The Holy Innocents

Chapter Seven

By now, the sun was high in the heavens, and the shadows which lay across the beaten-earth floor were shortening as it rose towards its zenith. It was growing warm, too warm for early April, experience having taught me that heat too soon in the year often presaged a wet and chilly summer. I was hungry, for it was past the hour of dinner, but I was too eager to hear the rest of Grizelda’s story to interrupt her with a request for food. By good fortune, however, she thought of it herself, standing up and shaking out her skirt. She had on the same one of blue brocella that she had worn the previous day.

‘It’s time we ate,’ she said firmly. ‘I can offer you bread and cheese, apples and oatcakes, washed down with some more of my ale, to which you seem to have taken a liking.’

I accepted gladly everything except the ale. She made a potent brew and I had drunk enough. My head was already beginning to swim. So she filled me a beaker of water from the barrel which stood outside the cottage door, and then suggested that we, too, go outside and warm ourselves in the sunshine. So we sat on a stone bench which ran the length of the south-facing wall, eating Grizelda’s excellent home-baked bread flavoured with corncockle seeds, cheese, made from the milk of her cow, oatcakes sweetened with honey, and some small shrivelled apples from last autumn’s gathering, given to her by a neighbour. The rainwater from the barrel was cool and refreshing, in dry spells, she told me, when the supply ran out, she was forced to haul her water up by bucket from the river.

‘Hard work,’ she grimaced, ‘but, luckily, I’m strong. Even luckier, I’ve only had to do it twice since my return to the cottage in January.’

‘I’ll fill the barrel to the brim before I leave,’ I promised. ‘It’s the least I can do as repayment for your patience.’

‘It’s a kindness to myself,’ she answered. ‘It’s a relief to be able to talk about what happened to someone who knows neither the participants nor the story, and so, as yet, has no theory to offer which distracts my own thoughts in the telling. It helps me to recall events as they unfolded with greater clarity.’

When we had at last finished our meal and were sitting contentedly, lapped about by the bright stillness of the morning, the succulent spring grass starred with primroses, the leaves of the forest trees rustling in a little breeze with a sound like rain, I asked her to continue, to explain why she had been so worried for the children’s safety after their mother died.

Grizelda glanced down at her hands, long and strong with workmanlike fingers, folded together in her lap, and thought for a moment. Then, she raised her head, looked straight in front of her and said, ‘I think it was Sir Henry Skelton’s will which made me uneasy. I was in London with Rosamund and her father when it was drawn up in the spring of 1469, just before Sir Henry rode north to fight the rebels.

‘It was Sir Jasper who insisted that proper provision be made, in the event of his son-in-law’s death, for Rosamund and the children, that Sir Henry’s intentions should be legally set down and witnessed. Sir Jasper declared he had seen too much litigation, which benefited no one except the attorneys, because of lack of written evidence of the legator’s wishes. The manor in Yorkshire would naturally be inherited by Sir Henry’s elder son, but he was a very wealthy man, with money to spare for Andrew and Mary, who, at that time of course, was still unborn. Sir Jasper sent for Oliver Cozin to come up from Exeter to represent Rosamund during all the legal wrangling, and, believe me, it went on for days.

‘In the end, however, it was agreed that the revenues from various business ventures in which Sir Henry had some holding would provide for the offspring of his second marriage. But Master Cozin, not content with that, was anxious to keep so considerable a sum of money in his client’s family. Supposing, said he, the children should die before Lady Skelton, one or the other or both. What then? Why should the money revert to their half-brother, who was already plenteously provided for? The money settled on Andrew and the expected child must go to Rosamund or – lawyers’ minds being so tortuous that they foresee every eventuality – should she predecease them and they die while still minors, to her next of kin. And, after much legal haggling, he carried the day. Such a provision was inserted in Sir Henry’s will.’

I drew in my breath. ‘Surely a clause which could have hidden dangers? At least, so it seems to me.’

Grizelda smiled bitterly. ‘And to me. But that, Master Chapman, is because we are simple people who live among other simple people, and are acquainted with their failings. We understand the greed and cupidity of our fellow human beings. But if you are an attorney, living within the ivory tower of the law, obsessed only with torts and malfeances and other suchlike practices, how can you possibly understand what goes on in the world around you? According to his lights, Master Oliver Cozin did well for his client, and Sir Jasper was mightily pleased, boasting to us all, one evening at supper, that no one in the kingdom, not even the King himself, had a more skilful lawyer.

‘And, I suppose, to give both Sir Jasper and Master Cozin their due, neither could be blamed for not anticipating Rosamund’s marriage to a man such as Eudo Colet. For I don’t need to point out to you, Master Chapman, that once she was dead, only the children’s lives stood between him and a very substantial addition to his fortune.’

