The Tolls of Death

Chapter Twenty-Four

Warin was noble by birth, and certainly didn’t fear this rabble. They made him want to laugh. There was none among them whom he would be concerned about individually, he grew aware of their eyes moving from one to another, like a pack of dogs working up the courage to make an attack. That was less amusing.

He couldn’t really permit them to take Richer, no matter what he had said before. Richer was his servant, and no one was going to take him against Warin’s will. The squire was more than powerful enough to prevent a small group from lynching his man. Still, he must also be seen to be fair. He didn’t want to be thought of as harbouring a fugitive from justice. That was not the way to gain the respect of the peasants.

A strange place this, when tempers were hot. The alewife was serving with a face like a wet week in Wales, while men fingered their stubble or hunched their shoulders and glowered.

In the far corner was an old man, hard to see at the other side of the room, just a dark smudge with eyes that twinkled as the firelight caught them. Then he sat forward, and Warin recognised Iwan. The old smith didn’t look away, but met his gaze calmly, a massive pot in his hand. Then he smiled, but somehow he still looked threatening. It was the eyes, Warin’s father had once said: the eyes told you about the soul. Watch his eyes and you’d see the attack before his hands could move. Warin wouldn’t want to have Iwan as an enemy … at least not if Iwan was younger.

Richer was anxious: Warin could sense fear oozing from his pores like sweat. Couldn’t blame him. This was the most dangerous situation Richer had ever endured. Going into battle with friends at his side was one thing: sitting and waiting for a man who was sworn to see his destruction while on all sides his enemy’s friends fenced him in, that took courage.

And conviction, of course. Perhaps Richer wasn’t the murderer. Attacking a man in the dark was not his way — but the question was, would the people here believe that?

A sudden hush smothered them. The fire sparked, and Warin saw the smoke gust up and through the window. At the door, men moved aside, and there in the doorway stood Alexander.

‘So, murderer! You thought to celebrate your success here, did you? Didn’t think that there’d be anyone else here who’d challenge you?’

‘I didn’t touch him, Alex,’ Richer said. There was an edge to his voice: partly fear, partly anger, but only the fear was heard by Alexander’s men.

Warin could read their minds. These folk were like cattle. The strongest man in the room today was the Constable, and he could herd them. He was strong because of his hatred, sincerity and rage. Today all the men would follow him.

‘You didn’t touch him? Was it your knife, then? Did it leap from your belt, slash his throat wide, and carry him to the mill to be draped over his own wheel?’

‘I had nothing to do with his death,’ Richer said.

‘You had no reason to murder him,’ Alexander said, stepping forward slowly, his head jutting pugnaciously. ‘But you did anyway. You waited until his mind was weakened by seeing his poor boy, my nephew …’ His voice was choked suddenly, and he had to break off, while fresh tears flooded his cheeks. ‘While his wife was still inconsolable with grief, you slaughtered him!’

‘It was not me!’ Richer declared again, and he held out his hands in an impassioned plea to the men about him. ‘Look at me! I’m Richer atte Brooke! This is my place of birth! I’m no murderer!’

‘You say one of us is?’ a voice sneered, and Richer sensed his master stiffening.

Richer felt it too. There was passion in the crowd. Richer could hear low, bitter mutterings. They were like the apprentices after the ale had flowed too freely in the taverns; a mob that hunted in a pack, attacking anyone in their path, whether an enemy or passerby. None was safe when the mob prowled. These usually submissive peasants had been welded together by a sense of injustice; few might have liked Serlo, but he was at least one of them. In comparison, Richer was a stranger after running away fifteen years ago.

They were ready to tear Richer to pieces with their bare hands.

There was a blow at his shoulder, and a heavy earthenware pot fell and smashed on the floor. A platter span across the room: it slashed a cut into his cheek and bounced from the wall behind him. A metallic rasp spoke of a blade being pulled from a wooden scabbard, and Richer knew he must die. Next to him, Warin drew his own sword and the polished blade gleamed evilly in the dimly-lit room.

Warin bared his teeth. He hadn’t expected violence to flare so swiftly, damn it! He’d wanted to use his authority to persuade the men in here that Richer was innocent, but events had moved too quickly. Now it seemed certain that Richer must die. In a moment the hot rage in his belly was fired, but now, seeing the churls baying, Alexander’s pale and resolute face approaching, he felt his ire fade and a strange new sensation take its place: fear. He had brought his servant here to save him, and instead he had escorted Richer to his doom. Richer was stunned by a jug hitting his head, his sword still sheathed. Warin shouted: ‘Richer! Defend yourself!’

Other voices took up the cry of rebellion. ‘Catch him — let’s string him up! Who else could have wanted to have Serlo killed? Only you, Richer!’

