Kurtz, Katherine Knights Templar 01 Temple and the Stone

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an hour, they were sitting down to meat with Lindsay and his two strapping sons, his wife and a teenage
daughter having absented themselves out of deference to the Templar Rule that forbade contact with
women. At Arnault's urging, Lindsay ventured to offer his Templar guests a local assessment of how the
court of claims was progressing.
"Quite frankly, the folk of Berwick would like nothing better than to see this dispute settled by the end of
the year," Lindsay informed his listeners. "Some few may be doing well enough, out of the increase in
local trade, but the resources of the town are being strained beyond their limits. The drains are backed
up, the streets are ankle-deep with rubbish, the local courts have been disrupted, and the incidence of
thievery has doubled from what it was a year ago. Speaking as a merchant, most folk in these parts don't
really care who gets the crown; all they want to do is to get back to business as usual."
Arnault was not surprised by this disclosure. From discussions with Torquil and Luc, he knew that the
Guardians of Scotland had done their best to govern the country during the interregnum, but their powers
were circumscribed. Only a duly enthroned monarch could hold full parliamentary assemblies, confirm
and grant charters, or treat authoritatively with another foreign sovereign. Until such time as Scotland
once again had a king to sit upon her throne, royal burghs such as Berwick would continue to suffer from
disruptions to trade and industry.
The various claims to the Scottish throne were being examined in detail by two separate juries, one
Scottish and one English. The English jury of twenty-four had been chosen from among Edward's English
barons; the Scottish jurors numbered eighty, half chosen by Balliol and half by Bruce, who were
considered the principal contenders. At Edward's behest, these juries were conducting their deliberations
behind closed doors in the upper levels of the castle keep. The respective reports of the two juries were
relayed to the English king and his advisors in the castle's great hall, in the presence of the Scottish
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competitors, their auditors, and various eminent witnesses, both secular and religious. These reports were
then turned over to Edward's own team of legal experts for a final review, by dint of whose deliberations
the claim of Count Florence of Holland had recently been disallowed, leaving only John Balliol and
Robert Bruce as increasingly bitter contenders.
"We understand that Balliol is generally acknowledged to have the stronger legal case," Arnault said.
"So he does," Lindsay said with a grimace. "And more's the pity."
"Why do you say that?" Jay asked sharply.
Lindsay shrugged. "Mind you, I am a Fleming, not a Scot, but if the Scots are to emerge from this
business as a free and independent people, their new king, whoever he is, will have to face up to
Edward's demands to be recognized as Scotland's feudal overlord. That is going to take more steel, I
fear, than Balliol has in him."
"And you think the Bruces might be better fitted for such resistance?" Robert de Sautre asked, with the
affected laugh that habitually characterized his manner.
"Aye, that I do," Lindsay answered bluntly. "The Bruces are no man's lackeys. Whatever the grandsire
starts, the grandson will surely finish."
The following morning, Jay led the Templar delegation on horseback up to the castle. Here they were
received by Sir William Latimer, one of the senior knights of Edward's royal household, to whom Jay
made formal petition that the Templar party be allowed to observe the proceedings of the court at first
hand.
"Such a request is certainly in order," Latimer told Jay, when the latter had finished, "provided that you
and your brother-knights are prepared to swear that you will commit no breach of privilege by openly
discussing the proceedings of the court outside the confines of the session chamber."
Such oaths were an accepted formality, and Jay agreed without demur. When each of the Templar
knights had submitted his oath in turn, Latimer conducted them to a doorway that gave access to the
minstrels' gallery at the lower end of the castle's great hall. Here, they took their places among a number
of other observers, who included representatives from several religious orders, a Norwegian emissary,
and a legate from the papal court. From this vantage point, it was possible to hear and see everything that
was going on in the hall below-and for most of those in the Templar delegation, it provided their first
actual glimpse of the English king.
Edward Plantagenet was seated on a dais at the far end of the hall, flanked by a handful of personal
advisors, long-limbed and yellow-haired, with hard, pale features and eyes as icy and unfathomable as a
winter lake. He followed the speeches of the jurors in heavy-lidded silence, one long-fingered hand
resting idle on his knee. The other was clasped with casual firmness around a golden pendant hanging
from a rich chain about his neck, perhaps in echo of his obvious intent to keep a similar hold on the realm
of Scotland.
"Isn't he the one?" Torquil muttered under his breath, so that only Arnault could hear him.
Arnault, less personally affronted, was more intent on weighing up the two chief competitors, Bruce and
Balliol, who were also present in the hall, together with a select following of adherents. John Balliol of
Barnard Castle was a lean, hatchet-faced man in his middle fifties, whose darting, close-set eyes held an
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