She nodded, a slight smile curving her lips. “You’ve put your finger on it as usual.”
“The question is - who is pressuring the good Abbe? Do you know anything about the bishop’s palace in Narbonne?”
“Nothing special. I presume it’s the seat of Catholic authority in this area.”
“So why would they be interested in the excavations you are carrying out at le Bezu?”
“Well, I know they would like to forget all about the Cathars, but they’re almost a local industry. So there’s nothing they can do about that.” She shook her head. “I don’t know why on earth they should have a special interest in le Bezu. As far as I’m aware they’ve never shown any interest in us before.”
Philip thought for a few minutes. “Maybe it isn’t le Bezu. Perhaps they’re interested in the television series. Are they worried about what you’ll turn up regarding their role in the Albigensian Crusade and the way they treated the Cathars?”
“I suppose they could be. The Catholic Church didn’t behave very well at the time, but why would they still be worried about something like that nearly eight hundred years later?”
“Well, I don’t know,” he said. “And I guess you’re not going to find out without speaking to Lerenard.” He smiled weakly. “I’m afraid I’m not much help to you on this one.”
“On the contrary, you’ve been very helpful. Your comments have helped me to make up my mind.”
“You’re not going to have anything to do with Monsieur Lerenard?”
“Oh, yes I am.” Her eyes flashed as she looked at him. “I’m going to take the fellow on. I want to know why he’s so keen to come and work for me. I also want to know who’s put him up to it.”
“Aren’t you taking an awful risk? You don’t know what sort of individual he is. He might be a killer.”
“Maybe he is. But I don’t think he’s such a risk. Bertrand was careful to say that I would be safe if I took him on and I don’t think he would have allowed himself to be a party to this business if he hadn’t been certain about that.”
Philip turned and looked straight at her. “Nevertheless I don’t think either Abbe Dugard or you fully realise what is going on behind the scenes. You don’t understand the motives of the high-ups in places like the Bishop’s Palace in Narbonne. I think you need to be very careful if you take this guy on, Jackie.”
“Oh, I shall be.” She smiled sweetly. “I intend to have my own special insurance policy.”
“What do you mean?”
Her grin broadened. “I mean, Philip, that I’m going to take you on to the payroll as my special protector - if you agree, of course.”
“A special protector? Do you mean a kind of weak bouncer? But you don’t know anything about me.”
“I think I know everything I need to know for the moment. You can tell me the rest over the next few days.” Her eyes glinted. “Well? Do you accept my offer or are you going to abandon me unprotected to this man Lerenard?”
“What’s the pay?”
“Not a lot. But you’ll be able to put on your CV that you’ve worked close to one of the best known archaeologists in France.”
“How can I refuse if you put it like that?”
They were both laughing as he started the car and began the journey back to Quillan.
- 15 -
Philip was in a quandary as they drove back to Quillan. The conversation between them was casual, even light-hearted. He admitted to himself that he was looking forward to the next few days in Jackie’s company. He wasn’t worried about being unpopular with Gaston and the other archaeologists who he knew would regard him as an outsider with no appropriate experience. That consideration was outweighed by the prospect of spending a lot of time with the beautiful and clever star.
Nevertheless he had the problem that he had been less than completely honest with her about his real reasons for coming to the Languedoc. The question was, should he take her into his confidence and tell her all about the journal of Phillipe de Saint Claire? Would that destroy his chances of carrying out the task set for him by his grandmother if it once got out about his purpose for being here? More importantly, would Jackie feel bound to pass the information on to her wealthy backers or to the authorities?
On the other hand, if he kept the whole story from her, would she be upset by his apparent decision to take advantage of her kindness in offering him a position in her team and using it to his own advantage? One thing he was sure about - sooner or later he would be found out and that would terminate the help he got from Jacqueline Blontard and probably wreck their private relationship at the same time.
He decided in the end that the sooner he took her into his confidence the better. He would have to ask her to keep the information to herself, at least for the present, and hope her reaction would be favourable. He reasoned that if it meant losing the Cathar treasure to the French government or some other organisation - well, he had always known that was a risk.
Therefore, as they approached the town of Limoux, he asked her, “Do you fancy stopping somewhere for a meal?”
She looked at him carefully before she smiled. “All right. Since you’re now in my employment, I’ll pay.”
“No you won’t. My employment with you doesn’t start until Monday. My grandmother left me a substantial sum to finance my visit to le Bezu. So we’ll let her pay.”
“I suppose I can’t argue with that.” But he was aware that she was watching him carefully.
They parked near the town centre and took a gentle stroll round the little town. Within half an hour they had found the perfect place for their meal - a hotel on the banks of the river with a covered balcony restaurant jutting out over the water. It was still quite early so they were the only couple sitting down to eat. However the chef seemed to decide that they were worth a special effort. He announced he would start up the kitchen for them and serve them himself.
