The Secret Of The Cathars (2011)

by Michael Hillier

  To cover his embarrassment, Charles rose, picked up his notebook and left without further comment from either man.

  - 19 -

  By the next day the excavations had expanded considerably. Armand Sejour was working his way down the steps and he suggested that Philip clear the masonry wall which supported the side of the staircase.

  Armand had already cleared four steps the previous evening. These turned a complete right angle away from the rock face. He had spoken to Jackie to obtain her authorisation to put in a second trench to follow the line of the staircase and she promised to come down later in the morning to make a decision. Meanwhile he had diverted Philip to digging down to clear the wall beside the steps.

  Within an hour Philip had struck a further stone slab at a lower level. He pointed this out to Armand who gave him a trowel and told him to scrape away the soil from the surface carefully while he continued clearing the steps. Jeanette had less to sieve now that they were working with trowels and she came down to join them and shovel soil into the buckets.

  After a further half an hour Philip had cleared part of what appeared to be a large slab of masonry - far bigger than a step. As he scraped into the corner it was clear that this flat stone had been put in place later and carefully cut to fit against the wall which supported the steps and against the natural rock cliff which the trench was following. Unfortunately there seemed to be no interesting remains above the slab.

  A little later Armand’s clearing of the steps reached down to a similar flat slab at the same level. When both men dug towards each other they met where the steps came to an end. It appeared that they had hit a flat paved area - but an area paved with massive slabs of stone.

  “I think Jackie ought to be told about this,” said Armand. “I had expected her to be here by now. I think you had better go and find her.”

  Philip set off up the path. When he reached the main excavation area he was told that she had returned to Quillan to pick up some equipment which had recently been delivered. He explained what they had found as best he could to Lerenard.

  “I will come to inspect,” said the big man.

  When they got down to the trench Jean-Luc looked at the expanding area of stone which Armand had uncovered. Philip was watching the man closely and saw his eyes narrow when he bent down to inspect the slabs, as if in recognition. However, when he straightened up again, he merely shrugged.

  “Ah,” he said. “It is only the floor of the room at the bottom of the steps. What finds have you made?”

  “Not very much.” Jeanette indicated the nearly empty trays.

  “I think you are wasting your time here. I will tell the director and I think she will probably close down this area. We could use you more profitably up at the main site.” He turned on his heel and left them looking disconsolately at each other.

  After a bit of thought, Philip said, “Have you noticed that the stone slabs have been cut round the bottom of the steps as though they were laid down after the steps were there? I don’t think this is the floor of a room as Jean-Luc suggests. Paving in a room gets worn smooth and is made dirty by the passage of feet. It would be especially dirty at the foot of the stairs where people entered. But this surface looks almost untouched.”

  Jeanette translated for him and Armand’s eyes lit up when he thought about it.

  “That is quite correct. I agree that this cannot be paving. But what is it?”

  “I suggest we wait until Jackie sees it. She is much more experienced than Jean-Luc. She may come up with some ideas.”

  “But what do we do until she comes?” Armand seemed to have had his confidence shaken by Lerenard’s dismissive attitude.

  “While we’re waiting for the director,” said Philip, “I think we should clear as much of the paving slabs as we can. That will give her more to look at.”

  “Good idea,” agreed Sejour. “I still believe this may be important.”

  “While you are finishing round the steps I suggest that I dig a narrow trench along the foot of the cliff. That will tell us how big the slabs are and there may be a gap where we can try to see underneath. That might help us decide why they’re here.”

  They set to with a will to clear as much of the masonry as far as they could before Jackie arrived. It was nearly lunch-time when she finally turned up. By then Armand had cleared an area nearly a metre wide around the foot of the steps and Philip had dug a trench about half a metre wide on top of the stone slabs and against the natural stone cliff for about three metres. Neither of them had been able to reach an exposed edge of the paving but they had found some tight joints in the slabs which suggested that they were huge pieces of stone approximately three metres long by a metre and a half wide.

  When Jackie looked at the masonry they had uncovered her attitude was different to Lerenard’s. She said, “Oh, this is interesting, Armand.”

  He put to her the thoughts which he and Philip had discussed about the paved area but her reply was non-committal.

  “It does seem to be a later addition,” she agreed. “But how much later? You haven’t had any luck with finds on top of the paving which might have dated it?”

  “Nothing at all.”

  “Then it seems as though the paving may have been covered over with soil and detritus as soon as it was laid. And it is quite fine work. The joints are very narrow. That would suggest that it is more recent than the rest of the castle. But I can’t shed any light on why it is here or when it was done.”

  Philip made his first comment. “If we could find an edge to a slab then we might get a better idea of what it is.”

  “But that is going to mean that you have to clear a lot of soil,” she responded, “and Jean-Luc is right. We can’t really afford to have three of the team involved in a job which doesn’t seem to be advancing our knowledge of the Cathar occupation.”

  The other two looked disappointedly at each other.