To Warin’s surprise, a loud, calm voice answered. ‘Oh, I reckon any man here who took oats to be ground and found his grain had melted away when his back was turned. Serlo was good at taking more than his multure.’

It was old Iwan. He had remained at the back of the room when the men pressed forward to encircle Richer and Warin, but his voice was clear through the baying of men become animals. He was staring at Alexander with a fixed intensity.

Alexander glared and pointed a shivering finger at him. ‘Don’t speak ill of the dead, old heretic! You never liked him, did you? Leave his memory alone, lest you have cause to regret it later!’

Some of the men were readying to spring on Richer and Warin, but some, if only a few, were glancing from Iwan to Alexander. They wore puzzled frowns, like men who were recovering from a strange dream.

Iwan’s eyes narrowed as though in amusement at some joke the others hadn’t seen. His posture, though, was not that of an ancient, but of a warrior who was capable of teaching a man half his age many lessons. ‘Do you think to threaten me?’

‘Don’t push me, old man!’

‘Alex, boy, I reckon ’tis time you was goin’ home.’

There was a chuckle, instantly stilled, but Warin saw some faces lighten for a moment. Then another rolled his eyes ceiling-wards, and Warin realised that Alexander had lost the momentum of the crowd about him.

‘Shut up, Iwan! I’ve got business here.’

‘Alex, I’ll ignore your manners, but I call on the tithing to witness you’re breaking your pledge to hold the King’s Peace. You may be the Constable, but that don’t put you above the good King’s laws. You’re trying to raise a mob, and I won’t let you.’

Those words made some men take pause. A fellow at the back moved a little away from the men ringing the two. He was less reluctant to join in.

‘You can’t stop me!’ Alexander spat.

‘Oh I can, Alex,’ Iwan said, crossing the floor until he stood with Warin and Richer. He frowned at Richer. ‘No one can really believe that this man’s guilty of murder. We all remember him: he’s one of us.’

‘He hated my brother!’

Alexander’s voice was taut with emotion, his face pale, but although he held out his hands in appeal to the men about him, they didn’t return his gaze. There was some shuffling in the dirt of the floor. Two more men left the crowd, joining the first, who now stood at the doorway. The three exchanged a look, and then darted out. The door slamming made more men glance about them, and some noticed the gaps and looked more anxious.

‘He didn’t get on with Serlo. Like I said, many didn’t,’ Iwan agreed. ‘That’s no reason to murder.’

‘Serlo told him,’ Alex said quietly but venomously.

Iwan cocked his head. ‘Aye?’

‘Told him that it was he who had fired his house: Serlo burned it, killed Richer’s family. He told him in this very tavern. You heard him!’ he demanded, pointing at two men. They both looked away.

‘That true?’ Iwan said to Richer.

‘No! I didn’t hear him say that. I left the place when I saw him here, to save his grief.’

Iwan studied him intently for a few moments. ‘It’d be good reason for a killing, if you had, but I don’t reckon there’s enough anger in you even now to do something like that. You might accuse him in front of witnesses, maybe even catch him and call on him to pull a sword — but not more than that. No, Richer’s no murderer.’

‘Out of my way!’ Alexander snarled, and gripped Iwan’s upper arm to shove him aside.

Warin saw it all, and it still astonished him, many years later. The older man’s face emptied, as though all emotion had fled, and his left hand whipped around his body, pulling Alexander’s hand away from his biceps. At the same time, his right hand snaked forward, grabbing the Constable’s throat and pushing with all the force of his body behind his hand. Alexander was thrust back between Richer and Warin, against the wall, the air exploding from his lungs in a gasp of pain, and then he found himself inches from the ground, staring down at Iwan’s face.

‘Constable, I’ll thank you not to push me around.’ The smith smiled without humour. ‘You could hurt a poor old man. Besides,’ he added, ‘you wouldn’t want to tempt the vill to rise against the Lord’s own son, would you?’

‘What do you mean, the Lord’s own son?’ Alexander managed, trying to breathe. Iwan’s fingers felt like talons of iron and he was growing light-headed.

‘This man Warin. Take a good look at him, Constable. He’s Sir Henry’s boy.’

Anne saw Simon and Baldwin leaving her husband at the solar door when she entered the hall, and she could see Nicholas’s tension as he stood there watching them go. Then, slowly, like a man who had aged ten years in as many minutes, he returned to the solar.

There was a fluttering in her breast at the sight. It made her realise just how fragile was his spirit nowadays, how fragile was her own security, and her hand went to her womb in a gesture that was growing habitual.

He had always been so confident in his power and position, and now that was fading. In some measure she felt it was his memories which plagued him still. They were growing in virulence recently, and there seemed nothing she could do about them; if anything, they appeared to grow worse when she was with him, as though her presence was a cause of shame and anguish, rather than a balm easing his pain.

