Edward Marston - The Hawks of Delamere

Gruffydd looked from one man to the other. ‘What guarantees will I have?’ he asked.

‘None,’ said Gervase honestly.

‘Then what do I stand to gain?’

‘Look at it the other way, my lord,’ suggested Idwal.

‘Other way?’

‘If you do not help us, what do you stand to lose ?’

There was another long, considered pause.

‘Very well,’ decided Gruffydd, fighting off doubts.

‘You will send a message?’ said Idwal hopefully.

‘Bring me pen and paper.’

Canon Hubert despised inactivity. It was wholly alien to his temperament. Behind the surface bluster was a diligent man with a probing mind and the tenacity of a terrier. After long hours spent poring over documents, he consulted with Brother Simon then took him to the castle in search of Ralph Delchard. Simon was mortified at the thought of visiting the abode of the egregious Hugh the Gross and he went through the main gates with the reluctant step of someone expecting to find a Bacchanalian orgy taking place in the courtyard. He was not reassured to see that the castle was instead alive with armed soldiers preparing for battle.

‘This is a fearful sight, Canon Hubert,’ he moaned.

‘War is always hideous, Brother Simon.’

‘Let us withdraw to the sanctuary of the cathedral.’

‘Not until we have spoken with the lord Ralph.’

‘Why do we have to come here?’ said Simon, almost jumping out of his skin as four horsemen rode by within inches of him.

‘Could we not send word for the lord Ralph to wait upon us?’

‘Our findings brook no delay.’

‘They are largely suppositions.’

‘Grounded in fact.’

‘But what relevance do they have?’

‘That is what we must find out,’ said Hubert, dodging a pile of horse dung as he led the way towards the keep. ‘We may be in possession of valuable intelligence. The lord Ralph must hear what it is.’

Simon trudged after him. ‘Will there be a battle?’ he said, nervously eyeing the show of military might. ‘Are the Welsh going to invade the city?’

‘I hope not.’

‘I am afeared, Canon Hubert.’

‘Call your faith to your aid.’

‘I travelled to Cheshire to act as the scribe to royal commissioners, not to be hacked to death in a Welsh rebellion.’

‘That will not happen,’ Hubert assured him. ‘Whoever else is the target for Welsh hostility, Brother Simon, it will not be you.

They have other objectives.’

When they reached the keep, they did not have to go in search of Ralph Delchard. He was coming out of the hall with William Malbank and two other barons. There was an air of quiet satisfaction about them. Seeing his visitors, Ralph broke away from his companions.

‘What has brought you to the castle?’ he wondered.

‘We need to speak with you, my lord,’ said Hubert. ‘On a matter of some significance.’

‘Then let us seek some privacy. Follow me.’

Ralph led them up to his apartment and locked the door once they were inside the chamber. Simon recoiled from the sight of a bed in which carnal passion had certainly taken place and he averted his gaze at once.

Before Hubert could speak, Ralph told him the news.

‘I have just come from a meeting with Earl Hugh,’ he said.

‘Wisdom has prevailed. Archdeacon Idwal has persuaded the Prince of Gwynedd to intercede on the side of peace. Writing materials have been sent for so that he can send word to his people.’

‘These are wondrous tidings!’ exclaimed Simon.

Hubert was unconvinced. ‘They might be if they were not intertwined with the name of Idwal. How can we be sure that he is not in league with Gruffydd ap Cynan?’

‘We can be certain that he is,’ said Ralph, ‘in the sense that they are both Welshmen and thus bonded together at a deep level. But there has been no skulduggery by Idwal. He has done what he promised to do. Gervase was there as a witness.’

‘I thank God for this act of deliverance!’ said Simon.

‘I reserve my judgement,’ said Hubert.

‘We must all do that,’ agreed Ralph. ‘Gruffydd has consented to send word to his people but we have no guarantee that it will reach them in time to stop hostilities. Once a war is set in motion, it will swiftly get beyond the control of any one man. But you know this well enough,’ he said. ‘And you did not come here to talk about the technicalities of battle.’

‘No, my lord,’ said Hubert, taking his cue. ‘Our interest is in what we believe may be one of its causes. The murder of Raoul Lambert.’

‘Lambert?’

‘We have studied his career more closely, my lord.’

‘Then I hope that you have divined more than I have managed,’

said Ralph with a rueful smile. ‘Gervase and I attended his funeral today in order to learn something of the man but we came away more confused than ever.’

‘He covered his tracks very well,’ said Simon.

‘Indeed,’ said Hubert, delivering a sentence he had rehearsed on his way to the castle. ‘Raoul Lambert was a huntsman who is himself supremely difficult to hunt.’

‘Yet you picked up his trail, Canon Hubert.’

‘Only with great perseverance, Brother Simon.’

‘What did you discover?’ asked Ralph.

‘A great deal, my lord,’ said Hubert, dipping a hand into his scrip to take out the scroll on which he had recorded his findings.

‘I have no wish to speak ill of the dead but I am compelled to say that Raoul Lambert was not, in my opinion, the upright man of common report.’

‘Then what was he?’ said Ralph.

‘A grasping landlord. A liar, a thief, a bully, a dissembler, a petty tyrant and — if my guess is correct — a man who is guilty of even greater crimes.’

‘Bishop Robert made no mention of these aspects of his character in his funeral oration.’

‘He may be unaware of them, my lord.’

‘Or constrained by the presence of Lambert’s friends.’

‘That, too.’

‘Tell me about the grasping landlord.’

Hubert referred to his scroll. ‘That alone would take me all day if I furnished the complete details. Suffice it to say that Raoul Lambert is involved in far more of the property disputes which we came to settle than appeared at first glance. He not only increased his own holdings by illegal seizure, he seems to have helped others to do likewise.’

‘Why did the first commissioners not arraign him?’

‘Because he was too elusive and plausible.’

‘And vouched for by Earl Hugh himself,’ said Simon.

‘That is the critical factor,’ continued Hubert. ‘The indulgence shown by the earl towards his huntsman. It is quite striking.

Earl Hugh could not have rewarded him more lavishly if Raoul Lambert had been his own son.’

Ralph grinned. ‘From what I hear, Lambert is about the only man in Cheshire who is not one of Hugh’s bastards. The earl has scattered his affections far and wide.’

Simon quailed. ‘It is an abomination!’

‘It is human nature,’ said Ralph.

‘If I may resume,’ said Hubert, commanding their attention by holding up his scroll. ‘When I examined the full list of Lambert’s holdings, I noticed that they had certain features in common.

They came into his possession at regular intervals, usually no more than a year apart.’

‘What did you deduce from that?’ asked Ralph.

‘That they were less like random gifts than a sort of annual wage. I acquired the strong impression that Lambert was being paid for services rendered.’

‘Have you identified what those services were?’

‘I will come to that in a moment, my lord,’ said Hubert, determined to proceed at his own pace. ‘Let me comment further upon the holdings first. All those on this side of the border were formerly in the hands of three particular barons. One was an absentee landlord and his property appears to have been seized without his knowledge. When our predecessors came to Cheshire to compile their survey, he was not here to attest his claim to the estate and it remained by default in the hands of Raoul Lambert.’