The Butcher of St Peter's

Chapter Twenty-Six

Baldwin was at the door a moment behind Simon, and the two men thrust at it with their shoulders, but could achieve nothing against the solid timbers. Simon grabbed the polearm from one guard and thrust the point of it between the door and the lock, shoving hard. There was a cracking of timber, and Sir Peregrine took the other billhook and brought it down at the gap between the door and jamb, making it shudder.

As he brought it down again, Simon felt the door move. ‘Push!’ he yelled, and rammed his shoulder against it again. There was a definite shifting. The knight hammered with the bill’s butt and Baldwin and Simon threw themselves against the wood until there was a loud splintering crash and the door gave before them.

Simon fell inside, and Sir Peregrine leaped over him, while Baldwin more delicately stepped round him, his sword already out, his left arm down and before his belly in the defensive posture Simon had seen him adopt so often. Then Simon too was up.

‘He’s not here!’ Sir Peregrine called from the hall. He reappeared in the passageway.

‘His wife is here, though,’ Baldwin said from the buttery. He was crouched at her side. ‘Help me lift her up. I don’t think there’s any point worrying about the other poor devil.’

Betsy sat shivering with her hands cupping the mazer of burned wine Ralph had given her. He’d have to distil some more at this rate, he told himself morosely.

‘What happened to her?’ he asked.

‘It was him. Jordan. He came here last night with Reg as usual, and they had some sort of a row, and then Reg went off in a rare mood. I’ve never seen him look so grim. Don’t ask me what it was about, but Jordan was telling Reg he had to do something, and Reg was saying he wouldn’t. When he left the place, Jordan sort of laughed, and then he asked me for Mags, because he said she’d refused some punter the other day. I don’t know anything about that. Still, he said he wanted her for the night, and she seemed scared, but not overly, you know? I thought he was going to demand a good service from her just to make her pay for not doing what she’d been supposed to last week, that was all. And then this morning, I heard her crying, and I thought, Well, he’s hit her or something, and that’ll not make him any money for a while, because she’ll be too hurt and bruised to work, and I didn’t want to go in myself, because with his temper, if I’d interrupted him, God knows what he could do to me, so I left them … and when I came back, I found Mags like this …’

Ralph nodded understandingly. The cries and weeping from the room were still loud, even at the far end of the corridor. ‘She’s past worrying, Betsy. She’s gone to a better place than this, you can be sure. What happened to Jordan?’

‘He was already gone when I went in there and found her. He just expects us to clear up her body and throw it away, I suppose.’

‘You’ll have to call the Coroner to view her, Betsy,’ he said gently.

‘What can I do?’ she sobbed. ‘What’s a tart’s death to him? He won’t care that we’ll be thrown on the street.’

‘Why should that happen?’

‘You know why! Jordan owns this place. If he’s caught, we’ll be thrown out, and if he isn’t, we’ll still be thrown out. Can’t we hide her …’ She caught sight of his expression and was still.

‘Send for the Coroner and I’ll see what I can do to help you.’

‘You? What can you do to help us!’

Ralph smiled enigmatically. Even Coroners needed a leech sometimes, after all. Especially when the piles were biting.

Jordan ran over the grass with his mind in a torment. Again his hearing had gone peculiar, and he shook his head as he ran, a frown of pain twisting his features as the high whistling screeched through his head.

The high red sandstone walls of the castle stared down at him, and he gazed up at it bitterly. That building was the symbol of the Coroner’s power — of all official power in the city. Without it, he would have been able to continue his work happily, but no, that sodomite of a sergeant had decided to take an interest in his activities, and as a result he was brought to this low pass.

Perhaps he could recover his position. He had only killed the bottler when the fool stirred awake. It was Jordan’s own buttery, in Christ’s name. He could say he’d been expecting it to be empty, and finding a man in there he’d assumed the fellow was a thief. His wife would support him. She always did.

This morning had been good, though. Aah! She had behaved impeccably all night, the worry always in her face even as she simulated her moaning and lustful panting for him. Yes, she’d known what she was about. A good whore, that.

But Anne had been too, and Jordan had learned that there were more ways than one to enjoy a whore. He’d had fun with her today. First with his bare hands, almost killing her, and then the knife. It was as satisfying as the sex. Better than anything he’d known with his wife. Sweet Jesus, if those two hadn’t been at the front of his house, he could have tried the same with Mazeline. She’d have been good for that.

Yes, as she went out to the buttery to fetch him his ale, he had thought of pulling out his knife again, and perhaps taking it to her clothes first, stripping her naked, just as she had been when Jane was conceived in her womb … Jane, where was Jane?

The whistling and whirring was deafening now and he looked about him wildly. He could do nothing without his little girl. He loved her, he adored her, and she was all his. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. Where was she?

The noise grew until he was deafened. In his vision he thought he saw the bodies of the two whores, the bodies of Mick and his bottler, all laughing, mocking him. He had killed them as though he was all-powerful and could kill with impunity, but now they knew that they could conceal his daughter from him. They couldn’t. No, not them. Mazeline must have taken her away. Where? Where?