‘I told you yesterday,’ I interrupted, ‘that my name is Roger. Now that we know one another better, could you not bring yourself to use it?’

She smiled. ‘Very well, if, in return, you will promise to call me Grizelda.’

‘You have my solemn word. Now, having settled that, are you trying to tell me that you suspect Eudo Colet of murder?’

She shrugged, spreading her hands. ‘He was the only person who gained by their deaths. And as I explained earlier, he had grown much greedier since Rosamund died. Money for its own sake had begun to excite him.’

‘But …’ I hesitated, loath to condemn any man of so horrible a crime without having more evidence of his guilt than had so far been offered me. I continued, ‘There seems no evidence to suggest that he killed the children. Unless you believe Jacinta’s accusation of witchcraft.’ I took another long draught of water to clear my head of lingering ale fumes. ‘Tell me about the day they disappeared, or as much of it as you can remember.’

Grizelda tilted her head back against the cottage wall and closed her eyes, shielding them from the glare of the sun.

‘Eudo Colet and I had never got on. He could not fail, from the first, to sense my dislike of him, as did Rosamund, who grew colder towards me. We lost our closeness and became almost like strangers to one another. But I have told you this, already. After my cousin’s death, the household was in disarray, as you might well imagine, but when the first shock had passed, Master Colet made it plain that he wished us all to remain as members of the household. As far as I was concerned, he would have rid himself of me if he could, but Andrew and Mary were too attached to me, and he had no affection for either child. I was still useful to him, while I swore to myself that nothing would make me abandon my dearlings.

‘But things went from bad to worse between us. Master Colet and I had terrible arguments about the children. More than once, I had to protect them from his wrath, because’ she sighed – ‘there is no denying that they were often very impertinent to him. They liked him no more than I did and had always been as disobedient as they dared, flouting his orders. When Rosamund was alive, he had not cared overmuch, leaving them to her to discipline. Now, however, there was only myself between him and their… I’m afraid I can give it no name except naughtiness. But I knew how unhappy they both were, how desperately they missed their mother, and I defended them as best I could, often drawing away Master Colet’s wrath towards myself until his temper had had time to cool a little.

‘Christmas was an uneasy season, but a sort of truce prevailed between us all, so that the festivities, such as they were so soon after Rosamund’s death, should not be marred. But once Twelfth Night had come and gone, and the bitter January winds and rains kept us mewed up indoors, it was as though all the evil which had festered, unspoken, over the Nativity, burst and spewed forth like the breaking of a leprous sore.

‘It was a Thursday, about the middle of the month, and I had been to worship early at the Priory. I recall that as I returned home it began to snow a little, and I was hungry, wanting my breakfast. As I entered the house, I heard voices, raised in anger, coming from the upstairs parlour, Eudo Colet shouting and the children wailing. Bridget and Agatha were huddled together at the foot of the stairs, listening and wondering whether or not they ought to interfere.

‘I pushed them to one side and rushed upstairs like a Fury! Oh, I admit it! It was foolish, I should have had myself more in hand before tackling Master Colet. I can’t remember now precisely what we said to one another, but enough for me to feel that I could stay in the house no longer. I yelled down to Bridget to run and fetch Jack Carter. I had urgent need of his services. Then I packed my box, although by that time, with the children clinging to my skirts and begging me not to go, I was regretting my rash decision. But it was too late. Eudo Colet would not permit me to remain in the house, even had I really wished to do so.

‘By the time Bridget returned with Jack and his wagon, however, all was quiet. Mary and Andrew had cried themselves out and, in the callous way that children have, shrugging off their own troubles as well as those of their elders, had started to play quite happily together. Jack Carter carried my box downstairs and placed it on his cart, I climbed up beside him, having said my farewells to Agatha and Bridget, and he brought me… here.’ She smiled wryly. ‘I was going to say home, but after so many years, it was no longer that to me, just a roof and four walls to provide me with shelter.’

‘And that was the last time you saw the two children?’ I asked as gently as possible. I could sense her distress and had no wish to add to it beyond what was necessary.

She nodded mutely, and it was some moments before she could trust her voice. But, finally, she went on, ‘It was the following day before news reached me that Mary and Andrew had vanished within hours of my departure. Agatha Tenter sent me word by Jack Carter, who was making another journey in this direction, and I begged a lift back to Totnes with him, when he returned, in order to find out for myself the truth of what had happened.’

‘And what did you discover?’ I picked up and bit into the last apple, without even being aware of what i was doing.

‘The house was in uproar, as you would expect, Agatha pale and haggard, Bridget crying hysterically. There was turmoil, also, in the town, with half the population out searching for the children and the other half either crowded into the downstairs parlour or gathered around the doorstep, giving advice and asking questions. Or so it seemed. Robert Broughton, the Mayor, was there, along with Master Thomas Cozin, and presently a Sergeant came down from the castle to add to the inquiries.’

