A moment later a helmeted head looked around the gatepost. It belonged to a large man-at-arms. The man saw Richard running toward the church, shouted in alarm, and dashed into the close. He was followed by three, four, five more men.
The funeral party scattered. The men-at-arms ignored them and went after Richard. Aliena was scared and mystified: who would dare to attack the earl of Shiring openly and in a priory? She held her breath as she watched them chase Richard across the close. He leaped over the low wall that the masons were building. His pursuers jumped over it behind him, unmindful that they were entering a church. The craftsmen froze in position, trowels and hammers raised, as first Richard, then his pursuers, charged by. One of the younger and more quick-thinking apprentices stuck out a shovel and tripped a man-at-arms, who went flying; but no one else intervened. Richard reached the door that led to the cloisters. The man closest behind him raised his sword above his head. For a terrible moment Aliena thought the door was locked and Richard could not get in. The man-at-arms struck at Richard with his sword. Richard got the door open and slipped inside, and the sword bit into the wood as the door slammed.
Aliena breathed again.
The men-at-arms gathered around the cloister door, then began to look about uncertainly. They seemed to realize, all of a sudden, where they were. The craftsmen gave them hostile stares and hefted their hammers and axes. There were close to a hundred builders and only five men-at-arms.
Jack said angrily: “Who the hell are those people?”
He was answered by a voice from behind. “They are the sheriffs men.”
Aliena turned around, aghast. She knew that voice horribly well. There at the gate, on a nervous black stallion, armed and wearing chain mail, was William Hamleigh. The sight of him sent a chill through her.
Jack said: “Get out of here, you loathsome insect.”
William flushed at the insult, but he did not move. “I’ve come to make an arrest.”
“Go ahead. Richard’s men will tear you apart.”
“He won’t have any men when he’s in jail.”
“Who do you think you are? A sheriff can’t put an earl in jail!”
“He can for murder.”
Aliena gasped. She saw immediately how William’s devious mind was working. “There was no murder!” she burst out.
“There was,” William said. “Earl Richard murdered Alfred Builder. And now I must explain to Prior Philip that he is harboring a killer.”
William kicked his horse and rode past them, across the west end of the unbuilt nave, to the kitchen courtyard which was where laymen were received. Aliena watched him with incredulity. He was so evil it was hard to believe. Poor Alfred, whom they had just buried, had done much wrong through small-mindedness and weakness of character: his badness was more tragic than anything else. But William was a real servant of the devil. Aliena thought: When will we be rid of this monster?
The men-at-arms joined William in the kitchen courtyard and one of them hammered on the kitchen door with the hilt of his sword. The builders left the site and stood in a crowd, glaring at the intruders, looking dangerous with their heavy hammers and sharp chisels. Aliena told Martha to take the children home; then she and Jack stood with the builders.
Prior Philip came to the kitchen door. He was shorter than William, and in his light summer habit he appeared very small by comparison with the beefy man on horseback in chain mail; but there was a look of righteous anger on Philip’s face that made him seem more formidable than William.
William said: “You are harboring a fugitive—”
Philip interrupted him with a roar. “Leave this place!”
William tried again. “There has been a murder—”
“Get out of my priory!” Philip yelled.
“I am the sheriff—”
“Not even the king may bring men of violence into the precincts of a monastery! Get out! Get out!”
The builders began to murmur angrily among themselves. The men-at-arms looked at them nervously. William said: “Even the prior of Kingsbridge must answer to the sheriff.”
“Not on these terms! Get your men off the premises. Leave your weapons in the stable. When you’re ready to act like a humble sinner in the house of God, you may enter the priory; andthenthe prior will answer your questions.”
Philip stepped back inside and slammed the door.
The builders cheered.
Aliena found herself cheering too. William had been a figure of power and dread all her life, and it lifted her heart to see him defied by Prior Philip.
But William was not yet ready to concede defeat. He got off his horse. Slowly he unbuckled his sword belt and handed it to one of his men. He said a few quiet words to the men, and they retreated across the priory close, taking his sword. William watched them until they reached the gate; then he turned back and faced the kitchen door once again.
