Edward Marston - The Foxes of Warwick

Thorkell hung his head. ‘Your holdings are secure as long as you live, my lord. But who will inherit them when Thorkell of Warwick passes away?’

Thorkell looked up with gathering fury. His eyes kindled.

‘I wish that I had known Martin Reynard was a traitor,’ he said with bitterness. ‘I would have murdered the fellow myself!’

Still imprisoned in his cell, Huna was reflecting wryly on the vagaries of his occupation when he heard a scraping noise. He thought it might be a mouse in the straw or another rat nosing its way in through the drain hole until a low whistle took his gaze upward. A familiar face was framed in the barred window.

Huna got up at once and crossed the cell, wondering how anyone as small as the dwarf could reach such a high window. The explanation soon became clear when his friend started to bob and sway. The bearward was seated on the shoulders of his animal.

Their conversation was conducted in a series of whispers.

‘The guards would not let me in,’ said the dwarf, ‘so we sneaked around the back of the gaol. I have brought you food, Huna.’

‘God bless you!’ said the old man as bread was passed through to him. ‘But what has happened to my donkey?’

‘We have taken good care of him.’

‘Thank you.’

‘He is in the stable where all four of us spent the night.’

‘Fed and watered?’

‘Regularly. He is very happy but he misses his master.’

‘I may soon be let out to join him,’ said Huna hopefully. ‘They tell me that I am to appear before the bishop again but I do not believe he means to prosecute me. The boy whom I cured and his father will have spoken on my behalf. They will have assured him that no sorcery was involved.’

‘It was not. I was there myself.’

‘I think the bishop finds me too big a nuisance to keep here.

That is what usually happens when they arrest me. They push me around at first, then send me on my way with dire warnings.

But what is all that commotion I heard earlier? Did you have a lively audience?’

‘We did not,’ said the dwarf, ‘but your friend did.’

‘Friend?’

‘The one you told me about. Boio the Blacksmith.’

‘He has been given sanctuary at the abbey.’

‘Somebody wants him out, Huna. There are armed men all round it. They tell me that some of them had a violent argument with the bishop when he refused to let them in. What on earth did your friend do to stir up such an argument?’

‘He simply protested his innocence.’

‘Why does he need sanctuary if he committed no crime?’

‘Being innocent is a crime in this case,’ said Huna with a wry smile. ‘Boio made important people look like fools. They will not let him get away with that.’

‘What will become of him?’ asked the dwarf.

‘That depends on me.’

‘How can you help him?’

‘I do not know yet but I will devise a way. But what of you?’

‘We came to bid farewell, old man,’ said the other sadly. ‘Ursa and I will quit the town tomorrow.’

‘Where will I find you until then?’

‘In the stable with your donkey.’

‘Good,’ said Huna. ‘If they let me out, I may be able to show you another miracle and teach you the trick of it.’

‘I would love to learn it, Huna. What miracle will you perform?’

‘I will make a man walk through stone walls.’

The dwarf grinned in approval then let out a yell of pain as the bear tired of supporting him and turned mutinous, tossing his master uncaringly on to the ground before letting out a penitent whine and somersaulting around him in a vain bid to win back his favour.

It was well into the afternoon when Ralph and his men finally got to Coventry and they headed straight for the abbey. There was no sign of Philippe Trouville but Henry Beaumont was standing outside the gate of the abbey, conferring with the captain of his men-at-arms. Ralph noted that the soldiers were stationed at intervals around the whole building.

‘Call off the siege, my lord,’ he commanded, riding up.

‘Why?’ asked Henry.

‘Because you pursue an innocent man.’

‘Boio is a fugitive from justice.’

‘Not any more. Grimketel’s testimony was false. I can prove it.’

‘What witness will you call?’ said Henry cynically. ‘Some doddering old man who had his donkey shoed free?’

‘No, my lord. One of your own men.’

‘Mine?’

‘Warin the Forester.’

Ralph dismounted and told him of his encounter in the forest.

Henry would not believe him at first but the detail Ralph was able to give was too convincing and he was forced to accept it.

‘Warin will rot in my dungeon!’ he vowed. ‘With Adam Reynard alongside him. Nobody poaches my deer.’

‘There is a more heinous crime here as well.’

‘Is there?’

‘They were ready to stand back and watch Boio die for a murder that he did not commit. Grimketel was the main offender but these other two are accessories.’ Ralph gestured at the abbey. ‘Now will you call off the hounds and let Boio walk out of there a free man?’

‘No, I will not!’

‘But you must, my lord.’

‘Why?’

‘Because the blacksmith did not kill Martin Reynard.’

‘He escaped from my castle,’ said Henry sourly. ‘That is a crime in itself. And he injured one of my guards in doing so. That adds a charge of assault. Then there is the second death. Boio will stand trial for the murder of Grimketel.’

‘He could not possibly have killed him.’

‘You saw the evidence yourself.’

‘What I saw,’ said Ralph with slow deliberation, ‘was the lord Philippe kneeling over the body and telling me that Boio had just fled.’

‘That is exactly what happened.’

‘Then why could you not find him?’

‘He eluded us.’

‘He was never there, my lord. You must have spoken with the abbot or the bishop by now and, as I see, were given a dusty answer. Did they say what time Boio arrived here yesterday?’

‘Shortly before vespers.’

‘There is your proof,’ insisted Ralph. ‘Even with wings on his heels, Boio could not have run all the way from Grimketel’s house to the abbey in so short a time. It was a journey halfway across the county.’

‘He must have had a horse.’

‘The fastest mount would not have got him here in time for the vespers bell. Think hard, my lord. You know when Grimketel’s body was discovered because you sent the lord Philippe to his house to warn him.’

‘That is true,’ conceded the other.

‘At that point in time, Boio must already have been well on his way to Coventry. Even you must see that.’

Henry Beaumont tried hard to find a flaw in Ralph’s argument but he could not. He was reluctant to surrender the second charge of murder against the blacksmith and he groped around wildly for ways to implicate him somehow. At length he gave in. He saw that Boio could not have killed Grimketel. The face of a new suspect came into his mind.

‘Yes, my lord,’ said Ralph, reading his expression.

‘But why? He had no motive.’

‘Does a man like the lord Philippe need a motive? He is given to violent impulses. The lady Marguerite said as much to both our wives. Have you not noticed the rush of blood which comes to his face?’

Henry thought of the way that Trouville had run down the poacher in the forest and of his desire to raid an abbey in search of their prize. He was also enraged at the thought that they had searched so hard for Grimketel’s killer when he was actually alongside them. It threw him into a state of complete ambivalence.

He did not know whether to stay at the abbey or go in search of the man. Ralph made the decision for him.