Michael Jecks - A Friar's bloodfeud

He had completed the initial build when he heard that there were visitors to see him. Cursing mildly under his breath, for he was never best pleased to learn that others wanted his time, he issued orders for the rest of the work to be completed, then stomped back to the house.

Baldwin was crouched at the doorway, where there was a sack filled with dead puppies. Nearby was the body of their mother.

In a life which had seen so many deaths, Baldwin had grown largely immune to the sadness of most murders and accidental deaths. There had always been deaths and always would be. That was all a man needed to know. But wanton slaughter was something he always deprecated. And to kill young creatures for no purpose was deplorable. He put out a hand to touch one of the short-nosed little bundles. It was cold already.

‘You have started a fire today that will engulf you,’ he said coldly.

Sir Geoffrey pursed his lips. ‘I had expected someone from Sir Odo, but not you. What’s your relationship to him? Are you merely his paid attendant or has he offered you a part of the profits?’

‘You think I am in the same league as your friend the coroner? I wonder how much you expected to pay him. He will require more, now, I think. You had hoped to get away with very little, I expect. It can’t have been easy, especially when you realised that you must get Sir Odo off the land you and he had planned to keep.’

‘You know of …’

‘I rather think that he believes you broke any pact with him when you invaded this place today.’

Sir Geoffrey shrugged. ‘What could Odo expect? He’s been making my life hard enough. Putting that poor child’s body on my land and then I assume conspiring with my men to get the mire drained … That was a provocation I could hardly ignore.’

‘You say you did not kill her or have her killed?’

‘Of course not! I couldn’t behave in such an unchivalrous manner. The poor woman was so young — who would do such a thing? Only an avaricious man bent on his own profit!’

‘And that is how Sir Odo strikes you?’

Sir Geoffrey was still a moment. ‘You know men better than I, or so it is rumoured. What would you say?’

‘I should say that he, like you, would take any prize that was offered to him if it promised few risks and easy benefits. I should think either of you would be pleased to take a woman like her to be your wife, and that you’d neither of you have any compunction about taking all her manor and treasure to yourselves in the process, but to actually slaughter her in cold blood, that I find hard to believe,’ Baldwin said. His eyes flickered away from Sir Geoffrey and down to the sack at the doorway.

‘I would have said the same myself,’ Sir Geoffrey agreed. ‘But who else could have benefited from putting him and me at loggerheads?’

‘Perhaps I can learn that,’ Baldwin said. ‘In the meantime, these puppies. Who killed them?’

‘What?’ Sir Geoffrey asked with a blank expression. He looked over to the doorway and shrugged. ‘I think it was …’

‘No! Don’t tell me,’ Baldwin said quickly. ‘But whoever he is, you should discard him. Any man who can do that to puppies is as dangerous as a viper. He has caused the death of the man who lived here, only because of his motiveless slaughter of a litter.’

Sir Geoffrey shrugged. ‘Crokers took a dagger to one of my men.’

‘Because of your attack on his animals. He would have done nothing, were it not for this wanton destruction.’

‘I do not know that,’ Sir Geoffrey said. ‘He tried to attack one of my men, and I stopped him.’

‘Just as you would remove any other obstacle to your ambitions. A stone in your horse’s hoof, a man protecting his lands, either can be removed and destroyed, can’t they? Perhaps other barriers can also be heaved aside.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Lady Lucy — she was a barrier, wasn’t she? You wanted more land, either for yourself or for your lord. Either way, she owned it, and you wanted it. So you decided to capture her and take her in marriage, forcibly, or kill her and steal what you wanted.’

‘That is a foul untruth!’

‘Is it? I think that perhaps it is a truth in the eyes of many,’ Baldwin said.

‘If you try to tell others that, I shall destroy you!’

‘I am a knight, Sir Geoffrey. I am not so easily destroyed.’

‘All men can die, Sir Baldwin.’

‘That is true,’ Baldwin replied. He crouched down at the sack of puppies again, touching the little bodies. One squeaked and kicked feebly, and Baldwin reached down to pick it up. Somehow this one had not been hurt when the others had been smashed against the wall. Baldwin stroked it, and it started to squeak again, mouth wide, searching for a nipple.

‘Did I miss one?’ A skinny man with a leering face suddenly appeared in the doorway.

Baldwin eyed him a moment, the puppy in his arm. He was about to pass it to Simon when Edgar stepped up to the skinny man and punched him with full force in the belly. The man’s eyes bulged, his mouth formed a perfect ‘O’, and he collapsed to his knees, gasping desperately for breath.

At the blow all the men in the area stopped their work, and a few picked up swords and daggers. Baldwin shifted the puppy to his left hand and drew his sword. ‘Keep back! Sir Geoffrey, if you value your honour, tell them to keep away.’

Sir Geoffrey raised a hand, and his men returned to their labours. Meanwhile Baldwin went to the choking man on the ground, and put the point of his sword on his throat. He hissed, ‘You should be grateful. If I’d reached you first, I’d have killed you for what you did to that bitch and her litter. If I hear of you again, I shall seek you out and throw you into the gaol at Rougement Castle.’

Baldwin was quiet on their return. Only when they were almost at Fishleigh did he turn to Simon and mutter, ‘I could imagine that band of felons doing anything.’

Simon said nothing. His friend was still cradling the mewling puppy, and every so often his serious dark eyes would move to the little creature. Simon knew full well how fond Baldwin was of dogs, and seeing them abused was merely proof to Baldwin of the bestial nature of the men Sir Geoffrey led.

At the manor, they called to the doorman for Sir Odo.

‘He’s not here, sir. He’s ridden off.’

‘Where to?’ Simon demanded.

‘I think he’s gone to Lady Isabel, sir.’

‘Do you know why?’ Baldwin asked. ‘Doesn’t he have enough to cope with up here?’

‘He forgot to tell me, sir,’ the gatekeeper said snidely. ‘No doubt he will when he gets back.’

They rode on towards Iddesleigh as dusk was falling, and now Simon saw that his companion was meditating more on the murders than on the actions of one brutal felon towards a litter of pups.

‘What would he be doing with the lady?’ Baldwin said as they began the climb up to Iddesleigh. ‘I have a suspicion I have missed a crucial point, Simon.’

‘What could we have missed?’

‘Why a man like Odo, used to warfare and the spoils of war, is here in a quiet rural backwater without any of the benefits a man like him would expect. Just like Sir Geoffrey.’

Friar John gave a groan when he saw the bodies at the altar. His light mood left him, and he walked slowly across the nave to Lucy, sinking slowly to his knees and bowing his head in prayer.

Hugh had scarcely noticed him. In his mind there was only one thing here that mattered, and that was the figure of the priest as he clambered to his feet.

‘What is the meaning of this?’ Matthew demanded, not angrily, but in surprise. And then he recognised Hugh, and his eyes widened. His hand went to his breast, and he tottered slightly. ‘ You! But you were dead!’