The Tolls of Death

Chapter Twenty-Five

While Simon and Baldwin made their way to the alehouse, Sir Jules and Roger had already passed through the vill seeking the Constable at his home.

Letitia answered the door without enthusiasm when she saw who stood outside. ‘Coroner. Godspeed.’

‘Good wife, is your man at home?’

‘No, he’s …’ she glanced up towards the alehouse. ‘He’s gone out.’

‘Perhaps we could wait for him?’

‘He may be gone a long while,’ she said evasively. She had only this moment returned from church, where she had deposited Aumery with his mother. A few prayers with them had initially soothed her, but this fool’s appearance had unsettled her again. Where was her Alex? He wanted to see Richer dead, but please God, don’t let him have had the chance. Please let Richer have escaped back to the castle!

Sir Jules pursed his lips. ‘What would you say, Roger? Where can we seek the man?’

Roger smiled and bobbed his head at the woman, turning to gaze back down the track. ‘Perhaps he has gone to the church to see his sister-in-law?’

Nodding, Sir Jules led the way from the house. ‘We may also ask the woman Muriel whether she can help us.’

‘I am not sure that this would be a propitious time to speak to her.’ Roger was most reluctant to question a woman when she had just lost her husband as well as her son. The thought of interrupting her grief was sorely unpleasant.

‘I hardly like the thought myself,’ Jules said, demonstrating an empathy that surprised Roger. ‘But I’m the King’s man in this part of the county: I have two other corpses I should hold an inquest on, I’ve deaths here in this vill which I haven’t satisfactorily resolved, and there is news of Lord Mortimer’s escape! What must I do to return to Bodmin and normality? Clearly I must solve these cases to the best of my ability, and then take my leave.’

‘We should speak with the Constable first,’ Roger proposed.

‘If he’s at the church, we can do so. If not, the woman Muriel may know something. It is worth asking her. That is all I suggest — that we speak to her.’

‘You could be adding to a mother’s grief.’

‘You are a Coroner’s clerk, man! Aren’t you used to grief?’

Roger studied his master with the attitude of a gardener surveying a colony of slugs in his cabbages. ‘I have served as Coroner’s clerk these last many years, and I have observed all forms of misery, of loss, of injustice, of devastation. I’ve seen more mothers grieving for their children, more widows bemoaning the loss of husbands, more sisters missing their siblings, than you have ridden leagues. Do not think to preach to me my duties, Master Coroner. I know them all too well.’

‘Meaning you think I don’t?’ the Coroner bridled.

‘Meaning I don’t think it is yet right to intrude upon her sorrow.’

‘Well, I do,’ Sir Jules said firmly, and set off towards the church.

‘Like many a bull-headed fool, you have less blood in your heart than does your damned sword,’ the clerk muttered under his breath. ‘God save me from men like you if I should ever need compassion!’

The Coroner strode straight to the door like a man who sought to complete an unpleasant duty with as much speed as possible. Roger uttered a short prayer for Muriel before he entered, crossing his breast in the manner of a priest helping a man at the gallows.

Inside, the church smelled of blood. Although the vill’s women had tried to clean Serlo’s body as best they could, the mess at his skull was foul. Roger could see the little patches of white where flies’ eggs were already laid. Soon those heralds of putrefaction would hatch and begin the process of converting this corpse into dust as God demanded.

He knelt and bowed his head to the altar, crossing himself again, then stood and walked forward to the little group of people at the smaller body.

This, like Serlo’s, was lighted by candles, but the tiny corpse was saved from the ultimate degradation by women who fanned at approaching flies and kept them at bay while Muriel knelt at her boy’s side. Hamelin’s face was undamaged and he simply looked like a babe fast asleep.

Adam was with her, and he had a hand set upon her shoulder in much the way that a brother would. It was good, Roger thought, to see a priest who apparently believed in the vows of chastity. This man did not look the sort who, in other circumstances, might allow his hand to fall and fondle her thigh or buttocks. If anything, there was a hint of distaste in his face — but Muriel was not looking her best. Although she wore a clean dressing about her head, she appeared pale and unkempt. Today of all days she had taken no care with her looks, and no surprise. The poor woman was, as Roger had predicted, all but beside herself with grief.

