The Mad Monk of Gidleigh

Chapter Twenty

It was only a cheap ale-house. The farmer’s wife made a few pennies by selling ale to passers-by when she had a little too much brewed. It wasn’t the best ale Simon had ever tried, but it certainly wasn’t the worst either, and he sat on a table outside her doorway, Baldwin beside him with his arms crossed, while they questioned the men.

‘Osbert. We’ve heard that you found Wylkyn’s body. Why did you hide that fact?’

Os shot Elias a look, but the older peasant was staring at the bush over the door, and Os had to resort to cursing him inwardly. ‘I… I knew Elias had already found one body. It made sense to ask him to look for Wylkyn as well.’

‘To evade your fines,’ Baldwin observed. ‘Never mind that for now. When the Coroner arrives, perhaps we can give him the facts and save your money for you. In the meantime, what can you tell us about Wylkyn’s body?’

‘He’d been badly cut about. I heard his screams and went up there, but then I saw that it was quite a band of Esmon’s men, and didn’t get involved. I’d just have got killed. Later, when they’d gone off with the carts to get them to pay their tolls, I looked over the place and found Wylkyn.’

‘Why would Esmon’s men have gone there?’

Osbert shrugged. With Mary’s death, life meant little to him any more, and if he could help put the noose about Esmon’s neck, so much the better. Everyone feared him and his men-at-arms after their robberies and rapings. ‘To rob them? They’ve often raided travellers, demanding tolls where none are due. That’s what they did the other day; they killed Wylkyn, but took all the rest to the castle. I suppose they went through all the goods and stole what they wanted.’

Simon and Baldwin exchanged a look. This was a serious felony. Osbert’s evidence, if corroborated, could lead to Esmon and his father being arrested. Not, Baldwin told himself, that it would mean they would be forced to suffer the full penalty of law, for they had friends in high places, but even so, it would lead to shame.

He nodded towards the road that led to the mill. ‘What of the girl Mary? We hear you loved her.’

Os reddened. ‘I did,’ he said stoutly, as though daring anyone to comment.

There was no laughter, but for a small snigger from Ben. Baldwin immediately turned his attention to the lad. ‘You were with Elias here when your sister was killed. Did you notice anything about her body?’

‘Yes. She was dead,’ Ben said sarcastically.

‘How could you tell?’ Baldwin didn’t like this boy. Ben was glib and disrespectful, which was not the attitude of someone trying to help find the murderer of his beloved sister. He stood insolently, as though scarcely listening to Baldwin’s questions, a small-framed lad clad in a good quality woollen tunic and soft linen hose.

Ben shrugged. ‘Elias told me.’

‘I tried to keep the sight from him,’ Elias explained sombrely. ‘I went to her and left Ben holding the oxen. When I saw what had happened, I sent him to fetch help and stayed with her body.’

‘You did well,’ Baldwin said and turned back to Ben. ‘Do you think Mark could have killed your sister?’

‘Him? I suppose so. She was all over him most of the time. Slobbering like a bitch on heat. Probably thought she could get him to throw in his place as a priest like old Surval the Hermit.’

‘He did what?’ Baldwin said.

Piers said, ‘He used to be a priest, but got thrown out of his church because he did something. Don’t know what, but he feels the guilt still.’

‘We shall ask him. Osbert, you were out there that day when Mary was killed. Do you think it could have been Mark?’

‘I was working at the hedge at the time. I didn’t hear anything apart from the noise of the oxen and Ben calling to them. And I couldn’t see anyone in the roadway. Only someone on horseback would have been visible to me.’

‘You had left before Elias and Ben?’

‘Yes. I had to go to the mill and help Huward.’

‘You did not see the body when you went to the mill?’ Baldwin said.

‘I didn’t go by the lane,’ Os said. ‘I went over the fields back to the vill, then took the lane from there down to the mill.’

‘Did you see Sir Ralph or his son?’

‘I saw Sir Ralph,’ Osbert agreed, frowning with the effort of recollection. ‘He was down at the bottom of the road on his horse when I saw him. That was where I reached the road myself.’

‘What of Esmon?’ Simon asked. ‘Did anyone see him?’

‘Yes,’ Ben said. ‘He was down near the castle when I got there. He had mud all over his legs, as if he’d been riding up on the moors.’

‘Why would he have gone up there?’ Simon wondered aloud. ‘Was he hunting?’

‘He had no dogs.’ Ben shrugged.

Baldwin was watching him closely. ‘Master Ben, you seem entirely unaffected by losing your sister.’

