The Wildcats of Exeter

Chapter Thirteen

Gervase Bret had a long wait before Engelric returned, but he did not mind. It gave him time to reflect on all the information he had gathered that morning and to decide what to do next. He was left alone in the parlour of the house where the old Saxon was staying with his friend. Small, bare and dark, it presented a stark contrast to the luxury of the manor house he had visited earlier.

The contrast would not have been lost on Engelric himself.

When the old man came back, he was surprised to find Gervase there.

‘Why have you come?’ he asked.

‘I need to ask you some questions.’

‘I told you all that I could at the shire hall.’

‘Yes,’ said Gervase respectfully, ‘but we only discussed the ownership of the holdings at Upton Pyne. I wish to touch on the wider issues.’

‘Of what?’

‘Murder and conspiracy.’

Engelric did not blench. ‘You lay these charges at my door?’

‘No. I merely want you to understand the seriousness of my enquiries. At the shire hall, you spoke under oath. I would like equal honesty here.’

‘You will have it, Master Bret,’ said the other, eyes glistening.

They sat opposite each other in the gloomy parlour. The house was very similar to the one in which Gervase had been born and brought up. He felt at home, but Engelric’s pride was clearly hurt at being found in such a mean dwelling. He had a faint air of embarrassment. Gervase took note of it, then plunged straight in.

‘What sort of relationship did you have with the lord Nicholas?’

‘A frosty one.’

‘Did you exchange hot words with him?’

‘From time to time.’

‘What about your sons?’

‘They found him as cruel and selfish as I did.’

‘Cruel and selfish enough to drive them to thoughts of killing him?’

‘Yes,’ said Engelric readily. ‘We wished him dead many a time, but that does not mean we lifted a hand to kill him. Normans can be vicious masters, as you must know. Cross them and your family will suffer for generations.’

‘How well were you acquainted with the lady Catherine?’

‘Not well at all. I only saw her once when I called at the house.’

‘Did you feel bitter to see your former home occupied?’

‘Bitter but resigned, Master Bret. It is the only way.’

‘Do your sons share that view?’

‘My sons are no more involved in this murder than I,’ said the old man with spirit. ‘And what is this conspiracy you allege?’

‘Conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.’

‘With regard to the dispute?’

‘Yes, Engelric. Someone sent me letters in order to discredit one of the claimants, trying to secure unfair advantage over that person. And there have been other indications of conspiracy.’

‘None point to me,’ returned the other firmly. ‘Justice is the one thing I seek. That is what my claim stands or falls upon. To pervert the course of justice would be folly on my part.’

‘I accept that.’

‘Then accept this as well, Master Bret. We may be poor, and resentful at what happened to us, but we are not criminals. We abide by the law of the land even when it goes against us.’ He straightened himself on his stool. ‘Though we shed no tears over the lord Nicholas’s death, we want his killer to be caught and punished.’

‘So do we all,’ said Gervase, ‘but let us not forget that there is a second murder here. That is the one which weighs most heavily on my mind.’

‘Quite rightly. The lord Hervey was your colleague. I did not know him but he questioned me fairly at the shire hall and I took him for an upright man.’

‘That is a good assessment of him.’

‘I work on instinct, Master Bret.’

‘It is very sound.’ Gervase changed his tack. ‘Tell me about Saewin. How well do you know him?’

‘Fairly well. I have lived in these parts a long time.’

‘Would you call him a personal friend?’

‘I would.’

‘Have you had many dealings with him in the past?’

‘Yes, I have.’

‘And would you describe him as an honourable man?’

‘Extremely honourable,’ said the other defensively. ‘Saewin is very single-minded. He works hard and is always ready to offer free advice to his friends.’

‘Did he offer you advice concerning this dispute?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘He has high principles, Master Bret. I suspect that you do as well, so you will understand. Saewin showed me no favour at the shire hall, but he has advised me on another matter.’

‘Oh?’

‘I have been thinking of moving to the city.’

‘Why?’

‘My bones are too old to withstand another cold winter in the depths of the country. A dwelling in Exeter would be far more suitable, something akin to this house. Small, humble but snug.’

His smile sent new waves of wrinkles over his face. ‘Saewin promised to let me know when a property fell vacant. He has been very helpful.’

‘Have you ever been to his own house?’

‘Many times.’

‘He has a dog, I believe.’

‘It is more like a human than an animal, Master Bret. The reeve has taught that dog things which a child could not learn.

Saewin has a way with dogs. I prefer pigs and cattle myself.’

‘Why?’

‘You can eat them.’

Gervase waited until his cackle died away. ‘When you went before the first commissioners who visited the county, how were you received?’

‘Justly but unsuccessfully.’

‘You and the lord Nicholas were pitted against each other.’

