Alys Clare - Out of the Dawn Light

‘What is it this time?’ he asked, smiling indulgently. ‘More fanciful tales?’

‘No,’ I said, standing up very straight and trying to look dignified. ‘The same tale, and it is not fanciful. I lied when I said I was at my aunt Edild’s house and she backed me up, thinking only to help me. The truth is, as I told you before, that I was with Sibert at the time of the murder and I know that he did not commit it.’

Lord Gilbert studied me for some moments and I grew increasingly uneasy as I watched his expression change from a smile to a scowl. Then he said suddenly, ‘Oh, I’ve had enough of this! You, girl, whatever your name is, you’ll get your chance to declare this story of yours before all those concerned.’ Greatly alarmed, I took a step back but he was too quick. His arm shot out and he grasped my wrist in a strong hand. ‘Wait here,’ he commanded. ‘Very soon your moment will come.’

He pushed me into the corner of the room and I had to watch as he summoned servants to set out his chair and some benches on the dais at the far end of the hall. The dais, I realized apprehensively, could only be there for one reason, which was to put Lord Gilbert up on high and make the rest of us appreciate to the full our lowly status. Well, as far as I was concerned, he needn’t have bothered as I was shaking with fear already and it was taking all my meagre courage not to bolt for home.

He sat down, glared down at me cowering in my corner and then, with an imperious jerk of his chin, beckoned to me to approach. ‘Stand there,’ he commanded, indicating an area immediately before the dais, on the left side. People were filing into the hall now and several of his men took up their places on the benches beside him. Then a servant slipped out of the hall, to return a few moments later with Baudouin de la Flèche and a thin, gingery man with bad skin and a nervous twitch above his eye. Several of Lord Gilbert’s men accompanied them, and they all went to stand opposite me to the right of the dais.

I stood alone.

Then they brought Sibert in.

His appearance shocked me. He looked as if he had been in some dank, dark cell far below the ground for months, not days, for his face was deadly white and his tunic foul with stains that I did not care to look at too closely. There were shackles around his wrists and ankles and they had made angry red welts in his flesh. Before I could stop myself I opened my mind to him and the force of his terror almost rocked me back on my feet. It was like trying to stop a tempest with a feather but I did my best, battling against his despair and silently shouting out to him, Have heart, Sibert! I’m here to help! It’s not over yet!

I think he was too far gone in his images of a nightmare — and fairly brief — future even to catch a whisper. He looked up briefly at those arrayed against him. Then, finally, he looked at me. His shoulders slumped in defeat and he hung his head.

I wished I could have gone on trying to give him confidence but, faced with his collapse, my own courage seemed to be rapidly evaporating and I would need what I had left for myself. If only Hrype could have been there, I thought wildly, it would be so much better! He made me believe; or, rather, he had made me believe last night. Now, I felt like giving up and running and running till I was so far away that nobody would ever find me.

I couldn’t do that. They’d stop me and besides, I had to try to save my friend. Steeling myself, I tried to blank out the waves of shock and horror coming off Sibert and I turned my full attention to the men who held our future in their hands.

Lord Gilbert opened the proceedings, gabbling quickly and all but incomprehensibly through the formalities and then reminding us, as if we needed it, why we were here and what Sibert stood accused of. He invited Baudouin to speak first and he outlined smoothly and eloquently how, concerned for his nephew and the unspecified but dangerous mission he believed him to be engaged upon, he had gone looking for him. How men had sought him out with the terrible news that Romain had been murdered, taking him immediately to the place where the body of his nephew and heir lay. How he had come across the witness who told him how poor Romain had been so brutally struck down.

All this time, while he told this tale that he so clearly believed to be the truth and that would condemn my friend to the gibbet, Baudouin kept his eyes fixed on Lord Gilbert. It was only when he had finished that he glanced very briefly at me. The gloating look of triumph in his eyes hit me like a fist.

Then he pointed to the gingery man with the twitch and said dramatically, ‘Sagar here present is that same witness. Listen now, my lord, to what he has to say.’

Lord Gilbert looked closely at the witness. Then he said, ‘Very well. Let him speak.’

Sagar crept forward until he stood immediately before Lord Gilbert’s chair on the dais. Once or twice he glanced back at Baudouin, his eyes sliding away to shoot scared glances up at the plump and imposing figure before him. Then, with an obvious effort, he stood up straight and puffed up his meagre chest. He had the look of a man who was very apprehensive but nevertheless determined to do his duty.

I was quaking.

‘Well, man?’ Lord Gilbert prompted when we had all been waiting some moments.

‘It was just as he says,’ said Sagar, jerking his head towards Baudouin. He frowned deeply as if concentrating very hard and went on, ‘I was travelling on the track from Dunwich up to the coast road and I came to this clearing, see, and there were these two young men, one following the other, and the second one, he called out to the first, and then the first shot off into the bushes and doubled back, so that he came out behind the other man.’ Sagar paused, appearing slightly perplexed, as did quite a few of those listening to him. ‘Well, next thing I know, the first man, which is him ’ — the accusing hand pointed straight at Sibert — ‘he leaps out at the other one and before he can recover — the other one, that is — that one swings this great bit of broke-off branch and catches him full on the back of the head, such a blow as you could hear the skull smash like an egg!’

An awed hush followed his dramatic words. Lord Gilbert leaned over to the man on his right and they conferred for a few moments. Lord Gilbert was looking very serious and once or twice he shot a glance at Sibert.

‘There appears to be no doubt in this matter,’ he said eventually, ‘and we have a witness who has described to us very clearly how Romain de la Flèche met his death at the hand of Sibert here before us. Sibert!’ His sudden loud cry made Sibert jump and, with obvious reluctance, he raised his head and stared at his lord.

‘Sibert, you are guilty of murder and you will hang,’ Lord Gilbert said portentously. ‘You-’

I found myself hurrying forward and somehow I seemed to have crossed the floor of the hall and elbowed Sagar quite roughly out of the way, so that now I stood alone before Lord Gilbert.

‘He didn’t do it!’ I cried.

I could hear Lord Gilbert’s sigh even from where I stood. Baudouin de la Flèche’s intense dark eyes were boring into me as if he wished they were knife points.

‘You must explain yourself,’ Lord Gilbert said wearily. I think perhaps he thought I’d be so overawed by the proceedings and the company of so many rich and important men that my nerve would fail me. It hadn’t.

‘Sibert was with me at the time Romain was killed,’ I said. My voice was shaking in time with my trembling knees. ‘I know I said at first that I didn’t go to Drakelow with Sibert and Romain but that was a lie, and I only said it because I’d gone without permission and I was afraid I’d get into trouble, which was why my aunt supported my story that I’d been with her. She was trying to help .’ The thought of Edild undermined me and I had to bite the insides of my cheeks quite hard to stop myself sobbing.