Troubadour by Mary Hoffman Page B

he told the joglar s. ‘And there are too many people who believe that we poets and minstrels support the heretics now. We have to show veneration for Saint Martin.’
    Elinor caught the look that Perrin and Huguet exchanged and decided she must ask them about it. So when Lucatz had gone off to organise their next performance, she got the two joglar s on their own in the stables of Montpellier’s castle.
    ‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘You know something you’re not telling me. And there are whispers in the town.’
    ‘Sometimes it is better not to know too much,’ said Perrin. ‘Then you can plead ignorance if questioned.’
    ‘Questioned!’ said Elinor, alarmed. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘You heard what Lucatz said,’ said Huguet. ‘Travelling companies like ourselves, particularly the troubadours and joglar s, have been suspected of supporting the Believers and of carrying messages between them.’
    ‘And are you saying that is true?’ asked Elinor.
    Perrin shifted uneasily. ‘Sometimes and in some cases, perhaps,’ he said.
    ‘And something has happened? Something that makes our situation more dangerous?’ asked Elinor.
    ‘We’d better tell her,’ said Huguet, looking at Perrin, who nodded briefly.
    ‘There was a murder a few months ago,’ said Perrin seriously. ‘The man who died was Pierre of Castelnau and he was archdeacon of Maguelonne here – a local man.’
    ‘Why was he murdered?’
    ‘He was the Pope’s Legate,’ said Huguet. ‘His official ambassador appointed to suppress the Believers. And he had just come away from a meeting with Count Raimon of Toulouse.’
    ‘That’s why the people of Montpellier are angry,’ said Perrin. ‘They feel that one of their own has been cut down.’
    ‘And the Pope blames the Count of Toulouse,’ said Huguet.
    ‘But how does that make it dangerous for us?’ asked Elinor. She felt at a loss, at sea in a world she didn’t understand.
    ‘Bertran thinks the Pope will take vengeance, not just on the Count but on the entire south,’ said Perrin.
    ‘Bertran said that? When?’
    ‘When he came to Sévignan,’ said Huguet. ‘That’s why he arrived in winter. He was visiting all the bastides sympathetic to the Believers, to warn them.’
    Elinor was gradually beginning to understand. ‘My father . . .’ she said. Fear made her mouth dry. Was this why he had been so anxious to marry her off? Because he thought their castle would be attacked by the Pope? She forced her terror down and tried to listen carefully to what the joglar s were telling her.
    Perrin was nodding. ‘I see you know about Lord Lanval’s religion,’ he said. ‘And I think you guess that Huguet and I – and Bertran – share it.’
    ‘But what can the Pope do?’ asked Elinor. ‘And why should he attack Sévignan if it was the Count of Toulouse who ordered the murder?’ She stowed away in her mind the revelation of Bertran’s dangerous religion.
    ‘He can raise an army,’ said Huguet grimly.
    ‘He hasn’t managed to do so yet – though he has tried,’ said Perrin. ‘But this time he has the best excuse ever to go to the French King and ask for help in defeating what he sees as heresy in the south. He’s always wanted to eliminate us.’
    ‘And if an army comes, they won’t stop at Toulouse,’ said Huguet. ‘And they won’t stop at heretics either.’
    Elinor’s head was whirling with all these new ideas and facts. If Bertran was really a Believer of her father’s religion, she could understand better what her mother had meant when she said he would never marry. Elinor didn’t know much about them but she did know that all the Believers aspired to be Perfects before they died. And a Perfect must be celibate, without earthly ties.
    ‘But where is Bertran now?’ she asked. ‘And how did he know about the murder?’
    ‘He saw it,’ said Perrin. ‘And wherever he is, we must all pray he is not in danger.’

    The unexpected visitor from the Pope