Seeing Sir Jules, Aumery snivelled and grabbed hold of his mother’s skirts, as though he expected the knight to whip him like a cur from his path. The knight was an intimidating figure, without doubt, and as a lad even Roger would have been alarmed by such a tall, stern-faced man marching up to him. In Aumery’s case, the appearance of dread was increased by his silence. Tears ran down his face from his wide eyes, but he made no noise, as though so much pain had been piled on his shoulders that even death itself held little fear for him.

His mother looked up on feeling her son tug at her skirt, and followed his gaze. She stared at Sir Jules unblinking.

‘Good woman, I have to ask you about your husband. Do you know who killed him?’

Roger flinched at the sound of his voice. Usually Sir Jules was nervous in front of a crowd, but here, in among the women and children, he sounded like the worst chivalric bully. It little mattered that he felt deeply for Muriel, that he hated being here, that he loathed having to intrude on her grief: he felt it was his duty to demand answers, and so he would ask his questions.

‘You come here to hector me?’ Muriel asked hoarsely. ‘Leave me to my poor angel! He can’t be dead! He may wake yet. Look at him — he looks well enough. Perhaps he’s only sleeping.’ There was a panicked tone to her voice, as though she knew already that all hope was vain, but still she refused to admit defeat.

‘Your husband was not liked. Most men here hated him. Do you know which could have killed him?’ the Coroner pressed on, his left fist clenched about his sword-hilt as though it was the only thing that kept him upright.

‘I know of no one who could have done this to us.’ Muriel began to weep. ‘No one could want to widow me. What have I done to be punished like this? All my life I’ve tried to be good. I’ve struggled to be a worthy daughter, then wife, then mother, and now all is taken from me!’

‘Woman, the Church will protect you,’ Adam said soothingly, patting her shoulder while glowering malevolently towards Sir Jules.

‘Protect me how? If there’s no food, I’ll starve, and so will Aumery. Poor boy!’

Roger saw how Aumery clutched his mother’s tunic, his eyes still fixed upon Sir Jules. There was terror in his face, the terror of incomprehension, of confusion. His mother was in such a lunatic, frenzied state, his father was gone, and his brother dead too. All in a few short hours.

‘Sir Jules,’ Roger whispered. ‘We can do no good here.’

‘Can you think of no one, woman? No one who could have done this to your husband?’ Sir Jules pressed relentlessly.

She sobbed into her forearms. ‘I know no one! No one!’

Aumery didn’t quite understand what was happening. Father was dead, like the hog last year. That had died too. But Aumery wasn’t sure what death was. Father had simply stopped being Father. He lay there like Father, but with his face blood-encrusted, and without the movement that made him Father. No noise, no breath. It was odd, and only scary when he thought about it. Hamelin was the same, all flat and breathless like a little doll.

Somehow Aumery was sure that it was this tall, intimidating man asking questions that so upset Mother. He was nasty; he was scaring Mummy, just like Daddy used to scare Aumery. Remembering that, Aumery felt a little quiver in his tummy. It wasn’t nice to remember that. Daddy had told him never to mention it again. He said not while he lived. But Daddy didn’t live. Rebellious and half-fearful, Aumery steeled himself, and then he glanced at his father’s corpse before muttering his daddy’s words like a spell.

Sir Jules saw the movement as Adam’s head snapped around. ‘What was that?’

‘Nothing. He’s confused. What can you expect when the boy’s treated in this way while his brother and father lie dead before him?’ Adam said scathingly.

‘What did he say? Boy, what was that?’

Aumery swallowed, but the eyes of the Coroner were strangely intense and he couldn’t keep it in any longer.

‘It was the castellan. The castellan. Because Father said, “If he learned that another man knew his wife, he’d kill the man”,’ Aumery said defiantly.

Muriel sobbed into her hands now. Sir Jules looked to her, and waited, and after a little while she looked up at him brokenly. ‘It’s true: Athelina saw them, Lady Anne and Gervase, in the meadow while the castellan was away. My husband believed Nicholas would kill anyone who spoke of it.’

