Michael JECKS - The Traitor of St Giles

‘How did he seem?’ Baldwin asked.

‘Scared. How does any felon look when he’s been surrounded by the posse? He was there at the altar clinging onto that filthy scrap of linen they use for an altar cloth staring at me like he couldn’t believe he’d been found out.’

‘Or perhaps he couldn’t believe that he had been accused of killing his woman?’ Simon suggested.

Harlewin gave a dismissive snort.

‘Maybe he was simply horrified to learn that the woman he had intended marrying was dead,’ Baldwin mused.

‘It’s fine to speculate – all I know is that he was accused and confessed.’

‘Did he give any reason why he’d never get a fair trial?’

‘Made up some cock-and-bull story about the girl’s father seeing to it he’d never be freed. Said Andrew Carter would pay off the jury.’

Baldwin scratched his ear. In his experience, when a jury presented the facts of a case before the justices, all too often the matter had already been decided in the jury’s collective mind. Usually that merely reflected the jury’s acceptance that the felon was a man with ‘common fame’, a notorious criminal; they would have him installed in gaol as quickly as possible. But often a rich man would seek to ensure the result he wanted by bribing officials or jurors to release his friends and adherents – or to punish his enemies. Philip Dyne would naturally have feared Carter’s reaction. Carter was rich: he could afford to bribe any number of jurors against him.

‘What then?’ asked Baldwin.

‘When he’d completed his time in there and made plain his willingness to abjure the realm, I made sure he confessed before witnesses and set him loose. No bribe, no arrest, just performing my duties. And when Andrew Carter and his brother looked dangerous, I held them back. I even drew my sword against them, if you would believe it!’

‘Where were you on the night Sir Gilbert and Philip Dyne were killed?’

Harlewin opened his mouth – Baldwin was convinced he was about to lie – but then the Coroner shrugged and grinned. ‘Why should I lie? I was with Cecily. As I was last night, really. Why hide it, if you already know her name? I was with her on the night those two died, at a mill I own to the west.’

‘Near Templeton?’ Baldwin asked.

‘Not far from it, yes. I rode back from there with Cecily during the night. We heard a lot of noise in the woods, and I sent her on to protect her, drawing my sword. Only a few moments later a man came out. Now I know it was Sir Gilbert, but then all I knew was that he looked dangerous to me: he had his sword out, and when he caught sight of me he demanded to know who I was. Well, I told him I was the Coroner, and he looked relieved. He said he was helping apprehend a felon and I promised to stay in the road in case the felon darted back that way to escape. Then Sir Gilbert turned and rode back into the woods.’

‘What did you do?’

‘I waited there quite some while, but saw nothing of Dyne. Actually I have to confess that I was surprised to hear that the fool had decided to turn outlaw. I wouldn’t have expected it of him. However, it had to be true if a knight like this fellow Sir Gilbert was helping seek him.’

‘Did you hear anything of Sir Gilbert’s death?’

‘I remained there for a while. There was one Godawful scream – I assumed it was Dyne. I saw no sign of anyone and it didn’t seem a good idea to go wandering about in the woods with three armed men on the loose so I just headed for home.’

‘Did you see anyone else on your way?’

‘There was no one on the road. Well, only one person, but he couldn’t have had anything to do with all this.’

‘Who was it?’

‘Father Abraham. I saw him come out of the woods and ride back for Tiverton as if all the hounds of Hell were on his arse.’

Much later, when Harlewin had left them, Wat waited until the last of the servants had left the buttery, and then wandered inside and filled a pot of wine. It tasted good and he finished it swiftly, refilling it.

The castle wasn’t so bad really, he told himself as he took a comfortable seat between the barrels behind the bar. It was just a bit quiet, and if he was lonely, surely that would change as people came back from the Fair. For now this was a pleasant, quiet room, and he might as well sit here with a drink while he waited.

Hearing voices from the yard, he jerked awake. Too often in the past his master had found him in the Furnshill buttery and tanned his hide. Hurriedly Wat emptied his pot and rose to his feet, dashing from the place. At the doorway, he was about to slip out when he saw the Coroner outside.

‘Hey! You, Toker, come here!’

Wat waited until they should have gone before slipping out. Harlewin was talking in a low voice to Toker, but soon the two parted as another man entered the castle’s gate. Toker beckoned him, calling, ‘Perkin!’

Before Wat could fix an innocent expression to his face and go out to the courtyard, he saw the two approach. Swiftly he dived back into the buttery, ducking down between two of the farther barrels.

‘Kicked me right up the arse, did Puttock, the bastard!’ the man called Perkin was complaining. ‘If I can get near him he’ll never do that again, the shit!’

‘I’ve already said you can kill him, all right? But the knight too, the black-bearded sodomite from Furnshill – we take him as well,’ Toker said. ‘There’s no point killing the bailiff alone. We have to kill his friend too.’

Nicholas strode indoors and called for wine. Marching through to his brother-in-law’s hearth, he stood staring at the glowing embers, rubbing his hands with a slow, pensive action.

It was a fascinating thought and Nicholas couldn’t think why it hadn’t occurred to him before. Of course Sir Gilbert had arrived in town with money! What would he bribe people with, if not gold? But he didn’t have anything on him when he turned up the night before he died – Nicholas could swear to that. There was nowhere for him to have hidden it: his horse was at a stable, he’d said, and he wouldn’t have left a hoard of gold and jewels in a saddlebag to be rifled through by some unknown ostler. No, he would have deposited it in a safe place, easy enough to find, but secure from prying eyes.

He realised the maid hadn’t arrived, glanced up, cried, ‘Hey there! I want wine!’ and returned to his musing.

Sir Gilbert surely didn’t know enough about Tiverton to be able to conceal his gold safely. It was possible he had left it in his camp with his man, but that fellow William Small had hardly got a penny to his name when he died. If he had stolen from the knight, he’d surely have bolted with it that same evening. He wouldn’t have hung around like he had.

No, Nicholas thought. The servant hadn’t taken it. It had been hidden somewhere by Sir Gilbert: in a place he knew, where he was comfortable that it would be safe. There must have been a special location nearby.

His brow slowly cleared, and Nicholas almost held his breath with joy as he realised.

Sir Gilbert – the Templar Knight from Templeton .

Father Abraham listened with the disbelief twisting his features into a cynical sneer as Felicity told of their meeting with Matilda.

‘What do you want of me?’ he demanded. ‘You say that this girl was killed by someone else, and that your brother the felon was–’

‘Philip was not a felon, he was murdered!’ Avicia declared hotly.

‘He never killed Joan – he wouldn’t have,’ Felicity stated.

‘And how can you be sure of that, woman? Did you know him well?’ Father Abraham demanded pointedly.

Felicity smiled. ‘No, Father, I didn’t. But I do know Andrew Carter.’