Things had changed in the life of Gerald and Maud, Ralph discovered. His mother wore a new green dress to church, and his father had leather shoes. Back at home there was a goose stuffed with apples roasting over the fire, filling the little house with a mouthwatering smell, and a loaf of wheat bread, the most expensive kind, standing on the table.
The money came from Merthin, Ralph soon learned. 'He gets paid four pence a day every day he works on St. Mark's,' Maud said proudly. 'And he's building a new house for Dick Brewer. That's as well as getting ready to build the new bridge.'
Merthin received a lower wage for working on the bridge, he explained while his father carved the goose, because he had been given Leper Island in part payment. The last remaining leper, old and bedridden, had been moved to a small house in the monks' orchard on the far side of the river.
Ralph found that his mother's evident happiness left a sour taste in his mouth. He had believed, since he was a boy, that the destiny of the family lay in his hands. He had been sent away, at the age of fourteen, to join the household of the earl of Shiring, and he had known even then that it was up to him to wipe out his father's humiliation by becoming a knight, perhaps a baron, even an earl. Merthin, by contrast, had been apprenticed to a carpenter, and set on a road that could only lead farther down the social hill. Builders were never made knights.
It was some consolation that their father was unimpressed by Merthin's success. He showed signs of impatience when Maud talked about building projects. 'My elder son seems to have inherited the blood of Jack Builder, my only low-born ancestor,' he said, and his tone was amazed rather than proud. 'But, Ralph, tell us how you're getting on at the court of Earl Roland.'
Unfortunately, Ralph had so far mysteriously failed to rise in the nobility, whereas Merthin was buying his parents new clothes and expensive dinners. Ralph knew he should just be grateful that one of them had won success, and that even if his parents remained humble they could at least be comfortable. But, though his mind told him to rejoice, his heart seethed with resentment.
And now he had to persuade his brother to give up the bridge. The trouble with Merthin was that he would never see anything simply. He was not like the knights and squires with whom Ralph had spent the last seven years. They were fighting men. In their world loyalties were clear, bravery was the virtue, and the issue was life or death. There was never much need for deep thought. But Merthin thought about everything. He could not play a game of checkers without suggesting a change in the rules.
He was explaining to their parents why he had accepted four acres of barren rock in part payment for his work on the bridge. 'Everyone thinks the land is worthless because it's an island,' he said. 'What they don't realize is that when the bridge is built the island will become part of the city. Townspeople will walk across the bridge just as they walk along the main street. And four acres of city land is very valuable. If I build houses on it, the rents will be worth a fortune.'
Gerald said: 'You've a few years to wait before then.'
'I'm getting some income from it already. Jake Chepstow is renting half an acre to use as a timber yard. He's bringing logs from Wales.'
'Why from Wales?' Gerald asked. 'The New Forest is nearer - their wood should be cheaper.'
'It should be, but the earl of Shaftesbury charges a toll or a tax at every river ford and bridge in his territory.'
It was a familiar gripe. Many lords found ways to tax goods that passed through their territories.
As they started to eat, Ralph said to Merthin: 'I bring you news of another opportunity. The earl wants to build a new palace at Earlscastle.'
Merthin looked suspicious. 'He sent you to ask me to design it?'
'I suggested you. Lady Philippa was berating him about how old-fashioned the keep is, and I said I knew the right person to talk to.'
Maud was thrilled. 'Isn't that wonderful?'
Merthin remained skeptical. 'And the earl said he wanted me?'
'Yes.'
'Amazing. A few months ago I couldn't get a job. Now I've got too much to do. And Earlscastle is two days away. I don't see how I could build a palace there and a bridge here at the same time.'
'Oh, you'll have to give up the bridge,' Ralph said.
'What?'
'Work for the earl has to take precedence over everything else, naturally.'
'I'm not sure that's right.'
'Take it from me.'
'Did he say that?'
'Yes, as a matter of fact, he did.'
Their father joined in. 'This is a marvelous opportunity, Merthin,' he said. 'To build a palace for an earl!'
'Of course it is,' Merthin replied. 'But a bridge for this town is at least as important.'
'Don't be stupid,' his father said.
'I do my best not to be,' Merthin said sarcastically.
'The earl of Shiring is one of the great men of the land. The prior of Kingsbridge is a nobody, by comparison.'
Ralph cut a slice of goose thigh and put it in his mouth, but he could hardly swallow. He had been afraid of this. Merthin was going to be difficult. He would not take orders from their father, either. He had never been obedient, even as a child.
Ralph felt desperate. 'Listen,' he said. 'The earl doesn't want the new bridge to be built. He thinks it will take business away from Shiring.'
'Aha,' said Gerald. 'You don't want to go up against the earl, Merthin.'