In an instant the sounds were gone and his face cleared. He knew exactly where Jane would be — surely at Mazeline’s cousins’ house. He could go there and rescue her. And then he would have to lie low somewhere until he could escape the city with her. Looking up at the bright sun, he changed his mind. He was exhausted after the excitement and thrills of the previous night. Better, surely, to go and hide somewhere now in the quiet, while it was daylight, and then come out again at night.

He knew the perfect place to hide, and then, later, he could maybe visit Agnes and Juliana. Reg had seemed so unwilling last night … perhaps this could be Jordan’s last job, then, before he fled the city. The thought of the two women before him, under him, his knife ready for them, was so entrancing that he almost stopped in the roadway. Then he noticed a man looking at him oddly, and he forced himself to smile and nod before hurrying on his way.

First hide. Pleasure later.

Ralph was relieved to see how the Coroner reacted. The man appeared to take the murder of the prostitute seriously, and immediately began barking orders, commanding messengers to fetch a clerk to help him, and blowing his own horn in the street and bellowing hoarsely, ‘Out, out, out,’ to raise the hue and cry. He sent the two watchmen, who had been muttering rebelliously about working all hours, off to the brothel to guard the dead woman’s body. When they complained, he fixed them with a basilisk stare.

‘During your watch here, a bottler was murdered and a woman could have died. Be glad you’re being given another job rather than thrown in the gaol yourselves for being no better than fools!’

In the meantime, Baldwin and Simon had helped Mazeline to a bench in the hall, and here Ralph tended to her. He bathed her face with fresh boiled water in which sweet herbs had been steeped, and washed her hands and arms to remove the clots of blood and yellow lumps of bone.

‘Ralph, you make a marvellous nurse,’ she whispered at one point.

‘Concentrate on being well again.’

‘I shall never be well again. I cannot be whole or well. Not after the last days. He has gone?’

Baldwin was at her side now. He looked down on her with compassion in his eyes. ‘He is gone, lady, and you are safe.’

‘This house is hateful to me, though. It is what he has made it: a charnel!’

Baldwin looked at Ralph, who nodded. ‘Is there somewhere else we could take you where you would feel more comfortable?’

She was quiet a long time, then turned her head away and began to weep. ‘No.’

Ralph was not a physician for nothing. He scowled blackly at Baldwin and jerked his head. It took three goes, but then the knight appreciated his meaning and left them, walking slowly away for some steps until he was far enough distant not to disturb the woman. Then he marched away to speak to Sir Peregrine.

‘Come, now, maid. There is a place where you would feel more comfortable, isn’t there? Is it a place you could go and rest with propriety?’

She said nothing, but after a moment or two shook her head.

‘In that case, do you care about the propriety? Would you like me to find out whether there might be somewhere for you to stay there anyway?’

This time she slowly turned to face him, and told him.

‘I could ask,’ he mused, ‘but I do not wish to leave you here alone …’

Sir Peregrine was happiest ordering men as though in preparation for battle, and it was not until Sir Baldwin appeared at his side that he realized that this was actually the Keeper’s duty. Still, Sir Baldwin smiled at him and indicated that his shoulder was still painful.

He would have this bastard caught by nightfall, the Coroner swore to himself. Jordan was wholly evil, and had to be stopped.

Baldwin was frowning. ‘Sir Peregrine, would you mind if I left you here? I feel a little too tired to continue walking the streets searching for this man.’

‘Of course, Sir Baldwin. Please rest. I hope you’ll soon feel much recovered.’

‘I am sure that I shall,’ Baldwin said.

He walked from the house and set off along the street towards the high street. Here he paused, considering, but his feet soon took him off westwards towards St Nicholas’s Priory. Within a hundred yards, he heard the footsteps behind him. ‘So I can’t sidle away that easily?’

Simon laughed. ‘No. As you know full well, I wish always to be with you at the end of an investigation. And just now we need to know what has been happening with this partnership.’

They walked on past the fleshfold, where the butchers were carving up the carcasses, and on down to the alley in which Daniel had lived.

‘They won’t welcome us,’ Simon observed.

‘Very possibly true,’ Baldwin agreed. He sighed. ‘Simon, this matter is simply a case of hunting down that man. He is a lunatic, surely. What in God’s name could have made him grow to want to inflict so much pain?’

‘You know more about men like that than I do,’ Simon said. ‘You must have seen men behave barbarously.’

‘It is one thing for a knight to charge a man and cut off his head in battle, another to torture a woman. This man must be quite insane.’

‘What do you want here?’ Simon asked as they stood outside the house waiting for the door to open.

‘I feel sure that there is more to learn here. I don’t know what, though,’ Baldwin admitted as the door opened. He led the way inside and soon the two were standing before Juliana.

‘Sir Baldwin, Bailiff — how may I serve you?’ she asked.