They discussed and accepted his recommendations from the menu. It didn’t concern them that these were no doubt coloured by the ease with which he could prepare the food. Then he suggested the most suitable, and probably the most expensive, wine and left them to sample it with some cold canapes while he started to prepare their meal.
Philip and Jackie were seated opposite each other at a small table in the corner of the restaurant. Through the partly open window beside them they could hear the chuckle of the river below. The lowering sun lit up the spring-leafed trees on the other bank of the river and dappled the restaurant with a gentle warmth.
“What a perfect setting,” enthused Jackie. “Thank you for suggesting this, Philip.”
“Thank you for agreeing to come.”
His sense of justice wouldn’t allow him to take advantage of the situation until he had told her of his decision. He looked seriously into the beautiful eyes, just a couple of feet from his.
“However I have to tell you that I have another reason for wanting to talk face to face with you.”
“Oh dear. What’s that?” Suddenly her eyes were frosted with suspicion.
“Well, as you surmised earlier, there is more to my presence in le Bezu than I have told you so far.”
“Really? Does that mean you’re turning down my offer of employment?”
“No. of course not. However, when you’ve heard what I have to tell you, you may decide that it wasn’t politic to offer me the job in the first place.” He forced himself to smile. “In that case, I shall understand if you decide you want to withdraw the offer.”
“Goodness,” she exclaimed. “You make it sound as though you are in the pay of some foreign government.”
Philip shook his head. “It’s nothing like that, I promise you.”
“Come on, then. Put me out of my misery.”
“You say you want to know the real reason why I’m here.”
“That’s right.”
“Well, I’ve told you most of it. I said that it’s my grandmother who wanted me to come and find out about our
ancestor. I feel guilty now that I didn’t spend more time with her when she was getting old. I just didn’t realise that she was so ill. Although she was over ninety, I sort of thought that she’d go on forever. I suppose I was too tied up with my own problems to think about her.”
“Problems? What were they?”
“Oh, you know -personal relationships.” He waved a dismissive hand. “I thought I’d fallen in love when I was at university. She was a fellow student called Madeline. We got married as soon as we left Sheffield and moved back to London. It took us twelve years to recover from the mistake. It wasn’t much fun, one way and another.”
“You’re married?”
“Divorced.” He looked at the date on his watch. “For six weeks and two days.”
“Do you have any children?”
“No. Madeline didn’t have time for that - too much work and too active a social life.”
She looked down at the table. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s all over now and nobody else is suffering.” He shook his head. “I’m not complaining. It’s simply the explanation of why I didn’t spend enough time with my gran. For almost her whole life she was on her own. You see, my dad was sent to boarding school when he was thirteen. They still do that sort of thing in England.”
“I’ve heard about it.”
“Then he went straight on to university. After Cambridge he got a job in London where he married. I was born and brought up in the suburbs. I occasionally visited gran in the school holidays when I was young, but I admit I found the big house in Templecombe rather oppressing. And she used to tell me all those stories about the Cathars and how I was related to them. I must say I didn’t take them very seriously at the time. It all seemed so far away.”
“Do you have a family tree?”
“No, although I suppose I could fairly easily trace one since the family always appear to have lived in the same place.” He looked out briefly at the sparkling river, then back to her. “The interesting thing is that my grandmother was left all alone in that great big place for all those years. It seems that while she was alone she searched around and found an old document or series of documents which turned out to have been the journal of this man Phillipe de Saint Claire that I told you about. It appears that he had written about his adventures and his escape from France.”
She was watching him very closely now. “How fascinating,” she breathed.
“She told me that she couldn’t understand anything in the journal at first. However she spent some time researching the language and she found that it had been written in Occitan. I understand that used to be the language of this area.”
She smiled. “I know quite a lot of Occitan.”
“Really? Is that another of your talents? Can you speak it?”
“Some, but please carry on with your story.”
“OK.” He leaned back in his chair. “Well, after a lot of study, she managed to translate it, although I believe it took her several years.”
“So what does it say?”
“Well, Phillipe claims to have been one of the four perfecti who escaped from Montsegur on the night when the Cathars finally gave up their defence of the castle and surrendered to the French. I presume you know the story.”
“Yes, of course I do.” Her eyes were glowing. “Go on.”
“He says they escaped down the north cliff-face with the treasure of the Cathars strapped to their backs in sealed bamboo tubes. Phillipe had five tubes in his back-pack. He doesn’t give any details about the others. And he didn’t open the tubes so he doesn’t know what was in them. He just says that, whatever the contents were, they were quite light. So it wasn’t gold or jewels or anything like that. In fact, he was never told what it was. The journal gives us no details of the actual treasure itself.”
“So what does it tell you?”
“The main part of the journal is about his escape. He says that the four perfecti were told to separate and go in different directions in order to reduce the risk of being caught. Phillipe had been instructed to make for le Bezu where the local lord, Pierre de Voisins, was believed to be sympathetic to the Cathar cause.”
“Ah,” she breathed. “I begin to understand now why you are so interested in the place.”