‘He called many witnesses in his support. I had none.’

‘Yet you must have impressed our predecessors,’ said Gervase,

‘or they would not have asked us to take a second look at the holdings in Upton Pyne. This time, of course, we have five claimants instead of two. I wonder why some of them did not come forward earlier.’

‘Did you tax them with that question?’

‘Yes, Engelric. According to the abbot of Tavistock, he was cunningly misinformed about the date of the session here and arrived to find that the commissioners had moved on to Totnes.’

The old man cackled again. ‘Do not expect me to feel sorry for the abbot. It was he who seized my land in the first place by means of a fraudulent exchange. Who else failed to come forward?’

‘The lady Loretta.’

‘What was her excuse?’

‘That she was away in Normandy when the returns for this county were being taken.’

‘Who told you that?’

‘The lady Loretta herself.’

‘Then either she is deceiving you or she has a very poor memory.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘When the first commissioners visited this county, she was at her home in Exeter. I remember seeing her when she attended a service at the cathedral. The lady Loretta is a handsome woman,’

he said with grudging admiration. ‘Even I am not too old to notice that.’

‘But she swore under oath that she was in Normandy.’

Engelric was unequivocal. ‘Then she lied to you.’

Geoffrey, abbot of Tavistock was not deterred by the presence of the sheriff. His voice was loud, his tone acerbic. He was alone in the hall at the castle with Baldwin and Ralph Delchard, but so large were his gestures and so passionate his rhetoric that he might have been addressing a vast asssembly.

‘This is one of the most shameful acts that I have ever had the misfortune to encounter,’ he said with rising fury. ‘I have never had such disrespect shown to me before. You, my lord Ralph, went off behind my back to speak to one of my knights in Tavistock.

And you, my lord sheriff, much to my dismay and, I may say, astonishment, condoned this rash conduct. Walter Baderon is my man. My permission should have been sought before he was dragged from his bed to answer any questions.’

‘Would you have given your permission?’ said Ralph.

‘No!’

‘That is why I did not bother to seek it.’

‘You had no right to ride off to Tavistock like that.’

‘I had every right, my lord abbot,’ said Ralph unrepentantly. ‘I am searching for the man who murdered the lord Hervey and I will go wherever I wish in pursuit of the villain.’

‘I support the lord Ralph to the hilt,’ said the sheriff.

‘Then you are not the man I took you for, Baldwin,’ retorted the abbot. ‘I provide fifteen knights for the defence of Exeter. They perform their duties well. They do not deserve to be treated like suspects in a murder investigation. I demand an apology from both of you.’

‘You will not get one from me,’ vowed Ralph.

‘No apology is needed, Geoffrey,’ said the sheriff, trying to calm him down. ‘We took what action we felt was needed at the time.’

‘Walter Baderon is an innocent man!’ insisted the abbot.

‘Innocent but dishonest,’ said Ralph. ‘He had valuable information to give and it took me time to wrest it from him. Had you left the fellow here in Exeter, I would not have been put to the trouble of galloping all the way to Tavistock. You are to blame here, my lord abbot.’

Geoffrey simmered. ‘I have sole authority over my men.’

‘Until they commit a crime.’

‘Walter Baderon did not do that, my lord Ralph.’

‘He withheld vital evidence and that is a crime in itself.’

‘There is no point in bickering about it,’ said the sheriff wearily.

‘I suggest that we put the matter aside.’

‘I will not do that,’ yelled the abbot. ‘If I do not have an abject apology from both of you, I will take my complaint to Bishop Osbern.’

Ralph was scornful. ‘Take it to the Archangel Gabriel for all I care!’

‘That is blasphemy!’

‘It is the closest you will get to an apology.’

‘Report this to Osbern, if you wish,’ said Baldwin levelly, ‘but I think you will find him more worldly than you. When murder takes place, I am entitled to take any steps I deem fit even if that means upsetting an abbot. Be grateful that my lord Ralph did not haul you out of bed in the middle of the night to face his interrogation.’

‘That is a monstrous suggestion!’

‘We bid you farewell, Geoffrey.’

‘I’ll not be dismissed before I am ready to go!’

‘Depart now while I still have a hold on my temper,’ cautioned the sheriff, ‘or I will summon my men to assist you out of my castle.’

‘You would lay violent hands upon an abbot!’

Ralph beamed at him. ‘Given the opportunity.’

The prelate rid himself of another torrent of denunciation, then he stalked out of the hall with his arms waving like the sails of a windmill. They could hear his imprecations as he was crossing the courtyard.

Ralph chuckled. ‘The abbot is a more comical jester than Berold.’

‘I would sooner my own fool than that one.’

