The Christian Crusades against the Saracen ‘heathens’ are on hold after its chief instrument of
missionary and military zeal, the Order of the Knights Templar, have been discredited and
disbanded.
But the threat remains.
Amid an atmosphere of suspicion, representatives of the warring kings of England and France
meet to try to agree a truce and ‘take up the Cross’ together against a common heathen enemy.
Lancastrian noble John of Gaunt is the English side’s negotiator and aspiring knight Hotspur is
there trying to prove his worth as guardian of one of the duke’s prized sacred relics – the Finger of
St Bernard of Clairvaux, a French monk and fervent promoter of crusading. It’s an age where the
owners of such grisly remains are thereby believed to be endowed with superhuman powers.
Like many a red-blooded young man, Geoffrey aspires to join the courtly circle with its entourage
of beautiful women – and is soon seduced by the physical charms of Inge, the handmaiden of a
powerful French lady.
But there’s more to siren Inge than meets the eye – and Geoffrey quickly finds out she’s on a
mission which could wreck his ambitions.
An elegant restatement that history is a continuum, part of the present, that ‘the more things
change, the more they are the same’, Of Relics and Romans also uncovers real human hearts
beating once the dust of the past has been blown away.