‘I have another one!’

His glib reply made Simon want to hit him, and he was seeking for a sharp response when he saw Osbert’s face. The strong peasant looked as though he could break into tears at any moment. Rather than upset Os further, Simon said, ‘Where were you on the day that this Wylkyn died?’

‘I was in a tavern. There were plenty of men there to vouch for me, too.’

‘Is there anything else you want to tell us?’ Baldwin said, looking from one to another of them, but all their long faces told him that there was nothing more to learn here. The only one who looked less than worried was Ben. He waved at the alewife to demand drink as Baldwin watched. His insouciance was insufferable, but there was nothing Baldwin could do about a man who was so uncaring about his own sister.

‘We should go,’ he muttered. ‘We have to find the body of this Wylkyn and ensure that Mark is released into our custody.’

‘I don’t understand what you keep asking about Mary’s death for anyway,’ Ben said. He had a large pot of cider now, which he drank steadily, spilling some down his chin and throat. Gasping, he signed for another pot. ‘The Coroner and everyone else are content that Mark was Mary’s murderer. What do you expect to find?’

‘Perhaps I don’t believe that Mark killed her,’ Baldwin said, rising. It was time to return to the castle. ‘Reeve, I suggest you organise a hunt for this missing miner’s body. We shall need to have something to show the Coroner, or you will be very heavily fined, won’t you?’

Piers grunted noncommittally, and turned away with Elias along towards the barton and his home. Soon Simon and Baldwin were alone. It was as Baldwin beckoned the two Constables to bring his mount that he saw Huward. The miller was walking from the castle, his face white as a winding-sheet, and his eyes filled with a terrible horror that grabbed at Baldwin’s breast and made him stand aside as Huward passed.

It was a momentary thing. Huward had been there, and now he was gone. A broken man, his life destroyed. It shocked Baldwin to see how Huward had changed since the night before. The miller had looked a large, hale fellow even after the horror of losing his daughter, but now he looked as though he was bent beneath a still more extreme misery. Baldwin wondered how he himself would have reacted if someone were to murder his own little daughter Richalda, if he was sure he knew who the killer was, and he had to witness the man’s escape on the technical issue that the murderer had once trained as a priest. It would appal him. Perhaps this was only the natural expression of a man who had lost his daughter to a murderer who must escape the usual penalty for his crime.

The sight of Huward made Baldwin still more determined to see that the murderer should pay. If it was Mark, he would see the priest in the Bishop’s court – but he found himself wondering anew whether Mark could have been the murderer. After seeing the lad’s expression and alarm in the court, Baldwin found it hard to imagine a less likely murderer.

The priest had confessed to hitting her, Baldwin reminded himself. Mark had also admitted to an affair with the girl, to getting her with child, to arguing and even to striking her… but he strenuously denied murder.

To break someone’s neck took considerable strength. Baldwin could remember seeing Elias in the field, his muscles bunching with the effort of ending a rabbit’s life; to pull the bones apart in a woman’s neck would take much more force. Mark was no peasant with corded muscles that could snap a human neck; he was a rather weakly-looking fellow. To strike a woman, yes, that was in his power, but breaking her neck was a different matter altogether.

‘Simon, I don’t think Mark would have had the strength to break her neck,’ he said.

‘I find it hard to believe,’ Simon agreed.

Try as he might, Baldwin could not get the picture of Elias from his mind, gently smoothing the fur of a rabbit before tugging at the head. ‘That boy Ben didn’t leave Elias, according to the old peasant.’

‘No. The two stayed together.’

Baldwin nodded. ‘Perhaps both took a break. Ben didn’t like his sister.’

‘Baldwin, disliking her is different from actively helping to kill her.’

‘Perhaps. Yet some boys can grow to hate their sisters. And we have heard that Ben might have been rejected by her. Shame alone could have made him want to kill her.’

‘Perhaps. What should we do?’

‘Simon, you go with Piers. Arrange for a messenger to Chagford to find Wylkyn’s companions. I shall take a moment to speak to Huward again.’

The mill was dark and grim. Since Mary’s death it had been silent but for the weeping of the women. The gears that operated the massive wheel had been still because Huward had closed off the leat that fed it. Somehow, in the absence of the grinding of the stones together, the void where before she had always known the clicking and graunching of the teeth of the mechanism, Flora felt as though the death of Mary had affected the machinery itself. It was just as if the whole building had died with her. No, it was worse than that: it was as if the family itself was gone, as though she’d lost her father and mother as well as her sister.

