Edward Marston - The Owls of Gloucester

You are wasting your time by challenging it.’

‘We do not think so, my lord,’ said Balki.

‘Your opinion has no validity.’

‘Yes, it does. As the commissioners will show.’

‘If and when we ever see them again!’ grumbled Strang. ‘There’s no sense in staying here. You know where to find me, Nigel.

Make it soon.’

With his reeve in attendance, Strang stalked off down the street.

‘A pleasant fellow!’ said Hamelin.

‘I am glad to see the back of him, my lord.’

‘Did you tell him the cause of the delay?’

‘Of course not,’ said Nigel. ‘It would only have fed his anger the more to learn that the commissioners had put his concerns aside to turn their attention elsewhere. Besides, I only confide in friends, my lord.’

‘I am glad that I am one of them.’

‘The best.’

‘Thank you. How did the others receive the news?’

‘Neither was pleased but none were as malevolent as Strang. I wish they could all have accepted the delay with the good grace you showed.’

‘Unlike them, I am in no hurry.’

Nigel grinned. ‘Unlike them, you foresee the verdict.’

‘There is that,’ said Hamelin casually. ‘What word from the castle?

The King arrived last night, I hear. Do we know to what purpose?’

‘Not yet, my lord.’

‘Let me know what you learn.’

‘Instantly.’

‘And what about these public-spirited commissioners? Are they really looking for a missing boy instead of sitting in judgement here? What is wrong with Abbot Serlo?’ he said artlessly. ‘He used to have such a strong grip. Not any more. First he loses a monk. Now a novice. If he is not careful, the whole abbey will float away from him.’

After returning the borrowed key to the porter, Ralph and Gervase hoped to speak to the abbot but the latter was otherwise engaged.

Canon Hubert explained to them why Serlo could not be disturbed.

‘He is in the chapter-house,’ he said sonorously. ‘Chapter is normally the time when the temporal business of the abbey is discussed but, for obvious reasons, that has been postponed.

Abbot Serlo is addressing the monks about the worrying disappearance of Owen.’

‘We have some news for him on that score,’ said Gervase. ‘Ralph and I visited a locksmith in the city. He recalls making a duplicate key for a man who sounds very much like Brother Nicholas.’

‘But you never met Brother Nicholas.’

‘I did,’ said Ralph. ‘Unfortunately, he was lying naked on a slab in the mortuary so his conversation was limited. But we’re certain it was him. He paid the locksmith out of a satchel filled with the rent he’d collected. And this happened at precisely the time when he had the abbot’s key in his possession.’

‘So far, our guesswork is accurate,’ said Gervase.

‘That will reassure Abbot Serlo greatly,’ said Hubert, ‘and I fear that he is in need of reassurance. In a private moment with me, he confessed how this latest crime had wounded him to the heart.

It was lucky that I was there to offer succour.’

‘Yes,’ teased Ralph, ‘it must have been very comforting for him to know that he had the leader of the murder investigation at his side.’

‘A misunderstanding, my lord.’

‘I wonder how it arose?’

‘Not from anything I said, I assure you.’

They were standing near the abbey gatehouse in bright sunshine but they were far too preoccupied either to note or enjoy the fine weather. The fate of an innocent young boy was at the forefront of their minds. Ralph did not pursue the taunting of his adipose colleague.

‘There’s something else you may tell the abbot,’ he said seriously. ‘We believe that the lad may still be in the city.’

‘What makes you think that?’ asked Hubert.

‘We spoke to the sentries at the gates. Nobody left Gloucester during the night. Owen must have been kept here. If his captor tries to smuggle him out, he will not find it easy. Eyes are peeled at every gate.’

‘That is good to hear, my lord.’

‘I have deployed my own men in a thorough search for the boy.

It will be a difficult task in a place this size but they will knock on as many doors as they can. Someone may have seen something in the night.’

‘Could not the sheriff’s officers help?’

‘I prefer to work independently of Durand,’ said Ralph. ‘He does not take kindly to unsolicited help.’

‘But it has been solicited. By the abbot and by Bishop Wulfstan.’

‘Have the boy’s parents been told yet?’ asked Gervase.

‘No,’ said Hubert. ‘I counselled against it.’

‘Very wise. It might only inflict unnecessary suffering on them.

Do they live in Gloucester itself?’

‘A few miles away, Gervase.’

‘Then they will not pick up any gossip in the city.’

‘That would be the worst possible way to find out,’ said Ralph.

‘Well, we know how the kidnapper got in and out of the abbey.

But where is he hiding the boy? More to the point, is Owen still alive?’

‘I hope so,’ sighed Gervase.

Hubert was more positive. ‘I’m certain of it. When I was alone with the abbot, he confessed something he had been too frightened to put into words before. The thought has haunted him ever since the first of the novices was taken from the abbey.’

‘What thought is that, Canon Hubert?’

‘Abbot Serlo tried to dismiss it from his mind when Siward went. He almost persuaded himself that the boy must have run away. It was a less disturbing interpretation to put on the facts.

Dena’s disappearance made that notion untenable.’

‘What are you talking about?’ pressed Ralph.

‘The abduction of Owen. The abbot knows why he was taken.’

‘Does he?’

‘Bishop Wulfstan agrees with him. But, then, the bishop has been campaigning against it for many years.’

‘Against what?’

‘The kidnapping of young boys. It is not only this abbey which has suffered. All over this county there have been strange disappearances.’

‘To what end, Hubert?’

‘Monetary gain.’

‘The boys are sold? ’

‘I fear so, my lord. We have stumbled upon a slave trade.’

Surprised to be told that she had another visitor, Golde was even more astonished when she found Abraham the Priest waiting for her at the castle gate. He introduced himself and explained his predicament.

‘I am sorry to disturb you, my lady,’ he said, ‘but I need to speak with your husband as a matter of great urgency.’

‘He is not here, I fear.’

‘I know that but I hoped you could tell me where he was.’

‘Could not the reeve do that? He is answerable to my husband.’

‘Nigel the Reeve has been less than helpful. All he would say was that the commissioners had suspended their deliberations. No reason was given. We were simply informed of the decision.’

‘Then my advice would be to accept it,’ said Golde warily. ‘My husband will not thank you for badgering him about your claim.

The place to do that is in the shire hall.’

‘This is nothing to do with my claim,’ he said with passion. ‘I must apprise him of something else. And quickly. Please tell me where he is. I have met the lord Ralph and I know that I can trust him.’ He glanced towards the keep. ‘I am not sure that I could say the same of the sheriff.’

Golde could hear the sincerity in his voice and knew that he would not come in search of her husband on a trifling matter.

She tried to help.

‘The truth is that I don’t rightly know where he is,’ she said.

His shoulders sagged. ‘Oh, I see.’

‘What I can tell you is this. My husband was summoned to the abbey in the early hours of the morning. Some crisis has blown up there, it seems. If you really must track him down, the abbey would be the best place to start.’