‘I will happily dispense with both. Berold and I fell out when I learned that he might have saved my wife from being injured in an accident.’

‘How so?’

‘He took her to view the siege tunnel by the East Gate but omitted to warn her about all the strange things which had happened there in the past. He should have kept her away.’

‘I agree. The lady Golde’s injury could have been far worse.’

‘Indeed it could, my lord sheriff. But he is an odd fellow.’

‘Berold?’

‘He seems to flit between misery and elation.’

‘He is a creature of moods.’

‘I caught him in a bad one today,’ recalled Ralph. ‘It was almost as if he would do anything rather than help me. It was perverse.’

‘Yet you did see what you wanted.’

‘Saw and smelled. A vile place.’

‘It is like an open sewer at times.’

‘Yet that is where the lord Hervey was heading. I am certain of it. Walter Baderon admitted that he watched him go, turning out of the North Gate and walking along in the lee of the wall towards the East Gate. He must have been going to inspect that siege tunnel,’ insisted Ralph. ‘He talked of it on our ride to Exeter.’

‘Someone must have intercepted him on the way.’

‘Or when he left the tunnel. If he left, that is.’

‘How did he finish up so far down the river?’ wondered the sheriff. ‘You would have expected him to leave a trail of blood but my men searched every inch of the bank and found none.’

‘Perhaps the body was wrapped in something.’

‘The man who did the wrapping would have been smeared in gore.’

‘He will be when I catch up with him.’

‘Or them,’ said the other. ‘Confederates may be at work here.

On the other hand, maybe the rumours about that siege tunnel are well founded. Maybe it is haunted. Perhaps the lord Hervey was the victim of a Saxon ghost.’

‘This ghost is made of flesh and blood,’ decided Ralph. ‘He does not only lurk around the siege tunnel, remember. He was waiting in that wood to ambush the lord Nicholas. No, he is here somewhere, my lord sheriff. We just have to look a little harder before we find him.’

Asa had never seen the reeve in such a state. There was no sign of his characteristic ease and calmness. Saewin was pale and drawn. When he was shown into her parlour, Asa saw that his hands were trembling. ‘What is wrong?’ she asked with concern.

‘I had to see you at once, Asa.’

‘Why?’

‘To urge you to withdraw your claim.’

‘Withdraw it?’ she echoed.

‘It is no longer valid.’

‘It is as valid as it was when I first advanced it, Saewin. Those holdings are mine. I earned them and I’ll not be cheated out of them. Nothing on earth will persuade me to drop my claim.’

‘You must,’ he pleaded.

‘For what possible reason?’

‘There are several, Asa. To begin with, you have little chance of success. A letter from the lord Nicholas can hardly compete with his last will and testament. You are nowhere mentioned in that.’

‘He promised that I would be.’

‘He promised many things to many women.’

‘No,’ she said, leaping up from her seat. ‘I was the only one, Saewin. I loved him truly. That was why he was so eager to show me the strength of his own love. By bequeathing those holdings to me.’

‘Renounce your claim, Asa!’

‘Never!’

‘You will have compensation,’ he said wildly. ‘I will pay you.’

‘Why should you do that?’

‘Because I am involved here.’

‘How?’

‘If you appear at the shire hall again, I stand to lose my office.’

He gave a hopeless shrug. ‘I was seen, Asa. When I came here last night, I was seen coming and going. Even the light in your bedchamber was noted.’

‘What does that prove?’

‘Enough to see me disgraced.’

‘Deny it,’ she said boldly. ‘Deny that you ever came here and I will swear that you speak the truth. Goda will support our story.’

‘It is too late for that, I fear. The truth is out. I have been given an ultimatum. Persuade you to withdraw or lose my place when this is reported to the commissioners. They are bound to think the worst.’ He ran a worried hand across his throat. ‘Master Bret asked me if I had been to your house and I told him I had not. He will know me as a liar. That in itself will be enough for him to push for my removal.’

Asa paced up and down the parlour as she tried to take in the enormity of what had happened. Still confident that she had a chance of influencing the commissioners to take a favourable view of her claim, she was mortified at the thought that it should now be withdrawn unconditionally. All her hopes would founder.

She turned on Saewin with a savagery that made him back away a few paces. ‘Why are you doing this to me?’ she demanded.

‘It is not my fault, Asa.’

‘Is this the reward I get for granting you my favours? I endured it in order to get your help yet you now tell me that I must abandon all interest in the dispute. Is this some cruel game, Saewin?’

‘No!’

‘Did you take me in order to cast me contemptuously aside?’

‘You know that is not true!’ he said with quivering sincerity. ‘I have waited so long for you, Asa. I have put up with all your rebuffs and all your excuses. You are the one who played games.

Did you not send Goda to tell me how grateful you were to me?

