Michael Jecks - The Outlaws of Ennor

‘I haven’t got it.’

Simon stood slowly. ‘Fine. Right — I’m off to see your master. Ranulph will be interested to hear that the man he was about to promote to gather-reeve has stolen a sword and won’t let me see it as part of my investigation.’

‘Christ’s feet! All right, I’ll bloody get it!’

As good as his word, Walerand spun around and went out. Simon thought to himself that none of the men here in the castle had anywhere to keep their belongings. All must have little cupboards or holes in a wall where they could hide valuables. Simon waited a short while, and when Walerand came back with a cheap sword, the blade badly rusted and pitted, he said irritably, ‘Take it! I don’t want the thing.’

A heavy-set guard appeared in the doorway. ‘Bailiff? Our master wants to speak to you.’

‘Can’t he wait?’ Simon said irritably.

There was no need to feign his annoyance. He had no wish to be questioned again. It was pleasant, sitting here in this hall with the residual heat of the fire still warming the place, and he wanted to speak to Hamo, not go running off on Ranulph’s whim.

‘No, he can’t wait,’ the man said with emphasis.

‘Very well,’ Simon grunted with a bad grace. He kicked Robert’s sword under his bench, picked up his jug, and followed the servant up the small staircase and into Ranulph’s solar.

Ranulph sat in his chair; in his left hand he gripped a mazer full of wine, while in his right he gripped one of his pair of knives by the point of the blade, as though ready to hurl it at an intruder. Seeing who it was, he set the knife down on his table and gave a smile of welcome.

‘Bailiff. I am glad to see you again. You weren’t in the castle this afternoon.’

‘I had to take some exercise. I went up to a hill and sat there. The time flew quickly.’

‘You have been sitting on a hill?’ Ranulph repeated, a small frown on his face. ‘I hoped you would have been investigating the murder as Thomas asked you. Aha! But you agree with him that it was one of the pirates from St Nicholas, perhaps? You saw no need to continue to search Ennor for a murderer?’

It was clear that Ranulph could not understand Simon’s need for solitude, and he was about to snap at the man for disbelieving him, when he suddenly realised that Ranulph’s needs were the opposite of his own. If Simon felt over-pressured from work, he would delight in the peace and emptiness of Dartmoor; yet this man would always seek out other men. Ranulph lived in a constant emptiness. The only folk he could ever meet were those who were so far below his own position that he wouldn’t feel comfortable in their presence. If he was unhappy or worried, Ranulph would naturally want to find someone who was of his status. Yet there was no one here, apart from perhaps the Prior.

‘I find it clears my mind and helps me to consider problems like this murder,’ he explained. ‘Tell me, have you much dealing with the Prior?’

Ranulph’s eyebrows rose. ‘We speak on occasion. Usually when I take a boat to visit him. Why?’

‘It occurred to me to wonder whom you’d speak to when the mood took you,’ Simon said. He glanced at the servant who had brought him to this place. ‘You are an intelligent man, after all; it wouldn’t be someone from here, would it?’

Ranulph laughed. ‘I see your point. When I have to talk to a man at my own level, I’ll go to the Prior, I suppose. I have few real friends here.’

‘My own friend is lost,’ Simon said sadly. His eyes were drawn to the peacock-coloured sword at his hip.

‘It is a lovely thing, isn’t it?’ Ranulph said. He could see Simon’s mood, and he suddenly spoke more quietly. ‘Bailiff, you have lost your own weapon, and a friend too. I have heard that he used to wear this sword. Is that true?’

‘Yes.’

‘I saw the marks on the blade.’ Ranulph shrugged. ‘What of them? They mean nothing. But I would like to hear about this man and what happened to him. I know one thing: a man would more likely float than a sword. If the sword is here, perhaps he is too.’

‘He is no murderer,’ Simon said bluntly, but in his heart there was a sudden pounding. If only Baldwin were still alive! Simon had never felt so lonely as he had in the last three days.

‘Maybe you’re right. He hasn’t come here to talk about it, though, has he?’

‘Why am I free?’

Ranulph set his head to one side. ‘What does that mean?’

‘You want to find my friend so that you can throw him into your gaol. You already have my other friends held. Why have you left me free?’

‘Your friends in gaol tried to hold a sword to me, Bailiff! Don’t forget that I have offered you the freedom of my islands and have made you welcome! If you had pulled a sword on me, your welcome would have been far less enthusiastic!’ Ranulph said, and his voice was loud enough to make his two daggers rattle. He poured himself more wine from a pewter jug, then beckoned Simon to approach. Peering into Simon’s jug, he pulled a face, then poured wine from his own jug into Simon’s.

‘Sit down!’ he commanded, kicking a stool towards Simon. ‘If I thought you were a threat to me, I’d have you in gaol in an instant. Either that or in a grave. Would you prefer that?’

‘I’d prefer to be free, and to have my friends free with me.’

‘It must be strange, coming to a place like this. I remember when I first came here, I couldn’t believe my luck. Then, after some weeks, I felt as though I was myself in a gaol. A large, green gaol, but a gaol nonetheless.’

Simon was intrigued despite himself. ‘You have got over that, then?’

‘I adore the islands now,’ Ranulph said. ‘I used to be a keen huntsman, but there are no deer here. Still, I couldn’t leave the place for any time, because there is …’ He waved a hand in the air while he scowled, searching for the words. ‘There’s a feeling about the place. Perhaps it’s the feeling that I’m free of the politics of England. Here I am my own King. I do what I want, how I want. I would defend it against anyone who threatened it.

‘The place is worth protecting — that’s what I think,’ he went on. ‘I would guard it against any man who sought to harm it, whether it was a Breton or a Cornishman. And if some arsehole peasant with visions of riches sees fit to turn pirate while living on one of my islands, I’ll learn him the error of his dreams! We have a sharp justice here, and that’s all a pirate deserves.’

There was a hard edge to his voice, and Simon slowly nodded, then tossed his head back and all but drained his jug. ‘Thank you. I should find a bed to-’

‘Stay there! I love this place, Bailiff. I serve it. You could also serve me tomorrow,’ Ranulph added.

Simon felt his face freeze.

‘We shall go to St Nicholas tomorrow and rid these islands of the pirates which infest the place,’ Ranulph said. ‘Will you come and assist us?’

‘I could not think of attacking an ecclesiastical Manor,’ Simon said with a slight hauteur. ‘Especially one owned by my Lord Abbot of Tavistock.’

‘I wouldn’t dream of asking you to.’

Simon was lost for a moment, but then he had to smile and shrug. ‘Well, if it is to destroy pirates … but there is one stipulation I have to make. I shall not feel comfortable in helping with this if my companion Sir Charles is left to wallow in misery. Why do you not release him and allow him to join us?’

‘I will not because he is a dangerous man.’

‘He is a noble knight.’

‘He tried to threaten me. That is an end to the matter.’

Simon set his empty jug on the table. ‘You could not wish for a better warrior.’

‘Enough! I have said no. That’s all there is to be said!’