The Sanctuary Seeker

Chapter Eighteen In which Crowner John surprises the sheriff

It was approaching midnight when the coroner called out to the guards of Rougemont to open the wicket gate and let him in. Even in his excitement at the turn of events, he had had the wit to call at his house on the way from the Bush to the castle, to tell Matilda that he had urgent business that night and not to expect him home until the early hours. He forbore to mention that this business had begun at Nesta’s tavern, but his wife saw from his agitated manner that this was something other than spending the night in some hussy’s bed, so she sleepily nodded in acceptance.

Inside the castle’s inner bailey, John used the full moonlight to hurry across to the keep and again demand entry from two bored sentries sitting at the bottom of the steps. ‘There’ll be four others coming behind me in a few minutes,’ he warned them, as he went up the outer stairs to the first-floor entrance.

Inside, he strode up the two flights of curved narrow steps, built into the thickness of the wall, and came out in the antechamber next to his brother-in-law’s private quarters. On a truckle bed, the sheriff’s chamberlain was snoring like a bull seal and when John kicked him he leaped up and stood trembling in his undershirt, still half asleep and hazily thinking that the castle had been attacked. The single tallow dip guttering on a table made John’s gaunt figure seem like an apparition from hell, until he recognised it as the coroner.

‘I have to see your master – now!’ said John, in a tone that instantly cleared the sleep from the servant’s eyes.

‘It’s not, well, not convenient,’ stammered the man, a middle-aged flunkey who looked after de Revelle’s wardrobe, meals and entertainment.

‘To hell with convenience!’ snarled John, and walked past the timorous custodian to the door of the sheriff’s bedchamber. He gave a peremptory knock but, without waiting for an answer, thrust open the heavy door and walked into a room dimly lit by a couple of candles flickering on a bedside chest.

There was an immediate roar of protest and a muffled scream from the large palliasse on the floor. A bearded figure, naked to the waist, shot up to a sitting position and John could see, too, the head and bare shoulders of a woman. Her profession was declared by her red-painted lips – she certainly bore no resemblance to Lady Eleanor de Revelle, who spent most of her time at their manor in Tiverton: she abhorred her husband’s official residence in Exeter Castle.

‘Get out, damn you!’ yelled the sheriff. The coroner was unmoved by his brother-in-law’s indignation.

‘I need to see you now. In your antechamber in two minutes.’ John went out and slammed the door, to find the servant lighting a horn lantern and several candles. With remarkable speed, the sheriff appeared, wrapped in a coarse blanket. He was bursting with indignation at being disturbed, but John ruthlessly overran his protests. ‘Never mind all that huffing,’ he grated. ‘If you are truly the first law officer in this county, then I demand in the name of the King that you redress the injustice you did today in your court.’

De Revelle’s protests stopped in mid-flow, incredulity at the other’s impertinence momentarily depriving him of speech.

John’s voice was booming again. ‘I have four witnesses arriving downstairs, who will testify to a confession made by Baldwyn of Beer to the murder of Aelfgar.’

The sheriff’s almost manic anger cooled a few degrees, but he was still in a towering rage. ‘The matter is closed, damn you! The man has been acquitted. He cannot be charged or tried again.’

John savoured the moment. ‘But my witnesses also say that he confesses to being involved in the killing of Hubert de Bonneville. He was not charged with that crime today.’

Revelle’s emotional temperature dropped even more sharply. ‘Witnesses? What witnesses?’

The coroner jerked a thumb in the direction of the stairway. ‘You’ll soon see when they come up here.’

The sheriff rallied to fight a strong rearguard action. ‘You must be either drunk or witless! You come here in the middle of the night to disturb me …’ He gave a quick furtive glance towards the bedroom, where the whore would be waiting apprehensively. ‘This will cost you your job, John. You come with some maniac story of witnesses. Do you really expect me to take you seriously?’

The coroner was unmoved by his bluster. ‘I have four persons who will separately and together testify – to the King, if needs be – that they heard this miscreant confirm that Hubert’s squire was slain more than a month and a half ago. And, further, that Baldwyn helped to kill Hubert near Widecombe about three weeks ago.’

His anger-reddened face now pale, de Revelle drooped under his dun-coloured blanket. ‘Do you expect me to believe this?’ he whispered hoarsely.

The coroner shrugged. ‘If you do not, then I’ll take my testimony elsewhere. The chief justiciar visits Exeter in a week or so – a man I know and respect from fighting under him in the Holy Land.’

The sheriff’s confidence began to return. ‘He will side with the Bishop, a patron of the de Bonnevilles,’ he said.

‘Patron of the dead Arnulph, you mean, whose true heir has been killed by his brother’s squire. Will Bishop Marshall condone that in the face of solid evidence?’ The sheriff could find no words before John went on, ‘I’ll go to Winchester and London with my witnesses, if I have to – even follow the King in Normandy and the Vexin. I’ll not let this rest, be assured of that!’

