Michael Jecks - The Tolls of Death

Earlier? How could that be, since the child was the celebration of his return. After the last wars, Nicholas had remained with Sir Henry in his host rather longer than he’d expected, and when he returned, Anne had demonstrated how greatly she had missed him. She took not a moment’s delay in pulling him up to their chamber.

And it was a miracle that this time his seed had fulfilled its destiny. They had tried to produce a child so often over the last six years that he had all but given up hope, but now, God be praised, his wife was proof that patience would be rewarded. Soon she would give him the son he so greatly desired.

He rose from the table and went to pour himself a little wine. Richer was still special to him, the bastard born of the luscious woman he had desired in his youth, but that was different from the feelings he had for Anne. She had sought him out and adored him as much as he did her.

Raising his mazer, he turned to toast her, and it was then that he caught sight of the steward’s face.

Gervase was staring at Anne with an expression of longing so plain, he reminded Nicholas of a hunting dog he had once known, penned near a bitch on heat. The sudden memory of that scene was so comical, he chuckled to himself.

‘Your expression, you know what that reminded me of?’ he said, and explained. In the moment after he finished, he saw his wife flush, then go pale, and he saw the sharp glance she threw at Gervase.

The man, he realised, as a fist clenched about his heart, whom he had always thought of as his friend.

Sir Jules looked greatly annoyed, Baldwin thought as he and Simon approached Roger and the Coroner at the grassy bank near the church.

‘I am decided. I shall continue with my inquest as soon as I possibly can.’

Roger looked at Baldwin with an innocent expression that the knight found entirely unconvincing.

‘What is the reason for your decision, Coroner?’ he asked, and then his face lengthened as he heard the man’s reply. As Sir Jules came to the end of his tale, Baldwin glanced at Simon. ‘This is interesting, Coroner,’ he said, and explained what Father John had told them after Jules had left. ‘Perhaps this confirms what the priest said — that Gervase has had many women, including Athelina, then Julia, but that he’s recently thrown her over. I’ve heard from others that he might have a new lover.’

‘Which could be Lady Anne,’ Roger murmured thoughtfully. ‘She could have insisted that he leave any other women.’

‘Which is fine,’ Simon said, ‘but the child said that the castellan was guilty. That makes no sense. If Nicholas heard evil rumours, he might kill the adulterous couple, but why slaughter the mere witnesses?’

‘I only repeat the child’s evidence,’ Jules said haughtily.

‘You seriously tell us that this child, this infant , was a credible witness?’ Baldwin asked. ‘Enough for you to insult a man of Nicholas’s stature? I find that more than a little surprising.’

‘You are attracted to an abstract problem, Sir Baldwin,’ Jules said with some asperity. ‘This, for me, is a prosaic matter. We have bodies: a man and a woman and three children. These are issues of record. I am not interested in justice, my duty is to record the facts so that when the Justices of gaol delivery arrive, they can assess the guilt or innocence of the men put before them by the jury. All the time I am bogged down with this matter, I am missing others. Better by far that I should move on to the next. Especially while a traitor to the King is wandering the countryside.’

‘So you will blacken the good castellan’s name in front of his lord’s peasants so that you can run off and look at other matters?’ Baldwin asked silkily. ‘Not to mention causing untold problems at the castle. What if Nicholas has no idea of the adultery of his wife? What if she is not guilty of adultery and these rumours are nothing more than that?’

‘You say that, when both those who witnessed the steward and the lady rutting in the meadow are now dead? Surely it is this secret which is being concealed at the cost of so much death.’

Baldwin rolled his eyes. ‘God save me from logical Coroners! Good Christ in Heaven, man. Two people saw Lady Anne lying with Gervase; the two people have been murdered — therefore they were killed because Lady Anne lay with Gervase. It is the same as saying this moth has wings; birds have wings therefore this moth is a bird. It is not logical.’

‘You may not think so, but I disagree. I think it makes good sense, so I shall call my inquest now and finish the job.’

Baldwin licked his lips. ‘Please, give me a little more time before you take this action. It is too drastic. I require another day to find the truth.’

‘A whole day? Keeper, it’s impossible.’

Baldwin glanced at Simon. ‘At least talk with me for a little while. We can discuss the actual amount of time we have. Please, let me buy you a cup of wine to talk it through?’

Sir Jules threw a harassed look at Roger, who nodded encouragingly. Then, ‘Oh, very well, Sir Baldwin, but only one drink!’

When Nicholas suddenly strode from the room, Anne could see that something had upset him, and she had an unpleasant suspicion that he had read her look. She rose, sweeping away from Gervase, who had tried to engage her in conversation again, and rushed after her husband.

He had made his way to the solar, and had gone up to their bedchamber. He stood there now, head bowed, staring at their bed.

‘My love?’ she asked hesitantly.

‘Was it here, in my own bed?’ he asked in a broken voice, and she felt her heart die and shrivel.

‘My love, I …’

‘Don’t lie to me! I saw your expression in the room down there. I should have guessed before, but you’ve always made yourself appear so loving that no hint of betrayal ever occurred to me. But I should have known. Why should a woman so young, so …’ he choked on the word. ‘So lovely! Why should you look at a grizzled old captain like me? Anne, I know it’s Gervase’s baby, not mine. Just tell me truthfully: did you pollute my bed as well as your body when you whored for him?’

‘I did not.’ She set her features into a steady, calm expression and sat on the edge of their tester bed. ‘I couldn’t. That would have been disloyal.’

‘Disloyal! Madam, how much less loyal could you have managed? By St Peter’s bones, are you mad, or just taunting me? Are you a mere common stale, ready for any tarse in the castle? Have you fucked the guards as well as Gervase? Why stop there? Perhaps you sought the ostlers too — or the scavengers?’

‘Husband, please, listen to me,’ she said with a break in her voice.

She could feel her breast squeezing tighter and tighter as he spoke, spittle flying from his lips, pacing up and down the small chamber. He might harm himself, and it would all be her fault. It was all her fault. ‘Husband, please …’

‘I am no husband to you, woman. You are a whore, and the sooner you leave here, the better.’

‘Please, Nicholas, don’t do this to me,’ she whispered feebly. She felt weak, panicked and full of tension. Her very scalp seemed to tighten.

‘Think what you have done to me! You have betrayed me, betrayed any love we had for each other. Christ Jesus! I should draw steel and end your life now!’

He put his hand to his sword-hilt, and she closed her eyes, waiting for the blow to fall, but then she heard his grunt of contempt. ‘Open your eyes, whore! What do you want of me? More pain? You can wait for that. I shall have my revenge on you and him.’

‘What of my revenge?’ she whispered.

‘Yours?’ he sneered, and then his face hardened like rock. ‘You mean he raped you?’