'Is that what's behind this, Ralph?' Merthin asked. 'Is Roland offering me this job just to prevent the building of the bridge?'
'Not just for that reason.'
'But it's a condition. If I want to build his palace, I must abandon the bridge.'
Gerald said with exasperation: 'You don't have a choice, Merthin! The earl doesn't request, he commands.'
Ralph could have told him that an argument based on authority was not the way to persuade Merthin.
Merthin said: 'I don't think he can command the prior of Kingsbridge, who has commissioned me to build this bridge.'
'But he can command you.'
'Can he? He's not my lord.'
'Don't be foolish, son. You can't win a fight with an earl.'
'I don't think Roland's quarrel is with me, Father. This is between the earl and the prior. Roland wants to use me, as a hunter uses a dog, but I think I'd do better to stay out of the fight.'
'I think you should do what the earl says. Don't forget, he's your kinsman, too.'
Merthin tried a different argument. 'Has it occurred to you what a betrayal this would be of Prior Godwyn?'
Gerald made a disgusted noise. 'What loyalty do we owe the priory? It was the monks who forced us into penury.'
'And your neighbors? The people of Kingsbridge, among whom you've lived for ten years? They need the bridge - it's their lifeline.'
'We are of the nobility,' his father said. 'We're not required to take into account the needs of mere merchants.'
Merthin nodded. 'You may feel that way, but as a mere carpenter I can't share your view.'
'This isn't just about you!' Ralph burst out. He had to come clean, he realized. 'The earl has given me a mission. If I succeed, he may make me a knight, or at least a minor lord. If I fail, I could remain a squire.'
Maud said: 'It's very important that we all try to please the earl.'
Merthin looked troubled. He was always willing to go head-to-head with their father, but he did not like to argue with Mother. 'I've agreed to build the bridge,' he said. 'The town is counting on me. I can't give it up.'
'Of course you can,' Maud said.
'I don't want to get a reputation for unreliability.'
'Everyone would understand if you gave the earl precedence.'
'They might understand, but they wouldn't respect me for it.'
'You should put your family first.'
'I fought for this bridge, Mother,' Merthin said stubbornly. 'I made a beautiful design, and I persuaded the whole town to have faith in me. No one else can build it - not the way it should be done.'
'If you defy the earl, it will affect Ralph's whole life!' she said. 'Don't you see that?'
'His whole life shouldn't depend on something like this.'
'But it does. Are you willing to sacrifice your brother, just for the sake of a bridge?'
Merthin said: 'I suppose it's a bit like my asking him to save men's lives by not going to war.'
Gerald said: 'Come, now, you can't compare a carpenter to a soldier.'
That was tactless, Ralph thought. It showed Gerald's preference for the younger son. Merthin felt the sting, Ralph could tell. His brother's face reddened and he bit his lip as if to restrain himself from a combative reply.
After a pause, Merthin spoke in a quiet voice that Ralph knew to be a sign that he had made up his mind irrevocably. 'I didn't ask to be a carpenter,' he said. 'Like Ralph, I wanted to be a knight. A foolish aspiration for me, I know that now. All the same, it was your decision that I should be what I am. As things have turned out, I'm good at it. I'm going to make a success of what you forced me into. One day I'd like to build the tallest building in England. This is what you made me - so you'd better learn to live with it.'
Before Ralph went back to Earlscastle with the bad news, he racked his brains for a way to turn defeat into victory. If he could not talk his brother into abandoning the bridge, was there some other way he could get the project canceled or delayed?
There was no point talking to Prior Godwyn or Edmund Wooler, he was sure. They would be more committed to the bridge even than Merthin, and anyway they would not be persuaded by a mere squire. What could the earl do? He might send a troop of knights to kill the construction workers, but that could cause more problems than it solved.
It was Merthin who gave him the idea. He had said that Jake Chepstow, the timber merchant who was using Leper Island as a store yard, was buying trees from Wales to avoid the taxes charged by the earl of Shaftesbury.
'My brother feels he must accept the authority of the prior of Kingsbridge,' Ralph said to Earl Roland on his return. Before the earl had time to get angry, he added: 'But there may be a better way to delay the building of the bridge. The priory's quarry is in the heart of your earldom, between Shiring and Earlscastle.'
'But it belongs to the monks,' Roland growled. 'The king gave it to them centuries ago. We can't stop them taking stone.'
'You could tax them, though,' Ralph said. He felt guilty: he was sabotaging a project dear to his brother's heart. But it had to be done, and he quelled his conscience. 'They will be transporting their stone through your earldom. Their heavy carts will wear away your roads and churn up your river fords. They ought to pay.'
'They'll squeal like pigs. They'll go to the king.'