The sheriff, conscious of the undignified figure he cut in his blanket, pulled himself erect. ‘All this fantasy depends on these damned confessions you claim to have. I’d not put it past you to fabricate all of this.’

‘I was given a job to do in the King’s name and, by God, I’ll do it, in spite of all the bishops and sheriffs in Christendom!’

However high-sounding the words, their sincerity was like a blast of icy wind around de Revelle’s ears. ‘Who are these people you claim to produce?’ he growled.

‘They include my own officer, the inn-keeper of the Bush and her servant Edwin.’

Instantly revitalised, the sheriff gave a howl of derision. ‘What! Your own creature, that hairy Cornishman! A crippled potman, and your own poxy mistress, you adulterous knave! Who do you think will listen to one word from that lying crew?’

John would have dearly loved to knock his brother-in-law to the floor, but he restrained himself to deliver his coup de grâce.

‘And your own good friend Henry Rifford, one of our respected portreeves. I’m sure you’ll accept his testimony as truthful, however reluctant he may be to give it.’

‘You’re lying!’ hissed de Revelle.

‘All four should be downstairs by now. You can question them yourself, though I suggest you first put on some clothes,’ advised the coroner sweetly.

By the time the distraught sheriff had dressed, arranged with his chamberlain to smuggle the painted lady out down the back stairs and interviewed the four witnesses, the night was far advanced. De Revelle did all he could to convince himself that this was a nightmare or that his cursed brother-in-law was playing some devious trick or malignant conspiracy against him. If John’s evidence had merely been that of the three allegedly biased witnesses, he would have defied him and refused to give them any credibility – or even bother to listen to them. But the fact that his own crony Henry Rifford reluctantly corroborated the story made it impossible for him to dismiss the affair as a plot against his own authority.

The four witnesses had trooped into the dimly lit chamber where the sheriff, now hastily dressed in a dull brown tunic, sat behind his table to listen to them. He still felt disoriented, having been pulled from his bed and his woman to be sledgehammered by a story that made a nonsense of the perverse judgement he had perpetrated in his shire court that morning.

Henry Rifford, the waxy-faced merchant who was one of the two leading citizens of Exeter, was given a chair before the sheriff. The others stood ranged behind him, while the coroner hovered in the background, like a chantry-master with a troop of choristers.

The upshot of their evidence was that Edwin, the old tavern servant, had caught the words ‘Widecombe’ and ‘Southampton’ as he passed back and forth near the table where the pair from Peter Tavy were drinking. The other brother, Martyn, was away in his bed in a fit of fatigue and melancholy, leaving Gervaise and Baldwyn with their heads together over their ale.

Following Nesta’s instructions, Edwin had made it his business to eavesdrop on the other side of the wattle screen. What had grabbed his attention at once was Gervaise’s low voice saying, ‘You damned fool, Baldwyn! Whatever happens, Martyn must never know. He’s got no backbone in him, he’s too weak. The boy would go to pieces if he knew what had been done.’

At this point, Edwin had urgently looked about him and had seen Nesta leaning over Gwyn, who sat on a bench nearby, teasing him about the good times he could have now that his wife was away. The old potman had urgently beckoned them over and, as they had come near his side of the screen, had put a warning finger to his lips. They slid on to the bench left empty a few moments earlier when a group of noisy butchers had tipsily left.

‘Listen to this!’ Edwin whispered, jerking his thumb at the screen. The other bent their heads near the wattles and three pairs of ears strained to hear Gervaise telling his squire that, as long as he kept his nerve, no one need ever know what had happened on the moor seven weeks ago.

The quick-witted Nesta realised immediately that they needed a more heavyweight and reputable witness than themselves, and her eyes roved urgently around the big room until they fell on a party of leather merchants, celebrating a good contract with the Bretons. Prominent among them was Henry Rifford, whose great prosperity depended on the leather trade of which he was the undisputed leader in Exeter.

She hurried over and hissed into his ear, ‘Come at once – it’s a matter of life and death!’ At the same time she had pulled him by the arm and Rifford, though middle-aged and portly, was mystified but flattered to be so suddenly desired by a pretty woman. Like every man in Exeter, he knew the red-headed innkeeper and occasionally had lustful thoughts about her. The intensity in her voice now compelled him to go with her to the table next to the wattle partition.

With a finger to her lips, she indicated that he should listen to the voices on the other side. Now, in front of the sheriff and rather reluctantly, but pleased at being the centre of attention, the portreeve related what he had heard.

‘De Bonneville was telling this Baldwyn that he had been a fool to take that dagger from the body and that he should have buried it in the peat, as he had Aelfgar’s sword.’

‘Wait!’ snapped the sheriff, still desperate to find some way to discredit all this. ‘How do you know it was de Bonneville speaking?’