  “I tell you what,” said Jackie. “You can have the rest of the day here. I suggest you continue the narrow trench against the wall as far as you can. But, if you’ve got nothing substantial to report by the end of the day, I’m afraid I’m going to have to pull you off and use you somewhere else. Is that fair?”

  “OK. That sounds reasonable.”

  So they continued the narrow trench, each taking it in turns to dig furiously while the other one cleared the soil and deposited it by the sieve. They worked through lunch, sending Jeanette to collect the food and drink from the main site.

  They were still digging away energetically in mid-afternoon when a new woman turned up. Watching her approach down the path, Philip thought she was probably in her forties but still quite slim and fit.

  Jeanette greeted her brightly. “Hello. Are you a visitor?”

  “I suppose I am.” She stepped on to the scaffold and handed a visiting card to the girl. “My name is Cesar Renoir. I am a journalist and I’m collecting information for a book about Cathar strongholds. I met your leader, Jacqueline Blontard, recently and she said I was welcome to walk round and take a look. What are you doing here?”

  Armand climbed on to the scaffold and took the card from Jeanette and looked at it. It seemed genuine enough.

  “We’re just digging an exploratory trench.”

  “Why down here?”

  He shrugged. “Archaeologists often do that sort of thing. They take a look at the land, decide the most likely place to yield information, and dig there, hoping to come up with some finds.”

  “What finds have you made?”

  “Not much,” he admitted. “In fact we’re being pulled off this area tonight. We’re just trying to uncover as much as we can before we finish.”

  She seemed interested. “So what part of the castle do you think this is?”

  “Oh, nothing very special. We’re right down in the bowels of the building so it was probably just store-rooms or even a dungeon. But you often turn up interesting finds in the most unlikely places.”

 
“Very grand floor for a prison, don’t you think?”

  “Yes,” he admitted. “It is puzzling.”

  “And, correct me if I’m wrong, but this back wall looks like the original rock of the mountain.”

  He nodded. “The builders used the natural rock cliffs as a part of the structure. It meant that in the lower parts of the castle they only had to build the defensive walls on one side.”

  “Except for that area there.” She pointed to an area of rough stone walling just above the paving about five metres along the narrow trench.

  “That’s right. We assume there was a recess there which they filled in to prevent seepage of water into the stores, or something like that.”

  She straightened up. “What will you do when you get to the end of the trench?”

  “We won’t today.” Armand shook his head. “That’s the problem about some of this work. Just when you think you may be about to find something interesting a different priority arises. It can be frustrating.”

  “Mademoiselle Blontard sets tough standards.”

  He grinned. “You bet. Every trowel-full of soil has to be sieved. Every smallest find which is uncovered has to be photographed in its location from at least four different angles with scale markers and compass directions before it can be moved.”

  “I understand she is very well thought of in her profession.”

  “Oh, yes,” he agreed. “It’s a great honour to be working for her.”

  “Well, thank you for explaining it all to me so clearly. I’ll go up and talk to the others now. Goodbye.” With a lift of the hand and a smile, Cesar Renoir was gone.

  Philip and Jeanette had said nothing while she was there, leaving it to the senior man to give the explanations. Now Jeanette said, “You told her a lot, Armand.”

  “Well,” he replied, “she was entitled to know for her book.

  “What do you think, Philip?” she asked.

  “I don’t see a problem. None of the information was secret. Let’s admit it - this area’s a dead duck.”

  “A dead duck?” She giggled.

  “It means it’s useless.”

  “OK,” interrupted Armand, “let’s push on. I’d really like to get to the end of this last slab tonight, if we can.”

  They continued right up to six o’clock when Gaston came down to warn them that the vehicles wouldn’t wait for them any longer. By then they had dug the narrow trench nearly ten metres along the top of the paving against the cliff. They had uncovered nothing except three long paving stones each three metres long with tight joints to each other and to the cliff face. It was clearly a substantial area of paving indicating a large room.

  “This fourth slab is obviously the last,” argued Armand. “If only Jackie would let us have another morning down here, I think we could get to the end. That would give us an edge to look at. Then we might be able to find out more about the reason for this unused floor slab. I think I’ll try and get her permission to do that.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Philip agreed.

  But in that hope they were to be disappointed. When it was put to her she shook her head

  “I’m afraid you’re just wasting time and money. Jean-Luc has hit some interesting terrain on the main site. We need everybody up there. Maybe there will be a chance to carry on later if we find what we want in the great hall area.”

  They had to be satisfied with that.

  - 20 -

  It was another beautiful, mild evening. Philip sat watching the river as it chuckled over the rocks below him and looked forward to the next hour with pleasant anticipation. Jackie had asked to meet him for a private discussion.

  Dinner had been a more pleasant affair this evening. Jackie had chosen to join them and had sat beside Philip. Armand and Jeanette were opposite. The conversation flowed cheerfully about the day’s work. Jackie filled them in on progress on the main site which they would be joining the following morning. She revealed that, to appease Armand for being taken away from the paved area, they were to be given a new trench to open on the opposite side of the great hall. She was able to tell them that finds on the main site during the last two days confirmed that the excavations had got down to the Cathar level.

