The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett [417]
Like William, Waleran sensed the young builder’s insubordinate attitude, and reacted with a coldly haughty voice. “Well, lad, what’s your business with me?”
“The truth,” Jack said. “How many men have you seen hang?”
William caught his breath. It was a shocking and insolent question. He looked at the others. His mother was leaning forward, frowning intently at Jack, as if she might have seen him before and was trying to place him. Waleran was looking coldly amused.
Waleran said: “Is this a riddle? I’ve seen more men hang than I care to count, and there will be another if you don’t speak respectfully.”
“I beg your pardon, my lord bishop,” Jack said, but he still did not sound frightened. “Do you remember all of them?”
“I think so,” Waleran said, and he sounded intrigued despite himself. “I suppose there is a particular one that you’re interested in.”
“Twenty-two years ago, at Shiring, you watched the hanging of a man called Jack Shareburg.”
William heard his mother give a muffled gasp.
“He was a jongleur,” Jack continued. “Do you recall him?”
William felt the atmosphere in the room become tense all of a sudden. There was something unnaturally frightful about Jack Jackson; there had to be, for him to have this effect on Waleran and Mother. “I think perhaps I do remember,” Waleran said, and William heard in his voice the strain of self-control. What was going on here?
“I imagine you do,” Jack said, and now he was sounding insolent again. “The man was convicted on the testimony of three people. Two of them are now dead. You were the third.”
Waleran nodded. “He had stolen something from Kingsbridge Priory—a jeweled chalice.”
A flinty look came into Jack’s blue eyes. “He had done nothing of the kind.”
“I caught him myself, with the chalice on him.”
“You lied.”
There was a pause. When Waleran spoke again his tone was mild but his face was as hard as iron. “I may have your tongue ripped out for that,” he said.
“I just want to know why you did it,” Jack said as if he had not heard the grisly threat. “You can be candid here. William is no threat to you, and his mother seems to know all about it already.”
William looked at his mother. It was true, she did have a knowing air. William himself was now completely mystified. It seemed—he hardly dared to hope—that Jack’s visit actually had nothing to do with William and his secret plans to kill Aliena’s lover.
Regan said to Jack: “You’re accusing the bishop of perjury!”
“I shan’t repeat the charge in public,” Jack said coolly. “I’ve got no proof, and anyway I’m not interested in revenge. I would just like to understand why you hanged an innocent man.”
“Get out of here,” Waleran said icily.
Jack nodded as if he had expected no more. Although he had not got answers to his questions, there was a look of satisfaction on his face, as if his suspicions had somehow been confirmed.
William was still baffled by the whole exchange. On impulse, he said: “Wait a moment.”
Jack turned at the door and looked at him with those mocking blue eyes.
“What ...” William swallowed and got his voice under control. “What’s your interest in this? Why did you come here and ask these questions?”
“Because the man they hanged was my father,” Jack said, and he went out.
There was a silence in the room. So Aliena’s lover, the master builder at Kingsbridge, was the son of a thief who had been hanged at Shiring, William thought: so what? But Mother seemed anxious, and Waleran actually looked