Edward Marston - The Foxes of Warwick

The fruitless search is telling on his temper. When they caught a poacher the lord Henry ordered him to be mutilated. What if he refuses to be sent on his way and insists on searching here?’

Adam Reynard ran his tongue nervously over his lips while he pondered. Something of Grimketel’s anxiety finally gripped him.

‘Stay here,’ he decided. ‘I will need you to help me.’

Ralph Delchard waited until they left the abbey before he burst into irreverent laughter. He jabbed Gervase Bret teasingly in the ribs.

‘How on earth did you keep such a straight face?’ he said. ‘It was all I could do to stop myself from grinning.’

‘At what?’

‘Your litany of deceit. And on consecrated ground, too! I am surprised that your tongue did not turn black and fall out.’

‘There was no deceit, Ralph. I merely bent the truth slightly.’

‘Bent it? You broke it asunder.’

‘No, I did not.’

‘Oh, I am not complaining,’ said Ralph. ‘You deserve congratulation. The bishop was set to refuse us access to Huna until you spoke. He could not resist you, Gervase. You charmed him until he was ready to grant us any request we wished to make — with his episcopal blessing thrown in for good measure.

And the beauty of it was,’ he added with a slap between his friend’s shoulder blades, ‘Robert de Limesey thought that he had the better bargain.’

‘I had to offer him something,’ said Gervase modestly. ‘The trick was to do it with hints and nudges rather than with firm undertakings. He will have a rude shock when he does appear before our tribunal.’

‘No favour will be shown to him or to any of them.’

‘Yet he thinks his success is already assured.’

‘Thanks to you,’ said Ralph. ‘You duped him like a master. It serves him right for even suggesting such a corrupt bargain!’

‘I did warn you that the bishop might be slippery.’

‘He is a more crafty fox than Adam Reynard.’

‘We had to find some way to talk to Huna,’ said Gervase as they reached the stout wooden building which served as the town gaol. ‘Let us hope he can tell us what we need to hear.’

The letter which they bore from the bishop gained them admission to a narrow cell with a ceiling so low that they had to duck to avoid banging their heads on it. Mouldy straw was scattered on the bare earth. Huna was sitting contentedly in a corner. He looked up with interest.

‘Am I to be called for examination again?’ he asked.

‘No,’ said Gervase.

‘A pity. I enjoyed tying the bishop in knots. Who are you?’

Gervase introduced the two of them, speaking in English for ease of communication and immediately winning the man’s confidence. Huna listened to his tale, then pulled himself up from the floor.

‘The good blacksmith arrested for murder?’ he cried.

‘We think him innocent,’ said Gervase.

‘Why, so do I. He was kind to me and fed my donkey hay.’

‘What time did you call at the forge?’

‘Not long after dawn.’

‘And where had you spent the night?’

‘On the edge of the Forest of Arden. There was an abandoned hut — no more than a few pieces of timber held together but it was better than staying out in the cold.’

‘Did you go straight to the forge?’

‘Yes,’ said Huna. ‘It was pure chance that I found him. We made our way to the main road and there was the forge, waiting for us with a warm fire and a greeting. The blacksmith seemed pleased to see us.’

‘A tradesman always likes custom,’ noted Ralph.

‘Not when there is no chance of payment. Look at me, sirs,’ he said, indicating his threadbare attire. ‘Boio could see what you do. I have no money. I rely on the kindness of men like the blacksmith.’

‘So why was he so pleased to see you?’ asked Gervase.

‘I do not know.’

‘Was anyone else at the forge?’

‘No, Master Bret.’

‘There was no woman there?’

‘No woman, man or child,’ said the other. ‘Boio had the bleak look of a man who lives alone. Not that he was unhappy with his lot. Far from it. He kept telling me that he liked his work so much he hardly ever stirred outside his forge. But he did not look cared for or watched over.’ He gave a grin. ‘Like me. We are two of a kind.’

‘Go back to the forest,’ said Ralph. ‘When you left that hut, did you see anyone else near the forest?’

‘I may have done.’

‘Where?’

‘Among the trees. I thought I caught a glimpse of a man but I may have been mistaken in the poor light. Either that or he hid from me.’

‘And it was a man?’ added Gervase. ‘Not a woman?’

Huna was certain. ‘A man. No woman could run that fast.’

‘The man was running?’

‘If he was really there.’

‘Would he have seen you, if he was?’

‘He must have done.’

‘Why?’

‘The path we followed was across open land,’ said Huna. ‘It skirts the forest. Anyone hiding in the trees would have seen me.’

Gervase turned to his colleague. ‘Grimketel?’

‘It could be.’

The two of them conferred before taking Huna through his story once more. Fresh details came to light which helped him to be more specific about the time when he was at the forge but they were not sure whether the old man was recalling them for the first time or inventing them in order to assist Boio. For all that, he was a valuable witness whose evidence supported everything which the blacksmith had confided to Brother Benedict when they’d met in the dungeon. Huna was amused to hear that the monk himself was now incarcerated.

‘Why do they always do it?’ he said.

‘Do what?’ asked Ralph.

‘Lock up the wrong people. First Boio. Then this hapless monk.

And now me. Three innocent and harmless men, branded as criminals. Yet all we have sought to do is to help others.’

‘We will soon have Benedict free. And if Gervase can weave his spell in front of Bishop Robert again, we may even be able to get you out of this gaol, Huna. We brought a horse to take you back to Warwick.’

‘My old donkey will suit me,’ said the other. ‘But do not worry on my account. I have been in this position before and God always delivers me one way or another. He needs me to do His work.’

‘The bishop told us of the miracle you performed.’

‘I will convince him that it was no sorcery in the end. But thank you for coming to see me. You made me feel important to you for a while and that cheered me up.’

‘You are important to us,’ said Gervase. ‘What you have told us confirms Boio’s alibi. It was vital to talk to someone who went to the forge that morning. Since you spent the night near the forest, your testimony is additionally helpful. I believe that you did see a man running through the trees. He deliberately hid from you.’

‘Why? I could do him no harm.’

‘Yes, you could.’

‘How?’

‘By recognising him again. If it is the man we think it may have been, he would have good cause to stay out of sight.’

Huna scratched under his arm as he tried to recall the incident.

There was a long pause before his face brightened with a revelation.

‘I did see something,’ he asserted. ‘I am sure I did.’

‘Go on,’ urged Ralph.

‘But it may not have been a man.’

‘Who else could it have been?’

‘Ursa.’

‘Who is Ursa?’

‘Yes,’ said Huna as the idea took hold of him. ‘He said that they spent the night in the Forest of Arden. The dwarf even mentioned seeing that derelict hut so they must have been somewhere close by. It could have been him flitting through the trees. It might have been Ursa.’

‘Who, in God’s name, is this Ursa?’