He had been so happy to hear she was with child, yet more recently he had lost his vigour, especially since Athelina’s death. In the last few days Nicholas had grown more inward-looking and less responsive.

Perhaps it was Warin. It was the problem with a yeoman like Nicholas running a castle. Squires like Warin were noble-born and might be knighted, whereas the likelihood of that happening to Nicholas was remote. He was a stolid, reliable man, and trusted by Sir Henry, but that was all. A man who held a castle for the King might win a knight’s belt and spurs, but Nicholas was slowly rotting here. There was nothing for him.

Still, Nicholas had never suffered jealousy like that before. No, this was more like grief. Perhaps — my God, but her heart was fluttering fit to burst! — he had realised the child wasn’t his!

Christ in Heaven! She had to consider! Quickly!

Serlo had threatened her with exposure, and Athelina had known. That was the plain meaning of his words at the inquest — but he hadn’t had time before the end of the inquest to speak to Nicholas, surely? He’d stood there until his wife’s appearance with his son’s corpse, then he had run in a welter of panic and grief to the alehouse.

No, there had been no opportunity for him to ruin her marriage.

Unless Athelina had already done so, of course. When had Nicholas grown so withdrawn from her? Was it just after hearing of Athelina’s death, or before, when he might have visited the woman and learned about his wife’s infidelity? It was possible. May be Athelina had told him, and he had killed her in a sudden rage. Just as he could have killed Serlo.

‘My God!’ she murmured.

Nicholas was being driven to distraction by something, she knew. She only prayed it wasn’t her and her child. That would be too cruel.

Simon and Baldwin stood in the yard, but when Baldwin caught sight of Ivo loitering, he grunted, ‘Let’s get away from this place. It’s making me choke!’ and led the way to the gate.

Their path took them along the protected corridor that led out to the open air. A waft of breeze brought with it the stench of the shit-bespattered ground under the garderobe at the western edge of the wall, and without speaking, the two walked away from the castle and the foul smell.

Following their feet, the two trailed down the hill towards the vill itself. Here the land was much like Devonshire’s, and Simon felt his heart being drawn eastwards again. He had endured enough travelling, enough death and hardship to last him the rest of his lifetime. The little house which Meg, his wife, had made so welcoming was never so appealing as now. He hoped his family were well. Praying for them was one thing, but there was no guarantee that God would protect them. Christ’s bones, but he missed them!

At the bottom of the little hill were more trees. A charcoal-burner was camping there, and a stack of wood smouldered merrily under its covering of wet sacks. They walked on past and down to the small stream that chuckled its way northwards. Even the sound made Simon homesick: the stream was a tiny version of the water that thundered in the gorge at Lydford.

‘I can make little of this,’ he said, sitting on a fallen trunk. ‘The folk here seem unsettled by the murders. There is much bubbling away below the surface.’

‘Yes,’ Baldwin agreed. ‘There is much going on: Athelina’s murder with her children, the priest’s tale, Danny’s death, crushed in the mill, and Serlo’s killing made to look like his. And now Nicholas’s story.’

‘An odd little story, that. He wanted us to help protect his son, but there seemed something else in his manner. Does he think his son is guilty? How can that be? The first death was Danny’s, which happened long before Richer arrived.’

‘Not quite true, Simon. The first deaths were Richer’s supposed family. It was their deaths which made him leave the vill, and now he’s returned the killings have started again.’

‘Iwan seemed to think Serlo killed them … many must believe he also got rid of Athelina and her children too because she couldn’t pay her rent. Someone then retaliated and killed him.’

‘So the connection is revenge. Perhaps it was Richer,’ Baldwin mused.

‘And perhaps there is no connection whatever. The fire at Richer’s home was fifteen years ago. It stretches my credulity.’

‘A man who lost his whole family would demand revenge,’ Baldwin said.

‘Surely he would have sought it before?’ Simon grunted. ‘God’s teeth, Baldwin. There is an unwholesome atmosphere here. I shall be glad to get back home again.’

‘A family perhaps murdered in an arson attack fifteen years ago; an apprentice killed by accident, perhaps: a woman murdered and her children slaughtered, definitely; and now a man killed and his body planted in the machine like the apprentice.’

‘You forgot Serlo’s boy.’

‘I cannot believe that young Ham was a part of this,’ Baldwin said. ‘The lad’s mother surely wouldn’t have killed him. No, that was definitely an accident.’

‘The people here thought that the apprentice was, too,’ Simon pointed out.

‘True enough.’

‘So if that’s the case, the killer of Serlo was merely saying that he was a lousy master.’

