Michael Jecks - The Outlaws of Ennor

David shrugged when the Prior glanced at him. ‘Many, I expect, but all too small to take a crew large enough to hope to threaten them. What sort of ship was she?’

‘A keel,’ Simon said, remembering something that Gervase had told him. ‘She had one large square sail and banks of oars.’

David looked up at the sky and wrinkled his nose. ‘No, I doubt we could catch her, then. Those things are very quick — it’s why they use them for raiding. We could try in one or two ships, but we could only carry five or six men per boat, and they’d keep us off too easily.’

‘Is there no other way to catch them?’ Baldwin demanded. Every moment that they waited here, he could feel the distance growing between the pirates and the islands. ‘There must be some means of pursuing them and bringing them to justice.’

David shrugged. ‘The only ship we have is the Faucon Dieu . She’s large enough to carry men to take the pirates’ ship, but she’s still full of wine and other merchandise.’

‘How long to empty her?’

‘Forget it. It’d take a day to empty her and prepare her for the chase. By the time we could set off, the bastards would be home. Face it: we can’t catch her.’

‘We can try,’ Baldwin said, and then he turned angrily on Ranulph. ‘You cretin! You were greedy enough to come here and try to take this island, weren’t you, but that was because you saw a means of extending your lands. You wanted the customs from St Nicholas’s Water, I suppose.’

‘I wanted to punish the pirates,’ Ranulph said. ‘These peasants are responsible for murder and piracy and the Prior wouldn’t do anything about it.’

‘You had no proof,’ Baldwin snapped. ‘Because they weren’t responsible! Those pirates out there are the men who tried to capture the Anne , not the people from this island.’

‘I wasn’t to know.’

‘Could you prepare the Faucon Dieu to sail,’ Simon asked David, ‘without emptying her? Then we could empty her while sailing. It would save time.’

‘No!’ Thomas cried with an agonised voice. ‘You can’t throw away all my-’

‘Yes,’ David said.

‘Send a man to order it,’ Baldwin said. ‘Select the best men from here and have them join us at the ship. We shall sail as soon as we can.’

‘We’ll need more water and some victuals,’ David said, frowning. He called a man over. ‘It will take a little while.’

‘How long?’ Baldwin demanded.

David gazed up at the sky. ‘If we can use the priory’s stores, we can set off before the sun is at her highest.’

‘Do so, then,’ Baldwin said. ‘And hurry.’

William sighed. He had been silent for a long while, staring pensively at Ranulph and listening to Baldwin, but now he shook his head sadly and peered at the Prior. ‘There is one thing, perhaps, Prior, which is a relief: the people who killed Luke are uncovered.’

‘What?’ Simon demanded.

‘It must have been those pirates. They were nestling there in among the islands, and they decided to kill the one man who might have seen them. Perhaps he was out seeking gulls’ eggs and spotted them, or maybe they came ashore to raid, and slew him then. Whichever was the true case, I suppose we shall never know.’

Cryspyn’s face lightened. ‘You think that this is possible? That is a marvellous relief.’

‘It would explain much.’ David nodded.

Baldwin shot him a look. ‘Such as what?’

‘I found it hard to believe that a local man would have killed him. We aren’t murderers,’ David said, nodding towards Ranulph in a gesture of comparison.

Ranulph reddened. ‘You call me murderer? My sword-’

‘Is in my hands,’ Simon reminded him harshly. ‘Shut up.’

‘What of the gather-reeve?’ Baldwin asked. ‘And the theft of my sword?’

‘Theft?’ This time Ranulph’s eyes looked like they would pop from his skull. Simon told himself that to be accused of homicide was one thing: Ranulph clearly had very definite views on suggestions that he was no better than a drawer-latch, though.

Baldwin looked at him without comment for a moment, then, ‘I was washed up on to the beach. If my sword had fallen from my body, it would have sunk. Also, it would have bruised me, were it torn from me. I am not bruised, nor is the belt damaged. See! It is being worn by my friend Simon, and there is no damage done to it. Someone must have found me and removed the sword. They carried it back to Ennor, and when they arrived there, they set it near the body of the dead man.’

‘That is mad. How can you reach that conclusion?’ Thomas had joined them, and now he stood a short way from them. ‘I could understand someone taking your sword and using it to kill, just so that his own dagger would be clean of blood, and then discarding the thing, but carrying it to another island? And that supposes that he knew to find you there in the first place.’

‘There were some people who were out that night. We know that Luke was, and we know that you were,’ Simon said. ‘You had gone out to speak to Luke, hadn’t you? Or was it to talk to Robert, to persuade him not to blackmail you?’

‘He wouldn’t have dared to blackmail me! The fool was too feeble to try it!’

‘Yet we all thought he was a murderer!’ Simon said. ‘ You told everyone that he was!’

‘A murderer in my pay, though,’ said Thomas dismissively. ‘He wouldn’t threaten me. He knew I could order any of the other men at the castle to kill him.’

Ranulph cleared his throat. ‘In whose pay?’

‘He was your servant, my Lord. As I am,’ Thomas said silkily.

Ranulph nodded. ‘I see. What were you doing there, then, loyal servant? You were out until late that night. The gatekeeper told me you paid him to open the gate quietly after dark. Where had you been?’

‘I was talking to Luke. He wanted to pay me to take him away from the island.’

‘And how would you do that?’ Ranulph asked.

Simon thought that if Baldwin’s sword showed any signs of rust, that voice could be used to protect it. It was as smooth as the best oil, dripping with insincerity.

‘I was to try to win him a passage on a ship.’

‘Why should you do that for him?’ Ranulph asked.

‘He thought that I might,’ Thomas responded calmly. ‘Because he was a priest and I was known to be a religious man, he thought he might be able to persuade me for free, just as a favour to a priest. When I refused, in horror,’ he nodded to Cryspyn, ‘to think that I should be asked to carry away a man of God from his vocation, he offered me money.’

‘I didn’t realise he had any,’ Baldwin said. ‘There was none in his cell.’

‘His belongings were terribly stirred, though, were they not?’ William said. ‘Maybe the pirates broke up his belongings to find his cash, and took it with them.’

‘Or perhaps someone else paid him, and went back to steal the money away again, and killed the fellow at the same time,’ Baldwin said.

‘What are you suggesting?’ Thomas asked, but his voice was harder now.

‘I suggest that since you had a ship, and were dealing illegally, taking the customs to yourself and not reporting them, perhaps you paid Luke to hold his tongue. And then you went to his home to find the money, but managed to kill him as well,’ Baldwin said.

‘Or,’ Simon considered, ‘there was no money. He attempted to blackmail you, and you simply murdered him for his efforts.’

‘This is fascinating,’ Thomas said sarcastically, ‘but surely it was more likely that the pirates killed him.’

‘What of Robert, though? Did he learn of your venture and ask for money as well?’

‘My friend, I have no such ventures,’ Thomas said, but he was looking paler, grey about the mouth, Baldwin thought. It could have been righteous indignation at wrongful accusations, or it might have been fear at the correct accusation.