The burial over, Gilda had returned home and now sat in the darkest corner of the room near the grain store, like a woman whose life was ended. She scarcely responded when the family spoke to her, nor did she now, when Flora walked to her and rested a hand on her shoulder.

‘Mother, you have to eat. Do you want some pottage?’

Gilda groaned and clutched at her clothes, pinching at her upper arms, shaking her head and uttering a long, low moan. Startled, Flora withdrew at first, but her shock soon turned to sympathy and compassion. This was her mother, the woman who had protected and nurtured her through her childhood. It can’t have been easy. Even though Sir Ralph had always been kindly about their rent, nonetheless the famine had affected all in Devonshire, and Gilda had been forced to work hard for their money along with Huward. Flora went to her mother, throwing her arms about her and cradling her just as Gilda had cradled her when she was young.

He was a good man, Huward. Kind and loving, he had always insisted that he had no favourites, only four people to love equally, although Flora was certain in her own mind that Ben was less well-liked by their father. Huward had craved a son. All men did: a son was proof that their name would continue, that their family line was secure. A daughter, when all was said and done, was only a breeding dam, to be sold and served by the buck who attracted her father’s attention, but a son – a son could carry on the business, take responsibility for a mother and father too old and infirm to shift for themselves, and increase the family’s fortune, multiplying it for the future. Unfortunately Ben was in no sense an ideal heir.

Flora adored both her mother and her father, but her father was more warm and affectionate than her mother. With Gilda there was always a slight reserve, as though she couldn’t entirely give herself to anyone, not even her own daughter. Even now, with Flora’s arms about her, she averted her head, only slightly, but enough to remove her cheek from contact with Flora’s, and the girl felt tears stinging her eyes at the sensation of her mother withdrawing from her touch.

It was hurtful, but if Gilda didn’t want Flora to comfort her, Flora couldn’t force herself upon her. She gently pulled away, saying, ‘Mother, Mary wouldn’t want you to starve yourself! You have to eat something.’

‘Leave me! I don’t want food, I want peace, only peace.’

‘What do you mean?’ Flora asked. Was her mother’s mind becoming unhinged?

‘Just go, Flora!’

‘Not until I see you eating something. Will you take some bread?’

Gilda muttered angrily, but finally she agreed and picked at the coarse maslin that Flora placed before her. It was enough. Flora left her when she saw that Gilda had consumed a little, and walked outside.

She could weep. Her father wasn’t here yet – he and Ben would be at the court, and God knew how long that might take. If the priest decided to argue the toss, he might delay all the men there a good few hours. Perhaps they had held their meeting, and had gone to an ale-house to recover their humour after hearing the judge declare the priest safe because of Benefit of Clergy. Flora was not sanguine about the likelihood of even Sir Ralph deciding to thwart the power and influence of the Bishop of Exeter. He was one of the most powerful men in the country.

Osbert was there as well. She felt so alone right now, with even her mother rejecting her, that the thought of Osbert’s calming arms about her, just holding her, was so attractive, she couldn’t restrain a small gasp of longing. Her heart was his. Perhaps… with Mary out of the way, she could win his heart. There was no one else for him. Oh, she wanted his arms around her so much, right this minute!

‘Where is your father, girl?’

The strange voice made her heart leap. When she was able to recognise the man, Flora asked: ‘Hermit, what do you want here?’

‘Answer the question.’

‘He’s at the court, I think. All the men are.’

‘That’s good. Where is your mother?’

‘Inside – why, do you need alms? Leave my mother alone, I beg! Since my sister’s loss, she has been very sad. It is hard for a woman to lose her child.’

‘It is as hard for a sister to suffer loss,’ he observed gruffly, peering at her from under the old felt brim of his hat.

‘Perhaps less hard,’ Flora said uncertainly.

‘You sound like someone who shoulders a little of the blame.’

‘No! I had nothing to do with my beloved sister’s death,’ she burst out.

‘I never thought you did, child. Yet you feel responsible.’

‘A little. It’s just that…’

‘What?’

‘I don’t think I ever had quite so much of my mother’s affection as Mary did. Maybe I’ll never match up to her measure of me. I’ll be a disappointment for ever.’

‘If you are, it’s not your fault; it’s the fault of a foolish parent who didn’t think of you as a person but as a “thing” to be possessed. You are as good as your sister, child,’ he said with firm reassurance.

‘You sound like my father,’ she smiled.

‘Maybe he is an intelligent man,’ Surval said, peering over her shoulder into the mill. ‘Is she there?’