And what happened when I called here to receive gratitude in person? I was spurned, Asa. I was sent away with my tail between my legs.’

‘I wish I had spurned you again last night.’

‘But you did not and we will both suffer as a result.’

‘Who saw you?’ she asked.

‘It does not matter.’

‘Of course it matters. If someone is trying to rob me of my inheritance, I want to know who they are. Tell me, Saewin! I insist.’

‘I have sworn to keep the name secret.’

‘Who was it?’

‘I cannot say.’

‘Why have they put such fear into you?’

‘Because I am in danger of losing my place and my reputation,’

he said with desperation. ‘You are the only person who can save me, Asa. Do you not see that? I am begging you!’

‘Then you are wasting your breath.’

‘Abandon your claim and I am safe.’

‘What do I care about your safety?’

‘You will suffer also,’ he warned. ‘I will be displaced but blame will also attach to you. It will blight what little hope of success you have.’

Asa struck a pose. ‘I will take that chance.’

‘This will ruin me!’

‘You should have thought of that before you came here last night.’

‘I had to see you, Asa. You know that.’

‘Goda will show you out.’

‘Please. Reconsider for a moment. We both stand to lose here.’

‘No, Saewin,’ she said with studied coldness. ‘You are the only person at risk. People know what I am. I do not hide it. Men are seen to visit my house from time to time. There will be neither surprise nor condemnation when the commissioners learn that I entertained someone last night. You are finished, Saewin.

Resign your office and avoid the scandal.’ She gave a laugh of triumph. ‘I do not need you. I will fight this battle on my own and be victorious.’

Gervase Bret returned to the castle and searched for Ralph Delchard. Unable to find him, he went up to the apartment at the top of the keep, but Golde was there alone and had no idea where her husband might be. Gervase was about to leave when she reached out on impulse. ‘Wait a while,’ she said, hand on his wrist. ‘I would value your advice.’

‘On what subject?’

‘Marriage.’

Gervase smiled. ‘You know far more about that than I, Golde.’

‘I know about it from the woman’s point of view, it is true. But I can only guess how a man sees it.’ She indicated the chair. ‘Sit down. I would like to describe a situation to you to see your reaction.’

‘But I am not even married.’

‘You soon will be.’

‘Not if our work here moves at such a lethargic pace.’

‘You will be back in Winchester in time to marry Alys. I am sure of it. Besides, you have been betrothed to her for so long.

What is betrothal but a form of marriage with certain restrictions?’

‘I know all about those restrictions!’ he said, sitting down. ‘I look forward to the day when they can be cast away.’

‘It is at hand, Gervase.’

‘What is this situation you mentioned?’

‘Let us suppose — for the sake of argument — that Alys had another admirer before she had the good fortune to meet you.’

‘She had many admirers.’

‘I am talking about a special person in her life. Someone she loved.’

‘Oh.’

‘Not in the physical sense,’ explained Golde delicately. ‘This would be a man who worshipped her from afar and accepted that she was for ever unattainable.’

‘It would still be a profound betrayal,’ he said seriously. ‘A love that is confined to the heart can still threaten and wound. I know that Alys would never harbour such feelings.’

‘I only ask you to pretend that she might, Gervase.’

‘Very well.’

‘Now,’ she continued, moving to the window. ‘Supposing that you and she then get married in Winchester.’

‘If only we could!’ he sighed.

‘You live happily together without anything to cause the slightest ripple in the pond of domestic life. Until one day. When you become aware of a letter she once wrote to her admirer, couched in the warmest of terms and suggesting a closer relationship than in fact existed. How do you think you would feel?’

‘Shocked and hurt.’

‘Even though that friendship took place long ago?’

‘Even then, Golde. Alys should have told me about it.’

‘She was too shy and fearful to do so.’

‘Then she did not enter honestly into the marriage.’

‘All people have some kind of secret,’ she argued.

‘Not of this order,’ he countered. ‘Marriage vows are the most solemn that we take. They must be honoured. A woman cannot do that properly if she comes to the altar concealing a dubious past.’

‘There is nothing dubious here. She loved the man.’

‘Then she should have confessed it.’

Golde gave an affectionate smile. ‘You expect a perfection that few of us can manage, Gervase. Let us forget Alys, for I see that you take this too personally. Imagine two other people in the situation I have outlined.’

‘Well?’

‘The embarrassing letter comes out of her past, given to her by an anonymous hand. It is clearly a warning that her husband will be told the truth of her former love if she does not pay dearly to keep the intelligence from him.’

‘Is that what has happened?’ said Gervase worriedly. ‘Someone is trying to blackmail you, Golde?’

‘Not me. A friend.’

‘Here in Exeter?’

‘Perhaps.’

