The Outlaws of Ennor

Chapter Thirty-Three

The decking rolled gently as they made their slow way up the northern channel from St Nicholas, through the deep water, and then started to corkscrew in earnest as they passed the northernmost tip of the islands. The shipmaster set her prow southwards as soon as he could, and the ship began her journey.

As they passed the dismal rock to the west of the islands, two figures knelt and begged on the slippery green-coloured stone. Both were bedraggled and sodden, their hands red where manacles had rubbed their wrists raw overnight, and their pleading was the more poignant for the way that they tore at their hair and begged with reedy, thin voices.

‘Aye, they won’t last above another tide,’ the master said. He was a short, hook-nosed man called Henry with an entirely bald pate and a thin scatter of black hair above his ears.

‘Poor, miserable devils,’ Baldwin muttered. ‘Give me the noose any day rather than this protracted and cruel death.’

‘Think that’s cruel? You should see some of the foreign ways of killing, Sir Baldwin,’ Henry said.

‘I have. I never thought to see their like on English soil,’ Baldwin said shortly.

‘Perhaps. But I say, they are welcome to their death. They asked for it by the way they tried to steal cargo and ships. They cost men dear in effort and treasure.’

Baldwin nodded. Henry’s tone showed his malice towards the two. Any sailor must detest pirates, but perhaps those who preyed upon their own countrymen were hated most.

‘Bastards!’ Henry muttered.

Turning away, Baldwin went to seek Simon. The cries and desperation of the two surviving Breton pirates was too heart-wrenching.

Simon was at the prow. He heard Baldwin’s steps, but didn’t turn. ‘You know, if you stand up here and keep your eyes on the horizon there, it doesn’t make you feel so sick. I could almost feel all right up here.’

‘Certainly it is preferable to being down below,’ Baldwin agreed.

‘How long will it take to sail all that way?’

‘I don’t know,’ Baldwin said. ‘The master reckoned anything from a half-day to nightfall, depending on the winds.’

‘Winds I can bear,’ Simon said sourly. ‘It’s the storms I despise.’

‘Forget such things, old friend. Concentrate on seeing your wife again,’ Baldwin said.

‘I shall. Although I still cannot forget that poor cabin-boy’s body,’ Simon said.

‘Nor me,’ Baldwin said, but for different reasons.

They had attended the church service in memory of the dead only two days after the capture of the pirates’ ship and the recovery of the Prior’s treasure. First the monks had set Cryspyn in a vault beneath the altar, showing their very genuine grief at losing so close a friend. When the rough slab had been set over him, the other bodies were taken outside. The gatekeeper and novice were buried in the monks’ own cemetery within the priory’s precinct, while the others, including Hamo, were carried out to the vill’s graveyard just outside.

While Simon stared down into the shallow, short hole dug for the boy he felt he had betrayed, Baldwin could not help but stare across the gulf at Tedia. She stood chastely, hands before her apron, hair bound up, eyes downcast, and yet Baldwin could not help but remember the sweet taste of her, the soft roundness of her breasts, the tough corded muscles of her arms and thighs. He must bring his mind back to the burial as the priest intoned the last prayers.

Afterwards Simon clearly wanted to be left alone, musing at the graveside of Hamo. Baldwin left him there and made his way to the beach, avoiding Tedia’s home. On the beach he sat staring eastwards, his heart heavy.

He desperately wanted to be away. Being here was tearing at his soul: the discovery of the murderer, David, the ferocious pirates, the acquisitive and immoral master of the islands, Ranulph, with his clear ambition to absorb even St Nicholas into his demesne, all repelled Baldwin. The islands had never looked so beautiful, but he felt like a man whose soul had been wrenched from his body.

It was not only the murders and the unnecessary deaths, nor the subsequent escape of the murderer. No, it was the loss of his own hope and happiness.

When he and Simon set off from Galicia, he had thought that their adventures were at an end; he had had no idea that they would be blown so far from their course as to arrive here on these islands. All he had hoped for was a short trip to Dartmouth or a similar port, a canter to his home, and the opportunity of sinking into the arms of his wife. Now Jeanne seemed much further away even than she had while he was in Galicia.

Tedia had kept away from him. That made him feel the prickings of guilt too. He dared not consider how his wife would view his behaviour. Perhaps she would understand the loneliness and longing he had felt: she had lost her family to outlaws, so maybe she would comprehend how worried and battered he had been, thinking that Simon was dead. All alone, he had made love with a woman who sought the same comfort and compassion as he did himself. Yes, perhaps Jeanne would understand … but Baldwin would never be able to tell her. This was one more secret he would keep. The secret of his own shame.