‘Yes, but please, won’t this wait?’

‘Because of the loss of your sister? No. And don’t blame yourself for your mother’s attitude towards you. She loves you greatly, but she is scared… and her suffering goes back long before your birth, child.’

‘You mean there was a problem with Mary?’ Flora asked, frowning with incomprehension.

‘Oh no. This goes back before her birth even,’ Surval said, and ducked inside.

‘Hello, Gilda,’ he said as he caught sight of her.

‘Surval. What do you want?’

‘An opportunity to offer you my sympathy,’ he said, resting on a stool. ‘I have known you all your life, after all.’

‘You have,’ she said bitterly. ‘So I suppose you’re really here to see if I know why your relative is dead.’

‘My relative?’

‘You didn’t know?’

‘I guessed,’ he said, and sighed heavily. ‘So it was as I thought. I am glad I came here when your husband was out.’

‘My husband!’ she burst out, and covered her face with her hands as she began sobbing.

Surval watched her for a while, but her grief was too all-consuming for him to feel at ease. Powerful emotion was unsettling to him. Quietly he rose and walked from the place, heading back towards his home, wondering vaguely who actually was her husband.

Ben belched and swallowed hard. The cider he was drinking was rough and thick, and he could feel it fighting back in his stomach. He should have eaten something, but he wasn’t hungry. Already his head was growing dull, but he didn’t care. Not now. It was good to have evaded the eye of the Bailiff and the Keeper.

‘You were quiet enough about seeing the others, weren’t you?’ he chuckled to Elias.

‘I told all I had to.’

‘But you forgot Sir Ralph and his son passing by.’

Elias was startled. He shot a look at Ben. ‘I didn’t see the boy.’

‘I did when I was up having a leak. He was there, all right.’

‘I only saw his father,’ Elias said.

‘What of it? It must have been that priest, anyway. The shit got between Mary’s thighs and made her pregnant, then killed her. Why else would he have run off like that? He deserves to have his neck stretched!’

‘But if Esmon was there as well,’ Elias said, ‘it could have been either one of them.’

Baldwin followed Huward but didn’t try to catch up with him until they were out of sight and earshot of the castle. There was something about the place that was making him feel very wary. The little uproar in the court had been perfectly judged. If Baldwin had not reacted so swiftly and had not thrust the two watchmen into the midst of the crowd, Mark might already be hanging – and there would be nothing which Baldwin could have pointed at in order to appeal either Roger Scut or Sir Ralph. Neither had openly incited the peasants, the mob was merely incensed by the implication of their words.

‘Master Miller. Please wait a moment!’

Huward’s expression was that of a man who was about to be tortured to death and who was intimately acquainted with each device designed to inflict the maximum pain. ‘What do you want?’

Baldwin had left the watchmen with Simon, and now he was glad. Huward stood strongly, a large man with thick fingers and a broad back. He stood slightly bowed, as though he was preparing to spring, and Baldwin kept his attention fixed firmly on his eyes, watching for any sign that he might attack. However, Huward looked more like a man at the very end of his tether than one who was about to explode into murderous violence at any moment. Except there was something else in his face, Baldwin thought: a terrible, rending sadness that was wrenching him apart, a horror more overwhelming than any Baldwin had seen in many long years. It made Huward seem as though he was on the brink of complete collapse, as though he was about to submit to a fit of sobbing.

‘Huward, I know this must seem like a terrible time for me to ask you more questions, but I have to.’

‘Why? What about?’

‘Come, let us walk.’ Baldwin had a shrewd suspicion that a man used to working hard, either with his hands or simply with his muscles and his own lifting power, was easier to question when moving, as though a part of their minds only functioned when their bodies were engaged upon some activity. Huward appeared to have sprung from that kind of mould. His tension visibly reduced, and he moved his arms as though every muscle within had been tensed for action.

‘You haven’t said what you want to talk about.’

‘There are two matters, of course. You know that perfectly well. The death of your daughter, and the death of Wylkyn the miner.’

‘We know who killed my daughter,’ Huward said dully. ‘The Coroner said it was the priest. The mad monk.’

‘It is possible,’ Baldwin conceded, ‘but answer me some questions. Your daughter, she had many boyfriends?’

‘None. It made us rib her about it. She was never keen on any of the boys here.’

‘Perhaps because she was seeing the priest already,’ Baldwin said. He was silent a few moments. ‘She was a good and dutiful daughter?’

