The Grail Quest Books 1-3: Harlequin, Vagabond, Heretic by Bernard Cornwell

took refuge in the churches and the lucky ones found protectors there, but most were not lucky.
    Thomas, Jake and Sam finally discovered an unplundered house that belonged to a tanner, a stinking fellow with an ugly wife and three small children. Sam, whose innocent face made strangers trust him on sight, held his knife at the throat of the youngest child and the tanner suddenly remembered where he had hidden his cash. Thomas had watched Sam, fearing he really would slit the boy's throat, for Sam, despite his ruddy cheeks and cheerful eyes, was as evil as any man in Will Skeat's band. Jake was not much better, though Thomas counted both as friends.
    The man's as poor as we are,' Jake said in wonderment as he raked through the tanner's coins. He pushed a third of the pile towards Thomas. 'You want his wife?' Jake offered generously.
    'Christ, no! She's cross-eyed like you.'
    'Is she?'
    Thomas left Jake and Sam to their games and went to find a tavern where there would be food, drink and warmth. He reckoned any girl worth pursuing had been caught already, so he unstrung his bow, pushed past a group of men tearing the contents from a parked wagon and found an inn where a motherly widow had sensibly protected both her property and her daughters by welcoming the first men-at-arms, showering them with free food and ale, then scolding them for dirtying her floor with their muddy feet. She was shouting at them now, though few understood what she said, and one of the men growled at Thomas that she and her daughters were to be left alone.
    Thomas held up his hands to show he meant no harm, then took a plate of bread, eggs and cheese. 'Now pay her,' one of the men-at-arms growled, and Thomas dutifully put the tanner's few coins on the counter.
    'He's a good-looking one,' the widow said to her daughters, who giggled.
    Thomas turned and pretended to inspect the daughters. 'They are the most beautiful girls in Brittany,' he said to the widow in French, 'because they take after you, madame.'
    That compliment, though patently untrue, raised squeals of laughter. Beyond the tavern were screams and tears, but inside it was warm and friendly. Thomas ate the food hungrily, then tried to hide himself in a window bay when Father Hobbe came bustling in from the street. The priest saw Thomas anyway.
    'I'm still looking for men to guard the churches, Thomas.'
    'I'm going to get drunk, father,' Thomas said happily. 'So goddamn drunk that one of those two girls will look attractive.' He jerked his head at the widow's daughters.
    Father Hobbe inspected them critically, then sighed. 'You'll kill yourself if you drink that much, Thomas.' He sat at the table, waved at the girls and pointed at Thomas's pot. 'I'll have a drink with you,' the priest said.
    'What about the churches?'
    'Everyone will be drunk soon enough,' Father Hobbe said, 'and the horror, will end. It always does. Ale and wine, God knows, are great causes of sin but they make it short-lived. God's bones, but it's cold out there.' He smiled at Thomas. 'So how's your black soul, Tom?'
    Thomas contemplated the priest. He liked Father Hobbe, who was small and wiry, with a mass of untamed black hair about a cheerful face that was thick-scarred from a childhood pox. He was low born, the son of a Sussex wheelwright, and like any country lad he could draw a bow with the best of them. He sometimes accompanied Skeat's men on their forays into Duke Charles's country and he willingly joined the archers when they dismounted to form a battleline. Church law forbade a priest from wielding an edged weapon, but Father Hobbe always claimed he used blunt arrows, though they seemed to pierce enemy mail as efficiently as any other. Father Hobbe, in short, was a good man whose only fault was an excessive interest in Thomas's soul.
    'My soul,' Thomas said, 'is soluble in ale.'
    'Now there's a good word,' Father Hobbe said. 'Soluble, eh?' He picked up the big black bow and prodded the silver badge with a dirty