‘I need to know. This may be important.’

‘It is highly important to the lady in question. I have told her that she must tell her husband the whole truth or she will for ever be at the mercy of the blackmailer.’

‘What was her reply?’

‘That it would be suicidal to confide in her husband. If he learns the truth, she fears, he will fly into a rage.’

‘When was the letter given to her, Golde?’

‘Does it matter?’

‘Very much. Was it in the last couple of days?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then she is the second victim.’

‘Second?’

‘Compromising letters of a slightly different kind were handed to me at the shire hall.’

‘By whom?’

‘I have no idea.’

‘What sort of letters were they?’

‘The kind that are extremely damaging to one of the claimants involved in a dispute. That is why they were sent. Though this is not a case of blackmail, I believe that the person who passed on those letters to me was also in possession of the one given to your friend. I would go even further,’ said Gervase, thinking it through. ‘I would hazard a guess where those letters were found.’

‘Where?’

‘In a box stolen from the house of the lord Nicholas.’

Golde started. ‘But how could anyone know they would be there?’

‘They did not. The box was taken because it contained something else. When the thief discovered it also contained those letters, he saw a means to exploit them.’ He looked up at her. ‘Was your friend in any way involved with the lord Nicholas?’

‘I fear that she was.’

‘Then she is the second victim of the thief. There may be more,’

he said with a roll of his eyes. ‘The lord Nicholas seems to have had many such romances and to have kept fond mementoes of his conquests.’

‘So what should my friend do?’ asked Golde. ‘Tell her husband?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Then what?’

‘Hope that I can find the man behind the blackmail before he can do even worse damage. What you have told me has been an immense help,’ he said, getting up and moving to the door. ‘And the truthful answer to your question is this. If someone was trying to blackmail Alys, I would forgive her any past indiscretion in order to free her from his power.’ He opened the door. ‘Tell that to your friend, Golde.’

‘I will,’ she said. ‘Unfortunately, she is not married to a Gervase Bret.’

It was a fruitless search and it took them well into the evening.

Under the supervision of Ralph Delchard and the sheriff, the men spread out in a line and walked slowly from the city to the spot where the body of Hervey de Marigny was found, poking about in the grass and among the bushes for any clue left behind by the killer. There were none. When Baldwin called off the search, he was annoyed and depressed. He and Ralph rode disconsolately back towards the city.

‘You were wrong, Ralph,’ he concluded.

‘I do not think so.’

‘It may well be that the lord Hervey was murdered in the river itself and left at the spot where he died. That would explain why there are no traces of his having been taken to the river from the city.’

‘There is another explanation, my lord sheriff.’

‘What?’

‘The killer was thorough. He knew how to cover his tracks.

How many clues did he leave behind when he ambushed the lord Nicholas?’

‘None.’

‘It is so here.’

‘Is it?’ said Baldwin. ‘I begin to believe that the villain is no longer anywhere near Exeter. He was only here to commit the murders before fleeing the city altogether.’

‘No,’ said Ralph. ‘There is no chance of that.’

‘How can you be so sure?’

‘Because of the way the two crimes were committed. They had to be the work of a man who knows the area extremely well. He lay in ambush at the perfect spot in that wood. He hid the lord Hervey’s body in a place which took us an age to discover. No, my lord sheriff. We are looking for a local man. And he is still here,’

said Ralph, wrinkling his nose in disgust. ‘I can smell him!’

By the time they reached the castle, Ralph was drooping with fatigue as the cumulative effect of endless hours without sleep began to tell on him. He was not cheered by the sight of Canon Hubert talking to Gervase Bret close by the castle gate. Ralph dismounted and walked slowly across to them.

‘Before you ask me, Hubert,’ he said, lifting a hand, ‘there has been no progress, I fear. We have found nothing. The cathedral will have to shake in its sandals for another night.’

‘It is no jest, my lord,’ said Hubert.

‘I do not see it as such, believe me!’

‘You need some rest, Ralph,’ observed Gervase.

‘Stop sounding like my wife.’

‘There is nothing more you can do this evening.’

‘Oh, yes, there is, Gervase. When I have seen Golde and poured a jug of water over my head to wake me up again, I will take another look at that siege tunnel. It worries me. Berold escorted me there earlier but it was bright daylight. I wonder if it takes on a different character by night.’

Hubert was puzzled. ‘What has a siege tunnel to do with the murder of the lord Hervey?’ he said. ‘It is outside the city.’

‘So was he when he was killed. Will you come with me, Gervase?’

‘No,’ said the other, ‘I have a call to make on my own account.’

‘To whom?’

‘The lady Loretta. She perjured herself before us.’

‘Can this be so?’ said Hubert. ‘An honourable woman like that?’

