John Jacob slapped him hard enough to split his lip. ‘It’s a simple question, scum. An answer spares you more pain.’

He spat blood. ‘Geoffrey of Dover.’

‘So, Geoffrey of Dover, where is Ranulph de Hayle?’ said Blackstone.

‘What good will it do to tell you even if I knew?’

‘It will make your death quick.’

‘Death is death.’

‘Not when I roast you on a spit over that fire,’ said Blackstone, pointing to a blazing campfire.

That caught the man’s attention: being burned alive was a terrifying prospect; but then he challenged the scar-faced man looking down at him. ‘I know your reputation, Thomas Blackstone. You kill as much as any other man but you do not torture. Hang me and get it over with.’

‘We have Navarrese soldiers among us. They survived Cocherel and de Hayle’s stinking dungeon. They saw their comrades taken out each day and butchered by the man who calls himself the Beast. They do not share the same reservations that I have about torture. Where is le Bête?’

The threat was enough for the doomed man to try to save himself. ‘I cannot be certain. We were to ride until we found your tracks and then return towards La Fontaine. De Hayle does not stay in one place. He would find us. I swear he could be anywhere by now.’

It was a convincing enough answer. ‘You were searching for me because you knew we had the boy.’

Geoffrey of Dover flinched. So, this was no straightforward interrogation. Its purpose was to find the truth about their interest in the fugitive child. ‘Aye, he wants the lad. But I don’t know why.’

‘Who pays de Hayle?’ said Blackstone.

‘Whoever needs his services the most.’

‘And who is it that wants the boy?’

Geoffrey shook his head. ‘I do not know, that I swear. We rode from Spain. Someone in power wants the boy dead. I am not privy to who pays de Hayle.’

‘Then why keep the lad alive in the prison?’

‘Le Bête sent word to Paris. He said the French King might pay more for him than the Spanish.’

‘Why would King Charles of France have any interest in a Spanish urchin?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Who in Spain shares that interest?’

The man shrugged. ‘If I knew I would save myself by telling you but I don’t.’

Blackstone studied the man a while longer, then, satisfied, he nodded his acceptance. ‘Then tonight you remain tied and at dawn I’ll set you free.’

A shadow fell across him. Halif ben Josef stared down at the wretched man. ‘That charm you wear around your neck belonged to the wife and mother of a family who showed compassion to a stranger. A man who, like you, was once a prisoner.’

Geoffrey looked from one to the other. ‘Who’s this? I won it in a tavern years ago.’