'Let them,' Ralph said, sounding more confident than he felt. 'It will take time. There are only two months left of this year's building season - they have to stop work before the first frost. With luck, you could delay the start of the bridge until next year.'
Roland gave Ralph a hard look. 'I may have underestimated you,' he said. 'Perhaps you're good for more than pulling drowning earls out of rivers.'
Ralph concealed a triumphant smile. 'Thank you, my lord.'
'But how shall we enforce this tax? Usually there's a crossroads, a ford in a river, some place every cart has to pass through.'
'Since we're only interested in blocks of stone, we could simply camp a troop of men outside the quarry.'
'Excellent,' said the earl. 'And you can lead them.'
Two days later Ralph was approaching the quarry with four men-at-arms on horseback and two boys leading a string of packhorses carrying tents and food for a week. He was pleased with himself, so far. He had been given an impossible task and turned it around. The earl thought he was good for more than river rescue work. Things were looking up.
He was deeply uncomfortable about what he was doing to Merthin. He had lain awake much of the night recalling their childhood together. He had always revered his clever older brother. They had often fought, and Ralph had felt worse when he won than when he lost. They had always made friends afterward, in those days. But grown-up fights were harder to forget.
He was not very anxious about the coming confrontation with the monks' quarrymen. It should not prove too challenging for a group of military men. He had no knights with him - such work was beneath their dignity - but he had Joseph Woodstock, whom he knew to be a hard man, and three others. All the same, he would be glad when it was over and he had achieved his aim.
It was just after dawn. They had camped the night before in the forest a few miles from the quarry. Ralph planned to get there in time to challenge the first cart that attempted to leave this morning.
The horses stepped daintily along a road muddied by the hooves of oxen and deeply rutted by the wheels of heavy carts. The sun rose into a sky of rain clouds broken by scraps of blue. Ralph's group were in a good mood, looking forward to exercising their power over unarmed men, with no serious risk to themselves.
Ralph smelled wood burning, then saw the smoke of several fires rising over the trees. A few moments later, the road widened into a muddy clearing in front of the largest hole in the ground he had ever seen. It was a hundred yards wide and stretched for at least a quarter of a mile. A mud ramp led down to the tents and wooden huts of the quarrymen, who were clustered around their fires cooking breakfast. A few were already at work, farther along the site, and Ralph could hear the dull thud of hammers driving wedges into cracks in the rock, splitting great slabs from the mass of stone.
The quarry was a day's journey from Kingsbridge, so most carters arrived in the evening and left the following morning. Ralph could see several carts dotted about the quarry, some being loaded with stone, and one already making its slow way along the track through the diggings toward the exit ramp.
The men in the quarry looked up, alerted by the sound of horses, but no one approached. Workers were never in a hurry to converse with men-at-arms. Ralph waited patiently. There appeared to be only one way out of the quarry, the long slope of mud that led to where he was.
The first cart lumbered slowly up the ramp, the carter urging the ox on with a long-tailed whip, the ox putting one foot in front of the other with mute resentment. Four huge stones were piled on its flatbed, rough-hewn and incised with the mark of the man who had quarried them. Each man's output was counted once at the quarry and again at the building site, and he was paid per stone.
As the cart came closer, Ralph saw that the carter was a Kingsbridge man, Ben Wheeler. He looked a bit like his ox, with a thick neck and massive shoulders. His face wore a similar expression of dull hostility. He might try to make trouble, Ralph guessed. However, he could be subdued.
Ben drove his ox toward the line of horses blocking the road. Instead of halting at a distance, he let the beast come closer and closer. The horses were not combat-trained destriers but everyday hacks, and they snorted nervously and backed. The ox stopped of its own accord.
Ben's attitude angered Ralph, who called out: 'You're a cocksure oaf.'
Ben said: 'Why do you stand in my way?'
'To collect the tax.'
'There's no tax.'
'To carry stone across the territory of the earl of Shiring, you must pay a penny per cartload.'
'I have no money.'
'Then you must get some.'
'Do you bar my passage?'
The fool was not as scared as he should have been, which infuriated Ralph. 'Don't presume to question me,' Ralph said. 'The stone stays here until someone has paid tax for it.'
Ben glared back at him for a long moment, and Ralph had the strongest feeling that the man was wondering whether to knock him off his horse. 'But I have no money,' he said eventually.
Ralph wanted to run him through with his sword, but he reined in his temper. 'Don't pretend to be even more stupid than you are,' he said contemptuously. 'Just go to the master quarryman and tell him the earl's men will not let you leave.'
Ben stared at him a little longer, mulling this over; then, without speaking, he turned and walked back down the ramp, leaving his cart.
Ralph waited, fuming, staring at the ox.
