unyielding.

       I’m on the floor. In a dungeon. They found me. De Nogaret’s men.

      Fighting down the panic, clenching her teeth against the overpowering urge to scream, she reached out cautiously on both sides of her and almost sobbed with relief to discover, first, that there were no manacles about her wrists, no chains, and then the rough fabric of a pallet beneath her hands. She reached farther and found the edges of a narrow cot.

       Where am I?

      And then there came a knocking at a door very close to her, and she knew that was what had awakened her. Still she lay rigid, not knowing what to expect, and felt the fear that filled her settling into the pit of her stomach, icy and heavy as a ball of lead.

      “My lady? Are you awake, my lady?”

      The questioning voice was soft but urgent, as though its owner feared to make too much noise. It did not sound the least bit threatening. Her hands touched her clothing, exploring, feeling her body’s warmth beneath the garments.

       I still have СКАЧАТЬ