Bernard Knight - A Plague of Heretics

‘Ha! A likely story!’ brayed Richard. ‘I found him standing over my poor sister’s body, still warm after his murderous assault. He tried to silence me with his dagger. Look, there it is, still upon the floor!’

He pointed dramatically at the knife which lay on the flagstones. Seven pairs of eyes stared at de Wolfe, as if waiting to hear his explanation, but they were disappointed.

‘I don’t have to answer your ravings, de Revelle,’ he snarled. ‘You are expert at causing trouble where none exists. I shall wait for the sheriff, who holds the office in which you were found so wanting in honesty.’

One of the men from the Close, a lawyer in the bishop’s service, frowned at his response.

‘This is a difficult situation, Sir John. What is required is a coroner, as you well know. But you yourself are the coroner here, so what is to be done?’

‘Let the sheriff decide,’ snapped John. ‘He is the king’s representative in this county.’

‘And your bosom friend, of course!’ sneered Richard, still rubbing at his aching jaw to emphasise how badly he had been assaulted. ‘What chance is there of him going against your interests?’

As if in answer to the question, there was a commotion outside and the doors were flung open as Henry de Furnellis and his chief clerk came in. He had had only a short distance to travel when summoned, as though he had a manor outside Exeter he also had a town house near the Guildhall.

A gabble of explanations was hurled at him, but Henry ignored them and walked straight up to de Wolfe. His lined old face, resembling a tired bloodhound, looked calmly at the coroner.

‘What’s going on, John?’ he asked mildly.

‘I found my wife lying there on the floor, strangled,’ he replied. ‘And this idiot thinks I did it!’ He jerked his head at his brother-in-law.

De Furnellis looked down at Matilda’s body for the first time. ‘Good God, John! I’m so sorry. Who could have done this awful thing?’

This provoked another cacophony of chatter, above which Richard’s reedy voice rose in protest. ‘What did I say? We will get no justice here!’

He thrust his way through the men thronging the chamber and vanished into the night. The sheriff scowled at those remaining.

‘Clear the room! This is now king’s business. My clerk will take your names in case you are needed as jurors or witnesses.’ He hustled them all outside, and when the last had gone he slammed the door. ‘Now, John, tell me what happened.’

His down-to-earth manner cleared the turmoil in de Wolfe’s mind, and in a few succinct words he explained what had happened.

‘Of all things that I needed at that moment was that bloody fool de Revelle appearing on the scene,’ he said bitterly. ‘It was manna from heaven for him, of course, to catch me in what he imagined was a compromising situation!’

The sheriff looked down at the still shape on the floor. ‘What are we to do with her, John? It’s not decent for her to be left lying there.’

De Wolfe grabbed his hair in a gesture of consternation. ‘In one thing, Richard is right. We need a coroner, for I am not above the law and that is what is demanded. They have raised their hue and cry and I am First Finder. There must be an inquest, and the coroner, whoever he is, should be able to view the corpse where it lies.’

As he uttered the word ‘corpse’ he shivered, the realisation seeping over him that his wife was now just a dead body. Though he could generate no affection for her, she had been a part of his life for so long that he found it hard to believe that she was no more.

Henry de Furnellis pulled at the jowls under his chin as he thought what to do next. ‘Can we get Nicholas de Arundell back just to deal with this?’

This was the manor-lord from near Totnes who had temporarily taken on the coronership when John had been called to Westminster.

John shrugged and gave a great sigh. ‘I suppose so. He’s the obvious answer. He must be sent for straight away, so that he may be here in the morning.’

The sheriff looked down again at Matilda. ‘But can we leave the poor woman here until then?’

‘A sheriff and a coroner can hardly go against the rules laid down by the king’s justices,’ said John. ‘The body must be left undisturbed until the coroner has the opportunity to view it.’

Eventually, they decided to leave her where she was, as in any case the alternatives were difficult. Taking her to lie in the usual mortuary in the castle cart-shed was not to be contemplated and putting her before an altar in either the cathedral or St Olave’s was too much of a departure from the legal process.

‘I will send down a soldier from Rougemont to stand guard over the door,’ declared the sheriff. ‘And another can ride at dawn to Hempston Arundell to fetch Sir Nicholas. With forced riding, he could be back here soon after noon.’

With a last look at the shrouded body near the hearth, Henry firmly shepherded his friend from the hall and closed the door.

‘I didn’t do it, you know,’ said John suddenly as they stood in the vestibule.

The sheriff gripped his arm in a gesture of friendship. ‘It never entered my mind that you did, John! But that bastard de Revelle is going to squeeze every ounce of trouble for you out of this.’

He opened the door to the lane. ‘What are you going to do tonight? You can’t stay here.’

‘I’ll sleep down at the Bush — not that I’m likely to get much sleep,’ he answered. ‘Now I must see to Mary.’

When de Furnellis had left, he went around to the yard, where Brutus was whimpering at Mary’s feet. Though he had been treated with disdain by Matilda, the hound knew that something was very wrong in the household.

‘What will you do tonight, Mary?’

The cook-maid raised her hands. ‘What can I do but stay here, as usual? I’m not afraid of ghosts.’

‘I didn’t harm her, Mary,’ he said, repeating the assurance he had made to the sheriff. She reached up and kissed his bristly cheek.

‘Of course you didn’t, Sir John!’ she said vehemently. ‘But I fear for your safety now, all the same.’

De Wolfe went back to the Bush and told his dreadful tale to the horrified Gwyn and Martha. Already patrons were coming into the tavern who had heard the news higher up in the town, spread by the men who had been turned out for the hue and cry. Some looked askance at the coroner, but others came across to offer their sympathy and support.

‘It must be those bloody ship-men that ravished that poor woman,’ said a carpenter he knew. ‘Flood Bretayne with soldiers, I say, to flush them out!’

Gwyn sat John at his table and pressed a jug of ale upon him, as the only way he knew to express his feelings, while Martha tried to get him to eat again, which he declined.

‘De Revelle is out to make trouble for me over this, Gwyn,’ he said soberly. ‘He sees this as his big chance to even up old scores.’

‘It’s nonsense; no one will take him seriously,’ scoffed his officer.

‘I hope not, but I have a bad feeling about this. He found me standing over her still-warm corpse — and I pulled a knife on him, as I thought it was the killer returning.’

Gwyn still dismissed his fears, and soon Martha persuaded him to go up to the loft and lie down on one of the better feather mattresses. In spite of his fears, John slept dreamlessly for a few hours before dawn, but as soon as he awoke all his troubles came tumbling down on him again.

By the time he finished his morning oatmeal gruel, Thomas appeared in a highly agitated state, as by now everyone in Exeter knew of Matilda’s death. He was almost beside himself with concern and fear for his master’s welfare, as already rumours were circulating that the coroner himself was a suspect.