Alys Clare: Ashes of the Elements

‘No, no more arrests. Sheriff Pelham was content to conclude that the Forest People murdered Hamm Robinson, and Esyllt told him that Tobias killed Ewen Asher. Since the former are probably hundreds of miles away by now and the latter is even further from the Sheriff’s reach, there is, I suppose, little else he can do.’

‘Just as well,’ Josse murmured. A sudden image entered his mind, of a handsome young man, falcon on his wrist, riding out of the forest on a sunny summer’s morning. Tobias, he reflected, had given not the slightest sign that he was anything other than he claimed to be, a carefree fellow enjoying a morning’s hawking.

Whereas, but a few hours before, he had made love to his woman and stuck a dagger into the poor wretch who happened to disturb him.

A thought struck him. ‘Of course!’ he muttered.

‘Sir Josse?’

‘I was just thinking about Tobias, that morning I met him after we had discovered Ewen Asher’s body.’

‘Indeed?’

‘Aye. I’d always wondered what he was doing there, and I concluded that he was putting up a smoke screen. That, by being right there, so close to the murder scene, he was trying to persuade us that he’d had absolutely nothing to do with it.’

‘Quite a good idea,’ commented the Abbess. ‘Considering that it worked.’

‘Aye.’ He ignored her mild irony. ‘But, Abbess, that wasn’t the reason!’

‘No?’

‘No! Remember how Esyllt was dressed? Or, rather, not dressed? Mother-naked, from the waist down.’

‘I remember.’

He read in her slightly cool tone a faint reproof: must we speak of such things?

But he had his reasons. ‘Abbess, did you not wonder what had become of Esyllt’s undergarments? He-’

‘Tobias went back to fetch them!’ she finished for him, her voice excited, all coolness vanished. ‘Yes. Of course. How very incriminating, to find a woman’s clothing so close to poor Ewen’s body! And, once the connections had been made — the clothes belonged to Esyllt, and Tobias was her lover — then the trail would have led straight to him.’

‘Aye, aye,’ Josse said thoughtfully. Glancing at the Abbess, he said tentatively, ‘I can’t help thinking, Abbess, that maybe it’s for the best that events turned out as they did.’

She returned his gaze for a long moment. Then she said, ‘Neither can I.’

‘Hm. But I sometimes ache to tell someone what we saw, out there in the glade. Purely, I suppose, because I know I can’t.’

‘Do you, indeed?’ She looked amused. ‘I don’t.’ She paused. ‘But then,’ she went on softly, ‘I’ve already told someone.’

‘You have?’ Oh, dear God, he thought, has she really? Must the space between my shoulder blades itch for ever more in anticipation of a well-thrown flint-headed spear finding its mark?

‘Don’t look so worried, Sir Josse,’ she said, smiling. ‘I told a friend, an ever-present and steadfast friend, who loves me as he loves us all, and will not betray my confidence.’

‘Ah. Oh, I see.’ Yes. Of course. She had told the Lord, and He, no doubt, already knew.

She was watching him. ‘You should try it,’ she suggested.

He met her eyes. ‘Perhaps I will.’

* * *

He did not stay late at Hawkenlye. Darkness would fall early, and he was eager to be by his own fireside.

The Abbess came out to see him on his way.

Putting a detaining hand on Horace’s rein, she said, ‘I never thanked you, Josse, for what you did. In the summer.’

‘I did little,’ he replied. ‘The solution to the killings was hardly my work.’

‘Perhaps not,’ she said. Unusually for her, she appeared slightly awkward. ‘What I was thanking you for, actually, was saving my life.’

She did remember.

Trying to ignore the warm glow of happiness that was rapidly spreading through him, he said, ‘You wouldn’t have died, Helewise. Not one as strong as you.’

She shrugged. ‘Who can say?’

Then she let go of the rein and turned to go.

He called after her, ‘You know where I am, should you need me.’

But her only answer was a wave of her hand.