‘According to Engelric.’

‘Is he the source of this slander?’

‘I do not think that it is slander, Canon Hubert.’

‘Well I do, Gervase. If it is a case of Engelric’s word against that of the lady Loretta, I know whose I would believe. She is highly respected in the city and in the cathedral. Her generosity to the foundation is well known.’ He gave a flabby smile. ‘She even sends along her servant to cure a problem that returns to worry them.’

‘What sort of problem?’ asked Ralph.

‘Bats, my lord. Bats in the belfry.’

‘How does the servant help?’

‘He can charm them into a sack, it seems,’ said Hubert, ‘then he takes them to the wood to release them. He must be a rare fellow to have such a skill with bats. The wonder of it is that he is dumb. Dean Jerome tells me that he has a gift from God.

Eldred is able to commune somehow with almost any animal.’

‘Eldred?’ repeated Ralph.

‘The servant who brought the lady Loretta to the shire hall.’

‘I remember the man well.’

Yes,’ said Gervase, mind racing. ‘So do I.’

Loretta was seated at the table, studying the charter in the bright candlelight and envisaging the time when the property would once more be in her possession. Certain of her success, she allowed herself a smile of self-congratulation. Then she put the charter aside and picked up one of the letters that lay beside it. She was reading it again and mocking its sentiments afresh when she heard the distant knock at the front door. The maidservant answered it, asked the caller to wait, then tapped on the door of the parlour before entering.

‘A gentleman has called to see you, my lady,’ said the girl.

‘What is his name?’

‘Master Gervase Bret.’

‘Show him in at once,’ she said with pleasant surprise.

‘He has two companions with him, my lady.’

‘Canon Hubert and Ralph Delchard?’

‘No, my lady. Men-at-arms.’

Loretta’s face hardened but she did not rescind the order.

Gervase was soon stepping into the parlour while the two soldiers waited behind in the hall. She gave him a polite smile.

‘This is an unexpected visit, Master Bret.’

‘We did not only come to see you, my lady,’ he explained. ‘We wish to see your servant as well. Eldred.’

‘He is not here.’

‘Where is he?’

‘I am not sure,’ she said evasively.

‘Will he return tonight?’

‘At some point.’

‘Then the lord Hervey’s knights will wait for him.’

‘I do not want two men-at-arms lurking in my hall,’ she said with disdain. ‘Send them away at once.’

‘If you wish, my lady,’ he agreed. ‘But I will ask them to dispatch six of the sheriff’s men in their stead. Eldred will be taken one way or another.’

‘Taken?’

‘For questioning.’

‘On what grounds do you arrest him?’

‘That is what I have come here to establish.’

Gervase’s eye fell on the table and he saw the letters. Loretta moved the charter on top of them to hide them from view but she was too slow. He had seen enough to spark his interest. He strolled calmly across the room to confront her. ‘I called at Saewin’s house on the way here, my lady.’

‘Indeed?’

‘He was telling me more about this gift of Eldred’s. The way he seems to have of talking to animals even though he is himself mute. When the reeve’s dog was sick, it was Eldred who medicined him. He cured the creature. Saewin says that it was he who recommended Eldred to you.’

‘That is true.’

‘When nobody else would employ him, you took him in.’

‘He is a loyal servant.’

‘That is how Saewin described him as well, my lady. He said that Eldred was so grateful to you that he would do anything you asked.’ Gervase moved in closer. ‘Without hesitation.’

‘I expect obedience from a servant.’

‘You demanded more than that from Eldred. I recall how he sat beside you at the shire hall, aware of what you wanted even before you voiced a request. You and he seemed to have a kind of understanding, a form of speech that did not rely on words.’

‘What are you trying to say, Master Bret?’

‘I believe that your servant may have been responsible for two foul murders, both involving the use of an animal. A fox, perhaps.

Or some kind of dog. Or a wildcat. A man who can charm bats out of the cathedral belfry can tame any creature.’ He watched her face but it betrayed no emotion. ‘I also suspect that he stole a box from the manor house of Nicholas Picard, using his skill with animals to placate the four dogs who were on guard there in the night.’

Loretta gave a laugh of disbelief. ‘What possible reason could a peace-loving man like Eldred have to kill someone? And why should he want to break into someone’s house?’

‘To retrieve something for you, my lady.’

‘Me?’

‘Yes,’ said Gervase, sweeping the charter aside and snatching up the letters with his other hand. ‘Who wrote these? Asa? Or some other woman you are going to persecute?’

Loretta got up and tried to grab them, but he was far too quick for her. Stepping back smartly, he held the letters behind him so that they were well out of her reach. Loretta extended an imperious palm.

‘Those are mine. Please return them.’

