The Secret Of The Cathars (2011) (2 page)

Of course, I appreciate that French officialdom or the owners of the castle may prevent you from taking possession of it. However I would expect you to do your best to find out what the secret is and to publicise it for the wider information of mankind.

May I wish you the best of luck with this task and the full enjoyment of your inheritance in the future.

Philip put down the letter and looked across at James Baker who smiled and raised his eyebrows.

“
I told you it was unusual.”

Philip grinned. “She doesn’t ask much, does she?”

“
I don’t know about that. It’s a perfectly practical task. I understand that you have no family ties to prevent you from going to France.”

“
But I’ve got no idea how long it will take.”

“
It’s only a long day’s drive from the channel ports. Surely you can take a fortnight’s holiday to visit the place. That should give you an idea of the size of the problem.”

“
And I don’t know what it would cost.”

Baker leaned forward. “I don’t think the question of cost should be a problem. I’ve done a quick assessment of your grandmother’s assets and, after all expenses and death duties are paid, I estimate the estate will be worth well over a hundred thousand pounds. That’s not including the house in Templecombe.”

Philip whistled. “A hundred thousand pounds? I’m going to get that much?”

The solicitor nodded.

“
And I came here expecting to have to pay
you
money.”

“
How nice it is,” said James Baker, “to be the bearer of good tidings.”

Philip took a deep breath. “Well,” he said, “at the weekend I’d better go down to Templecombe and look for this journal. Perhaps it will give me some idea of the problems I’m likely to encounter.”

“
I have the keys here.” Baker rose and went to the corner of the room where a dark blue duffle bag lay. He picked it up and passed it to the young man. “The keys are in there, together with various other personal items and several hundred pounds in cash. Your grandmother seemed to want to be well provided for when she went into hospital. It’s all yours.”

“
Once I’ve found out something about this place - le Bezu, I’ll have to talk to my employers about a holiday. I must say I feel I could do with one.”

“
I could let you have an initial cheque for ten thousand after I obtain probate - probably in about two weeks.”

“
Ten thousand pounds?”

Baker nodded. “That’s right. I would have to hang on to the rest until I’ve settled all the bills and paid the Inland Revenue - say two to three months.”

“
So I could arrange for my holiday to start in about three weeks?”

“
That seems perfectly possible. Leave me your home address and telephone numbers and I will contact you when I’ve got the cheque ready.”

“
One thing I need to check,” said Philip, “is exactly when my gran died.”

He left with the delightful information that Marie Sinclair had died two days after the decree absolute was issued. That meant his ex-mother-in-law wouldn’t be able to sink her claws into any of his inheritance. She would be furious.

In the smart reception lobby he scandalised the receptionist by blowing her a kiss as he went. On the landing outside he found that the lift was waiting for him with the doors open. As he walked out of the building the sun came out to brighten the dull London street.

- 2 -

Andre Jolyon pulled the Land Cruiser into the lay-by.

“
This is as close as we’re going to get.”

Jacqueline climbed down from the passenger seat and walked round to the front of the car, her slim body moving easily. She rested one hand on the warm bonnet and gazed up at the small part she could see of the ruins of the chateau, clinging to the series of precipitous rocky peaks which projected from the forested slopes.

Andre leaned on the steering wheel and watched her. A teasing wind was blowing a veil of dark hair across her cheek and partly obscuring the beautiful Viking blue eyes which had captivated her TV audiences. He had admitted to himself a while ago that he was in love with her. He certainly didn’t want to be anywhere else but in her company. He knew his devotion was a waste of effort. The emotion wasn’t returned. Jacqueline Blontard was already the most famous archaeologist in France, and as far as he knew she had reached the age of thirty-two without losing her heart to anybody. With a sigh he pushed open the door and joined her in front of the vehicle.

“
There it is then, Jo.” She linked her arm through his. “Not much to see, is there?”

“
Is it worth all the effort?” As far as he knew she had been camping outside the Department of Ancient Monuments for nearly a year to get permission to excavate at this location. But he didn’t understand why it was so important to her.

“
We won’t know until we get up there and start clearing away more than five hundred years of vegetation and detritus.” She turned and grinned at him in that heart-stopping way that had made her such a hit on television. “Come on. Let’s go up and have a look around.”

She set off with long, energetic strides along the overgrown path that led up the hill. He followed close behind her ready, as always, to help her if she got into difficulties. They passed a small sign which informed the few members of the public who got this far that they were approaching the ruined Cathar stronghold of le Bezu.

Jolyon always made sure he was ready when she needed him. He realised that to her he was just her special assistant - part minder, part enabler, part enforcer, part organiser - but he would never be any more. He performed all of his duties to her complete satisfaction. His reward, as well as sharing a part of the funds and the reflected glow she attracted, was the occasional night in her bed and the knowledge that she looked on him as her best friend and support. And he had decided to accept that was as far as their personal relationship would ever progress. He would have to keep his love to himself.

They didn’t talk much on the ascent. Instead they kept their breath to cope with the steepness of the path and the irregular rough stretches of scrambling over rocks.

“
You will have to make sure the diggers wear safety harnesses,” she observed as they struggled over one particularly difficult section. “We can’t afford to have any accidents.”

“
I’ve chosen three guys for the start who also have experience of rock-climbing. I’ve warned them that the terrain is very rugged. That’s really wetted their appetites. They have promised me that they’ve all got suitable kit.”

“
I know I can always rely on you, Jo.”

The comment was unnecessary. They both knew that he wouldn’t let her start any kind of archaeological exploration without proper preparations being made. It was his particular talent. She had found this out when he was seconded to her by the Louvre for her first television series
The
Archaeological
Treasures
of
the
Louvre
. That series had been so successful that it had made Jacqueline Blontard a household name throughout the French-speaking world. She had refused to let Jolyon go back to his old job and had insisted that he accompany her on all her subsequent digs. She had appointed him as her technical director on the second record-breaking series,
Napoleon’s
Archaeological
Adventures
in
Egypt
. Now it was unthinkable to each of them that they should start a new project without the other.