There was no coldness in her voice, Baldwin noted, just a sadness that seemed unappeasable. And a little fear. ‘Lady, the man Jordan is suspected as the murderer of several people recently — perhaps including your husband. Would that surprise you?’

She closed her eyes a moment. ‘He threatened us.’

‘Pardon?’

‘He told my husband that he would kill us all if Daniel didn’t stop looking into his affairs.’

‘He said that?’ Simon asked. ‘Just because your man was growing too close to him?’

‘I think so. He hated to be thwarted; Jordan has always been a greedy man. He can never possess enough riches, but always has to seek more.’

‘He did threaten you and your children directly?’ Baldwin pressed.

‘Yes. He warned Daniel, and Daniel told me. How did you guess?’

‘It was the matter of Estmund. Everyone was used to him entering, and no one seemed worried about his visits.’

‘Why should we be? We all knew poor Est.’

‘Quite, but you told us your husband would go downstairs with a sword in his hand. That doesn’t sound like a man who was at ease with Est’s visits. Unless there was another man, of course.’

‘I see,’ she said. ‘How logical.’

‘But your husband’s murderer has so far escaped justice.’

‘Yes. I hope you can catch Jordan soon,’ she said, and began to weep once more.

Reginald had not enjoyed a restful evening. The thought that Jordan wanted him to murder the sisters — ‘and the children, don’t forget them, Reg’ — had left him feeling sick. This was infinitely worse than anything he had known before. The idea that he should murder those two women for no purpose was ridiculous, but he saw no means of escape. He could twist and turn, but he was hooked. The man had paid him for murdering Daniel, and Daniel was dead. Now he would have these women murdered, and because he was convinced that Reg had murdered Daniel, he saw no reason to suppose that Reg would fail him in this either.

And if Reg were to refuse, Jordan could announce to the world that Reg was Daniel’s murderer. He would stop at nothing to get his way, after all.

At the knock on his door, he felt his spirit quail. There were only two people who knew of that doorway, and he was tempted to ignore the summons at first, but then he stood resignedly and unlocked it, half expecting the blow as he pulled the door wide.

‘Mazeline!’

Estmund finished butchering the pig’s carcass and left the fleshfold as the light was fading.

It was better. His anxiety was all but passed. He had needed to stand there with his knife in his hand, just as he had for these last years past, every day he could, making use of the skills he possessed. He had few enough skills, after all. And at least here in the fleshfold he could help others. There was a pride in making the right incision, finding the bones hidden under the flesh, and twisting the blade so to move a ball from its socket without damaging the outer appearance of the meat. He was talented with a knife, he knew, but today the excitement was not there for him.

He washed his hands in a trough. Many butchers saw him, and many nodded. They all knew that he was wanted for supposedly murdering Daniel, but none of them had ever believed he could have done something like that. No, much more likely that it was Jordan le Bolle. Everybody said so, and so they had left Est alone. He had lived out at the Duryard for long enough. He couldn’t stay there another night. So he had come back, here, to the only life he had ever known.

But there was still that sad, unwholesome feeling that he had so dreadfully betrayed her. The little girl.

She had been born only a short time after his own little girl. Looked much the same when they were born, the pair of them. If his little Cissy had grown instead of dying all those years ago, perhaps she would look like this one? So pretty, so vivacious, so sweet and innocent when asleep in her bed. So beautiful, so perfect.

He ate a hunk of bread with a jug of ale in the yard behind the Black Hog. The publican there had never thought he could have had anything to do with the murder either. People here were so kind to him. They always had been.

After his meal, the sun was sinking low as he walked back to his little house. He was taken by the sight of a man walking towards him, and he wondered for a moment who it might be. He certainly looked familiar.

Jordan had been right. Since everyone had been told that Estmund was the murderer, and Estmund had fled the city, his house was the safest place in the city for a man who needed a little space to hide himself.

Rested and refreshed, he left the place as darkness fell, and stood in the street a moment or two savouring the air. There was the sweet tang of burning applewood on the air from someone’s fire, and the odours of cooking. Pottages and frying meats wafted on the breeze, and he was suddenly aware how hungry he was. Reg would have some food for him.

Reg. Poor Reg. He’d looked as though he’d have a fit when Jordan had asked him to kill the two women and the children yesterday. Christ’s cods, was it really only last night? And Jordan had thought that he’d be fine, that he’d go home today and hide himself and act quietly, just the moderate, sensible man with the doting wife, a calm and intelligent businessman, making a reasonable income from his dealings.

Only a few knew of his gambling dens and brothels, and those who did also knew his temper, and knew that they were best advised to be cautious about him. No one would dare to accuse him publicly — no one apart from those two bitches. He had to see them dead.

Unbidden, the thought of their bodies came back to him. Agnes’s figure he had already enjoyed, but there would be a delightful novelty with Juliana’s. It had always appealed to him. Under her clothes she always moved with such delicacy and gentle grace that he had felt his eyes pulled to her no matter who else was in the room.

Poor Reg didn’t want to have to do anything like that, killing women. So be it! He would save Reg the bother.