‘Christ Jesus!’ Sir Jules breathed.

Alexander gingerly touched his throat. ‘You could’ve killed me,’ he croaked sulkily.

‘And you could have caused the death of your master’s son,’ Iwan said easily. ‘Better bruises than a hempen rope. It gives terrible skin-burn.’

‘I had nothing to do with your brother’s death,’ Richer said wearily. ‘I was suffering from a migraine when I left here. Yes, I realised that he had said something about my family, but he didn’t actually say he had killed them. He was taunting me.’

‘So you saw little need for revenge,’ Iwan nodded.

‘That’s right.’

Iwan allowed his gaze to drift over the men who still stood about them. No weapons were visible, but the old smith wasn’t sure that they wouldn’t reappear as soon as his back was turned. ‘I was there at the harvest the year Richer’s family died,’ he told them all. ‘The older folks like me were making sure none of the children grew so drunk they’d hurt themselves. I was up there, and I saw Serlo coming to join the rest of us. It was him gave the alarm, told us all there was a fire. When he shouted, I looked back, and there were the flames. God’s holy pain, I could see them. Terrible, red flames through the trees, some appearing above the trees. I saw them, and that means Serlo could have been there; he could have fired the place.’

‘You knew that and didn’t say anything?’ Richer demanded harshly.

‘Easy, boy!’ Iwan said sharply. ‘I saw Serlo had appeared late, I saw him call the alarm and I saw flames. I didn’t see him with a burning brand in his hand, nor did I see him throw a torch through your window. Maybe he simply saw the flames and ran to fetch us to help quench them.’

‘Serlo was no murderer,’ Alexander said, sniffing, his head hanging.

‘So apologise to this lad, for suggesting he was,’ Iwan said curtly.

‘I don’t know he didn’t.’

‘You don’t know he did!’ Iwan stated.

Alexander averted his head like a man who had been slapped. For a while he could say nothing. Then he gave a short nod of acquiescence.

‘That’s good,’ Iwan said. ‘Sue? Bring ale to celebrate this peace! The castle will pay, I reckon.’

Warin saw the shrewd old eye fixing upon him and gave a grunt partly of approval, partly of admiration. ‘I think my father would be happy indeed to pay.’

‘Thank you, master. I’m sure he will,’ Iwan said as he held up his large pot for Sue to refill.

‘So who else could it have been?’ Alexander demanded quietly as men laughed off their tension and washed away their anger in good ale.

Iwan glanced at him over the rim of his cup. ‘I was at home all the night, and saw no one. But I heard one horse passing late last evening.’

Warin flushed. ‘That was me. I had gone to Temple to speak with the priest.’

‘Now why would that be, master?’ Iwan asked softly.

‘I don’t have to answer your questions, old man.’

‘No. But I just saved your lives and probably the manor from ruin.’

Warin chuckled dryly. ‘Father John at Temple owes his position to my father. My father suggested that I should speak with him. That is all.’

‘All? Perhaps,’ Iwan nodded. ‘What did you speak with him about?’

‘Many things. Mostly about the vill and the people here.’ Warin met his gaze steadily. He was not going to discuss his private conversations, not even with a reliable man such as Iwan appeared to be. ‘What else? Was any other man abroad last night?’

‘No one I saw,’ Iwan said.

‘There was one.’ Sue was passing them, refilling their cups from a large jug, and overheard their talking. ‘A man rode past here a little before dark. It was long before Serlo left here, though.’

‘It may have been the murderer, if he was prepared to sit and wait for a while,’ Warin guessed. He glanced at Richer. ‘Did you see anyone leave the castle?’

‘Only you. And later I too thought that I heard a horse,’ Richer said. ‘But I didn’t look to see whose it was.’

‘It was you killed my brother,’ Alexander spat suddenly. ‘You may have convinced these others you’re innocent, but I know the truth!’

‘Oh, for God’s sake!’ Richer said wearily. ‘Of course I didn’t. Why would I?’

‘Maybe you thought he’d killed your woman?’ Alexander curled his lip.

Warin shook his head. ‘I think you need to consider another man, Alexander. My fellow is innocent. I’d stake my arms on it.’

