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quest.”
    “I can see how your mind is working and you’re wrong. Actually the tale itself isn’t as bawdy as some of the others.”
    “More of a tease, then?”
    “Yes, basically it’s the frog prince story. After much travelling and asking for help, the knight finds an ugly old woman whomakes him promise to marry her if she gives him the answer to the question. He’s desperate by now and agrees. Then he returns to court and tells the queen the answer and wins his pardon, but of course the old crone insists on the marriage.”
    “And he does the decent thing?”
    “Without much grace. In bed the first night he calls her loathsome. For this she gives him a dreadfully long lecture on the meaning of gentility that seems to wear him down. Eventually she offers terms. Either she’ll stay ugly and be an obedient wife or she’ll become young and beautiful and he can take his chance on what happens. He’s so beaten down by now that he says it’s her choice. She’s pleased. Basically, she’s now the boss and asks him to kiss her, whereupon she magically turns into a young beauty.”
    “And what was the answer?”
    “What do women most desire?” She widened her eyes. “If you haven’t discovered by now, I’m surprised.”
    “The same as what men most desire?”
    She shook her head.
    “Shoes?”
    “Actually, no. Women want sovereignty over their men.”
    “Girl power?”
    “It sounds modern, but it goes back to the medieval notion of courtly love, the noble man devoted to his lady and willing to suffer all manner of trials and tribulations even to approach her.”
    “Worship from afar?”
    “Something like that. She is perfection and he perpetually desires her and performs deeds of valour in a vain attempt to win her favour.”
    “Story of my life,” Diamond said.
    “Come off it. Even in Chaucer’s story, the bloke has his way with her at the end.”
    “With the pretty one?”
    “Yes—and wouldn’t you know it?—instead of insisting on running the marriage her way, she promises, basically, to love, honour and obey. End of story—as written by a bloke.”
    “But is she happy?”
    “Supposedly, but it’s not true to the code of courtly love. The woman is supposed to be unattainable.”
    “If they were, men would give up and watch football.”
    “Very likely,” Paloma said. “Another beer?”
    “Depends.”
    “On what?”
    “On whether I’m to stay the night.”
    “There you go,” she said. “Twenty-first century man. Where did I go wrong?”
    He was thinking of something else. “The Wife of Bath. I wonder why Chaucer picked Bath, rather than any other town. Is that explained in the poem?”
    “Not that I recall.”
    “Was he from around here?”
    Paloma shook her head. “Far as I recall, the family were Ipswich people and he was born in London.”
    “So she could have been the Wife of Ipswich.”
    Paloma sighed, and it wasn’t a sigh of admiration.
    “But why Bath?” Diamond said. “A random choice?”
    She shook her head. “No, there’s good evidence that he knew this part of the world. First, he says she was ‘of beside Bath.’ Chaucer used words carefully. There was a city wall from Roman times and there were suburbs beyond the walls to the north and south even in the fourteenth century. It’s believed he must have known about these to have placed her there.”
    “She may even have lived in Weston, where I do.”
    “Or much closer. St. Michael’s church and Broad Street were outside the walls. So was Milsom Street. We think of this area as central now, but it was outside the northern limit.”
    “The slums?”
    She shrugged. “I expect there was snobbery about who the real citizens were and who came from the other side. And that’s not the only bit of local knowledge Chaucer used. The local source of wealth was the wool trade and when you read the Prologue, as I’m sure you will, you’ll see thatAlison—that’s the wife’s name—was an expert weaver. She