The King of Thieves: by Michael Jecks Page A

to speak with him, and illuminated his entire existence for
     those moments.
    The only thing that had dimmed her smile had been the mention of the dead man.
    ‘I knew someone like him,’ she said. ‘I met him in a tavern not far from here in the days before he was killed.’
    ‘You know who he was? You must tell someone,’ Arnaud protested.
    The smile was there still, but now there was a brittle quality to it, and she looked at him very directly. ‘You think so?
     I met him and his woman. They said that they were here to take money from the Cardinal. You hear that? The Cardinal himself.
     He stole money many years before, they claimed, and they wanted to blackmail him. Get some of it for themselves. I don’t know
     about you, but I’d be wary of mentioning that to anyone. Cardinal Thomas would make a bad enemy, so I’ve heard. He could resort
     to a knife.’
    ‘But if you know the man’s name …’ Arnaud began but quickly stilled his mouth.
    ‘I do not. Why should I? He was only some fellow I got chatting to in a tavern, nothing more. I think he said his name was
     Guillaume, but I can’t be sure. All I do know is, he wasn’tParisian.’ She shook her head. ‘Terrible, to think that a man could come all the way here, and be struck down almost at once.
     So sad.’
    Westminster
    It was a full hour of the day later that Despenser stepped through the doors and out into the passage to the Great Hall.
    ‘Proud of yourself?’ he spat.
    Walter Stapledon looked at him with an eye that glinted with anger. ‘You dare ask me that!’
    ‘You will see the King leave here and go to France?’
    ‘I would see the King behave as a King, just this once. Edward must go there. If not, his son must. One or other. It matters
     not a whit.’
    ‘You think that I shall be killed if he goes, don’t you?’
    ‘Sir Hugh, whatever happens to you is supremely irrelevant to me. This is a matter of feudal honour and the Crown.’
    Despenser glanced about them, and then suddenly gripped the Bishop’s robes with both fists. He shoved Stapledon back against
     one of the massive pillars in the hall, his face so close the older man could feel the breath that rasped in his throat.
    ‘You think you’ll be safe when I’m dead? I swear to you,
Bishop
, I shall live longer than you, and you will die in the gutter, missed by no one, mourned by no one. You’ll regret this decision
     for the rest of your days, if you don’t get him to think again!’
    Stapledon was unimpressed. ‘You have threatened and blustered so often in my presence, Sir Hugh, that your words no longer
     make me tremble,’ he said coldly. ‘In future, try to persuade yourself to emulate me and see to the benefit of the realm and
     others before you look to your own advantage.’
    ‘I swear I’ll—’
    Stapledon raised his eyebrows, and then he spoke with acalm, quiet certainty. ‘I know that excommunication holds no terrors for you, Sir Hugh, but
I
swear on the Gospels, that if you continue to attempt to block the only sensible course for our poor King, I will definitely
     seek your excommunication, and then I shall also lay a curse upon you of such virulence and authority that all the saints
     will be unable to raise it from your putrid, stinking soul. You will leave me alone, Sir Hugh, or I shall destroy you utterly.’
    ‘Go, then!’ Despenser said, turning and releasing him, raising his hands from the Bishop’s robes as he did so, as though fearing
     that they might have been contaminated. ‘You go, old man, and we shall see who wins this battle. It will be a struggle, though,
     I warn you. I do not intend to see myself captured by my enemies and destroyed just because you seek to promote your own silly
     little cause.’
    ‘You call honour and the Crown silly? You dare to speak of them with such contempt? Truly, Sir Hugh, you will live to regret
     such disdain.’
    ‘You think so? Old fool,
you
will regret your presumption in trying to threaten