Michael Jecks - The King of Thieves

‘He killed my boy,’ the cook said, just before Hugues kicked him in the face.

Any possibility of an immediate hunt for the Bishop was gone with the death of the Cardinal. The men who had been mounting their horses so enthusiastically, were now milling about aimlessly. It was as though the removal of the Cardinal had taken away their collective will.

Hugues crouched over the body of the Cardinal and wept, while the cook was dragged away to the castle’s cells. There was nothing Baldwin could do to protect him. He had murdered a priest in full view of half the Louvre’s staff. There could be no mitigation in a case like that.

‘I am sorry,’ Baldwin said.

Hugues shook his head. ‘He was my only friend.’

‘You were at Anagni with him, weren’t you?’

‘Yes. It’s how I came to have this position. I know Thomas did better, but I was happy enough. Food, a roof, women whenever I wanted. There’s everything I need.’

‘The money from Anagni paid for it?’

‘It meant I could become a baron in my own right. Thomas was right to go into the Church, because a man could buy more advancement for less money, but he had the training too. He was bright enough to make his way in the Church. I couldn’t have done that. But I was a good fighter. The King had need of a good baron, and with the help of de Nogaret’s father, I was knighted and became castellan here.’

‘Did you see de Nogaret here before he died?’

‘No. I didn’t know he was coming — I’d have welcomed him if I had. I didn’t realise Thomas would have him killed. I didn’t agree with that.’

‘You knew he had killed de Nogaret?’ Simon interrupted.

‘Who else would have done it? There was no need, though. The lad was no real threat. What was he going to do? Ask us about money we took twenty-three years ago? I doubt the King himself cares about it. It was money confiscated from his father’s enemy, anyway, so he’d be glad enough.’

‘You think so? In my experience,’ Baldwin said, ‘Kings tend to be quite happy to take money no matter where it comes from. If the Cardinal had thought that de Nogaret was going to report him or blackmail him, it could well have led him to kill the young man, to keep his secret. And the same goes for the kitchen knave.’

‘Him? He was just a boy ,’ he said dismissively.

‘At least his master, the cook, thought differently,’ Baldwin said. ‘He thought the boy worth killing for.’

‘Perhaps the cook is a catamite? How should I know?’ Hugues snarled and returned to cradling Thomas’s body. ‘There was no need to do this for the brat.’

Any sympathy which Baldwin had been forming for the man’s grief dissipated like morning mist.

He turned and saw the horses waiting. ‘My Lord Cromwell, will you order them to stand down? There has been enough killing for one day.’

Lord John nodded and began bellowing at the men to instruct them to return their horses to the stables, and meanwhile Pons stood over Hugues and the body, eyeing them thoughtfully. ‘You know, my friend, this still leaves me wondering about the other murders. There was the death of Madame de Nogaret. She surely died at the hands of some other. If the Cardinal killed her husband and the boy, it is less likely that he killed the woman. And Jean le Procureur was despatched by a professional. I suppose that must have been the assassin the King spoke of.’

‘The man who will soon also be dead,’ Baldwin noted.

‘Precisely. And yet, who killed my guard and took Le Boeuf? That was another, certainly, for I doubt me that the Cardinal would have left the castle so early in the morning as to do that.’

‘The assassin was in the pay of the robber King,’ Simon pointed out. ‘No doubt it was him again.’

‘And yet the assassin was already bitterly angry with the King, and it was mutual, because the one tried to withhold the money owed to the other. There was a body in the Seine when we got to his house, and the King told us that it was a man killed by the assassin. Would the latter have gone back to do the King’s bidding after that?’

The others nodded, and Simon said, ‘So we may have another killer? It is an unlikely scenario.’

‘But something we shall have to consider. Something to keep in our minds,’ Pons said with grave deliberation.

Arnaud had seen it all. The Cardinal’s proud comments, the way that the group formed around him, the sudden appearance of the cook, the flash of the blade and the violence that followed … yes, he had seen it all.

‘You take care of this,’ he muttered to his men and strode away into the main courtyard after Hugues. He could see the castellan’s form up ahead; Hugues had the look of a broken man.

‘Sieur Hugues? I am so sorry, so sorry.’

‘What? Oh, Arnaud.’ Even his irascibility appeared to have been eroded. For Hugues looked like an older man, drawn in upon himself, the lines on his face more prominent, his eyes watery and unseeing. ‘You mean Thomas.’

‘I had never thought … I know he was a friend of yours.’

‘For more years than I can remember. My only friend. That cook will roast in hell!’

‘But why did he stab the Cardinal?’

‘Because Thomas killed the cook’s boy,’ Hugues snapped. ‘Didn’t you hear?’

‘No,’ Arnaud said, and he was frowning. ‘But I don’t understand …’

‘What?’

‘I told you before — I saw your woman with that lad. You told me not to be stupid at the time, because she wouldn’t have killed the man de Nogaret, but she may have killed the lad.’

Hugues opened his mouth, but then closed it again. His eyes dropped, and he studied the dirt for a moment. Then, ‘Tell them,’ was all he said.

He turned on his heel and left the courtyard, walking to his chamber.

When Hugues entered his room, he closed the door and stood in front of it, breathing deeply, eyes screwed tight shut, feeling as though his heart was about to burst.

There was a smell in there. A smell he recognised.

‘Where are you?’ he rasped, opening his eyes again.

‘Here, lover.’

Her throaty voice sent a chill along his spine. Pushing himself away from the door, he peered around his table. She was lying, naked, on the palliasse. She was as desirable as she had ever been, all whiteness and pinkness and softness. Everything he had ever wanted was there. He wanted to throw himself on top of her now, and find once again the release she offered. Even as he had the thought, she held up a hand invitingly, and he groaned and fell back on to his table, covering his face with his hands.

‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ he said.

She slowly came to a sitting position, leaning back on both arms. ‘Me? What have I done?’

‘You murdered the boy from the kitchen.’

‘I don’t know what you mean, Hugues. Why don’t you come down here and tell me?’

‘You saw the lad out there, you paid him to get the other one, Raoulet, and had him go to the Cardinal. And then you killed the boy to cover your actions.’

‘Why would I have done that?’

‘For mischief. I know you.’

‘You think me so evil?’

‘I know you.’

‘But why would I do such a thing? I must have had a reason.’

He looked at her. ‘You wanted to run the King of Thieves’ men, didn’t you? You set us all up. You had Thomas kill de Nogaret, you killed the kitchen knave to make it look as though Thomas had killed him too, and then you spoke to the King on Thomas’s behalf. The perfect go-between. You told him Thomas wanted a contract on de Nogaret’s wife, didn’t you? And then you made sure that Thomas was worried to death about the Procureur, and arranged another contract for his death.’