Michael Jecks - The Outlaws of Ennor

Thomas nodded, smiling thinly. ‘So you have another suspect,’ he sneered.

Baldwin was closely observing William. ‘Mere proximity doesn’t make a man a suspect.’

‘Why should I have killed Robert?’ William demanded hotly. ‘I had known him for years.’

‘And you always hated him for his arrogance and greed. That was the basis of your complaints to me, was it not?’ Thomas asked nastily. ‘Perhaps you decided that it was high time you paid him back for his treatment of your pet islanders, eh?’

Baldwin was looking at David. ‘What about you? You told us you were at your boat. Who saw you there? You already mentioned that you saw Luke that night. You told me that when you were at the beach with Tedia and me.’

‘I did see him. He was off towards the sea.’

‘Yet Thomas says he saw Luke before the storm, is that right?’ Baldwin asked.

Thomas nodded and William said, ‘It was some little while before the main storm struck, but the wind was building. I think that was why Luke was desperate to get back, before the waters could grow too violent.’

‘Yet you hated the gather-reeve too, didn’t you?’ Baldwin said to David.

‘Who didn’t? He was a murderous bastard.’

‘So the tales say,’ Baldwin agreed.

‘No!’ Simon said. He drank some more wine and narrowed his eyes, staring at Thomas. ‘Ranulph told me you started spreading stories again about him, how he’d killed a man happily. You started the rumours to make the people quiescent when the next demands for money came.’

‘Tell us the story,’ Baldwin commanded.

‘There is little enough to tell.’ Thomas shrugged. ‘He was a runaway from a vill because he’d killed a man, and I found him in a tavern in Dartmouth. That night, I saw him stab a man in the side and the neck, oh, must have been sixteen, seventeen times, and all because this fellow was feeling up some woman Robert found attractive. He was always getting into trouble with women. The point was, he was petrified. I could see it in his face: he was smiling, you know? A big grin of terror on his face. I told everyone he was a berserker to scare them and make him safer, but in truth he was no fighter.’

Baldwin could see a nodding head, and was not surprised to see that it was Sir Charles. Returning to Thomas, he said, ‘This story of his enjoying killing was well enough known on the islands?’

‘Yes. He was a wanted man for the murder of Jack of Carkill.’

Simon frowned. There was something about that name that was familiar … No. The thought was gone.

Baldwin was speaking to David again. ‘So who else could have been out there that night?’

‘Isok, I suppose. He walked to Mariota’s house once his wife rejected him again.’

‘What did he do then?’

‘He stayed there, I suppose.’

Baldwin looked at Tedia, then Mariota. ‘Did he remain in your house all the night?’

‘I expect so.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘I went straight to Tedia, to comfort her.’

Baldwin gave a quick frown. ‘So it is possible that he too was out and about.’

Tedia shook her head. Her man wouldn’t have done something like this. What was Baldwin doing, trying to remove him? There was no need now, her marriage was over. Anyway, Isok had denied killing Robert.

‘So we have this: a man or woman found me, left me to die but stole my sword, and took it down to Ennor. There they left it by the body of Robert as though to put the blame for the murder on me.’

‘Unless it was you,’ David said smoothly with a cynical lift of his brow. ‘Perhaps you did kill him, and only came to this island to throw all of us off your path.’

‘Half-dead, I doubt any man would have considered trying to find a treacherous path in the darkness,’ Baldwin said shortly. ‘No stranger could manage it. It would have to be local man, one who had time.’

He couldn’t help himself. His gaze went back to William, to the man whose feet had unerringly led them both here only the day before.

It was late in the afternoon when all the people had left the hall. Many were singing drunkenly, so great was the relief at the dual saving, both from the pirates, and from the men of Ennor.

Baldwin stood at the priory’s gate and stared out. Far in the distance he could see the island of Ennor, a strangely calm scene now, apparently. With the fighting over, the place wore a suspiciously quiet aspect, like an enemy concealing its strength in woods. There should have been a lowering appearance to such a dangerous location.

‘Sir Baldwin?’

It was the voice he wanted to hear; the one he most feared. She stood as though nervous, a rug thrown over her shoulders, hiding the bright green tunic beneath. ‘Are you staying here in the priory tonight?’

He gave her a gentle smile. ‘I think I should. How would the Prior treat you in future if he were to guess that you and I committed adultery? You are married, and so am I.’

‘But he couldn’t be concerned on my account,’ she said, going to his side and leaning against him. ‘I am divorced.’

‘Has your husband returned from his fishing yet?’

‘You fear talking? Can we not even talk like lovers?’ she asked sadly.

‘We are not lovers, Tedia. We enjoyed a moment in time, but it was because of your sadness and vulnerability, and my weakness and vulnerability. Both of us needed companionship, and we were lucky enough to find some comfort in each other.’

‘I thought you loved me.’

‘I did. For a moment. But I am still married. I cannot change that.’

‘He won’t return.’

‘Who?’

‘My husband. He sailed away to die. He guessed the truth about you and me. He thought I’d been unfaithful with Robert, too. Well, that’s not his fault. I would have been, had I the chance.’

‘But he died.’

‘And in his stead I thought I’d won you.’

‘Who could have killed him?’

‘Many could have’ Tedia said. In her mind’s eye she saw Mariota walking in, laughing at the wind and sea, drenched after travelling through the storm. At the time she had thought that the water was a proof of how bad the storm was, but now she wondered.

‘What are you thinking?’

‘Nothing.’

‘I believe you told me a story once,’ Baldwin said, ‘of an old woman from Bechiek who found a man’s body and cut the fingers from his hand to take his rings.’

‘What of it?’

‘Perhaps Mariota is formed from the same mould.’

‘No! She is a good woman.’

‘Perhaps she is, after her own lights. I merely wonder about her treatment of a corpse. Would she despoil it? Me?’

Tedia could not answer. There was only one response. Mariota was a true island woman. The sea took her husband, but provided her with all she owned. Mariota spent hours each week studying the shorelines, seeking whatever the sea might have brought her. A man with a sword on his hip would be a perfect prize.

They said no more, but Baldwin walked through the gate and glanced back at her enquiringly. Wordlessly, she followed after him.

Mariota was indoors at her fireside, kneading a heavy-looking dough. At her side was an ancient quern, and Baldwin looked at it pointedly.

‘You want to say something?’

‘The quern.’

‘Yes, old knight. It’s illegal. So what? So is almost anything an old woman tries to do,’ she cackled. ‘I ought to take my flour to the priory’s mill, but they charge so much. The miller is nothing more than a thief. Nothing more than that, the devil take him.’

‘Perhaps the devil would prefer a woman’s soul. Especially that of a woman who robs the dead and sometimes leaves a man for dead, just to take his belongings. I wondered why, when we were here before, you said that you had mended my clothes because you “owed” it to me, or something like that.’