Later, when he returned to the priory, the sight of Simon made him feel a renewed guilt.

His old friend’s eyes were red from weeping. His face was marked with soil where he had rubbed tears away, and as Baldwin looked at him, he thought that Simon had never appeared so vulnerable.

‘I don’t know why, Baldwin,’ he said at last, ‘but I feel as though I have just buried my son again.’

‘Peter is long dead,’ Baldwin said gently. Simon’s first son Peterkin had died of a fever many years ago. At the time, Simon had been ashamed. He once told Baldwin that the sound of pitiful crying had gradually scraped at his nerves to the extent that he was glad when they slowly grew quieter, until at last they stopped. ‘Hamo would have been proud to call you “Father”, Simon.’

‘I would have been happy to call him “son”,’ Simon said, and let his face drop into his hands as he started to weep again.

Now at least the sunshine and the fresh breeze were giving him a new vigour. He looked more like the Simon whom Baldwin had known so well for so many years.

‘I suppose this is the last leg of our pilgrimage,’ Simon said musingly. ‘I had not expected it to last so long, nor to have been so moved by the things that happened. God’s feet! I hadn’t expected so many things to happen!’

‘Yes, I hope it is the last part of the journey. I want to see Jeanne again,’ Baldwin said, with a burst of shame exploding in his breast. He had betrayed her. It was the first time he had done so, and now he was terribly afraid that he had damaged his relationship with his wife. He could never forget Tedia.

‘Yes,’ Simon said, but without enthusiasm. ‘But when I return, I shall have to move house and start a new life in Dartmouth. I do not look forward to that.’

‘It will be a good life, you will see,’ Baldwin said with a heartiness he did not feel, his mind still fixed upon his wife.

‘I hope so. I hope so,’ Simon repeated, staring out blankly at the mist on the horizon.

William of Carkill was there to welcome the new Prior when he arrived: a tall, thin man, with eyes that protruded like a frog’s in so definite a manner that William suspected that, should he open his mouth, there might be a long tongue inside, ready to flick out and catch a fly.

‘You are William, the priest at St Mary’s?’ he asked as he came along the rickety gang-plank.

‘Yes, that’s me,’ William said. ‘And you are the new Prior.’

‘You may call me Prior John,’ the man said, gazing about him with a pained expression. ‘What a place!’

‘Indeed, Prior. The islands are-’

‘Beyond the fringe of civilisation. This is indeed the limit of Man’s ambition. What else could one imagine?’

‘It’s beautiful in the sunshine,’ William said loyally, prompted to defend his islands. In fairness, he accepted that the islands in this weak, grey light were not being shown to their best advantage, but that was no reason to be so insulting.

‘I suppose it looks better — marginally. My God, what have I done to deserve this! At least I should only be here for a short while.’

William smiled nastily. ‘Oh, aye, Prior? I’ve only been here about fifteen years myself.’

With a shudder, Prior John stared about him again. ‘My God!’

It was two weeks after Cryspyn’s death that Thomas was deposited at Penzance. He walked down to the harbour among the thronging crowds with a sense of disbelief as he was pushed from side to side, jostled by the eager stevedores. He almost stepped on a rope as it was being drawn away by a sailor on a ship moving off from the harbour, and had to dance to one side to avoid being pulled into the water.

This was his life now, he knew. He had the clothes he stood up in, a pack of some items which he had taken from the priory, a little ink, reeds, parchment, and other tools which he fervently hoped would help him earn a living of some sort, but that was all. His wealth, all of it, had been confiscated by Ranulph. His ship: gone; his belongings: stolen. All his profits from the last years of effort were gone. Nothing was left.

He walked out along the harbour to the main town. Here he stopped, and stared up the road blankly. There was nothing for him here, a poor man with skills in penmanship. What could he do?

There was a tavern nearby, and he entered, using one of his last coins to buy a jug of wine. Sitting, he morosely gazed into his pot, wondering what the next day would bring for him, but he could not think. Instead he slowly drank his wine. There was an alley alongside, and when he was done, he walked into it, pulling his tunic up to urinate, but then there was a harsh chuckle and he suddenly felt a knife prick at his throat, a rough hand on his back.

‘I have nothing. Take whatever you want,’ he snapped.