Baldwin frowned at the ground by his boot. ‘Or that he didn’t take enough care of his charge. Surely the most sensible explanation would be that the father of the apprentice considered Serlo too careless and decided to punish him.’

‘If only we knew who the father was,’ Simon said.

‘The priest at Temple said it was a man from the castle,’ Baldwin said.

‘Who do you mean?’ Simon asked, turning to him. ‘Nicholas, the castellan?’

‘He controls this castle and vill in the name of his lord; he has powers through his men-at-arms, and all would fear him if they lived within the reach of his arms,’ Baldwin said. ‘I should think that he would make an excellent suspect.’

‘No. The man is honest, I am sure. There are others, though: I still want to know more about Squire Warin. That fellow seems less than entirely open.’

‘Yes,’ Baldwin said. ‘And he’s not in the castle. So let’s see if we can find him.’

‘Where are you thinking of looking?’ Simon asked, reluctantly rising to his feet.

‘There are few enough places in this vill to rest,’ Baldwin said determinedly, rising to his feet.

The Lady Anne couldn’t bear to see Nicholas, not now, while he looked so desperate. Instead, she went out to her orchard and little garden, seeking peace and tranquillity in solitude.

The orchard had been here for many years, a small space set aside for apples and some pears, but when Anne first arrived it had been terribly overgrown and ill-kempt. No one had pruned the trees in years, and the farther side of the orchard, which had originally been planted with cider apples, was filled with fallen boughs. Anne had set to with a will, having the dead trees cleared and setting out a number of low turf banks which could be used as benches in fine weather. It was to one of these that she walked now, sitting and staring back along the valley to the west.

‘I thought I might find you here.’

She did not turn to face him. ‘Gervase, I wanted some peace.’

‘I think we need to talk, my love. There is much to discuss.’

‘We lay together, Gervase. That is all. There is nothing to talk about.’

‘And what if your child is born early? So early that even Nicholas realises it isn’t his?’

That was her fear. To have been cuckolded might break his heart. ‘I wish …’

‘What?’ he pressed. ‘That you’d agreed to accept me before you took the older man’s hand?’

She gazed at him stonily. ‘I love my husband, Gervase. Don’t deceive yourself.’

‘I loved him myself,’ he said earnestly. ‘I still do, a little. But I adore you, my love. You should have taken me when we first met.’

‘You had enough women. No doubt you still have.’

‘No! Even Julia cannot tempt me. I won’t have anything to do with her — I haven’t seen her in months.’

‘Athelina was still coming to the castle until recently.’

‘She was trying to persuade me to give her money. I wouldn’t, though.’

Anne looked up at him. His face was filled with a strange mixture of dread and yearning, as though he feared what she might say or do. ‘Did she go to you and threaten us? Did she tell you she’d seen us lying together that day in the meadow?’

He waved a hand. ‘Yes, yes. She said that, but it meant nothing. I told her I’d kill her if anything got out about it, and that was all.’

‘She did see us, so Serlo told me the truth,’ Anne said with a blank stare at the distance.

‘Anne, why don’t we run away from here? I can protect you! All we need is a small cottage somewhere away from Sir Henry’s lands, and we can live decently enough. Perhaps I could find a new position as steward somewhere, and we …’

‘What, run away?’ she said, her mouth falling open in astonishment. And then, cruelly, she couldn’t help but laugh at him.

‘Do you really think I’d give up my warm home, my tapestries, my tunics — my life — to run away with an impoverished steward? My God, Gervase, you must be mad! I lay with you, and mind you hear me carefully, I lay with you that time because I thought my husband might be dead. I was lonely and desperate, thinking that I might have lost my only protector, and sought another man who could look after me. The only man about here was you; there was no one else. I do not love you, Gervase. I don’t think I could. But if Nicholas was dead, I might have considered you as an alternative. That was all.’

‘Our child, though. He’s proof you love me.’

‘He’s proof that I lay with a man some months ago,’ she said dismissively. ‘If he is born early, I shall call in a midwife who’ll swear on her parents’ graves that the child is before full term and that I and the babe both need careful nursing. Nicholas will never guess. And you won’t tell him anything, Gervase.’ She stood and approached him slowly. ‘Because if you do, Nicholas will destroy you utterly. He’ll cut your ballocks off and stuff them in your mouth. So be very careful you keep your mouth sealed.’

‘I wouldn’t let news of this get out,’ he protested, but he was shivering like a man with the ague.

‘Be sure you don’t,’ she said, and then she faced him with a strange expression in her eyes. ‘Do you mean to say that it was you? Did you murder Athelina and Serlo to keep this all secret?’

He was too appalled to answer. Instead, his heart bleeding with shame, sadness and bitterness at the rejection of his love, he let his head hang, and turned his feet back towards the castle.