Bernard Knight - Crowner Royal

It was now clear to the other men in the room what had happened before dawn broke that morning.

De Levelondes summed up the situation. ‘So we must assume that the Lady Hawise has eloped with Ranulf of Abingdon. This must surely be some passing infatuation, Lord Renaud. She will come to her senses very quickly.’

Stanford soon picked upon a flaw in his optimism. ‘For a knight in the king’s service to suddenly abandon his career is a major disaster for him, so if he has fled with a lady, then he must be very confident of her fidelity to him.’

He stopped and slapped his head. ‘And why in the name of God has William Aubrey gone with them? She cannot be infatuated with them both!’

This pronouncement suddenly ignited a train of thought in de Wolfe’s mind. Ranulf and William Aubrey, fleeing and abandoning their careers? What would they live on now? Was it possible? He began to think the unthinkable.

‘We need to hurry to the stables and speak to anyone else who knows these two men,’ he said decisively and without waiting for anyone’s reaction, he motioned to Gwyn and headed for the door.

Within the hour, an urgent meeting had been convened in the Justiciar’s chambers. Hubert Walter presided, sitting grave-faced at his table, with William Marshal on his right hand. Nathaniel de Levelondes, the Keeper of the Palace, Martin Stanford, the Deputy Marshal, William fitz Hamon, one of the Barons of the Exchequer, John de Wolfe and Renaud de Seigneur were sitting or standing around the table. At the back of the room, between two palace guards and looking very apprehensive, were Hawise’s maid, a stable-boy and two of the esquires from the Marshalsea.

The pressing nature of this most high-level congress was not because an under-marshal had run off with a young woman, even though she was the wife of a minor noble from Blois. It was because of what John de Wolfe had postulated back in his chamber — the coincidence that the two under-marshals who had escorted the treasure chest back from Winchester, were the same ones who had cut and run, without any apparent funds.

All that was so far known about the emergency had already been given to Hubert Walter by the Deputy Marshal and by the coroner and now the Justiciar wanted to harden up the available evidence.

‘What do we know about this Ranulf that might be relevant?’ he demanded. Martin Stanford beckoned to the two esquires, who reluctantly came nearer.

‘These men knew him best, as they shared accommodation,’ he began. ‘For my part, I know that Ranulf of Abingdon was a most competent and reliable man when it came to his duties.’

‘Your tone suggests that there was another side to his character,’ snapped Hubert.

‘He was a young and energetic fellow,’ said Stanford. ‘He was fond of women, as many of us were at his age. But he was also keen to the point of obsession on gambling, both at dice, cards and in the wider sense, as well as chancing his luck at tournaments, where he was a skilful fighter.’

He prodded one of the squires, a young man of about twenty, who looked frightened to death in this august company.

‘Elias, you knew him best, for you sometimes acted as his squire in the tournaments and melees. What can you tell us?’

‘He was certainly devoted to jousting, sir, mainly because of the prize money and the forfeits of horse and armour of those he defeated.’

‘Has he said anything of suddenly leaving the king’s employ?’

Elias shook his blond head. ‘No, but he often boasted that one day he would take himself abroad and make his fortune going around the tournaments in Germany and Flanders. He said that the restrictions in England made it hardly worth the trouble of entering for the jousts.’

John knew it was true that, though King Richard had relaxed the rules, his father Henry had been against knights killing themselves for money, so many went across the Channel for their sport.

‘What about this lady?’ demanded William Marshal. He almost said ‘this bloody woman’, but realised that her husband was present. ‘Did he say anything about her?’

Elias reddened. ‘I was not with him on the progress to Gloucester and back, my lord. But since he has been back, he spoke of little else other than a new paramour, though he would not name her.’

‘But you must have known who it was!’ barked the Keeper.

‘Indeed, it was obvious that it was the Lady Hawise,’ admitted the squire.

‘And you say you had no idea that he was going to vanish so precipitately like this?’ growled Hubert.

‘None at all, Your Grace! He has seemed excited these past few days, but I put that down to his latest romance. He has had quite a few of those; I knew the signs.’

Renaud de Seigneur made a gargling noise at this exposure of the nature of his wife’s lover, but the Justiciar overrode him.

‘Have you any idea of where he might have gone? And what of the other man, this Aubrey?’

‘He gave no indication at all, sire! I cannot understand it, but Gilbert here knew William Aubrey better than I.’

The other young man, a muscular red-headed fellow, was pulled forward by the Deputy Marshal.

‘Do you know anything that throws light on this unfortunate affair?’ he rasped.

‘William said nothing to me, though like Ranulf, he seemed very excited these past days. He, too, was a keen gambler and I know that both of them were deeply in debt during the past few months.’

‘How so?’ demanded de Wolfe, venturing a question for the first time, as money seemed at the root of this debacle.

‘He and Ranulf had been several times to the Jews for loans. They had lost heavily at a tournament in Wilton last winter and they had visited several moneylenders, paying off debts owed to one with borrowings from another — a recipe for disaster in the long run.’

‘Maybe they have run away to escape repaying these debts,’ suggested William fitz Hamon, a judge from the King’s Bench.

Gilbert turned up his hands. ‘Perhaps, my lord. For some time, they were very anxious about their debts, but, recently, they no longer spoke of them and I got the impression that somehow they had come by substantial funds once again. I assumed one or the other had made a big winning at dice or cards, as they have not been jousting for some time.’

William Marshal spoke again. ‘Have you any idea where they might have gone?’

‘As Elias has said, Ranulf was always talking about going to Flanders and Germany to make their fortunes in the big tournaments that are held there. I have no other suggestion, my lord.’

The questioning and discussion went on for a time, with no concrete conclusions being made. By then, the Lord of Freteval was almost jumping up and down with impatience, demanding that something be done to ‘rescue’ his wife, though most of those present felt that Hawise failed to look upon it as an abduction.

Hubert Walter eventually stood up to terminate the meeting.

‘All that we can do is pursue these men, both for the sake of the lady and her husband — and because there are possibly other issues at stake.’

‘And where are we to seek them, Your Grace?’ asked the Deputy Marshal. ‘It sounds as if they might make for the Continent, but at which port? Dover is the nearest for Flanders, but there are a dozen havens from Portsmouth round to the Thames or even up to Essex and Suffolk that would do as well.’

Another discussion began and it was decided that the Deputy Marshal would send out a number of small search parties to the most likely ports on the Kent and Sussex coasts, each with a knight or squire and a couple of men-at-arms. As the fugitives already had a number of hours’ start and their destination was unknown, it seemed a forlorn hope, but it was all that could be done.