Huward cleared his throat. ‘She was perfect. Beautiful as a young doe, obedient and loving. I couldn’t…’ He broke off, coughed, and wiped at his face with an angry hand. ‘Whoever did that to her, if I could just get my hands on him for a few minutes…’

‘You mustn’t dwell on it. If it was that boy in court today, you cannot touch him. You know that.’

‘I don’t care what some Bishop in his great palace says. That shit killed my little angel. My angel,’ he repeated firmly. ‘My Mary. What do words from some priest above him mean to me? If he was here now, I’d pull his head off with my bare hands.’

He was flexing his fingers as he spoke, and Baldwin could all too easily imagine them gripping Mark’s head and pulling until his bones cracked and his flesh submitted. Hands used to hefting great sacks of grain were more than capable of tearing a lad like Mark limb from limb. It brought to his mind a picture of a woman with her neck broken. A neck was a tough construction, with strong sinews and muscles. Breaking one was not easy with bare hands.

‘What of the miner? Did you know him?’ he asked.

‘Yes. He was all right, Wylkyn. He made up potions and salves and helped Sir Richard.’

‘Why should someone kill him?’

Huward glanced at him. ‘He was waylaid and robbed. It happens.’

‘By whom?’

Huward threw out his hands. ‘By whom? What do you care? My angel is dead. Isn’t that enough? Christ’s cods! What do you want from me?’

Baldwin spoke soothingly. ‘I understand. But the miner: did you see anyone up there?’

Huward stopped in his tracks. He didn’t face Baldwin as he spoke, but stood with his head lowered like a peasant who has been found stealing and knows he must expect the stocks. ‘I saw the son of Sir Ralph with his men.’ He stared at Baldwin. ‘There! Are you satisfied? If you repeat that to anyone, I shall be killed too, I expect. Let that be on your head, knight.’

‘Why should he kill that man?’

‘Because he thrives on violence. He loves battle, and adores money. They think they’re impregnable, those bastards! They kill and rob, and because they have powerful friends they can get away with it.’

‘The body has been stolen. Do you know who could have done that?’

‘Only a fool. If any man thought to avoid the Coroner’s fines, he didn’t think well enough. He should have realised that once Piers heard of it, news would get out,’ Huward said scathingly.

‘Who, though?’

‘I don’t know, nor do I care. All I care about is my Mary, and what I am to do now with my family. My children…’ His wide eyes stared unseeing up the lane towards his mill. ‘My wife and children… Oh, God! What have I done to deserve this?’

‘Huward, I want to ask you one more question. Think carefully. I do not wish to expose you to more suffering, but I have to know what you think of this. If the boy, Mark, did not kill Mary, it must have been someone else. I understand from Elias that Sir Ralph passed by that road that day. Could it have been…?’

There was no need to complete the question. Huward’s face had crumpled like a rotten apple stamped into the ground. When he spoke his voice was a hoarse whisper. ‘He saw Sir Ralph?’

‘I am truly sorry,’ Baldwin said genuinely. ‘He was reluctant to confess, but yes. He saw Sir Ralph.’

Huward tottered as though about to fall. He stared up towards the heavens, and Baldwin could see the tears running in thick streams down his cheeks. ‘My God, I wish You had killed me with my Mary. My Mary!’ He choked, and then Baldwin saw he was chuckling to himself without humour. It was a repellent sight, and Baldwin was about to strike his face, to try to calm him, when the chuckle became a groan, and then a racking sob. ‘Oh Mary, my little angel! What can I do now? How can I live with this? Sir Ralph raped and murdered you? That’s the worst! Is there no end to my misery? Will no one just kill me and remove this horror?’

‘Friend,’ Baldwin said, glancing at the way ahead, ‘let me walk with you to your door. You shouldn’t walk alone today.’

‘I can walk to my own mill without help,’ Huward retorted.

‘Who is this?’ Baldwin said. A young, swaggering figure was strolling after them, whistling. Baldwin recognised the fellow as soon as he saw the jug dangling from his fingers. It was Ben, and he was plainly drunk.

‘Who is that, you ask? That is my son, Ben,’ Huward said thickly. He watched Ben’s approach with an expression of wistfulness, but when Ben stumbled, swearing foolishly as he dropped his pot and spilled his drink, Huward saw that he was drunk. Instantly his features radiated loathing and rage. ‘When his sister is dead, he goes and…’

‘Father. Have you finished at the court?’ Ben slurred.

‘Don’t call me Father! You are no son of mine!’ Huward spat, spun on his heel, and strode back towards the castle.