"You said we're going to become squires?" Cesar asked in a low voice.
"I'll become a knight apprentice, and you'll be a squire, but we'll both have to follow our master—my father, Amalric I," Baldwin said quietly. He was worried that Cesar might be unhappy, considering that he had personally acknowledged Cesar as his brother before.
It was not unheard of for attendants, or even pageboys, to skip the stage of squire and become knight apprentices directly. Sometimes it was for the sake of a marriage match. No matter what, a knight making a fine match with a noble lady sounded much better than a squire making a fine match with one. But while a fourteen-year-old boy could marry, he could not become a knight outright...
Then there were matters involving the ownership of fiefs. As everyone knew, kings invested nobles, and nobles invested knights. In this era, all of them had fiefs, even if it was only a bridge or a mill. Knights had to serve their lords—for instance, fighting for them a certain number of days each year.
If a knight suddenly died while his liege lord was about to go to war or wished to reclaim the fief, then even if the knight's eldest son was not yet fourteen, he had to put on armor, mount a horse, raise his banner, and get to work.
But to do that, first you had to have a horse, armor, and weapons.
Count Étienne and the Templar Geoffrey had both been giving Cesar money, afraid that petty people might resent him and restrain or make things difficult for him in a place like this.
Amalric I had not sunk so low as to forbid Baldwin from preparing a suit of armor for his little companion. The problem was that if