Ben entered a wooden hut halfway along the quarry. He emerged a few minutes later accompanied by a slight man in a brown tunic. At first, Ralph presumed the second man was the quarrymaster. However, the figure looked familiar and, as the two came closer, Ralph recognized his brother, Merthin.
'Oh, no,' he said aloud.
He was not prepared for this. He felt tortured by shame as he watched Merthin walk up the long ramp. He knew he was here to betray his brother, but he had not expected Merthin to be here to see it.
'Hello, Ralph,' said Merthin as he came closer. 'Ben says you won't let him pass.'
Merthin had always been able to overcome him in an argument, Ralph recalled dismally. He decided to be formal. It would hide his emotions, and he could hardly get into trouble if he simply repeated his instructions. He said stiffly: 'The earl has decided to exercise his right to collect taxes from consignments of stone using his roads.'
Merthin ignored that. 'Aren't you going to get down off your horse to talk to your brother?'
Ralph would have preferred to stay mounted, but he did not want to refuse what seemed like some kind of challenge, so he got down. Then he felt as if he had already been bested.
'There's no tax on stone from here,' Merthin said.
'There is now.'
'The monks have been working this quarry for hundreds of years. Kingsbridge Cathedral is built of this stone. It has never been taxed.'
'Perhaps the earl forgave the tax for the sake of the church,' Ralph said, improvising. 'But he won't do it for a bridge.'
'He just doesn't want the town to have a new bridge. That's the reason for this. First he sends you to bribe me, then when that fails he invents a new tax.' Merthin looked thoughtfully at Ralph. 'This was your idea, wasn't it?'
Ralph was mortified. How had he guessed? 'No!' he said, but he felt himself redden.
'I can see from your face that it was. I gave you the notion, I'm sure, when I spoke of Jake Chepstow importing logs from Wales to avoid the earl of Shaftesbury's tax.'
Ralph was feeling more foolish and angry with every moment. 'There's no connection,' he said stubbornly.
'You berated me for putting my bridge before my brother, but you're happy to wreck my hopes for the sake of your earl.'
'It doesn't matter whose idea it was, the earl has decided to tax the stone.'
'But he doesn't have the right.'
Ben Wheeler was following the conversation intently, standing beside Merthin with his legs apart and his hands on his hips. Now he said to Merthin: 'Are you saying these men don't have the right to stop me?'
'That's exactly what I'm saying,' said Merthin.
Ralph could have told Merthin it was a mistake to treat such a man as if he was intelligent. Ben now took Merthin's words for permission to leave. He flicked his whip over his ox's shoulders. The beast leaned into its wooden collar and took the strain.
Ralph shouted angrily: 'Halt!'
Ben whipped the ox again and called: 'Hup!'
The ox pulled harder and the cart started forward with a jerk that startled the horses. Joseph Woodstock's mount whinnied and reared up, eyes rolling.
Joseph sawed at the reins and got the horse under control. Then he pulled from his saddlebag a long wooden club. 'You keep still when you're told,' he said to Ben. He urged his horse forward and lashed out with the club.
Ben dodged the blow, grabbed the club, and pulled.
Joseph was already leaning out from his saddle. The sudden jerk unbalanced him, and he fell off his horse.
Merthin cried: 'Oh, no!'
Ralph knew why Merthin was dismayed. A man-at-arms could not overlook such humiliation. There was no avoiding violence now. But Ralph himself was not sorry. His brother had failed to treat the earl's men with the deference they merited, and now he would see the consequences.
Ben was holding Joseph's club in a two-handed grip. Joseph leaped to his feet. Seeing Ben brandishing the club, he reached for his dagger. But Ben was quicker - the carter must have fought in battle at some time, Ralph realized. Ben swung the club and landed a mighty blow on the top of Joseph's head. Joseph fell to the ground and lay motionless.
Ralph roared with rage. He drew his sword and ran at the carter.
Merthin shouted: 'No!'
Ralph stabbed Ben in the chest, thrusting the sword between his ribs as forcefully as he could. It passed through Ben's thick body and came out the other side. Ben fell back and Ralph pulled the sword out. Blood spurted from the carter in a fountain. Ralph felt a jolt of triumphant satisfaction. There would be no more insolence from Ben Wheeler.
He knelt beside Joseph. The man's eyes stared sightlessly. There was no heartbeat. He was dead.
In a way that was good. It simplified the explanations. Ben Wheeler had murdered one of the earl's men, and had died for it. No one would see any injustice in that - least of all Earl Roland, who had no mercy for those who defied his authority.
Merthin did not see it the same way. His face was twisted as if in pain. 'What have you done?' he said incredulously. 'Ben Wheeler has a two-year-old son! They call him Bennie!'
'The widow had better look for another husband, then,' said Ralph. 'This time, she should choose a man who knows his place.'