‘Charming, quite charming. Are they always so loving towards each other?’ Maynus gave a wry smile. ‘Is it not usually the way with families?’ ‘Not with mine.’ ‘Then you are fortunate indeed, mon fils.’ That wasn’t strictly true. Joseph and I used to fight like mongrels as children, although we always made up afterwards - or nearly always. And I won’t begin to describe the battles royal I had with my mother, although nothing as vicious as what I had just witnessed between William and his mother. I was still reeling from the experience, not least Adela’s extraordinary approach at the end. What possible help she thought I could give, a poor monk she had only just met, I couldn’t imagine. Yet she seemed in earnest. Take care of her boy. Presumably she meant one of the two in the hall, Richard or Nicholas, since both, apparently, were her brother’s nephews. But which one? By the time I thought to ask she had already gone. But surely there could be no confusion: angelic Richard must be hers.