Henry Rifford looked impatient at having his moment of drama interrupted. ‘Of course I knew, Richard. I saw them at that table earlier, when the younger brother was with them. And afterwards I made it my business to pass near them to go out of the back door, to piss in the yard, so that I could confirm who they were.’

The rest of his tale, confirmed almost verbatim by the other less acceptable witnesses, was that Gervaise, his tongue loosened by the evening’s drink, was impressing on Baldwyn the need for constant vigilance. The squire, who seemed somewhat resentful of his master’s exhortations, replied in mainly monosyllables, but at one point, Rifford heard him say, ‘Sir Gervaise, remember that it was I who helped dispose of your brother. I’m hardly likely to put myself in jeopardy for something that happened when you were half a county away.’

The eavesdropping had ended when the two men on the other side of the screen had got up and walked out, either to drink at another inn or perhaps to seek female company, easily found on the streets leading down to the riverside gates.

When the tale was told, Richard de Revelle sat silent for a moment. ‘Henry, are you absolutely sure of this? You realise what it will mean if proved true?’

The bland-featured merchant looked offended. ‘I am not in the habit of imagining things, Richard. I wish I had never been dragged into this but it can’t be undone now. I am a devout man, and though the Bishop will be mortified, he owes it to the memory of old de Bonneville to see that justice is done.’

The sheriff looked across at John de Wolfe, still in the background. If looks could kill, the coroner would have been felled on the spot, but de Revelle was trapped by the testimony of the portreeve. He was forced to make the best of it and sought to limit the damage. ‘If this is true, which I am still not admitting without further proof, it only shows that Gervaise de Bonneville is trying to protect his squire. Nothing you have said implicates him in these deeds.’

John’s face showed his almost scornful scepticism, but the sheriff was warming to his theme.

‘Gervaise told his man to be careful what he said – he told him he was a fool to steal the dagger. Good counsel, albeit to a murdering rogue – but a nobleman feels a strong sense of duty and protectiveness to his squire, however misplaced.’

John grimaced at his brother-in-law. ‘And what of Baldwyn’s confession to having helped slay Hubert de Bonneville, eh? For what reason and at whose behest?’

De Revelle appealed to his erstwhile ally, Henry Rifford. ‘You heard the rogue say that Gervaise was half a county away, so that absolves him of any implication in the death of his brother. So we have not a shred of evidence to link de Bonneville with either death. He was merely trying to shield his man from his own wicked folly.’

His explanation was met with stony silence from the faces ranged in front of him. He gave up for the moment and appealed to John about more immediate problems. ‘What do you suggest is done about this? It is long past midnight. Should it not be left until morning?’

The coroner looked across at his own officer. ‘Do you know where they are now, Gwyn?’

The Cornishman said that the men had not returned to the Bush by the time he had left to come to the castle.

Nesta, looking decorous under a swathe of heavy shawl over her head and shoulders, said, ‘They paid in advance for a bed each in my inn and the younger brother is asleep there now. I’m sure the other two will return to bed when they’ve finished drinking and whoring.’

John caught the sheriff’s eye as she spoke the last few words and de Revelle dropped his gaze, wondering if his brother-in-law would use his own indiscretion against him. But John kept to the issue in hand. ‘It would be easier to deal with this in daylight. There’s nowhere they can go until the city gates open at dawn.’

‘And I don’t want broken furniture and blood all over my tavern, if there’s to be a fight,’ put in the ever-practical Nesta.

‘So we arrest them at first light?’ confirmed the coroner.

De Revelle was still attempting a feeble protest. ‘We take them in for questioning to see what they say to these unlikely allegations,’ he countered.

‘For God’s sake, Richard! Do you think they’ll roll over and admit it?’ roared John. ‘They’ll lie through their teeth to save their necks. It will be the evidence of my four witnesses – and the business of the Justices in Eyre to deal with their guilt. This is one trial that I’m sure you’ll be happy to leave to the King’s judges, Sheriff!’

As they left, John noticed his brother-in-law give urgent instructions to his chamberlain, who hurried away through an inner door, following the route that the lady of the town had taken to vanish discreetly from the scene.

Outside, they walked back through the moonlit night to the gatehouse and the city streets. John had arranged with the reluctant sheriff to meet at the Bush an hour before dawn, with a sergeant and four men to seize the Peter Tavy trio in their beds. ‘You had better keep out of the way, Nesta. Hopefully there’ll be no trouble, if we catch them in their undershirts, but I don’t want you involved – or you, Edwin. We need you kept safe as witnesses.’

With that back-handed concern for their safety, the two from the inn made their way back to Idle Lane, with Gwyn as bodyguard, while John strolled home to spend a few hours lying alongside Matilda, playing the faithful husband. None had seen a furtive figure slipping through the streets well ahead of them, also bound for the Bush.