Hugh had always assumed that Ralf and Gervase were as similar in terms of wealth as they were in everything else. But Ralf could never have afforded this house.
“What are you planning to do today, Hugh?” Gervase asked as the men ate their bread and drank their morning ale.
Hugh planned to try to catch John Rye before he left Lincoln, but he did not wish to impart this fact to Gervase. He said instead, “I thought I would talk to the garrison guards.”
“I have already questioned them thoroughly,” Gervase said. “They don’t believe Bernard is guilty, but they have nothing substantial to advance that would advocate in his favor.”
“Well,” Hugh said mildly, “at least talking to them will give me a chance to renew old acquaintances.”
There was a moment of tense silence.
Then Gervase shrugged. “Oh, talk to the guards if you will. Just make certain that you let me know if you unearth some important fact that I might have missed.” There was the faintest trace of sarcasm in his voice.
“Of course,” Hugh replied gravely.
“When do you plan to meet with the Lady Elizabeth?” Richard said.
Hugh had been reaching for his ale cup, but now stilled his hand. “Why should I wish to meet with the Lady Elizabeth?”
Richard’s blue eyes regarded him with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. “Good heavens, Hugh, the girl thinks she is betrothed to you! Surely, under the circumstances, she deserves that you at least meet with her.”
A sharp line appeared between Hugh’s black brows. “I was never betrothed to her. No marriage settlements were drawn up. Nothing was signed. There was no betrothal.”
“That may be so,” Richard agreed, “but the intention of a betrothal had certainly been announced. Lady Elizabeth had every expectation that you and she would be wed. Now her father is dead and her world has been thrown into chaos. It would be most unkind of you to ignore her.”
Hugh scowled furiously. He knew that Adela would have agreed with Richard, and that thought annoyed him intensely.
“Oh, all right,” he snapped. “I shall go to see the girl. But I am going to make it very clear that I never had any intention of marrying her.”
Richard’s squire, who had been in the process of refilling his master’s ale cup, jerked his arm and spilled some liquid on the well-scoured wood.
“I am sorry, my lord,” he said to Richard, hastily snatching up a napkin to blot up the spill.
Hugh’s eyes, wearing a noticeably ironic expression, moved from Alan to Richard.
“How many times have I told you that I am not a lord, Alan?” Richard said tranquilly.
The look of idolatry in the squire’s eyes as he gazed at Richard was unmistakable.
Hugh said, “In his heart, you are always a lord, Richard.”
Alan flushed. It was what he felt, but Hugh’s tone of voice had made the sentiment sound ridiculous.
For a moment, the two young knights stared at each other. Hostility showed clearly in Hugh’s cold eyes, but Richard only looked sad.
Gervase said, “There is no need to humiliate the girl by saying that you were going to refuse her, Hugh. Obviously the whole situation has changed with the death of her father. She will be in the wardship of the king now, and he may very well decide to bestow her elsewhere. Under the circumstances no one will expect your betrothal to go forward.”
Hugh removed his gaze from Richard and looked at his host. Then he sighed. “All right, sir. I will go to see the Lady Elizabeth.”
“Good lad.” Gervase nodded his approval.
“Who is in charge of her household?” Hugh asked.
“The knight in charge is a man called Gaspar Meriot. There are nine knights in all that make up the household, and several ladies to attend the Lady Elizabeth. Not to mention the grooms and the body servants.” Gervase made a comical face. “Thank God Meriot had the sense to send home the hounds and the falcons.”
“All of these people are housed in the sheriff’s apartment?” Hugh asked with amazement.
“The ladies have the apartment,” Gervase said. “The knights are living in the guard room of the castle.”
Hugh looked curious. “What is she eating? Surely she is not partaking of the same food as the garrison.”
Dainty, delicately sauced food was not the main staple served up from the castle kitchen.
“I provided her with my own cook,” Gervase said.
Hugh looked at his host’s face for a moment, then said with amusement, “She sounds like a perfect nuisance.”
All of a sudden, Richard laughed. “I doubt that you’ll feel that way, Hugh, once you have seen her.”
7
After breaking fast, Hugh rode to the castle with Gervase and Richard. The morning streets of Lincoln were as Hugh remembered them-filled with people. The weather outside might be cold, but the small, dark houses that most of the residents of the town inhabited were almost as chilly as the outdoors and considerably less appealing than the brisk fresh air and sunshine.
The Strait was lined with open-fronted booths, which formed part of the ground floor of many of the shopkeepers’ homes. Hugh recognized most of them from the days when he would return home from school and Adela would send him out to make a purchase for her.
Ralf had employed both a man and a woman to help his wife with keeping the house, but when they resided in Lincoln, Adela had always done the cooking herself. With such a small household, she had not deemed it prudent to hire servants they did not need.
Gervase had a cook, however. And Richard had his own squire.
Hugh regarded the tall, muscular black stallion that Richard was riding and rated him as being extremely expensive.
Interesting, Hugh thought.
The three men on horseback crossed the bridge spanning the protective ditch that ran all around the outside of the Roman wall forming the outer boundary of the castle grounds. The men on duty at the gate greeted the sheriff and his party, and the three of them rode through.
The Bail was almost as filled with people as the city streets had been. Groups of townspeople were streaming to the Minster, where mass would begin in a few minutes. The market stalls set up along the far wall were doing a less brisk business than the church.
“Who rents the castle stalls?” Hugh asked Gervase.
“Local craftsmen and farmers,” Gervase replied. “It’s a good location for those who don’t have shops in town.”
“May I ask what inspired you to allow merchants in the Bail?” Hugh asked with innocent curiosity.
“I needed the money they bring in,” Gervase returned a little grimly. “After the empress landed in England last September, I had to increase the garrison knights’ pay from seven to eight pence a day. I needed to find the extra funds somewhere, and renting part of the Bail as market stalls has answered the problem very nicely.”
Rufus was looking around curiously, as if he remembered this place, and Hugh patted the stallion’s thick, arched neck.
“Why did you need to raise the knights’ pay?” he asked.
“You know what has been happening in England since the king’s right to the throne has been challenged,” the sheriff replied impatiently. “Great lords such as William of Roumare and the Earl of Chester are gathering small armies of men to themselves.” Gervase threw Hugh a disgusted look. “Why, just this past month, the Bishop of Ely himself revolted against the king!” He shook his head. “If I want to keep my men, I must pay them.”
“That makes sense, I suppose,” Hugh agreed.
The men reached the east gate of the inner walls through which they entered the castle’s large Inner bail. Inside, a dozen or so horses wandered around the stockade searching for the last wisps of hay from their breakfast. A few men were sitting in front of the wooden huts that housed the castle guard, enjoying the sun and mending harness. In one corner of the yard a group of men practiced their archery, and in another corner a wrestling match was going on.