‘They are stolen property, my lady,’ he said with a nod at her chair. ‘Sit down again. We have much to discuss.’

‘You have no right to be in my house!’ she snapped.

‘Send for the sheriff and have me evicted. Not that I would advise it, my lady. He is much more likely to invite you to the castle to continue this conversation there. Now — are you going to sit down?’

Seething with controlled anger, she slowly resumed her seat.

‘You have plenty of strange ideas, Master Bret,’ she said, regaining her poise. ‘Strange ideas and wild accusations. Yet no proof whatsoever.’

He held up the letters. ‘Except these.’

‘What do they prove?’

‘That you ordered Eldred to steal the box which contained them.

It also contained some letters from Asa to lord Nicholas. They were sent anonymously to me so that her claim was imperilled.’

‘Her claim!’ sneered Loretta. ‘It was totally worthless. Did she tell you that the lord Nicholas had been nowhere near her for over a year? Asa was discarded. He would hardly bequeath those holdings to a woman he could no longer bear to see.’

‘You seem to know a lot about the lord Nicholas,’ he said quietly.

‘I heard all the gossip.’

‘You do not strike me as a person who listens to gossip.’

‘What do I strike you as, Master Bret?’ she taunted.

‘A woman who would stop at nothing to secure her ends.’

‘All I wanted was my legitimate right.’

‘Achieved by illegitimate means.’

‘Or so you imagine.’

‘You committed perjury before us,’ said Gervase. ‘That was what first made me wonder if the lady Loretta was all that she appeared to be. You told us that you were in Normandy when the first commissioners came, and that was why you made no appeal before them. Yet Engelric saw you at a service in the cathedral during the time they were here. So did Dean Jerome and Saewin. I took the trouble to confirm Engelric’s comments with them.’

‘You have been diligent!’ she mocked.

‘Not quite as diligent as you and Eldred. But let me see if I can suggest the real reason why you were silent when our predecessors were here. You advanced no claim then because the lord Nicholas was alive. There was some bond between you which forced you to hold back.’

‘Oh, yes!’ she murmured. ‘There was a bond!’

‘What exactly happened, my lady?’

‘You tell me, Master Bret. You have such a colourful imagination that I could listen to your tales for hours. What other hideous crimes are you going to lay upon me? What other weird motives did I have?’

‘There is nothing weird about the desire for revenge. Nicholas Picard cheated your son out of the holdings at Upton Pyne — or so you allege. It is no wonder that you wanted them back so much.’

‘They were mine — they are mine!’

‘Not any more, my lady.’

‘I have a prior claim.’

‘Murder cancelled it.’

Loretta stared at him with undisguised loathing, then her eye fell on the charter in front of her. It no longer lifted her spirits.

She brushed it aside and rose to her feet.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I had a bond with Nicholas Picard. The strongest bond a woman can have. When I could not get my property back from him by legal means, I chose another way. I seduced him.’

She smiled at the shocked expression on Gervase’s face. ‘It was not difficult. He had a weakness for a pretty face and I flatter myself that mine can still turn a man’s head. Besides, he had been sniffing around me for years and his attentions became more obvious after my husband died. He was such a vain man, Master Bret. He thought he would be doing me a favour. It never crossed his mind that I was only letting him enjoy my favours in order to get my property back.’

‘But you never managed that.’

‘I came close,’ she said. ‘Very close. He promised to restore those holdings to me a number of times but always drew back at the last moment. Then he made his mistake.’

‘He told you that you would never secure that property.’

‘In effect. He lost interest in me. He came to break off our romance, though he lacked the courage to do that properly. I have my pride. I am no Asa to be cast off like a dirty garment. The lord Nicholas betrayed me. He had to pay for that, Master Bret.’

‘So you gave instructions to Eldred?’

‘He will let nobody harm me.’

‘Did you order him to steal that box?’

‘I had to,’ she said simply. ‘It contained letters which the lord Nicholas made me write to him. I had to flatter his vanity. He told me that they were safely locked away in a box in his bedchamber and that he carried the only key on his person. It was important for me to retrieve my letters before someone broke open the box and found them. You and your colleagues might not have looked so favourably upon my claim had you known of a romance between the lord Nicholas and myself, especially as my letters contained more than one reference to the holdings in Upton Pyne.’

‘Had Eldred been to the manor house before?’

‘No, but I had. I described it to him in detail.’

‘Then he charmed his way past the guard dogs and took the box.’

‘It was more than a box, Master Bret,’ she said with a high laugh. ‘It was a treasure trove. There were letters in there from over a dozen women. The lord Nicholas had an obsession about keeping trophies. Some of the letters were from Asa. I got Eldred to translate them. He may not be able to speak but he can read and write. When I realised what I was holding, I used them to the best advantage by sending them to you. Asa’s claim was fatally weakened.’