‘And what was the result of all this inquisition? Your friend Jacinta told me that Master Colet was away from the house when the children vanished, visiting Thomas Cozin, who, presumably was able to vouch for him?’

Grizelda nodded with extreme reluctance.

‘That is so. He apparently went out immediately after breakfast, and both Bridget and Agatha swore that the children were still upstairs at the time. They also swore that neither Andrew nor Mary could have gone out without being seen by one or the other of them. Bridget was dusting and polishing in the downstairs parlour, and Agatha was in the kitchen, preparing the vegetables and meat for dinner. She had left the door standing wide, in spite of the coldness of the morning, to clear the steam caused by the various pots of boiling water. She had the inner courtyard within her sight for nearly the whole of the time until Bridget came running to say that Mary and Andrew were nowhere to be found. The master had returned and sent for the children, but they had completely disappeared. The two of them then searched the storerooms and bedrooms above the kitchen, and also the outer courtyard, the stables and anywhere else they could think of but to no avail.

‘At first, of course, they all assumed there must be a simple explanation, that the children had found a hiding place which no one had as yet thought of, and were intent on giving their stepfather a fright, in order to teach him a lesson for his anger of earlier in the morning. But as the day wore on without their reappearance, everyone grew worried and raised the hue and cry. Parties of neighbours scoured the streets and buildings within the town, and, until darkness fell, the surrounding countryside. By the time I arrived with Jack Carter, the children had been missing all night, and everyone was beginning to fear that some evil had befallen them. The outlaws had been scourging the neighbourhood for several weeks past, and had already carried off a child during one of their forays. It’s not unusual, as you must know. They use their captives as slaves, taking them with them when they move on to other parts of the country. Nothing is too vile for those men.’

‘But in this case, they murdered their victims. Or so it would appear.’

Grizelda glanced at me sharply. As she turned her head, the sun caught the tight side of her face, and I saw again the thin white scar, running from eyebrow to cheek.

‘You speak as though you had doubts about the children’s fate,’ she accused me.

‘Haven’t you?’ I countered. ‘Haven’t other people?’ She bit her lip and looked away again, stating across the clearing to where the beech bark shone in the sunlight, as though laced with silver.

‘I cannot deny,’ she answered, speaking so low that I had to bend my head to hear her properly, ‘that it was more than fortunate for Eudo Colet, the children being killed as they were, so soon after their mother died, for, with their death, he inherited the money bequeathed them by Sir Henry. And I was not the only one whose suspicions were aroused. There were many who probed long and deep in the expectation of finding him guilty. But, to their great disappointment, I fancy, they were unable to shake the witness of Agatha and Bridget. Not one of Sir Jasper’s old friends had ever liked him, nor was he generally popular in the town. Indeed, I don’t think I should be doing him an injustice if I said that I never heard a good word concerning him. But’ – Grizelda spread her hands in a hopeless gesture – ‘nothing could be proved against him. Agatha and Bridget both staunchly maintained that he could have had nothing to do with the children’s disappearance. They were upstairs when he left the house to visit Master Cozin, and had vanished by the time he returned. The Sheriff, who came from Exeter to conduct an inquiry, was forced to exonerate him for want of proof to the contrary.’

‘But did no one suspect collusion with either the cook or the maid?’

Grizelda considered this. ‘They may have done,’ she said at last, ‘but again, there was no evidence to support such a theory. No whisper had ever linked his name with that of either woman. And to be truthful, Roger, I cannot believe that he would find either Agatha or Bridget to his liking. The girls who caught his eye were young and pretty. Bridget may be young, but she is certainly not pretty, while Agatha is three years older than I am. Besides, once the children’s bodies were discovered on the banks of the Harbourne, six weeks later, there was little doubt in anyone’s mind that they had been murdered by the outlaws. Certainly, that was the verdict of the Coroner.’

I stroked my chin thoughtfully. ‘So,’ I said, ‘in spite of the cook’s and the maid’s protestations that the children could not possibly have left the house without their knowledge, somehow or other they must have done so.’

‘Yes. But alive, and without the assistance of Eudo Colet. Loath as most people were to accept that he had nothing to do with their disappearance, in the end, it was generally agreed that, following the quarrel with their stepfather, Andrew and Mary decided to run away, managed to escape unseen and took to the forest, where they got lost and were captured by the outlaws.’

‘But why should the outlaws kill them?’ I wondered.

‘Perhaps, after a few weeks, they saw a chance to make a bid for freedom, and took it.’ Grizelda’s eyes filled with tears. ‘They would not be easy to control, those two. They had courage and spirit, especially Andrew.’

I frowned. ‘If the truth be told, you are satisfied in your own mind, are you not, that Eudo Colet had nothing to do with your young cousins’ deaths?’

