Paul Doherty - The Waxman Murders

‘But he has now disappeared?’

‘Sir Hugh,’ Wendover leaned over pleadingly, joining his hands together, ‘nobody left Maubisson that night, I assure you!’

‘Yet afterwards?’ Corbett declared. ‘I mean, when the doors were forced and the corpses found, surely there was chaos and commotion; someone could have escaped?’

‘I don’t think so,’ Wendover replied. ‘We were vigilant yet nobody noticed anything. Sir Hugh, I know you’ve been round Maubisson. Did you see any footprints, any sign of a shutter being prised or a door being forced?’

Corbett didn’t reply, but stared at a point behind Wendover’s head.

‘Thank you, Captain,’ he said eventually.

Wendover remained seated.

‘I said thank you,’ Corbett repeated.

‘Sir Hugh,’ Wendover begged, ‘the Lady Adelicia. .’

‘I don’t know,’ Corbett replied. ‘That is a matter for you and her to talk about. For the moment she is still the King’s prisoner, as you too could well be, Master Wendover.’

Berengaria was next to be sworn. She seemed unabashed by the proceedings and quickly mouthed the words of the oath administered by a still nervous Parson Warfeld. She sat all demure, hands in her lap, eyes bright with excitement, as if she’d been invited to some Yuletide mummery. She quickly explained how she was a parish child, placed in service, and about eighteen months previously had entered into the service of Lady Adelicia, who had been a most gracious mistress. How on the day Sir Rauf had been killed she and Lady Adelicia had visited the stalls in Canterbury. As she chattered on, Corbett let his hand fall with a crash against the table. Berengaria jumped, startled, then forced a sweet smile, hunching her shoulders, fingers pushing tendrils of hair from her face.

‘How old are you?’

‘Oh, seventeen, eighteen summers, Sir Hugh,’ came the gushing reply.

Corbett turned to Ranulf. ‘Do you think she’ll hang?’

‘Oh undoubtedly, she has reached the age.’

‘Hang?’ Berengaria’s voice turned to a screech; her smile had now faded. ‘Hanged, Sir Hugh, I’ve done-’

‘You’ve committed perjury.’ Corbett leaned across the table, pushing the candelabra closer as if to examine her face more carefully. ‘You’re a liar, Berengaria. I can see that in your eyes. You’re certainly a perjurer. We know that Lady Adelicia visited Captain Wendover in his chamber at The Chequer of Hope. I believe,’ Corbett laughed, ‘half of Canterbury knows that! And you, little Berengaria, sent here and thither to buy this and buy that? I don’t think so. According to a witness, on those afternoons Lady Adelicia visited Canterbury and was closeted with her lover, you sometimes went back to Sir Rauf’s house. Why? Did you go back that afternoon?’ Again Corbett’s hand fell with a crash. ‘You’re on oath, wench, this is not some parlour game. You either tell the truth, hang or be pressed to death!’

Berengaria, face all pale, would have jumped off the stool, but Ranulf half rose so she settled herself quickly, staring bleakly at Corbett, who suppressed any pity at the terror he’d caused. This young woman knew more than she’d confessed. They were not here in this gloomy hall to listen to her lies. He had been attacked and threatened, his friend Griskin had been killed; why should he show compassion to her?

‘Very good, Berengaria. On the afternoon Sir Rauf was killed, did you go back to Sweetmead Manor? Did you come here?’

Berengaria nodded.

‘Why? Tell me the truth.’

Berengaria closed her eyes and put her head down. ‘I knew matters between Sir Rauf and Lady Adelicia were not good, but Sir Rauf had his needs. One day I met him in the garden beyond. He told me what he wanted the Lady Adelicia to do in his bedchamber and how she had refused. He offered me a piece of silver, and later that day I visited him in his chancery chamber.’

‘And what happened?’ Corbett asked, hiding his surprise that this young, comely maid could make such a confession.

Berengaria raised her head. ‘You are not poor, Sir Hugh. You don’t know what it’s like to be a beggar, to be sent hither and thither. Sir Rauf was kind — at least to me. I would kneel before him and render his need.’

‘And the Lady Adelicia didn’t know?’

‘Oh no! Not her! Not the lady of the manor!’ Berengaria’s voice was rich with malice.

‘Did Sir Rauf know what Lady Adelicia was doing? He did, didn’t he? You told him.’

‘Yes, he did.’ Now Berengaria sounded calm and calculating. ‘He once told me that he would go to the church courts and have his marriage annulled. He said he had talked about that to Parson Warfeld. How it hadn’t been properly consummated. Sir Rauf promised that if I bore witness and told the court exactly what Lady Adelicia had done, who knows who might be his next wife? So when Lady Adelicia went into Canterbury, she thought I would go amongst the stalls, visit this merchant shop or that, or dawdle in a church. Sometimes I didn’t. I’d immediately hasten back to Sir Rauf and tell him exactly what had happened and administer to his needs. He’d pay me a coin, stroke my hair and tell me to wait, to be patient.’

‘And Lady Adelicia knew nothing of your betrayal?’

‘Betrayal, Sir Hugh? What did I owe her? Sir Rauf paid me. He had put a roof over my head. He looked after me and promised he would do so in the future.’

‘So Sir Rauf was going to apply to the archbishop’s court for an annulment?’

‘Yes, Sir Hugh. The marriage had not been properly consummated. Lady Adelicia refused Sir Rauf’s advances.’

Corbett stared in astonishment at this young woman, marble-hard eyes in a set, determined face. He realised the mistake he had made. Berengaria was highly intelligent, a born intriguer, a plotter.

‘And the afternoon Sir Rauf was murdered?’

‘I went back,’ Berengaria replied. ‘I came through the main gate and up the path, slipping through the trees. Sir Rauf often arranged to leave the front door open, off the latch, unlocked and unbarred. We were never disturbed. Lechlade was always drunk. We would hear him singing or shouting to himself. That day, though, both the front door and the one at the rear were locked and secured. I knocked but there was no reply. I realised something was wrong but I couldn’t stay too long so I hastened back. I visited a stall in the Mercery and bought some ribbons and a little thread my mistress had asked for. I later met her, as planned, at the Butter Cross. When we arrived back at Sweetmead, we found. .’ For the first time ever Berengaria showed some genuine emotion. ‘We found Sir Rauf had been murdered.’

‘Do you think,’ Ranulf asked, ‘Lady Adelicia could have also secretly returned home and done such a mischief?’

Berengaria narrowed her eyes. ‘I thought of that,’ she replied in a half-whisper. ‘She wanted him dead, but no, I don’t think she had the time, the strength or the will. She’s squeamish. If she’d wanted someone killed, she would have hired that oaf of a lover, Wendover, to do it for her.’

‘As you came and went to Sweetmead,’ Corbett asked, ‘did you see anybody else?’

Berengaria shook her head. ‘No, sir, it was a cold winter’s day. Packmen, carts clattering along the road, but no one I recognised.’

‘Surely,’ Corbett asked, ‘if Sir Rauf had agreed to keep the door open, and on that particular day it was locked, you must have become suspicious?’

‘I realised something was wrong,’ Berengaria was flustered, ‘but not that! I said Sir Rauf would often leave the latch off, but not always. If the door was locked that was a sign he could not, or would not, receive me.’ She forced a smile. ‘He had other business.’