‘Oh Thomas, what could you have that I would want?’

Thomas frowned. It was a voice he recognised — someone he had known. He tried to recall their identity, but then the voice said, ‘Extraordinary to meet you here. I’d prefer your master, but he isn’t about, is he? So you’ll have to do.’

A few moments later, Sir Charles left the alley with a new spring in his step. He glanced up and down the road, and then set off towards an inn near the harbour-front. He would teach a man to keep him confined, bound. With a soft chuckle, he entered and ordered a jug of wine.

In the alley, there was a slow gurgling sound, followed by a sad little tapping sound as though a man’s bare heel was rattling on a loose cobble. A rat heard it and scuttled across the way to investigate, but the heel lashed out at it, once then twice, and the rat decided to return to the cat’s corpse under a loose box.

Naked, with his hands bound behind him and his legs tied at the knee, Thomas, sat waiting for rescue, miserably wondering how he might explain this latest predicament to whoever discovered him.

There was no point in going to the shore to see the sails unfurling, the ship gradually heeling over and picking up speed. Tedia had seen enough ships in her life. For now, all she wanted was the peace of forgetfulness.

Bitter? Yes, she was bitter. She had managed to lose so much in so little time. First her potential lover, then her husband, and now her real lover. Sir Baldwin had not spoken to her since that last visit at Mariota’s house. He had said nothing more since then, as though he had made his use of her and had no further need. Perhaps he was happy enough to know that he had conquered, like so many men were. Once they had stormed a woman’s last bastion, they were prone to lose interest.

Perhaps she was unfair to think of Baldwin in that way; she felt sure that he was a kinder, more generous-spirited man than that, but whether he was or not, it made little difference to her. She was divorced, and there was no need for sad memories of past lovers. That wouldn’t bring in the harvest. No, she must work now that she was alone.

Mariota had suggested that they should live together in Mariota’s home, and Tedia had almost accepted her offer, but rejected it after consideration. Now, standing in her room again, watching the smoke wisp up from the little fire, she knew why. This was her home. It had become hers when she married Isok, and she couldn’t just run from it. She must make it work for her.

The memories would remain, though. No matter how hard she tried to forget Baldwin, she was sure that he’d always be there, whenever she lay back on her bed in the dark. It would be his kisses she dreamed of, his hands on her, his arms embracing her.

With a deep sigh, she collected up the vegetables to make a pottage, and she was so engrossed that she didn’t hear the knock at her door.

‘Mistress?’

‘Oh, my!’ she cried, a hand going to her breast to keep her heart in there as it threatened to leap from its moorings. ‘Who are you?’

The dark figure in the doorway bent slightly to enter under the lintel. It was the tall, brawny sailor from Ennor whom she had seen at the priory, the one who brought Thomas for questioning and had winked at her. He stood and glanced about him with a half-smile on his face. ‘Not a bad home.’

‘Should I be grateful for your approval?’ she bridled.

‘No, but I’d be glad if you were,’ he said.

She saw his grin, and then she saw his gaze drop and look over her appraisingly. It was like being assessed by a farmer buying a new cow, and she was about to tell him to leave her home and never return, when he winked at her and smiled broadly. ‘After all, you’re the most attractive woman on the islands, and I’d like to get to know you,’ he said.

Opening her mouth, she intended to tell him to leave, but then she found herself eyeing him in the same manner — and found that she liked what she saw.

Thus it was that she found herself, five months later, petitioning the new prior for the right to marry again. It was necessary by then, for the child was beginning to show.

The tavern was dark and grimy, with smoke from sea-coal laying a thick black deposit over every surface, but Isok felt at home.

It had taken him days to reach this place. His first intention of sailing westwards came to nothing, because the winds would not aid him. Instead he let the wind decide his course, and sailed north and east until at last he arrived here in Bristol. It was a thriving place, filled with inns which teemed with haggling merchants and buxom wenches who brought jugs for the sailors thronging them. Isok could only watch with astonishment, but his bulk soon won him companions. Within a few weeks he was paid and accepted the money to go and work with a merchant who had wines to collect in Guyenne. A long sail, but an easy one.

They left on a fine day, and made their way in stages down to the English territories. There they were to load the massive tuns of wine, furs and materials, before turning about and making their way back, but for Isok, much of the joy of the journey was lost on the early, outward section.

The winds took them easily around the western tip of Cornwall, then headed east along the coast of England until they arrived at Falmouth, where they took on fresh water and breads. It was there that the master was importuned by a priest.