The silence stretched between us. After a long time, she nodded.

‘I suppose so. I must be satisfied, mustn’t I? There is no other conclusion I can come to.’

I did not answer immediately, but after a while, I said cautiously, ‘There may be an explanation which no one has yet thought of.’ I hesitated before adding, ‘I have had some success in the past in solving mysteries which others considered too difficult to unravel, and I might be able to uncover something in this case, if you so wish it.’

My companion glanced at me in surprise, then smiled uncertainly, not sure if my claim were to be taken seriously.

‘I could not put you to the trouble,’ she eventually protested. ‘You will want to be on the road again tomorrow.’

I shook my head. ‘I’ve made good money in Totnes, enough to support myself for several weeks before I need to restock my pack. And, as I told you earlier, Oliver Cozin has offered me the shelter of Master Colet’s house until he departs for Exeter on Saturday, and I suspect he would be happy for me to remain as long as I wanted. It seems your cousin’s husband can find neither tenant nor buyer for the property at present. Why is that? Although I think I know the answer.’

Grizelda nodded. ‘Oh, yes. There are still rumours of witchcraft in the town, people like Jacinta of the castle ale-house believe Eudo Colet guilty of a compact with the Devil. Small blame to them, I suppose, when everything worked out so well for him, the children’s deaths following so pat upon their mother’s. It was the reason why he dismissed the servants and shut up the house to take lodgings with Dame Winifred and Agatha, on the other side of the river. It would never surprise me to know that he had removed from the district altogether.’

‘Not according to the lawyer. If Oliver Cozin is to be believed, he is even now negotiating on Master Colet’s behalf for a new property hereabouts, although exactly where, he did not mention.’

There was a sudden raucous cawing above our heads as a rook with some titbit dangling from its beak flew home to its nest among the trees. The sunlight slithered across the jetblack plumage and tipped the ragged wings with gold.

Grizelda watched the bird until it disappeared, when she lowered her eyes again and turned to me.

‘So,’ she said at length, ‘Eudo Colet intends to remain to plague us, does he? I thought that surely he would go away and leave us all in peace to mourn the dead.’ She lifted her chin and I saw the jawline harden. ‘Do you really believe that there is anything you can possibly discover that has eluded the vigilance of the rest of us?’

‘That I don’t yet know,’ I answered. ‘I can but try, so long as I have your blessing. You are the person most nearly concerned with the dead, both by blood and friendship, and therefore the one to be most distressed by memories if I proceed.’

Once more, she tilted her head back against the wall, eyes dosed, thinking. I did not try to persuade her one way or the other, the decision must be hers, and hers alone. But I waited with bated breath for the reply, my curiosity by now fully aroused, and with the bloodhound scent of the chase hot in my nostrils. And yet, because I felt sure that God had led me to this place, once again to do His bidding, I did not truly doubt what her answer would be.

I was not disappointed. Without opening her eyes, she nodded.

‘Very well. If you can find out anything further, you have my blessing. But I must warn you that I think you will not succeed.’

I leaned forward, my hands on my knees. ‘Perhaps. But did it never occur to you, or to anyone else, that Master Colet might have made a compact with the outlaws to steal the children and do away with them later? These things do happen. In Bristol, unwanted kinfolk are still sold into slavery with the Irish, in spite of the fact that the trade has been banned by both State and Church for more than two hundred years.’

Grizelda looked horrified, but argued that such a possibility would have been considered by the Sheriff, if by no one else.

‘Yet, if so, it must have been dismissed in the end. For how could the outlaws have spirited the children out of the house without themselves being seen? Or how could a rendezvous have been arranged between the children and their captors without Mary and Andrew’s connivance? And I should tell you that the gatekeepers on all the town gates were questioned most minutely, but not one of them remembered seeing two small children on their own. Indeed, not a single person was found who had even the smallest recollection of sighting either Mary or Andrew, within or outside the walls that morning.’

‘But they got out somehow!’ I placed my hand over hers, where it gripped the edge of the bench, and she made no attempt to free it. ‘Are you seeking to discourage me?’ I asked. ‘Are you regretting your decision to let me probe further into this affair?’

She looked me full in the eyes then, smiling and shaking her head.

‘No. I just want you to understand the difficulties you are facing. I wouldn’t wish you to think that others had been lax in their duty and not given every consideration to even the most unlikely probability.’

I grinned. ‘In short, you are trying to check my conceit before I make a fool of myself and have to admit that I am no cleverer than my elders and betters.’

‘No, no!’ she laughed. ‘I only meant… Oh, I don’t know what I meant! You confuse me.’

‘Do I?’ I raised my free hand and stroked her cheek, the skin soft and smooth despite its weather-beaten appearance.

Then, as much to my own surprise as I think to hers, I leaned forward and kissed her on the lips.