HISTORICAL FICTION — SPECULATIVE FICTION

Guillaume Gets a New Identity and a New Home.

Chapter Six — The Crusade ends and a new era begins

Five easy days of riding took them to the village of Saint Jean Pied-de-Port where they stopped for a day’s rest before riding on to Pamplona where they met a knight who approached Guillaume.

“Sir Guillaume de Fontaine?” asked the young knight who wore the crusader’s cross.

“Yes,” replied Guillaume curious as to how the young knight who could not have been older that twenty-five, knew who he was. “How can I help you?”

“My father has told me stories about you. He fought with you at Hastings thirty years ago. Let me introduce myself. I am Godefroi de Saint-Omer, the same name as my father.”

“Of course I remember your father, Sir Godefroi. His home estate is in Flanders if I remember rightly,” Guillaume added with a smile. “How is your father?”

“He is well, but sad because he cannot ride any longer due to an injury. So, I stand here in his place. He told me that you would be passing through Pamplona. He wanted me to speak with you, in private as it is a personal message.”

“But of course. Geoffroi, Roland, Denis, and Jean-Guy, please excuse me while I talk with my old friend’s son. I will meet you here in an hour.” Guillaume knew that Godefroi had come to meet him here in Pamplona due to Lugh’s plans.

Godefroi spoke to Guillaume explaining a plan that had been set in place by a secret council of French lords who had Celtic roots. Guillaume could hardly credit the breadth and depth of the plan to create a powerful brotherhood that would come to dominate not only France, but almost the whole of the Holy Roman Empire.

Guillaume’s role was to return to Pamplona at the end of the crusade and buy a few strategic sites which would become essential to the brotherhood in the years to come. His role would be disguised with him being a member of a small company of knights who would serve as protectors of pilgrims between Pamplona and Logroño. The costs for this would be borne by the brotherhood.

Godefroi also let Guillaume know that the men who would do this with him would meet him in both Ponferrada and Santiago. Guillaume was to be the respected senior knight for the venture. The Fontaine family was to be instrumental in safeguarding the brotherhood for as long as the brotherhood existed, existing in the background, away from public scrutiny.

It came to pass as Godefroi had told him. The men who had been gathered in Ponferrada and Santiago journeyed with Guillaume and his small company to Rome and then on to win Antioch in 1098 with a final victory on July 15, 1099, liberating Jerusalem from the Muslims.

Geoffroi and Roland did not survive to reach Jerusalem. Roland died on board the ship taking them to Asia Minor. Geoffroi died at Antioch in the fighting. Guillaume had survived, not because of his warrior skills, but mainly because of the young knights who had been charged to ensure he was able to return to Spain to prepare the ground for the brotherhood.

In the late autumn of 1099, Guillaume found himself back in Pamplona with ten young knights. The work of protecting pilgrims began within days of their arrival. The escorting of pilgrims along the pilgrimage route was a sacred, Christian duty. Under the cover of that duty, Guillaume searched for two sites that would become their bases of operations.

Only a half-day’s ride from Pamplona, near the village of Puente la Reina, Guillaume found a spot just a few kilometres from the pilgrim path that would serve as a discrete setting. He had found the site which would serve as his home base for the years that remained. Eunate.

Two months into his daily ride along the pilgrimage route, Guillaume saw a familiar face peek out from a hooded robe. Laurent gave him a look which could only be described as an instruction to have a meeting. Giving Laurent a slight nod.

“I will be taking a rest at the next inn,” he stated to his knight companions. “My old bones need a rest. I want you to continue riding. After a good mug of ale, I will ride to catch up with you.”

No one thought anything of this declaration. Guillaume was by far the eldest in the group. He had trained his small company of knights well in their role as protectors of pilgrims en route to Santiago del Compostela.

“Guillaume,” began Laurent who sat at the table Guillaume had selected in the quietest corner of the inn. “Good to see you again.”

“I doubt that this is a social visit,” Guillaume responded. “Why are we having this meeting?”

“It is time to have you change identity. A letter will be sent to your family in Long telling them you have died in the service of the Lord as a protector of pilgrims.”

“Why?”

“You have many more years of living to do and it would be difficult to explain to your fellow knights and the Church why you continue to live.”

“I suppose you have it all planned out. So, who am I going to become?”

“Guillermo Lamperez, a respected knight returning to Spain and to the homeland of his grandfather who has recently died in Lugo.”

“So, how do we deceive the knights who are expecting me to return to Eunate.”

“It’s actually easier than you’d think. There will be a skirmish in which you will be declared killed in battle with bandits. Your horse will return to Eunate without you. And, a story will be circulated how you died in the service of the Lord.”

Previously

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Carrie, Author, D. Denise Dianaty, Brian Lageose, Mariana Busarova, Rena Aliston, Julia A. Keirns, Michael Cappelli, Daniel Shaw, and Luis Ruiz, Robert, Arzuman Mamishov, Adda Maria, Love, and Mariana Busarova