In the gambling room the peak moment of tension had arrived.
‘The pot is five thousand crowns. There are three players, it is time to reveal the cards,’ said Henri.
Bull looked apprehensively at Louie-Louie, who in turn smiled contentedly back.
‘Let us see what you have, Cardinal,’ said Louie-Louie.
Beowulf again looked at Lewis and then the door to the kitchen passage. Lewis thought to himself, ‘he must mean something by this’ and so went to the door and opened it. There was no one there; but as he looked down the passageway, the kitchen door opened and Amarilla and Emsie came swiftly out of the kitchen carrying trays of drinks. Lewis was about to stand aside to let the serving girls through. As he did, he again thought that one of the girls was Amarilla. This time he was sure! Although she was wearing plain and humble clothes and she was smeared with all kinds of kitchen dirt (was that gravy in her hair?) he could not be mistaken. Their eyes met in recognition of each other and the surprise of this caused Amarilla to fumble her tray of drinks. As she stumbled Lewis neatly caught hold of the tray and Amarilla.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered (in English, much to Lewis’ delight).
‘You’re welcome,’ he said and, having restored the tray to her, he let her go.
Henri looked round in exasperation,
‘Serve the drinks then, but quickly, this is an important moment!’
The girls brought round the drinks, while the card players waited for the revelation of the winning hand. Amarilla’s ‘disguise’ was not really working well, as her dishevelled appearance seemed to draw attention to her rather than deflect it. Marshall Gney had the uncomfortable sensation that he knew the serving girl with the strange hair, but he was not sure from where.
‘Good health to the King of France,’ toasted Beowulf, somewhat ambiguously under the circumstances. The others were compelled to second the toast.
‘Thank you,’ acknowledged Louie-Louie, ‘Now shall we see if I have good fortune?’
‘The pot stands at five thousand crowns,’ began Henri, for the third time, but as he was about to ask Cardinal Bull to reveal his cards Mascarpone came in from the other door with his letter.
‘I have the letter!’ he shouted, ‘now we will prove that it is with the Marshall and not with the Church that the hateful Beowulf has conspired against your Majesty!’
‘Couldn’t that wait?’ asked Louie-Louie who was getting tired of waiting to collect his winnings.
‘It cannot, your Highness,’ said Bull, ‘we must verify the truth of allegation and this will enable us to take the traitor into custody and keep your Grace safe.’
‘The Cardinal is correct,’ agreed Heinrich, ‘if there is a traitor he must be revealed in order to maintain your royal safety.’
‘I am not a traitor!’ blustered Marshall Gney getting to his feet. ‘This is ignominious! I am a hero of France and I will not be accused by this jackal of a man!’
He gestured at Mascarpone, indicating that he was the ‘jackal of a man’ that he would not be accused by, however it was Bull who answered.
‘Sit down, sir! We both know what is in this letter. There will be no shouting after it is read.’
‘Could you read the letter, then’ asked Louie-Louie. Mascarpone opened the envelope and unfolded the paper. The guards and Heinrich readied themselves for action. As Mascarpone looked at the letter he began to appear confused.
‘Read the letter,’ commanded Bull.
Mascarpone continued to read the letter to himself.
‘Read then letter!’ directed Louie-Louie.
‘There appears to be a mistake,’ said Mascarpone looking anxiously across at Bull, ‘this is supposed to be a letter from Marshall Gney conspiring with the accursed Beowulf to harm your majesty, but…’
‘But what?’ asked Louie-Louie.
‘It appears to be Cardinal Bull’s laundry list,’ said Mascarpone.
Marshall Gney and Bull were both on their feet simultaneously.
‘You will apologise for your base insinuations!’ demanded Gney furiously. At this Bull was only able to turn bright red and rage inwardly. He had no proof without the letter. He had been tricked, or that fool Mascarpone had messed things up again! All eyes in the room turned towards Bull and there was nothing he could do or say. For a moment it looked as if he would burst, but with a great effort he managed to say,
‘In the light of these circumstances I must withdraw my allegation.’
With another effort he sat down, as did the Marshall, who sat with a bemused sense of relief; he had been sure that the Cardinal must have intercepted one of his letters to Beowulf and could not fathom how it had not come to be read out.
‘So,’ said Beowulf, ‘before we cart me off to the dungeon to find out by more painful means who I was supposed to be working for, shall we see who won the hand?’