‘Then who …’ Alexander felt his breath stick in his throat as a fresh thought came to him. If Serlo had upset Nicholas because of some harm or insult, real or imagined, it was possible that Nicholas could have killed Serlo, or ordered another man to do so. If Richer was innocent, that didn’t say the master was too.

‘The murderer of Athelina must have known her and her sons well,’ Susan remarked.

‘Why?’ Warin asked.

‘Someone got in there and killed the boys first. Otherwise, one boy or both would have gone in, seen their mother hanging, and raised the alarm. If he killed the boys first, he could take them together, knock them on the head, and no noise. When she arrived, they were hidden.’

‘Perhaps. So what?’ Richer said.

‘They knew him. Why else would they let him inside without fear?’

Alexander slowly lifted his head until his eyes were on Susan, and then he felt the slow thrill of understanding as she spoke.

‘It can only have been someone they knew really well. Their mother’s lover, perhaps. Especially if he was also an important official — someone from the castle.’

Alexander released his breath with the relief of finding the explanation: yes, one man could have killed Serlo to punish him for the death of his son, Danny. The same man could have killed Athelina to stop her demanding money. And Alexander knew who had the greatest reputation for womanising, who was the only man who could have wanted Athelina dead as well as Serlo: Gervase, the man who was seen making love with Lady Anne.

Sir Jules marched from the church with a feeling of failure. He had his duty, and he intended to perform it. Here in this vill was a murderer — a mass murderer, no less — and he would have the man arrested and amerced as soon as he could. Yes, he knew his duty, but he wasn’t sure how he might execute it.

Christ Jesus, but there were a lot of men at the castle! He stopped as the thought came back to him. It was like a small tide washing over him, submerging his best intentions in a miasma of fear. To go against a man who had so many men-at-arms to defend him was madness itself!

‘Sir Jules, are you truly thinking of going up there and accusing Nicholas to his face?’

‘Hmm? Well yes, I suppose so, Roger.’

The clerk squinted at the sun, which was swiftly sinking towards the far hills. ‘Then may I take my leave of you here? I shall return to the church and demand sanctuary from the priest. Or perhaps I should walk to Temple. That might be safer. There is safety in distance, I believe.’

‘What? You must come with me to record my conversation.’

‘You think so? I don’t. No, I think I should avoid contact with you while you are set on the course of self-destruction,’ Roger said with equanimity.

Sir Jules’s jaw dropped. ‘You are my clerk,’ he managed after some moments.

‘That’s no reason for you to expect me to commit suicide with you! Dear God in Heaven! If you go there, and you are right and this man did commit these murders, he will kill you himself in his own defence, so that his accuser is no more. If he were innocent, I would expect him to whip your head off in a trice for being so gullible as to believe him guilty! Or to demand that any one of the six or seven squires he has in the castle do so for him. Many of them would be loyal enough for that little task, I should think. They all seem to respect and like him.’

‘He has been accused. I am the Coroner, and I must-’

‘The accuser was a child, Coroner. A small one, at that. You don’t have to follow up the uncorroborated word of a minor.’

‘He spoke with great conviction. I have a son, I know how they behave. That child made a convincing witness.’

‘Perhaps so, but that won’t keep your head on your shoulders, will it?’

‘It would be the right thing to do.’

‘So would many duties that are routinely left undone,’ the clerk commented imperturbably. ‘That doesn’t change the fact that you’d be running the risk of death if you were to go ahead.’

‘What would you have me do? Forget the allegation? Leave here and declare I could find no guilty party? Or would you prefer me to find another suitable culprit and take money from Nicholas in order to guarantee his continued freedom and supposed innocence?’ Sir Jules demanded witheringly.

‘Good God, Sir Knight, when did you stop thinking? You have a good intelligence, I am sure. Use it! Return to your original intention. Now you have a suspect, make use of your powers as a Coroner. Hold your inquests and demand answers from all whom you make attend. That way we may yet win through to an answer.’

‘And if we don’t?’

‘If we don’t, we fine the whole vill and go on to find our next body. That is our duty,’ Roger said tersely.