When they had scrambled up the slope and finally reached the remains of the eastern entrance to the castle they climbed over a rough cattle fence, scrambled up the remains of a low wall and found themselves on a small level terrace where they paused to catch their breath. Even though they hadn’t yet climbed to the top of the chateau, they could see the views were magnificent.

“
Wow! Look at that.”

Jolyon looked down where she was pointing. Carved rather crudely into the large stone step at her feet was a cross with forked ends within a circle - the symbol of the Knights Templar. Andre felt a tingle run down his spine.

“
Do you think it’s genuine?”

She shrugged. “It hardly matters, does it?” She looked at him seriously. “I have every reason to believe there is a lot more evidence here of both the Templars and their predecessors - the Cathars.”

“
Ah.” He grimaced. “Sounds like your old uncle talking.”

“
I’m serious, Jo. Nobody else may believe him. But he told me enough when I was a youngster for me to be confident his research notes weren’t a tissue of lies.”

Andre kept silent. So this was why she had chosen le Bezu. He knew Jacqueline still believed old Albert Blontard had been badly treated by the academic world when he published his ground-breaking exposure of the end of the Cathars. The problem was that the old boy had failed to come up with enough supporting evidence to back up his astonishing claims. He had been ridiculed by his contemporaries and had never been able to get the funding to continue his work. Jolyon swallowed. It looked as though Jackie was hoping to find evidence to support his claims. She was very sensitive about this subject. He would have to be careful in his choice of comments to avoid upsetting her.

Andre looked round at the scene. The weather wasn’t particularly fine today and there were great banks of cloud hiding the high Pyrenees to the south. They were being driven along by a strong westerly wind. The nearer, lower mountains were clad almost to their peaks in dark forest. But as they looked away to the northwest the sun suddenly came out and lit up the village of Rennes-le-Chateau, about six kilometres away. Jacqueline pointed towards the main centre of fascination with the Cathar legends for the last one hundred and fifty years.

“
That’s where the famous cleric, Berenger Sauniere, lived in the late nineteenth century.”

“
Do you mean the poor parish priest who became fabulously wealthy but nobody knows how?”

“
That’s it.”

Jolyon looked around him at the remains of the chateau. It was difficult to make out much of the original construction. The mountain itself was spectacular enough. The series of giant rocky teeth which climbed into the low cloud were impossible to scale without full rock-climbing kit. The walls which once linked them into an impregnable stronghold had now mainly crumbled away or been robbed for use in later buildings in the neighbourhood. What remained around the bottom of the sheer rocks was now shrouded in dense undergrowth. The effect was awe-inspiring.

“
I bet this fortress was a sight in those days.”

“
It certainly was,” she agreed. “On the North side of the ridge there’s a sheer drop of more than thirty metres. The guys working on that side will have to be extremely careful.”

He turned and faced her. “This is going to be totally different to our normal excavations, Jackie. The site is going to be very difficult to explore. Why are you doing it? What are we looking for?”

“
Anything.” She had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. “I want to prove some points. I believe we will find the evidence here.”

He pulled a face.

“
Jo - before Uncle Albert committed suicide he made a will leaving me all his papers. He had nothing else to leave. Every franc he possessed had been invested in his search for the Cathar remains. He had nothing left but those papers.”

“
And you want to carry on his work.”

“
Not exactly. During the last fifteen years, whenever I could find the time, I have been working through his notes. They took up seven filing cabinets so it wasn’t easy. However I think I’ve picked up enough to convince me that the answer is here under our feet.”

“
You believe this castle is the hiding-place of the Cathar treasure?”

“
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. I’m looking for facts. All I know so far about le Bezu is that the chateau was confiscated from the Cathars by Simon de Montfort and was awarded to Pierre de Voisins in 1231.”

“
I’ve not heard of him before. Who’s this chap de Voisins?”

“
He was a very interesting character. You’ll k now that the Albigensian Crusade was led by Simon de Montfort. Pierre de Voisins was one of his lieutenants. After de Montfort’s death in 1218, he seems to have decided to withdraw from the Crusade and retire to le Bezu.”

“
Are you hoping to find out more about him by excavating here?”

She shook her head. “De Voisins is only peripheral to what I’m looking for. Uncle’s files contained Occitan documents with references to him. My reading of those notes suggests de Voisins had a change of heart in later life and became sympathetic to the Cathar cause. In fact it is possible that le Bezu may have become a haven for some of the Cathars escaping from Montsegur.”

Jolyon pulled a face. “It doesn’t seem much of a basis for a major excavation.”

“
Come off it, Andre.” Her face was flushed with enthusiasm as she looked up at him. “We know that only four Cathar
perfecti
escaped from Montsegur and they were recorded as taking ‘The Treasure of the Cathars’ with them. Le Bezu is not much more than a long day’s walk through the mountains from Montsegur. I have been unable to find records of any other safe havens in the area. The Cathar escapers and their treasure have never been found. Can you think of a more likely place for them to have come than here?”

“
But wouldn’t they have been pursued by the French?”

“
Yes - sooner or later. However, suppose that de Voisins was willing to shelter them, being secretly sympathetic to the Cathar cause. All he needed to say was that he hadn’t seen the escapers. Nobody would be likely to have argued with him.” She swept her arm round, indicating the whole site. “If they didn’t accept his word, it would have resulted in another twelve-month siege of a powerful and easily defended castle. In addition, the French would have assumed that de Voisins was an enemy of the Cathars. So they would have been much more likely to accept his word and look elsewhere.”