Free Crowner's Crusade by Bernard Knight

and corn.’
    â€˜And all in God’s great cause!’ retorted Anselm, defensively. ‘To recover Jerusalem from the grip of the infidel Saracens.’
    John sighed and wished he had kept his mouth shut. ‘Well, we failed in that didn’t we? But what I mean is that all that money was scraped together to equip and feed a great army and pay for a fleet of ships to transport them to Palestine. It was not for lavishing on a new cathedral in some obscure foreign city.’
    William de L’Etang slapped his friend on the back. ‘But, John, it’s typical of our lord and master! Fierce and even cruel at one moment, then hearty and boisterous at the next, throwing gold around as if it grew on trees. It’s what makes him what he is and we all love him for it.’
    Anselm nodded his agreement, but partly sided with de Wolfe. ‘Yet I admit he is sometimes too impulsive and often fails to think of the consequences. Look at how yesterday he went with the Templars to the Treasury in Ragusa and borrowed thousands of Venetian ducats against a Templar promissory note. Chancellor Longchamp will have a stroke when all these bills come home to roost.’
    John held his tongue, but William threw in a half-jocular comment. ‘And what did he do with some of that new money? Spent it on three expensive jewelled rings for himself!’
    Baldwin came to Richard’s defence over this apparent extravagance. ‘Our lord is a great king, ruling lands that stretch from the Pyrenees almost to Scotland. He needs the appurtenances of a king, such as these ostentatious jewels, to display his power and influence in the world!’
    â€˜Well, I wish he had used his power and influence to get us a better vessel than this,’ grumbled de Wolfe, looking down the deck to where Gwyn was contentedly fishing over the side, his ever-unruly hair blowing in the wind.
    â€˜There’s little wrong with the
Medusa
, John,’ remarked Robert de Turnham, who had joined the group from his place up on the aftercastle. ‘She’s getting along quite well with this new southerly wind behind her.’
    The
Medusa
was an ordinary merchant ship called a ‘cog’, which was much smaller than the more bulky
Franche Nef
. With a single mast and square sail, she was a maid-of-all-work similar to hundreds of others in the Mediterranean – though virtually all of those were now laid up for the winter. Only the generosity of the Lionheart to the bishop and city council of Ragusa had persuaded this shipmaster to venture up the coast of Dalmatia in December.
    The violent
bora
had subsided as quickly as it had arisen and after two nights in Ragusa, with blissful sleep in the guest house of the monastery, the travellers were sent on their way towards Zara, about a hundred and sixty miles up the coast, well into Hungarian territory.
    â€˜With this wind, we should reach Zara the day after tomorrow,’ prophesied the High Admiral. ‘The route lies behind the many islands that line this coast, so we should be protected from any westerly storms. Pray God we don’t suffer another
bora.
’ He crossed himself virtuously as he spoke.
    At the king’s council held earlier that day, it was agreed that they would buy horses in Zara and make the long ride to the court of King Bela, who had a grand palace in Estergom on the Danube. There Richard would trade on his kinship with Bela’s queen, to seek hospitality and advice on how best to return to Normandy and England. Though most of the knights had only a hazy idea of the geography of Central Europe, both Richard and Baldwin knew enough to debate possible routes.
    â€˜Either we aim for Saxony and the undoubted welcome of Henry the Lion,’ declared the king. ‘Or perhaps we could ride north to reach the Baltic and take ship to the German Ocean.’
    Baldwin was dubious about the latter plan. ‘It would mean riding many hundreds of miles