Brother Cadfael 10: The Pilgrim of Hate

should not now accept the proffered peace under the Empress Maud, and take the oath of loyalty to her. This is the message of the bishop and the council: This land has all too long been torn between two factions, and suffered great damage and loss through their mutual enmity. And here, say that I lay no blame on that party which is not my own, for there are valid claims on both sides, and equally the blame falls on both for failing to come to some agreement to end these distresses. The fortune at Lincoln might just as well have fallen the opposing way, but it fell as it did, and England is left with a king made captive, and a queen-elect free and in the ascendant. Is it not time to call a halt? For the sake of order and peace and the sound regulation of the realm, and to have a government in command which can and must put down the many injustices and tyrannies which you know, as well as I, have set themselves up outside all law. Surely any strong rule is better than no rule at all. For the sake of peace and order, will you not accept the empress, and hold your county in allegiance to her? She is already in Westminster now, the preparations for her coronation go forward. There is a far better prospect of success if all sheriffs come in to strengthen her rule."
    "You are asking me," said Hugh gently, "to go back on my sworn fealty to King Stephen."
    "Yes," agreed Olivier honestly, "I am. For weighty reasons, and in no treasonous mind. You need not love, only forbear from hating. Think of it rather as keeping your fealty to the people of this county of yours, and this land."
    "That I can do as well or better on the side where I began," said Hugh, smiling. "It is what I am doing now, as best I can. It is what I will continue to do while I have breath. I am King Stephen's man, and I will not desert him."
    "Ah, well!" said Olivier, smiling and sighing in the same breath. "To tell you truth, now I've met you, I expected nothing less. I would not go from my oath, either. My lord is the empress's man, and I am my lord's man, and if our positions were changed round, my answer would be the same as yours. Yet there is truth in what I have pleaded. How much can a people bear? Your labourer in the fields, your little townsman with a bare living to be looted from him, these would be glad to settle for Stephen or for Maud, only to be rid of the other. And I do what I am sent out to do, as well as I can."
    "I have no fault to find with the matter or the manner," said Hugh. "Where next do you go? Though I hope you will not go for a day or two, I would know you better, and we have a great deal to talk over, you and I."
    "From here north-east to Stafford, Derby, Nottingham, and back by the eastern parts. Some will come to terms, as some lords have done already. Some will hold to their own king, like you. And some will do as they have done before, go back and forth like a weather-cock with the wind, and put up their price at every change. No matter, we have done with that now."
    He leaned forward over the table, setting his wine-cup aside. "I had - I have - another errand of my own, and I should be glad to stay with you a few days, until I have found what I'm seeking, or made certain it is not here to be found. Your mention of this flood of pilgrims for the feast gives me a morsel of hope. A man who wills to be lost could find cover among so many, all strangers to one another. I am looking for a young man called Luc Meverel. He has not, to your knowledge, made his way here?"
    "Not by that name," said Hugh, interested and curious. "But a man who willed to be lost might choose to doff his own name. What's your need of him?"
    "Not mine. It's a lady who wants him back. You may not have got word, this far north," said Oliver, "of everything that happened in Winchester during the council. There was a death there that came all too near to me. Did you hear of it? King Stephen's queen sent her clerk there with a bold challenge to the legate's authority, and the man was attacked for his audacity in the street by night, and got off with his life only at the cost of another life."
    "We have indeed heard of it," said Hugh with kindling interest. "Abbot Radulfus was there at the council, and brought back a full report. A knight by the name of Rainald Bossard, who came to the clerk's aid when he was set upon. One of those in the service of Laurence d'Angers, so we heard."
    "Who is my lord, also."
    "By your good service to his kin at Bromfield that was