Brother Cadfael 20: Brother Cadfael's Penance

marriage, countess of Anjou by her second, the uncrowned Lady of the English.
    She did not condescend to come down to them, but stood quite still and viewed the scene with a disinterested and slightly disdainful stare, only inclining her head in acknowledgement of the king's reverence. She was regally handsome, her hair dark and rich under the gilded net of her coif, her eyes large and direct, as unnerving as the straight stare of a Byzantine saint in a mosaic, and as indifferent. She was past forty, but as durable as marble.
    "Say no word, either of you," said the king, towering over the offenders, even over the bishop, who was tall by most men's standards, "for we'll hear none. Here you are in the Church's discipline, and had best come to terms with it. Keep your quarrels for another time and place, or better still, put them away for ever. They have no place here. My lord bishop, give your orders now as to this matter of bearing arms, and announce it formally when you preside in hall tomorrow. Banish all weapons if you will, or let us have some firm regulation as to their wear, and I will see to it that who ever offends against your rule shall pay his dues in full."
    "I would not presume to deprive any man of the right to bear arms," said the bishop firmly. "I can, with full justification, take measures to regulate their use within these walls and during these grave discussions. In going about the town, certainly swords may be worn as customary, a man might well feel incomplete without his sword." His own vigorous form and aquiline face could as well have belonged to a warrior as a bishop. And was it not said of him that his heart was already set on playing more than a passive role in the defence of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem? "Within these walls," he said with deliberation, "steel must not be drawn. Within the hall in session, not even worn, but laid by in the lodgings. And no weapon must ever be worn to the offices of the Church. Whatever the outcome, no man shall challenge another man in arms, for any reason soever, until we who are met here again separate. If your Grace is content so?"
    "I am content," said Stephen. "This does well. You, gentlemen, bear it in mind, and see to it you keep faith." His blue, bright gaze swept over them both with the like broad, impersonal warning. Neither face meant anything to him, not even to which faction they belonged. Probably he had never seen either of them before, and would forget their faces as soon as he turned his back on them.
    "Then I will put the case also to the lady," said Roger de Clinton, "and declare terms when we gather tomorrow morning."
    "Do so, with my goodwill!" said the king heartily, and strode away towards the groom who was holding his horse within the gate.
    The lady, Cadfael observed when he looked again towards the doorway of the guesthall, had already withdrawn her aloof and disdainful presence from the scene, and retired to her own apartments within.
    Yves fumed his way in black silence to their lodging in one of the pilgrim houses within the precinct, half in a boy's chagrin at being chastened in public, half in a man's serious rage at having to relinquish his quarrel.
    "Why should you fret?" Hugh argued sensibly, humouring the boy but warily considering the man. "De Soulis, if that was de Soulis, has had his ears clipped, too. There's no denying it was you began it, but he was nothing loathe to spit you, if he could have done it. Now you've brought about your own deprivation. You might have known the Church would take it badly having swords drawn here on their ground."
    "I did know it," Yves admitted grudgingly, "if I'd ever stopped to think. But the sight of him, striding around as if in his own castle wards... I never thought he would show here. Good God, what must she feel, seeing him so brazen, and the wrong he has done her! She favoured him, she gave him office!"
    "She gave office to Philip no less," said Hugh hardly. "Will you fly at his throat when he comes into the conference hall?"
    "Philip is another matter," said Yves, flaring. "He gave over Cricklade, yes, that we know, but that whole garrison went willingly. Do you think I do not know there could be good reasons for a man to change his allegiance? Honest reasons? Do you think she is easy to serve? I have seen her turn cold and insolent even to Earl Robert, seen her treat him like a peasant serf when the mood was on her. And he her sole strength, and enduring all for her