“Wait. There is more.” He straightened up. “Just over a day after leaving Montsegur, Phillipe reached le Bezu where he briefly met de Voisins. However the lord was about to set off to Paris to make his obeisance to the French king. So he put Phillipe in touch with his kinsman, a young chap called Raymonde de Puyvert.” He paused for a moment. “The journal goes on to tell how Phillipe and Raymonde hid the bamboo tubes behind a wall in a basement room in the castle and then how they escaped from France. Unfortunately Raymonde had an accident and died on the way across the Pyrenees so Phillipe was then the only one to know where the treasure was hidden. That’s why he wrote it down in this journal.”
He stopped and looked at her. “So now you know that I have come to le Bezu to try and find the location of this secret hideaway and see if the bamboo tubes are still there.”
Jackie was quiet for a long time, thinking about the strange story. She was looking out at the river and the sun lit up her face in a golden glow, her hair a dark bronze.
“Well?” he asked at last. “What’s your reaction?”
Before she could reply the first course of their meal was brought to the table. The chef chatted to them about the food while he topped up their glasses with wine. They began to eat as he retired to the kitchen. Philip ate the delicious food almost without tasting it as he waited for her to speak.
After a while she paused between mouthfuls. “I would like to see that journal.”
“I have a copy of my grandmother’s translation with me. You can have it to read when we get back to the hotel.”
“And you believe this co-called lightweight treasure is buried somewhere in the basement of the castle? How do you know it’s still there?”
“I don’t. My grandmother put a note at the end of the journal saying she had tried to find out if the bamboo tubes had been discovered. She could find out almost nothing about le Bezu. The place seemed to have disappeared from the guide books.”
“That’s right,” said Jackie. “It is only marked on some maps. And very few people seem to know about it in an area which has generated a lot of interest in the last few decades.”
“My grandmother apparently wrote to the local papers in this area to see if there were any reports, especially about the time when Sauniere, the priest from Rennes le Chateau, was fossicking about in the countryside around here. However she had no luck. Of course I appreciate that it doesn’t mean that the treasure wasn’t unearthed centuries ago before there were any records made.”
Jackie was thoughtful. “There’s not much of the castle left above ground - just a few walls - as you know. However the basement, if there is a basement, would be the most likely place to remain unexplored. As the good quality stone was robbed from the upper walls to be used for newer buildings in the region, the mortar and fragments and useless rubble would gather in the lower levels filling up basement rooms until it built up to such a level that the masonry robbers couldn’t be bothered to dig for it.” She grinned. “It’s the idleness of these people which we archaeologists benefit from.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the chef arriving with the main course. For several minutes the food was discussed with him, sampled and enthusiastically commented on. Then he went off to prepare a surprise pudding for them.
“Now there’s a man who enjoys his job,” said Philip.
“We are getting very special treatment,” she agreed. “I hope you’re going to be able to afford it.” Then she smiled. “Have you noticed the way he’s looking at us?”
“What do you mean?”
“I think he believes we’re celebrating some special event - the way we’re talking so seriously to each other.”
“What event?”
There was a sparkle in her eyes as she replied, “If you can’t guess, I shan’t help you.”
Philip was silent as he thought about that and as he consumed the delicious food. When he had finished he laid his knife and fork tidily on the plate.
“Well,” he said, “I have confessed to you my real purpose in coming here. I can tell you that I have taken a fortnight’s holiday to do some research and to look around the place. I still have just over a week left to help you, if the offer is still open. But after that I shall have to return to London. Before I started speaking to you I was planning to come back about once a month for a long weekend so that I could check up on your progress. I thought you might have found the hiding-place of the treasure by then. If you didn’t have any luck, I thought I’d come back for a longer period in the autumn and make a serious attempt to uncover it.”
She had a strange smile on her face as she listened to him. “Come and plunder my site?”
“Wait a minute.” He put his head on one side. “What does French law say about my right to inherit something which was in the legal possession of my ancestor?”
“That’s an interesting point.” She nodded. “I think you might have the prior claim. But I’m afraid you wouldn’t stand a chance of exercising it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Once we have finished here and the camera crews have gone away, the contractors will move in.”
“Contractors?”
“You don’t understand, Philip.” She shook her head. “After we leave le Bezu, it will become the next tourist destination for thousands of people who will want to view the sites which they have been watching on their television screens. The road to the site will be widened and resurfaced. Reception offices and a car park and cafeteria will be built at the foot of the hill. A proper flight of steps will be constructed up the hill with resting places at intervals to give access to the castle. Footpaths will be made around the ruins, protected with handrails and fences. Notices will be put up all over the place explaining exactly what visitors are looking at. Public toilets and sales kiosks will be built. A whole new industry will be set up to make money out of our discoveries.” She paused. “And my agent has arranged for me to get a percentage of it all - and he gets his percentage of that.”
The Secret Of The Cathars (2011) Page 11