‘So is yours now, my lady,’ he reminded her.

Loretta gazed at him with a mixture of hate and resignation, then she turned away and moved across to a large wooden chest which stood against the wall. There was an air of defeat about her now. Gervase moved up behind her. Loretta’s shoulders sagged.

‘The rest of the letters are in here, Master Bret,’ she whispered.

‘I will show you what was in that box.’

Lifting the lid of the chest, she slipped a hand into it and felt around for something. When it came out again, however, it held no letters. Loretta had a dagger in her grasp and she swung round to strike wildly at Gervase. He leaped back with a cry but the point of the dagger ripped its way through his sleeve and drew blood. Gervase hurled the letters into her face then grappled with her, twisting her wrist until she dropped the dagger. Alerted by his yell, the two men-at-arms came in from the hall to lend their aid. Loretta was quickly overpowered.

Gervase was panting but relieved as he stood before her. ‘These men are from the lord Hervey’s retinue,’ he said. ‘They would like to know why he was killed as well.’

‘It was none of my doing,’ she protested. ‘He stumbled on Eldred by complete chance and learned more than was good for him. I was sorry to hear of his death. Had he lived, I might now be the rightful owner of the property that was taken away from me. It was within my reach.’

‘Not any more, my lady. Take her to the castle. The sheriff will wish to hear more about that chance meeting.’

The men escorted her out and Gervase became aware of the blood which was seeping through his sleeve. The wound was not deep. He tore a strip of cloth from his apparel to bind it up.

Ignoring the pain, he picked up the letters and began to read the first of them. As soon as he realised that it was from the lady Albreda, he remembered his earlier conversation with Golde. He was holding the correspondence with which Loretta intended to blackmail the sheriff’s wife. Gervase intruded no more into her past. Holding the letters over the candle one by one, he let them burn until they floated harmlessly to the stone floor.

Albreda was safe. He would ask Golde to tell her that.

When Ralph Delchard and his men reached the North Gate, darkness was falling. Two of the four knights who accompanied him were carrying torches. The guards on sentry duty were surprised that they wanted to leave the city on foot at that hour.

Ralph brushed aside their enquiries and led his men out through the gate, determination keeping fatigue at bay. They walked in the direction taken by Hervey de Marigny after his talk with the captain of the guard. It was almost pitch dark in the shadow of the city wall and they needed their torches to guide their footsteps as they scrunched through the grass.

Eventually, they came to the siege tunnel on the eastern side.

It looked quite eerie now, a gaping wound in the earth. When Ralph peered into it, he expected to see a forbidding gloom but instead noticed a faint glow. He remembered Berold’s mention of someone who claimed that flames had come from the hole. Taking a torch from one of his men, he bent double and went into the tunnel. In the confined space, the flaming torch gave off an acrid smell but it did not completely hide the stench which came from the end of the tunnel. Ralph moved on to the point where the boulder had stopped him earlier and was amazed to see that it had been rolled back and eased into a large cavity in the side of the tunnel. He was able to work his way forward for twenty yards or more.

A slight bend was ahead of him and instinct warned him of the danger that lay around it. He drew his sword in readiness and moved on. The stench grew stronger and hissing noises filled his ears. When he came round the bend, he saw that the tunnel widened into a cave and his torch illumined a number of wooden cages around their walls. Animals of all kinds crouched and growled in their lairs but it was the wildcat which caught his attention. When it saw Ralph, it let out a screech of anger. Its cage was suddenly opened by a man’s hand and it came hurtling out to attack him.

But Ralph was no careless rider, returning home alone through a wood. Nor was he a curious soldier, wishing to take a nostalgic peep at a siege tunnel. The element of surprise which had rendered both Nicholas Picard and Hervey de Marigny vulnerable to their killer did not exist here. As the wildcat leaped for his face, Ralph knocked it away with the torch, then put it out of its wailing misery with one jab from his sword. The death of his beloved pet enraged Eldred. He came out from the corner where he was lurking and flung himself at Ralph, knocking him to the ground and sending both sword and torch rolling from his hands.

Eldred pounded away at his face with both fists but Ralph reacted swiftly. Summoning up the last reserves of his strength, he pushed his attacker off him and rolled on top. Amid the pandemonium of the watching animals, they fought with great ferocity, punching, kicking, gouging and drawing blood. Eldred snatched a dagger from its scabbard and went for his adversary’s throat. Ralph was ready for him, seizing the man’s wrist and applying such irresistible power that the weapon was turned back upon its owner until it pierced his head between the staring eyes. Only when it had been sunk to the hilt did Eldred stop struggling.

The animals accorded their master a deafening requiem.