Kate Sedley - Wheel of Fate

‘Our elder stepbrother, yes.’ Clemency frowned. ‘You speak as though you knew him.’

‘We did know him,’ Adela chimed in. ‘Roger and I stayed at the Voyager, oh it must be more than five years ago now. It was before Adam was born.’

‘It was five years ago,’ I confirmed. ‘It was at the time of the little Duke of York’s marriage to Anne Mowbray and the trial of the Duke of Clarence. But I’ve stayed there since, three years back when Margaret of Burgundy was here. And I heard of Landlord Makepeace’s death when I went looking for him at the Voyager last October. I was never more shocked in my life than to learn he’d been killed. He was a fine and very kind man.’

‘He was,’ Clemency agreed, and both Oswald and Celia nodded.

‘A good man,’ the housekeeper added.

‘And now you all think that his death might not have been an accident?’

‘Yes.’ The three women spoke as one. Only Oswald said nothing, holding aloof from comment.

‘It was the first of our misfortunes,’ Clemency pointed out. ‘The start of everything.’

This changed the complexion of things as far as I was concerned. I had counted Reynold Makepeace as much a friend as an acquaintance, and had been fond of him; fond enough at least for the news of his death, when it had finally come to my ears last autumn, to have saddened me beyond all expectation. If, therefore, there was a possibility that he had been murdered rather than killed accidentally, I felt I had to ferret out the truth.

‘Are you saying, in all seriousness,’ I asked Clemency, ‘that you now believe your stepbrother’s death to have been planned? That someone paid some ruffians to set on him and kill him?’

She returned my look steadily. ‘It is precisely what happened to my half-brother last year, in Cheapside. It seemed like an attack by pickpockets, and indeed it was regarded as such by members of the Watch who brought his body home to us. The coroner, too, had no hesitation in accepting such a verdict.’

‘You didn’t, however?’

‘No.’ It was Oswald’s turn to speak and he did so with the authority of a lawyer. ‘Loath as I am to contribute to this idea of a conspiracy against our family, I have to admit that there were a couple of suspicious circumstances connected with Martin’s death. Firstly, although London’s streets are, regrettably, infested with bands of armed robbers at night, very few, if any, of these men set out deliberately to kill their victims. They might knock them unconscious, and in so doing fatally wound them, but death is not their intention. Martin, on the other hand, was stabbed simply and cleanly through the heart. Secondly, although he had a full purse of money on him and was wearing a silver chain as well as several valuable rings, only one of the rings and a little loose change in one of his pockets were taken. This was attributed by the coroner to the fact that Martin’s attackers had been disturbed. He chose to ignore the other far more significant fact of the way in which my half-brother had been murdered. A knife through the heart can be no accidental killing.’

‘In short,’ I said, just so that there could be no misunderstanding, ‘you think that these apparent robbers were really hired assassins?’

Oswald Godslove hesitated for a second, then, reluctantly, nodded.

‘Well, thank the sweet Lord you’ve confessed as much at last,’ breathed Clemency. ‘You see, Roger, we need you,’ she added, turning to me. ‘Already you’ve persuaded my brother to declare openly that he agrees with us, which, up until now, he has refused to do.’

‘Nonsense!’ Oswald retorted, nettled. ‘I’ve always said that there was something odd about Martin’s death. But that doesn’t mean I believe it’s connected to the other mishaps that have befallen us.’

Clemency and Celia threw up their hands in disgust. ‘Of course they are connected,’ the former declared almost angrily. ‘We have never discovered who it was who left that basket of mushrooms outside the kitchen door a year ago.’

I had temporarily forgotten the death of Charity Godslove. An unsolicited gift from an unknown person did sound suspicious, I had to admit.

‘Did you all eat the mushrooms?’ I asked.

‘All except Oswald,’ Celia answered, smiling faintly at her half-brother on the opposite side of the table.

That made sense. Picking, selling, buying and eating mushrooms was legally forbidden, although it was a law that many people ignored and whose flouting the authorities were inclined to wink at. But it was for this very reason — that the average man or woman was unable to tell the difference between a poisonous and a benign mushroom — that the ban had first been imposed. It was all too easy to make a murder look like an accident where mushrooms were concerned.

‘So,’ I said, ‘if, as seems most probable, a highly poisonous variety of mushroom had been concealed amongst the others, any one of you, including Master Godslove, here, could have been the intended victim. In other words, there was no particular target, just whoever was unfortunate enough to eat it.’

Celia shivered suddenly. ‘Yes,’ she agreed with a nod. ‘That’s what makes us think that someone has a grudge against the whole family.’

‘And also someone who is extraordinarily callous,’ Clemency put in. ‘Someone who doesn’t care who gets harmed as long as he achieves his ends. The victim in that particular instance could just as well have been Arbella or one of the kitchen maids.’

‘Why do you assume this unknown enemy is a man? It could as easily be a woman,’ I pointed out. ‘Poison, they say, is a woman’s weapon. And a woman is as capable of hiring assassins to do her work for her as a man. In fact she would be more likely to do so.’

‘And Sybilla’s “accident”?’ the housekeeper asked, speaking for the first time since the discussion began.

I shrugged. ‘Again, money may have changed hands. One of the workmen repairing the city wall could have been bribed. I imagine you are all in and out of the Bishop’s Gate fairly frequently. There would be no difficulty in recognizing any one of you, I should think.’

There was a sudden silence around the table, broken only by the subdued muttering and giggling of Elizabeth and Nicholas, totally oblivious to the rest of the world and its problems now that they were together again. Adam sat round-eyed and quiet, listening to everything that was said.

‘Well, we know at least two things about this would-be murderer,’ I suggested finally, when the silence became too uncomfortable to maintain any longer.

‘And what are those?’ Celia asked eagerly.

‘That he or she has enormous patience. It’s two years or more since Reynold Makepeace was killed. Nearly as long since your illness.’ I nodded towards Clemency. ‘Another year since your sister, Charity, died and six months since your half-brother was murdered. Also, he or she is persistent. Out of five attempts, two have failed, but that hasn’t stopped further attacks nor, I imagine, will it. As far as our unknown killer is concerned, there is no urgency. Indeed, I suspect that the slow unravelling of events is a part of the enjoyment.’

‘Are you saying that Sybilla and I can expect further attempts on our lives?’ Clemency asked unsteadily

‘I’m afraid so,’ I answered. ‘You are all in danger.’

There was an uncomfortable silence before Oswald gave an uncertain laugh. ‘You paint a bleak picture, Master Chapman,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure that I believe it.’

I smiled. ‘I’m not sure that I believe it, myself,’ I admitted.

‘Well, I believe it,’ Celia declared roundly. ‘I think Roger is in the right of it.’ She dimpled slightly as she called me by my Christian name, but sobered again almost immediately. ‘Three of our number are dead, two have nearly died. The only question in my mind is who is doing this dreadful thing, and why.’