The Jester

“I found her. In a cell in Borée.”

“Sonofabitch!” the smith grunted. His eyes lit up, delighted. Then he searched mine, serious. “Yet I see you’ve crawled back out of the woods alone.”

I bowed my head. “I found her, Odo, but only long enough for her to die in my arms. They held her as a hostage, thinking that we had something of theirs, something of great value. I’ve come back to tell her brother, Matthew, of her fate.”

Odo shook his head. “I’m sorry, Hugh. That won’t be possible.”

“Why? What’s happened, Odo?”

“ Baldwin ’s men were here again. For you… They said you were a murderer and a coward. They said you ran from the Crusade and killed the lord’s chatelain. Then they ransacked the village. They said any who harbored you would be tried on pain of death. A few of us stood up…”

A grim, ugly stench sent a panic through my stomach. “What is that stench, Odo?”

“Matthew was one who stood up for you,” the smith went on. “He said you had been wronged. That the chatelain had [241] burned your house and child, and taken your wife, and if Norcross was dead, it was justly deserved for what he had done. He showed them the i

“No!” A pain shot through my chest. Another weight seemed to crush my heart. Poor Matthew. Why him? Now another was dead… because of me. This nightmare had to end!

I raised my head. A terrible fear pulsed up in my gut. “You did not answer me… What is that smell?”

Odo shook his head. “They burned the town, Hugh.”

Chapter 80

I WALKED WITH ODO into the desolate village, the place that only two years before I had called my home.

All around, fields, cottages, and grain holds were no more than mounds of cinder and stone. Dwellings were either caved in and reduced to rubble, or in some begi

People put down their hammers, stopped chopping wood.

A group of children shouted and pointed. “Look, it’s Hugh. He’s come back. It’s Hugh!”

Everyone looked up in disbelief. People rushed up to me. “Is it you, Hugh? Have you truly come back?”

A kind of procession picked up around me. What a sight I must have been, in my ragged checkered tunic, my torn green hose. I marched through the cluttered street directly to the square. My last time here, I had been in such a haze, having found out what had happened to my wife and son. Now everything was new, unreal, and so very sad.

A clamor built up, some crying, “Glory to God, it’s Hugh. He’s back,” while others spat in my path. “Go away, Hugh. You’re the devil. Look what you’ve done.”

By the time I reached the square, maybe seventy people, most everyone in town, had formed a ring around me.

[243] I gazed at our i

A rush of tears welled in my eyes. They streamed down my cheeks. I began to weep, weep in a way I hadn’t done since I was a small child.

God damn you, Baldwin. And God damn me, for my stupid pride.

I fell to my knees. My wife, my son… Matthew… Everything was ruined. So many had died.

The ring of townspeople stood there and let me weep. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I choked back sobs and looked up. It was Father Leo. I had never paid much heed to him, with his little domed head, his sermons. Now I prayed he would not remove his hand, for it was all that kept me from keeling over in a ball of shame and grief.

The priest lovingly squeezed my shoulder. “This is Baldwin ’s doing, Hugh, not yours.”

“Aye, it is Baldwin ’s work,” someone shouted from the crowd. “Hugh meant us no harm. It is not his fault.”

“We pay our shares, and this is how the bastard repays us,” a woman wailed.

“Hugh must go,” another said. “He killed Norcross. He will cause us all to burn.”

“Yes, he did kill Norcross,” echoed another. “God’s praise to him! Who among us has stood up like that?”

Voices rose. The shouting built into a clamor-some for me, some against. A few, including Odo and the priest, begged for reason while others started throwing pebbles and stones at me.

“Have pity on us, Hugh,” someone wailed. “Please, go, before the knights return!”

[244] In the midst of the clamor, a woman’s voice shouted above the din. Everyone turned and grew quiet.

It was Marie, the miller’s wife. I remembered her kind face. She and Sophie were best friends; they had been to the well together the day her son was drowned.

“We’ve lost more than any of you.” She sca

“Marie’s right,” said her husband, Georges, the miller. “It is Hugh who killed Norcross and avenged my son.” He helped me to my feet and put out his hand. “I’m grateful you’re back, Hugh.”

“And I,” said Odo, his voice booming. “I’m sick of quaking every time I hear horsemen come near town.”

“You’re right.” Martin the tailor hung his head. “It is our own liege who is responsible, not Hugh. But what can we do? We are pledged to him.”

It hit me there, in that moment, as I observed my neighbors’ helplessness and fear. I knew what we must do. “Then break the pledge,” I said.

There was a moment of stu

“Break the pledge?” the tailor gasped.

People turned to one another and shook their heads, as if my words were a sign that I was mad. “If we break the pledge, Baldwin will come back. This time it won’t be just our houses that he burns.”

“Then next time, friends, we’ll be ready for him,” I said, turning to catch every eye.

A wary silence filled the square. These people looked at me as if the words I uttered were heresy that damned us all.

I knew that these words, and this idea, could set us free.

I stared out at them and shouted, “Break the pledge!”

Chapter 81

EMILIE STORMED PAST the guards to A

Emilie’s blood was surging. The duke had returned the night before, yet it was not Stephen who was in her mind but A

All morning, Emilie had prayed about what to do. She knew she had crossed a line with Hugh. My God, she had given aid to someone who’d killed a member of the duke’s guard. For that she could be imprisoned. She had asked herself over and over, If I cross this line, am I prepared to lose everything? My family’s blessing, my position in the court. My name… And each time the answer had come back clear and strong. How could I not?

She pushed open the large wooden door to A

William, A

“I will, Mother,” the boy said, ru

“You are ill, madame?” Emilie asked.

“You storm into my chambers,” A