Candace Robb - The Cross Legged Knight

Who is lying , Thoresby wondered as he breathed in the night air. It revived him, perhaps too well. The desire to hear what Poins and May said to one another suddenly seized Thoresby like a fist in his gut. He wanted access to the room above that part of the kitchen. But he was a stranger in his own palace. With little cause to spend time in the kitchen wing, he did not know where the steps that led upstairs might be. He crossed back through the kitchen and opened the one door in the passageway to the hall. It was the buttery. It must be outside, then. He strode back through the kitchen, not bothering to acknowledge anyone, and almost collided with Michaelo in the garden.

‘Your Grace.’

‘Take me to your listening place. The maid is with Poins and I will hear what they say.’

Lucie started awake as Kate crept into her chamber, the lamp she carried lighting the room.

It was not Kate’s custom to enter without knocking. ‘What is amiss?’ Lucie winced as she put pressure on her injured hand and rolled to the other side to raise herself up. As Kate approached, Lucie smelled the laundry lye on her clothes.

‘There is a man to see you,’ Kate whispered. ‘Edgar of Skipton, he says, sent by Mistress Ferriby. He begs you to see him.’

‘Is it very late?’

‘I was still tidying the kitchen, Mistress. And Jasper has not yet retired.’

Lucie wondered why Emma had sent the tutor here tonight when she would be at the house in the afternoon. Perhaps Emma doubted Lucie would follow through with her plan.

By now Lucie was fully awake. ‘Help me dress. I cannot manage by myself with this bandage.’

Jasper stood outside the door when they emerged. He peered over Lucie’s shoulder into the chamber beyond. ‘The Captain has not returned?’

‘No. Why?’

‘Are you armed?’

‘Jasper, our visitor is only Edgar, the Ferribys’ tutor.’

‘Why should you trust someone who comes in the evening, unexpected?’

‘Because I asked Emma to speak with him about her mother’s steward Matthew.’

‘Then someone is worried what he might tell you. There is someone in the garden.’

Lucie caught her breath. ‘Are you certain?’

‘I sensed them as I came from the shop.’

‘Thank God you were not attacked. Did you call out?’

‘I thought it best to fetch my dagger.’ Jasper patted his right forearm. ‘Do you want me in the garden, or in the hall with you?’

Perhaps Edgar had been followed, or had brought a companion. ‘Stay with me until I have a sense of him.’

‘Merciful Mother,’ Kate muttered as she lit the way with the lamp.

Satisfied that his men were ready for the worst on the morrow, Owen crossed the garden towards the palace to assure Wykeham it was so. The guard at the rear door of the great hall stepped aside as Owen approached.

‘Have you noted anything out of joint?’ Owen asked.

‘No, Captain. All is quiet.’

‘Good. Pray the peace continues.’

In the hall he found the Fitzbaldrics, Wykeham and Alain discussing the whereabouts of Thoresby and Michaelo. It seemed they had not appeared for dinner.

Sitting just outside the pool of light that a lamp threw on the benches near the brazier, Edgar, in his dark clerk’s gown, seemed determined to blend into the shadows.

He rose as Lucie approached. ‘Forgive me for waking you, Mistress Wilton. Mistress Ferriby sent me to tell you what I know about the night of the fire. And the behaviour of Lady Pagnell’s steward since then.’ Sweat beaded the stocky man’s forehead.

‘It is so important that you come at night? Surely if you have waited this long …’

‘My mistress believed Captain Archer might wish to hear my tale before Lady Pagnell goes to the palace with Matthew on the morrow.’ Edgar glanced towards the windows.

‘Does something worry you?’

‘Matthew has ways of hearing things. I thought — but it was the echo of my footsteps as I hurried here.’ He blew a strand of hair from his brow.

‘Sit down, I pray you.’

Again Edgar chose a spot just beyond the light.

‘Tell me about Matthew. I know you share a bed in the hall.’

‘Matthew was out all the night of the fire. Just before dawn he crept in with his shoes in his hands and slipped into bed. He smelled of sweat — I thought he had been with a woman — and he was stripped to his shift. He had worn a tunic when he departed the evening before. I have not seen that tunic since. But I believe it is among his things — he has been uneasy about me going near the chest in which he keeps his belongings.’

‘Why did you not mention this before?’

‘I am a coward, I have no other excuse, God knows. I told myself that I did not wish to cause more strife between my mistress and her mother. Lady Pagnell already blames me for Ivo’s and John’s accident at the lady chapel. She says I have not given the boys sufficient moral training. Mistress Ferriby has defended me.’ He pressed his temples as if the situation gave him a headache. ‘But in truth, fear kept me silent.’

Lucie excused herself a moment to confer with Jasper, who sat in the shadows seemingly with one eye on Edgar and one on the windows.

‘Have you seen anything?’

‘It is quarter moon and cloudy, so it is even more difficult than usual to see from within. But something woke Melisende. Look.’

The cat lay on a cushioned chair, her ear cocked, one eye opened slightly.

‘Pretend you are crossing the garden to the shop. Try to do it exactly as you are wont to do. If you sense anyone out there, go through the shop and out to the tavern. Fetch Tom.’

Jasper nodded solemnly and began to move away.

Lucie feared she was asking more of him than she should of a lad but fourteen. She caught his forearm. When he met her eyes, his gaze was calm, confident.

‘Remember all that Owen has taught you,’ Lucie said. ‘And God go with you.’

Jasper bobbed his head. ‘Make a racket if he proves false.’ He departed by the door that led to the passageway from house to kitchen.

‘Where is he going?’ Edgar asked.

‘To the York Tavern, for help. You were uncomfortable walking here alone, were you not?’

‘I feel a fool for even mentioning it.’

Lucie hoped her smile was reassuring. She thanked God she had not taken the tonic with the sleepwort and valerian.

At first Thoresby found it impossible to hear anything over the clatter of Maeve and her maid, the creaks in the floorboards, the grumbling in his stomach, even his own breath. But as he calmed, he distinguished the sound of a woman weeping.

‘I am in hell … and all for you,’ Poins said, straining his voice to a hoarse shout, ‘and you point the finger … at me, accusing me … of murdering Cisotta? Then damn you. Damn you!’

‘No, no, I never spoke! I said nothing,’ May sobbed.

‘All night … I see her lying there … in the flames … beautiful Cisotta. I could do nothing.’

Other things were murmured but Thoresby could not make them out. He motioned for Michaelo to kneel at the knot hole.

‘My hearing is not what it was,’ Thoresby whispered.

Michaelo lowered himself until he was lying prone on the floor, his ear to the hole.

Thoresby fought the urge to pace and held himself motionless.

Wykeham had stepped aside with Owen, listening with attention to the plans for the defence of the palace. When he had exhausted his questions, he motioned to Alain. ‘Fetch Guy. We must discuss our strategy for tomorrow’s meeting.’ As the clerk departed, Wykeham said, ‘I do not understand what has come over Guy of late. I cannot depend upon him as I have in the past.’

‘How well do you know your clerks, My Lord?’