Michael Jecks - The Outlaws of Ennor

Baldwin smiled. ‘Tell me, now that we are alone, what do you think of these murders? I do not see Isok as a killer by nature, but he has a strong build, does he not? And it is quite possible that he could have wished to see Robert and Luke dead.’

‘So could many others,’ William said warily.

‘True, and I do not expect you to betray any confessions which you have received,’ Baldwin said hastily.

‘No, no. I’ve had nothing like that,’ William said, ‘but you have to appreciate that I’ve lived among these folks for many years, and it’s hard to put the neck of a man you’ve enjoyed an ale with after harvest, a man whom you’ve grown to like — well, it’s hard to put his throat in the noose.’

‘I quite understand. Yet if these homicides are the result of one man’s outrageous violence, then we have to consider how to prevent him striking again, do we not?’

The two men had been steadily approaching the castle, and now William gave a short bleat of dismay. ‘Sir Baldwin, you mustn’t go any nearer! Not while Ranulph de Blancminster can see you! Any stranger here will be noticed among so few people!’

Baldwin stopped. ‘But this is ridiculous!’ he muttered. ‘I am a King’s Officer.’

‘Perhaps you are. It’s only fifteen-odd years ago that Ranulph arrested and fined the King’s Coroner for taking a whale. What would he do to a man he suspected of murder?’

Baldwin reluctantly nodded, and William led him around the castle walls and along the road to the east of the island.

‘How far is it to this man Hamadus’s place?’

‘He lives not far from here.’

‘On this island nowhere is far from here,’ Baldwin said, trying to lighten their mood. He disliked that castle — no, more than that: there was a brooding atmosphere about the place.

‘Who’s that with the priest?’ Ranulph scowled.

Thomas squinted at the two men walking northwards. ‘I don’t recognise that fellow. He wasn’t on the Anne .’

‘Was he on the Faucon Dieu ?’

‘No, of course not,’ Thomas said, adding hastily, ‘I don’t think so, anyway. I believe the master mentioned to me that he dislikes carrying passengers.’

And you know his likes and dislikes very well, don’t you, Thomas? Ranulph thought to himself. Aloud he said, ‘Perhaps we should offer to remove a part of his cargo. The ship was close to being sunk, wasn’t it?’

Thomas smiled thinly. ‘No, I think it could be dangerous. The master knows the Despensers. If we were to threaten him or kill and rob him, the Despensers could wonder what was happening down here on the islands.’

‘We’ve never worried about them before,’ Ranulph noted. Then irritably, ‘Don’t you have a suitable spy to keep an eye on those two? I want to know who that man is and what he’s doing on my island.’

Thomas looked down into the yard. He could see Simon Puttock talking to Walerand. ‘Walerand! Come here. I have a mission for you.’

‘And then we need to make sure of the plan for tomorrow,’ Ranulph said. ‘I do not want the risk of any men escaping. You must see to it that the vill is unwarned and unprepared.’

‘I have guaranteed that, I think,’ Thomas said with a smug grin. ‘Tomorrow, I have learned, the whole of the vill will be occupied. We shall attack late in the morning.’

Ranulph closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Opening his eyes again, he turned them, glittering malignantly, upon his servant. ‘You pig’s turd! Do you know nothing about fighting? The crucial thing is surprise! That means coming upon them when they least expect it and destroying any armed men before they can grab their weapons!’

‘My Lord, tomorrow we shall have the full benefit of surprise,’ Thomas promised. ‘Tomorrow, so I have been told by a reliable man, is the day which is set for that man Isok’s trial. All the boatmen are talking about it. Two women have been told to investigate him and see whether they can make his tarse harden. If they can, his divorce fails; if they can’t, it’s accepted that it’s not merely some excuse from his wife to attain a divorce, and the Prior can report back to the Bishop’s court that all the best efforts of the good and honest women were to no avail, and the divorce shall be permitted.’

‘So what?’ Ranulph demanded. ‘Can you be sure of surprise?’

Walerand had arrived, a nervous, shambling figure in front of his master and the castle’s steward. ‘You wanted … something from me?’

‘Get a grip on yourself, you pitiful churl!’ Thomas grated. ‘Now go up that road and see who it is with William. I don’t know where they are going, nor why. Follow them, learn their movements, and then come and tell me here. Is that clear?’ Thomas rapped out his commands in the manner of a military leader.

‘Yes,’ Walerand said, and seeing the expression on Ranulph’s face, he bolted.

‘Yes,’ Thomas continued when they were alone again. ‘I can guarantee surprise, I think. The whole vill will be watching this test. Nobody will miss it, not after the amount of talk about the two of them. While they are all watching to see whether the man can get it up, we can come upon them like sea raiders ourselves!’

‘Good,’ Ranulph said, but his attention had wandered. He had spotted the Bailiff below, walking about near the armoury. There were boxes of arms in there, enough for a fellow to remove a dagger or two if he had a mind — but why should the Bailiff bother? He already had a sword.

Ranulph put the thought from him as he listened to Thomas. It was only later that he was to realise what Simon had been doing there.

Hamadus was in his room when his dog woke. The hound’s head shot upright, wrinkles forming all along the broad skull, and then he gave a low, warning growl.

Hamadus heard the tread of two pairs of feet. Cocking his head, he listened as intently as Uther, and then gave a dry grin. ‘All right, you old bastard,’ he muttered to the hound, and set another pot near the fire.

Soon there was a hammering at his door, and the little cottage felt as though it shook. Hamadus rolled his eyes as Uther rose to his feet, the hackles rising all along his back. ‘Sit down, Uther!’ he commanded, and then called, ‘Come in, William, and stop upsetting my hound.’

Baldwin entered and was pleased to find the place was not so ramshackle as it had appeared from outside.

It was a typical fisherman’s cottage, Baldwin supposed. From outside it looked dilapidated, with the thatch green and holed, the walls mere moorstone patched and filled with soil; inside, he found it was a warm, well-heated place, with a goodly-sized fire in the middle of the floor bounded by a circle of large stones. About the room were the man’s few belongings: a single stool, a palliasse, unrolled and ready for sleeping, on which the dog now stood, head down and frowning like a suspicious alewife watching a none-too-sober client entering her hall. At one wall was a large falchion, a sword with a single edge to its blade, leaning as though ready for use some time soon. A low table and a chest formed the only other items of furniture, but a wooden fence had been erected at the far end of the little room, and there a pig snorted gently in sleep, while two chickens strutted about the floor and a third roosted on top of the fence itself.

There was an odour of urine and ammonia, but the pig gave off a wholesome smell, and it was a cosy, comfortable place, Baldwin thought. After all, there were few homes the length and breadth of England which were not more noisome than this.

‘Hamadus, we are here to ask you what you were doing out and about on the night of the storm. We know you were near where the gather-reeve died,’ Baldwin said calmly.