  Armand then told her exactly how far they had progressed with clearing the paving. He promised that one more day would get them to at least one exposed edge of the big slabs. Jackie confirmed that they might have a chance of tackling that later.

  “We also told that journalist enough to send her away happy,” said Jeanette.

  “What journalist?”

  “She said you’d told her she could look around and ask questions.”

  “I did nothing of the sort.”

  “Really? Well, she gave us her card and said she’d spoken to you. Have you still got that card, Armand?”

  The young man fished in his pocket and brought out his wallet. He opened it, extracted a card, and peered at it. “Here we are. She’s called Cesar Renoir. This says she’s a journalist.”

  “Let me see.” Jackie took it from him and looked at it. “What did she look like?”

  “About forty to forty-five,” said Philip. “Quite tall, slim and fit, dressed in jeans and a shirt and with a small ruck-sack on her back.”

  “She was rather masculine and sexless,” volunteered Jeanette.

  Jacqueline looked a question at Philip and he grinned. “Well - no make-up, fair hair tied back, well boned face.” He nodded. “Personally, I would describe her as handsome.”

  “And what did she want to know?”

  Armand broke in. “She asked us what we were doing and I told her it was just an exploratory trench.”

  “She asked which part of the castle we were in, didn’t she, Armand,” said Jeanette. “You told her it was probably a dungeon.”

  “And what did she say about that?”

  “Oh, she said she thought the floor was too grand for a dungeon.”

  “She also asked what the bit of stone walling was infilling a hollow in the rock cliff,” said Philip. “I thought she seemed quite observant for a visitor. But I suppose journalists are trained to look for things like that.”

  Armand shrugged. “She didn’t stay long. I don’t think she was very interested in what we were doing. I assumed that she went off up to the main site to get some real information. Didn’t you see her?”

  “No.” She frowned. “Of course I wasn’t there all the time, but neither Gaston nor Jean-Luc mentioned her calling in. Normally Gaston makes especially sure that I know about things like that. I must ask him.”

  Philip shook his head. “That’s strange, particularly as she said she was writing a book about Cathar strongholds. I wouldn’t have thought that she’d miss out on questioning the people on the main site.”

  “Ah well, I’ll ask the others about it.” Jackie sighed. “I don’t expect it’s anything important.”

  Soon after that Philip excused himself, went up to his room to freshen up and took a leisurely stroll to the meeting-place.

  Now he looked up from the water rushing over the rocks to see Jackie striding towards him. He noticed that she had eschewed her normal blouse and jeans and had chosen a simple wrap-over dress. It seemed to cling to the curves of her slim figure. She was also wearing more make-up than usual, especially accentuating the brightness of her eyes. Philip thought she looked absolutely gorgeous.

  “Been here long?” she asked as she took the seat beside him, sitting quite close this time.

  “Not long.” He looked at her. “It was nice that you joined us for dinner.”

  “I wanted to have a chat with Armand and Jeanette.” She tossed her long hair back. “Tell me, Philip, what do you think of them?”

  He mused for a while before replying. “They’re strange. They don’t quite seem to fit together. You realise that they’re not married?”

  “Really?”

  “That’s right. Jeanette spilled the beans while we were working together.” He grinned. “
In fact she was getting quite - how would you say - quite friendly towards me. He kept on putting her hand on my arm and standing close to me and raising her false lashes to look up into my face.”

  “Did she indeed?” Jackie sounded quite shocked. “And what did you do about that.”

  “Nothing, I promise you. After all, Armand was digging at the other end of the trench, but he took no notice. Perhaps that’s the way Jeanette always behaves.”

  “But she told you they weren’t married?”

  “That’s right.” He scratched his head. “I forget how it came up. I think I asked how they could both manage to get so much time off to go away on holiday together for - well, it must be getting on for a month now.”

  “More like six weeks.” She frowned. “And they deliberately misled me about being married.”

  “I wonder why they should do that?”

  “I don’t really know. The only thing I can think of, is that by appearing to be a simple young married couple on holiday, they found it easier to become friends with us. You see,” she explained, “After Gaston’s two rock-climbers left under rather odd circumstances, Andre and I became a bit suspicious of some of the people who were working for us. We were starting to wonder if they were spies from other organisations who wanted to find out what we were doing,”

  “Why should they do that?”

  “I don’t exactly know. Of course it’s always important to keep the information about a new television series under wraps until the bosses decide it’s the right time to release it. Then there may be organisations who don’t want some of the secrets about the Cathars to become public knowledge.”

  “Who would they be?”

  “Well, the Catholic Church, for a start. They could be afraid that we might find evidence that the Cathar heresy was justified in some way or other. And their actions during the Albigensian Crusade doesn’t appear in a good light.”

  “Anybody else?”

  “I’m not sure. There have been rumours of a shadowy body close to government who may be interested in what’s going on.”