‘Please, you must,’ Isok heard him say, but Isok was helping load the water, and could hear little of what was said. Still, at some point the master seemed to nod and grunt his consent, a small purse of money was passed to him, and soon afterwards, a man was led aboard.

Isok stared. He could be in no doubt. It was David. His hair was shaggy, he was dressed as a penitent in sackcloth and he looked as filthy and drawn as only a beggar can; but it was still David, and Isok felt his heart thrill to think that he would be able to speak to someone from his home again. He saw David being led ungently to the prow, and then Isok continued with his work, assured that he would later seek his old reeve, and ask what he was doing here.

The work was unremitting, and as soon as the stores were loaded, the ship was underway, so Isok had to climb up the ratlines to work on the sail, and because of the curious gusting winds, he had to keep climbing up and down for most of the rest of the day.

At one point, when the wind was blowing steadily, and Isok had some minutes of peace, he walked up to the prow. There he found David in a small metal chamber. ‘David?’ he asked. ‘Is that you?’

The face was David’s, but the eyes were those of a rabbit in the hound’s mouth, haunted and terrified. ‘Isok? Is it really you?’

‘Why are you dressed like this?’

‘I was found stealing bread,’ David said dully. ‘They called the hue and cry against me and I had to win sanctuary. They gave me my life provided I agreed to abjure the realm, so here I am. This was the first ship which would take me,’ he added bitterly.

‘Well, we’ll soon be in Guyenne,’ Isok said cheeringly.

David looked at him sourly and turned away. ‘You may be. I’ll never get there.’

‘Why? What, are you ill?’

‘I was a pirate once, Isok.’

Isok knew that. Almost every man on St Nicholas had turned his hand to that ancient trade when fish were few and there was no food. ‘So?’

‘The master was on a ship I raided. He recognised me. Be glad you weren’t on that sailing, Isok,’ he added quietly, ‘because if you had been, you’d have been due for my end.’

‘I could free you …’

‘Try that and you’ll perish too,’ David said bitterly. ‘Just leave me.’

Isok could feel his heart swelling with sympathy. ‘I’m as guilty as you! I’ve raided ships as often. I could get the keys,’ he added hopefully.

‘And what? Both jump into the sea to drown?’ David snarled. ‘What’d be the point? Let me die. I’ve done the best I could for the vill … and for you. Remember me for that.’

‘You did kill the gather-reeve?’

‘Aye. Of course I did. There was no one else to make him stop sniffing around your wife, was there? You wouldn’t.’

‘I couldn’t. I hated it — and him — but how could I blame her for seeking a man when I was none? And I loathed him and wanted to kill him, but … he was only trying to do what she wanted him to.’

David looked at him a long time. ‘If I’d found a man getting his hand up Brosia’s skirts, I’d have cut it off for him; and sliced off his tarse and fed it to him. If she was my wife, she’d have regretted flaunting her arse at the nearest man. Sod it! Who cares! It was the same as that vain little prick of a priest. I killed him for that. He was trying to have a go at Tedia too, and I reckon he’d have had a go at Brosia the moment I wasn’t around. I don’t regret him dying either.’

Isok looked away. David was only aware of his own misery, and his self-pity was eroding Isok’s sympathy.

‘As for the Prior, he shouldn’t have tried to get me to confess. Mind, he looked almost glad when I strung him up! He didn’t care. Always hated the islands, didn’t he? Hah! What I’d give now for a last sight of St Nicholas. One last look. First thing in the morning, when the sea’s flat-calm and easy, the light just that golden colour, you know? And everywhere looks fresh and new, sort of clean. And I’d see it from a boat, a small one, with the wind singing in the rigging. Aha! That’d be the sight for a man about to die, wouldn’t it?’

It was the next day, while Isok was up working on the sail, that he heard the screams. Looking down with a feeling of ice in his bowels, he saw the prow’s cell opened, and David being pulled out by force. There was a gathering of ten sailors on the maindeck, and Isok saw them talking to David, who dropped to his knees before the master, begging. He was picked up unceremoniously, the shackles removed from his wrists, and then he was lifted to the rail.

The master said a few words, and then pushed. From where Isok was, he could see his friend’s face lingering for a moment near the water’s surface, and then saw it fade, a yellowish moon, sinking slowly below the waves, the drowning man’s mouth wide in a terrified, silent scream.