There was silence. William walked slowly down the steps and across the kitchen courtyard. His words had sounded to Aliena like a sentence of imprisonment. The crowd parted for him. He threw a smug look at Aliena as he passed her. They all watched him walk to the gate and mount his horse. He gave an order and trotted away, leaving two of his men standing at the gate, looking in.

When Aliena turned around, Philip was standing beside her and Jack. “Go to my house,” he said quietly. “We must discuss this.” He went back into the kitchen.

Aliena had the impression that he was secretly pleased about something.

The excitement was over. The builders returned to work, talking animatedly. Ellen went to the house to be with the grandchildren. Aliena and Jack walked through the graveyard, skirting the building site, and went into Philip’s house. He was not yet there. They sat on a bench to wait. Jack sensed Aliena’s anxiety for her brother, and gave her a comforting hug.

Looking around, Aliena realized that year by year Philip’s house was slowly becoming more comfortable. It was still bare by the standards of an earl’s private quarters in a castle, say, but it was not as austere as it had once been. In front of the little altar in the corner there was now a small rug, to save the prior’s knees during the long nights of prayer; and on the wall behind the altar hung a jeweled silver crucifix that must have been a costly gift. It would do Philip no harm to be easier on himself as he got older, Aliena thought. Perhaps he would be a little easier on others too.

A few moments later Philip came in, with a flustered-looking Richard in tow. Richard began speaking immediately. “William can’t do this, it’s mad! I found Alfred trying to rape my sister-he had a knife in his hand-he almost killed me!”

“Calm down,” Philip said. “Let’s talk about this quietly, and try calmly to determine what the dangers are, if any. Why don’t we all take a seat?”

Richard sat down, but he went on talking. “Dangers? There are no dangers. A sheriff can’t imprison an earl for anything, even murder.”

“He’s going to try,” Philip said. “He’ll have men waiting outside the priory.”

Richard made a dismissive gesture. “I can get past William’s men blindfold. They’re no problem. Jack can be waiting for me outside the town wall with a horse.”

“And when you reach Earlscastle?” said Philip.

“Same thing. I can sneak past William’s men. Or have my own men come out to meet me.”

“That sounds satisfactory,” said Philip. “And what then?”

“Then nothing,” said Richard. “What can William do?”

“Well, he still has a royal writ that summons you to answer a charge of murder. He’ll try to arrest you anytime you leave the castle.”

“I’ll go everywhere escorted.”

“And when you hold court, in Shiring and other places?”

“Same thing.”

“But will anyone abide by your decisions, knowing that you yourself are a fugitive from the law?”

“They’d better,” Richard said darkly. “They should remember how William enforced his decisions when he was the earl.”

“They may not be as frightened of you as they were of William. They may think you’re not as bloodthirsty and evil. I hope they would be right.”

“Don’t count on it.”

Aliena frowned. It was not like Philip to be so pessimistic-unless he had an ulterior motive. She suspected that he was laying the groundwork for some scheme he had up his sleeve. I’d bet money, she thought, that the quarry will come into this somehow.

“My main worry is the king,” Philip was saying. “In refusing to answer the charge, you’re defying the crown. A year ago I would have said go ahead and defy it. But now that the war is over, it won’t be so easy for earls to do as they please.”

Jack said: “It looks as if you’ll have to answer the charge, Richard.”

“He can’t do that,” Aliena said. “He’s got no hope of justice.”

“She’s right,” Philip said. “The case would be heard in the royal court. The facts are already known: Alfred tried to force himself upon Aliena, Richard came in, they fought, and Richard killed Alfred. Everything depends on the interpretation. And with William, a loyal supporter of King Stephen, making the complaint, and Richard being one of Duke Henry’s greatest allies, the verdict will probably be guilty. Why did King Stephen sign the writ? Presumably because he’s decided to take revenge on Richard for fighting against him. The death of Alfred provides him with a perfect excuse.”

Aliena said: “We must appeal to Duke Henry to intervene.”

It was Richard who looked dubious now. “I wouldn’t like to rely on him. He’s in Normandy. He might write a letter of protest, but what else could he do? Conceivably he could cross the channel with an army, but then he would be in breach of the peace pact, and I don’t think he’d risk that for me.”

Aliena felt miserable and frightened. “Oh, Richard, you’re caught in a terrible web, and it’s all because you saved me.”

He gave her his most charming grin. “I’d do it again, too, Allie.”

“I know.” He meant it. For all his faults, he was brave. It seemed unfair that he should be confronted with such an intractable problem so soon after he succeeded to the earldom. As earl he was a disappointment to Aliena-a terrible disappointment-but he did not deserve this.

“Well, what a choice,” he said. “I can stay here in the priory until Duke Henry becomes king, or hang for murder. I’d become a monk if you monks didn’t eat so much fish.”

“There might be another way out,” said Philip.

Aliena looked at him eagerly. She had suspected that he was hatching a plot, and she would be grateful to him if he could resolve Richard’s dilemma.

“You could do penance for the killing,” Philip went on.

“Would it involve eating fish?” Richard said flippantly.

“I’m thinking about the Holy Land,” Philip said.

They all went quiet. Palestine was ruled by the king of Jerusalem, Baldwin III, a Christian of French origin. It was constantly under attack by neighboring Muslim countries, especially Egypt to the south and Damascus to the east. To go there, a journey of six months or a year, and join the armies fighting to defend the Christian kingdom, was indeed the kind of penance a man might do to purge his soul of a killing. Aliena felt a qualm of anxiety: not everybody came back from the Holy Land. But she had been worrying about Richard in wars for years, and the Holy Land was probably no more dangerous than England. She would just have to fret. She was used to it.

“The king of Jerusalem always needs men,” Richard said. Every few years emissaries from the pope would tour the country, telling tales of battle and glory in the defense of Christendom, trying to inspire young men to go and fight in the Holy Land. “But I’ve only just come into my earldom,” he said. “And who would be in charge of my lands while I was away?”

“Aliena,” said Philip.

Aliena suddenly felt breathless. Philip was proposing that she should take the place of the earl, and rule as her father had done… The proposal stunned her for a moment, but as soon as she recovered her senses she knew it was right. When a man went to the Holy Land his domains were normally looked after by his wife. There was no reason why a sister should not fulfill the same role for an unmarried earl. And she would run the earldom the way she had always known it ought to be run, with justice and vision and imagination. She would do all the things Richard had so dismally failed to do. Her heart raced as she thought the idea through. She would try out new ideas, plowing with horses instead of oxen, and planting spring crops of oats and peas on fallow land. She would clear new lands for planting, establish new markets, and open the quarry to Philip after all this time-

He had thought of that, of course. Of all the clever schemes Philip had dreamed up over the years, this was probably the most ingenious. At one stroke he solved three problems: he got Richard off the hook, he put a competent ruler in charge of the earldom, and he got his quarry at last.