party arrived safely at Heywood in the early afternoon.
Making a show of it, Galeran went to take the babe from Jehanne so she could dismount, and carried Donata into the keep.
"Galeran," said Jehanne as they entered the hall. "I would give her up for you. I would. Don't pledge yourself to her cause."
He returned the babe to her. "I have already done so. She is an innocent, Jehanne. I wouldn't give a serf's babe over to wolves, and I will not give Donata to Flambard and Lowick. At the very least, she was born in my castle and is under my protection. Go tend her. And then," he said with a smile, "I would like a bath."
* * * * * Jehanne left Galeran with anguished love in her heart. At times it seemed to her he was good to the point of madness, and she wanted to berate him as she had when they'd been young. But she knew his strong sense of justice didn't blind him to reality, and that his wits were sharp.
As he'd proved today.
But he was idealistic, and that was dangerous.
As she called for her women, she remembered all too well those times when her father was alive and Raymond had visited Heywood and flirted with her. She'd always been terrified that Galeran would take offense and make it a fighting matter.
What if it came to fighting now? Galeran was a good soldier, but no match for one like Lowick, who was bigger and known throughout the north for his fighting skills.
She'd spoken the truth earlier. Though it would tear her heart into tiny pieces, she would give Donata to the wolves rather than see Galeran die to protect her bastard child.
Her women brought warm water and clean cloths and she let them change and bathe Donata as she washed and drank some ale to refresh herself from the journey. She knew she hovered too close to Donata. She was in the habit of doing nearly everything for her, but now she made herself stand back. The time might come when she would need to be able to act on cold logic.
Distance might help.
Then Donata cried, her milk gushed forward in response, and she reached for her babe with joy and despair in her heart.
* * * * * Galeran had John take his armor for cleaning, then went to praise Walter of Matlock for his assistance to Jehanne.
"I knew well enough, Lord, that you'd not want either of them snatched away to Durham."
"Would you do the same, though, if the bishop excommunicates me?"
"Would he be so foolish as that, Lord? To try to unbless a crusader?"
"Ah, yes. I keep forgetting that I'm supposed to glow with glory."
Having the Holy Land brought to mind, Galeran went to find his packs, and carefully unwrapped several items. The wrapping itself might appeal to Jehanne, for inside the leather outer layer he had used a fine cloth from the east called qu'tun, which held dyes well.
The precious items, however, were inside.
Reverently, he took out rolled palm leaves from the road to Jerusalem, a silver cross holding water from the Jordan, a withered branch from the Garden of Olives, a pouch of dust from Calvary, and a chip of stone from a place supposed to be the Holy Sepulcher.
He contemplated another package, a spherical one, with hesitation, but in the end he unwrapped to revealed a small skull. "The skull of John the Baptist as a child, Lord!" the eager seller had whispered. "For you only . .
."
It had made him want to laugh as few things had then, so he'd bought it to share the joke with Jehanne. He hadn't needed to bring the skull, of course, to tell the tale - especially since others had bought the same relic without realizing the absurdity - but he'd intended to see how long it took her to realize what an impossible item it was.
Miracles could perhaps preserve vials of the Virgin's milk, or wine from Cana, but it would take more than a miracle to preserve the childsize skull of a man who died in his thirties.
Now, however, there was nothing at all humorous about a baby's skull. He ran a hand over the smooth white bone, tracing the edge of the eye sockets, thinking that doubtless a mother had grieved over this child's death as Jehanne grieved over Gallot.
As he himself grieved, or could . . .
He wrapped the skull again. It was the ideal gift for Ranulph