Alys Clare - The Enchanter's Forest

‘Wide open, my lady,’ Augustus said.

She could not control her curiosity. ‘What did you feel, Gus?’ she asked. Remembering what Josse had said, she added, ‘Did the bones affect you in any way?’

Augustus pondered the question for several moments. Then he said slowly, ‘I felt I was trespassing, and that’s the honest truth. I felt I was staring at something that I had no right to see and I even felt that something was watching me and telling me to get away from there and leave the dead in peace.’

‘ Did you?’ It might, she thought, have been no more than a lad who lived with monks having picked up their respect for the dead. On the other hand. .

‘Aye. I tell you, my lady, I couldn’t get down out of that tree fast enough. Then me and Saul ran back to the track and to the place where we had left our mounts.’

‘ Then ,’ Saul interrupted, picking up the tale, ‘we rode right up to the fellow in the jerkin, pretending we’d just arrived, and asked him if we could see the tomb. He’d seen Gussie afore, of course, that time he went with you and Sister Caliste, my lady, only we kept our hoods up and he barely gave us a glance, so I don’t reckon there’s much chance he recognised Gus.’

‘That was clever,’ she said admiringly. They had done well! ‘What did he say?’

‘He said Merlin’s Tomb was closed and we should go away. Gus said but we’ve come all the way from the other side of the forest — which was true even if it implied we’d travelled much further than we really had — but the man in the jerkin just snarled a bit and said he couldn’t help that and the tomb was still closed.’

‘Did he not guess by your habits that you came from Hawkenlye?’

‘He didn’t seem to, my lady,’ Augustus said. ‘Truth to tell, he seemed preoccupied and even a bit scared-like and I reckon we could have worn crowns and carried sceptres and he still wouldn’t have noticed.’

Smiling at the exaggeration, she said, ‘What could he have been scared of?’

‘Of being found out, if he had something to do with his master’s death,’ Saul said shrewdly.

‘Hmm.’ She considered that, recalling her own suspicions regarding the guards. Was it really so simple and merely a question of a ruffian guard becoming greedy and attacking and robbing his master? But if so, then the last place the man in the leather jerkin would be now was at the entrance to the tomb site; if he had killed Florian, in addition to the bags of silver coins he would also have a fast horse. He would be several counties away by now if he had any wits at all.

No. Common sense said that it was not he who had killed Florian. He might, however, have some idea who did.

And of course he had not been the only guard at Merlin’s Tomb.

‘Did you ask him any more questions?’ She looked at Saul, eyebrows raised.

‘Gussie did.’ Saul grinned. ‘Said he’d heard that the man who ran Merlin’s Tomb had been robbed and murdered and was it true and did the guard know who was behind it?’

‘Ah, the direct approach,’ Helewise murmured. ‘Brave of you, Gus. What was the answer?’

Augustus smiled ruefully. ‘Told me to mind my own business, only he used an extra word that I won’t repeat, my lady.’

‘He knew it was true all right,’ Saul put in. ‘When he’d finished telling us to bugg- um, that is, to go away, he said we’d find out soon enough whether it was true and in his view it was just as well because he’d never felt happy about the tomb, he’d had more than enough of the place, he didn’t even want to talk about it and he was leaving the district as soon as he’d seen off the last of the visitors.’

‘So Merlin’s Tomb is truly to close,’ she said thoughtfully. Somewhere deep inside her, there was a profound relief. They will return to us, she thought, those people in need, and once again old Brother Firmin will dole out holy water and gentle kindness, and the monks and nuns will all do whatever they are best at to heal hurts of minds, bodies and souls.

She gave herself a shake: relief was all very well but it didn’t solve the problem of who had killed Florian.

‘Did you see any of the other guards?’ she asked. ‘Perhaps the one we spoke to, Gus, when we visited?’

Gus shook his head. ‘No, my lady. Seems the man in the jerkin was left to do the job by himself.’

Was left. . Something that had been nagging at her now came to the front of her mind. ‘Who left him?’ she wondered aloud.

‘My lady?’ Saul looked puzzled.

‘Gussie just said he was left to do the job. Left by whom?’

Saul’s frown deepened. ‘Well, left on his own by the other guards who’d legged it, my lady.’

She smiled. ‘I’m sorry, Brother Saul, I’m not explaining myself clearly. I meant with Florian dead, who is issuing the orders?’

Gus was nodding his understanding. ‘ Someone must have told the guards to secure the place and chain up the two gates, and ordered one of them to stay to turn away visitors,’ he said eagerly. ‘Oh, Saul, why didn’t we think of that? We could have asked him!’

‘Don’t worry about it, Gus,’ Helewise said. ‘Even if you did he’d only have told you to go away again.’

Gus picked up the emphasis and grinned. ‘Aye, that’s likely true. All the same. .’

She got to her feet. ‘No use in regrets, Gus,’ she said briskly. ‘The two of you have done well and I am most grateful to you. Now, off you go. Return to your duties and leave me to torment my brains wondering what to do next.’

They bowed and backed out through the door. As they left, she added, ‘If you do come up with any bright ideas, please don’t hesitate to share them with me.’

And, with murmurs of assent, they were gone.

She sat quite still, staring into space, not seeing any of the familiar objects, few in number, that furnished her simple little room. Her mind was racing as she tried to think what she ought to do next.

She could not control the insistent thought that kept saying, Merlin’s Tomb is to close and Hawkenlye is safe! Soon they will begin to come back!

That is not all there is to this business, she reprimanded herself sternly. Florian of Southfrith has been robbed and murdered. Is his death to be written off with a shrug as the work of some vicious itinerant felon who has long fled the district?

She recalled her unspoken objection to Saul’s suggestion that the guard in the leather jerkin might have been involved in the crime: that, if he had been, he’d have fled the district long since. Surely the same applied to whoever it was who had really done the deed? There was that fast bay horse of Florian’s to keep in mind, after all. Why would the murderer stay when he had the means to escape?

Suddenly she thought, but I am forgetting that Gervase de Gifford will soon be home! As relief flooded her, she wondered if it would be wrong of her to hand the whole sorry matter of the murder in the forest over to him.

I shall not abandon the business entirely, she decided. I shall carry out the action upon which I had already decided; in a day or so, I shall send for one of my nursing nuns and go to visit that poor young woman, Primevere. She will be calmer by then and more prepared to speak to someone other than her mother.

Having thus made up her mind on what she should do next, with considerable relief she went back to her work.

Two days later she had returned to her room after Nones and was wondering if now would be a good time to fetch either Sister Euphemia or Sister Caliste and ride over to Hadfeld when there was an abrupt knock on her door. It opened in response to her ‘Come in!’ and Josse stood before her.