The Conqueror Read Online Free Page B

from his belt, and let it fall beside the peasant. ‘Here is something to pay for the house,’ he said awkwardly. ‘You need not be afraid: he won’t come back, I promise you.’
    He caught Verceray’s bridle, and vaulted into the peaked saddle, and with no more than a nod to the older woman, rode off in the wake of Gilbert’s cavalcade.
    When he came in sight of the donjon of Harcourt the first stars were winking overhead, and the light had grown dim and grey. The drawbridge was still down, and the gate-keeper was on the watch for him. He rode into the bailey, and leaving Verceray to one of the grooms, went to the main building, and ran quickly up the outside stairway to the door that opened into the great hall.
    As he had expected, Gilbert was there, angrily recounting all that had befallen to his father, and to Eudes, who sat astride one of the benches, and roared with laughter. Raoul slammed the door shut behind him, and unclasped his cloak from his shoulders, tossing it into a corner. His father looked at him frowningly, but more in perplexity than in wrath. ‘Well, here is a fine piece of work!’ he said. ‘What have you to say, boy?’
    ‘This!’ said Raoul, coming into the circle of light thrown by the candles on the table. ‘I have sat at home idle too long, shutting my eyes to what I could not cure.’ He glanced at Gilbert, fuming on the other side of the table, and at Eudes, still chuckling to himself. ‘Year after year such beastliness as I chanced upon to-day happens, and men like Gilbert there, and Eudes, ravage Normandy for their lusts, caring nothing for the weal of this Duchy.’ He laughed shortly to see Eudes staring at him with dropped jaw, and turned his eyes back to his father’s puzzled face. ‘You gave me a sword, father, and I swore that I would put it to good use. By God, I will keep that oath, and wield it for Normandy, and justice! Look!’ He whipped the sword out of the scabbard as he spoke, and holding it flat between his hands, showed them the runes inscribed on the blade. The candle flame quivered in the draught, and the light flickered along the steel.
    Hubert bent to read the runes, but shook his head over the strange writing. ‘What does it mean?’ he asked. ‘I have never known.’
    ‘Brother Clerk will surely know,’ mocked Gilbert.
    ‘Yes, I know,’ Raoul said. ‘In our tongue, father, it reads thus: Le bon temps viendra. ’
    ‘I do not see much to that,’ said Eudes, disappointed.
    Raoul glanced across at him. ‘But I see a great deal,’ he said. He slammed the sword back into the scabbard. ‘The good time will come when men who conduct themselves like robbers are no longer allowed to go unpunished.’
    Hubert looked in a startled way at Gilbert. ‘God’s feet, is the boy mad? What sort of talk is this, my son? Come, come, you have no need to be in such a heat over a parcel of bondmen! I won’t say that Gilbert is right, but as I understand it you drew steel upon him, and that is a bad business, and gives him some cause to complain of you.’
    ‘As to that,’ Gilbert growled, ‘I am very well able to take care of myself, and I don’t bear malice against a silly stripling, believe me. I’m glad enough to see the whelp has blood in his veins, instead of the water I always thought ran there, but for the future I’ll thank him to keep his hands off my affairs.’
    ‘For the future,’ Raoul said, ‘you will keep your hands off that wench, Gilbert. Let that be understood!’
    ‘Ah, shall I indeed?’ Gilbert said, beginning to bristle again. ‘And do you think I am very like to heed your words, you eft?’
    ‘No,’ replied Raoul, with a sudden smile that was like sunshine after storm, ‘but I leave for Beaumont-le-Roger at daybreak, and mayhap you will heed my lord instead of me.’
    Gilbert’s hand flew to his knife. ‘You tale-bearing cur!’ he stuttered. ‘So you would get me outlawed, would you?’
    Hubert pushed him back. ‘Enough of