Michael Jecks - The Tolls of Death

Here, in the hall, with the different candles and torches throwing their light haphazardly, she saw a long history in his face. It was a face that had seen a lot, perhaps witnessed too much cruelty and horror. He had suffered.

They were there in Nicholas’s face too, the hard edges of a warrior’s suffering. He, like this knight, had deep gouges carved in his cheeks and forehead, the channels of pain without which no fighter could advance. If a man wished to make his living by war, he must gain such wounds, unless he won the other, less honourable signs of dissipation and excess. Such men were not to be entertained in Lady Anne’s hall, though.

‘How many men do you have here?’ Sir Baldwin was asking.

‘Including myself, twelve at present. We are a small garrison, but then our lord lives away, and his main household is with him.’

‘Excuse me, but you are not knighted?’ Baldwin asked.

‘I am afraid not, Sir Baldwin. I never earned that accolade.’

‘My friend, I am sure that you deserve it more than many a gilded parrot in the King’s court,’ Baldwin said easily. ‘You are a man who has been to war, I see, and from your look you’ve not always been on the winning side.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Nothing, Nicholas,’ Baldwin said with raised brows. ‘I meant no insult, my friend, but it would be rare indeed for a man who fought in several wars not to have been on the side which did not win occasionally. It is no reflection upon your martial prowess, I assure you.’

‘Yes, well, a man who has been in the service of the King must have known defeats,’ Nicholas said.

‘Of course. I too have known defeats, my friend,’ Baldwin said softly, but Anne was sure that she could see sadness in his eyes as he spoke.

Anne took a little more meat from the pile in the dish. She and Nick had never discussed his past in any great detail. There was not a lot to tell, he always said, but for how wet the Welsh borders were, and how miserable the climate for a young soldier. Of the fighting he had said nothing, and Anne had not pressed him. It would have given her no pleasure to hear that he had been a brutal, violent killer. So the two avoided that subject — although now she could be tempted to find out a little. It was so strange to hear him flash out in near anger.

‘I apologise, Sir Knight. It’s just been a painful day, with that poor woman being found.’

‘Especially with her dead children,’ Anne said pensively, her hand back on her bump. She felt, rather than saw, the eyes of the three men turn to her.

The door opened, and the new squire called Warin entered. He glanced at them, crossing to a table and gesturing to a servant. Soon Richer also walked in and joined Warin.

There was something about those two which she found unsettling. Warin seemed to hold little respect for her or her husband, and she had mentioned his insolence to Nicholas already, but Nicholas had been quite short, saying only that Warin came with a letter of recommendation from their master — and if Sir Henry of Cardinham felt that this arrogant fellow was a suitable guard for his castle, who was he to disagree?

This was the age-old problem. Nicholas had more experience in his little finger than this Warin possessed in his entire soul, yet Warin was presumably well-born. He would one day be knighted, while Nicholas would remain here, mouldering slowly until he expired.

Looking up, she saw that Warin was watching Richer. The fellow seemed withdrawn, like one who was close to collapse. She wondered at that, but then she saw that Warin had turned and now studied Sir Baldwin and his friend. Nicholas noticed his interest, and called Warin and Richer over. The two were introduced to the guests, and Anne was secretly pleased to see how Sir Baldwin cast a negligent eye over them both, although he glanced at Nicholas as he was introduced to Richer. Anne herself noticed that Nicholas was as fulsome introducing Richer as he was Squire Warin. It was strange: he was respectful towards Warin, a man so much his junior, and almost affectionate towards Richer, who was a mere man-at-arms and rated no respect.

‘You are a squire?’ Sir Baldwin asked Warin.

‘Yes. I hope to be knighted before long, Sir Baldwin,’ Warin replied.

‘But until then you are here to protect the castle under the castellan here,’ Baldwin said pointedly. ‘In whose service were you before you came here?’

‘That of Sir Henry,’ Warin said.

‘You have been long in his service? That is good. Perhaps you knew the castellan before coming to serve him, then?’

‘I fear not,’ Nicholas said. ‘Sir Henry has rarely been this way, and then only for short visits. We had never met before Warin arrived here some few weeks ago. I am sure that he shall be a credit to the castle, though.’

Baldwin turned to Richer, saying, ‘You knew that woman Athelina? You seemed protective when another man belittled her.’

Richer looked at him with eyes that had dulled with loss. ‘I used to live here, but I left many years ago. When I left, I loved her. I still do.’

‘You left her?’

Richer was pale, unsettled. His eyes were slightly narrowed, and he raised a hand to his brow like a man with a headache. ‘My family died in a fire at our cottage while I was at the harvest celebrations. When I saw that they were all dead, I just wanted to get away.’

Nicholas, ever the generous-minded master, Anne thought, bless him, said, ‘Are you well, Richer? Would you like to rest?’

‘I am well, master. Just a … a slight headache, that is all.’

‘Where did you go?’ Baldwin continued.

‘I joined Sir Henry’s men, and I’ve been with him ever since. And with Squire Warin.’

Baldwin gave a sharp frown, but then Anne saw him shrug slightly as though it was of no matter. ‘Tell me, did you see her on your return? Was she so apparently crazed that she might murder in desperation?’

‘If I had seen that, I’d have saved her!’ Richer exclaimed, and then his hand returned to his head, and he gulped wine from the cup in his other. ‘No. I don’t believe that she could have murdered anyone. She was too gentle, too kind and loving.’

‘There can be little doubt,’ Nicholas said softly. ‘Who else would wish to harm her or her children?’

‘No one!’ Warin said. ‘My friend here wondered whether it could be some madman who had tried to rob her, but a felon would scarcely go to the effort of making it appear that she had hanged herself after cutting the throats of the two boys. No, she was clearly mad.’

Baldwin nodded. ‘You knew her?’

‘Not at all, no.’

‘Yet you pass judgement,’ Baldwin said, his eyes upon the miserable features of Richer.

‘Under the circumstances I am happy to do so. Can there be any doubt of her guilt?’ Warin asked, and Anne was sure that she saw his gaze flash briefly to her as though he was making a comment on her propriety! She flushed to the roots of her hair with shame and vexation. The man had no right to look at her like that! Could he know of her treachery? Did others know? she suddenly wondered with a keen fear.

That last time with her lover, walking by the river, there had been someone there, she knew. Later she had seen Athelina walking nearby with one of her whelps, smiling at her as though butter wouldn’t melt, but there had been something in her eyes … It had turned Anne’s belly to ice at the time, but then she had forgotten it. After all, she had been so lonely.

Baldwin, she was sure, had seen Warin’s look as well as her own response. Now the knight glanced again at Warin, but then looked at Anne with a smile, plainly dismissing the squire, and Anne was left with a thrilling in her heart, certain that this knight had chosen to insult the squire because of his cavalier attitude towards her husband and herself.