Brother Cadfael 19: The Holy Thief

Owain Gwynedd, as I know, even if Powys boils over now and again."
    "I study and practise to keep my place," said Hugh with a grin.
    "You study and practise to keep your shire functioning as quietly as may be," said the earl. "So do all men of sense, but against the odds."
    They were sitting in the earl's apartment in the guest-hall, facing each other across a small table, with wine passing amiably between them, and a curtained door closed and shrouded against the world. Robert Bossu was well served. His squires were prompt to his call, and soft-footed and neat-handed with flask and glass, and seemed to go in no awe of him, but rather to take pride in matching his poise and serenity; but for all that, he dismissed them before he opened his confidence to one almost a stranger, and Hugh had no doubt that they kept his rules and betook themselves well out of earshot of his conversation, though close enough to jump to respond if he called.
    "I like order," said Hugh, "and I have a preference for keeping my people alive and whole where possible, though you have seen it cannot always be done. I hate waste. Waste of lives, waste of time that could be profitable, waste of the earth that could be fruitful. There's been more than enough of all three. If I try to keep it out of my bailiwick, at least, is that matter for wonder?"
    "Your opinion," said the earl with deliberation, "I should value. What you say here, I have said before you. Now, do you see any ending? How many more years of this to-ing and fro-ing that always fetches up in stalemate? You are Stephen's man. So am I. Men every bit as honourable follow the empress. We entangle ourselves like this with little thought, but I tell you, Hugh, the time is coming when men will be forced to think, upon both sides, before waste has wasted all, and no man can lift a lance any more."
    "And you and I are conserving what we can for that day?" Hugh enquired, with raised brows and a rueful mouth.
    "Oh, not for a few years yet, but it will come. It must. There was some vestige of sense in it when we began, when Stephen had Normandy as well as England, and victory was in view. But four years and more ago that was all changed, when Geoffrey of Anjou wormed and bludgeoned his way into Normandy and made it his past doubt, even if it was in his wife's right and his son's name."
    "Yes," agreed Hugh flatly, "the year the Count of Meulan left us, to protect his right in Normandy by coming to terms with Geoffrey as overlord in Stephen's place."
    "What else," asked Robert, undisturbed and unindignant, even wryly smiling, "could my brother do? His right and title rest there. He is Waleran, Count of Meulan; however dear his titles in England may be, his line and identity is there. Not even Normandy, though the greater part of his inheritance is in Normandy. But the name, the name is in France itself, he owes homage to the king of France for that, and now for the larger heritage to Geoffrey of Anjou. Whatever else he jettisons, the root and blood of his name he cannot live without. I am the luckier of the two, Hugh. I came into my father's English lands and titles, I can dig my heels in here, and sit it out. True, my wife brought me Breteuil, but that is the lesser part of my heart, as my brother's title of Worcester is the lesser part of his. So he is there, and written off as a turncoat in Maud's favour as I am here, and credited as a loyal man to Stephen. And what difference, Hugh, do you see between us two? Twin brothers, the closest blood-kin there can be?"
    "None," said Hugh, and was silent a moment, weighing and discarding the cautious selection of words. "I understand very well," he said then, "that with Normandy gone, this followed. For others, besides the Beaumont brothers. There's not a man among us would not make some concessions to protect his rooted right and his sons' inheritance. We may reckon your brother as Anjou's man now, yet he will do Stephen as little harm as he can, and give Geoffrey as little active support. And you, left here still Stephen's man, you will keep your loyalty, but keep it as quietly as may be, avoiding action against the brood of Anjou as Waleran avoids action against Stephen. And there he will glaze over your continued allegiance and protect your lands and interests, as you are doing here for him. The division between you is no division at all. It is a drawing together that will draw together the interests of many others like you. Not in Stephen's cause,