Michael JECKS - The Boy-Bishop's Glovemaker

‘I didn’t see who was with him, so there was little I could tell anyone. And I didn’t know Ralph was going to be killed. I just thought he’d opened up early for once and there was no reason to report that,’ he said defensively.

Baldwin glared at him furiously. ‘You mean you didn’t want to get involved in the Coroner’s inquest and risk getting amerced to turn up when the murder trial is held, preferring to hold your tongue to avoid paying anyone.’

The man flushed slightly but didn’t speak.

John Coppe gripped his crutch as if readying himself to strike David with it. He rasped, ‘You saw the man? You saw the bastard who killed the glover and didn’t do anything about it? You’d rather see the apprentice hanged, is that it?’

The other three ignored him. ‘So,’ Baldwin said slowly, ‘was the man with Ralph his apprentice – Elias?’

‘I didn’t see clearly…’

‘Be damned to that!’ Simon roared suddenly, his anger getting the better of him. He took a couple of quick paces towards the man. The neighbour would have bolted, but the beggar grabbed his arm, and before he could free himself, Simon had his shirtfront in both fists. He hauled the man closer until their noses almost touched. ‘The knight asked you if it was Elias who was there with his master. Think carefully, you God-damned shit, because if you start lying to protect your own arse, I’ll have you in gaol before you can fart.’

‘You can’t – you have no authority here. I’m a Freeman of the City, I…’

‘Fetch Coroner Roger,’ Simon spat at the beggar.

‘ No! ’ the man cried, wilting in Simon’s grip. ‘All right, I don’t think it was Elias. I would have told the court, I wouldn’t have let the pathetic wretch hang for it. I just didn’t think it’d matter if I didn’t tell people just yet.’

‘You bastard !’ Simon said. He maintained his grip. ‘You saw that poor devil stuck in gaol for something he never did, and did nothing to protect him. Just to save you a few pennies.’

‘Did you recognise the man?’ Baldwin demanded.

‘I told you, no! He was under the overhang in the shadow and wearing a cloak or something, with a wide-brimmed hat. I only had a fleeting glimpse, no more. I thought it was just a client.’

‘That tells us nothing. Everyone will have a cloak and a broad-brimmed hat against the rain,’ Baldwin said.

Simon studied the man in his grasp. ‘Not necessarily, Baldwin. A cleric wouldn’t, would he?’

‘You consider this finally proves Peter’s innocence?’

‘Perhaps,’ Simon said. He shook David, not ungently. ‘It wasn’t Elias?’

‘No. Elias is taller, more gawky and clumsy. This one moved confidently, easily,’ David muttered. ‘I just thought it was someone after an urgent bit of work or something. How was I to know he’d kill poor old Ralph?’

‘Was this fellow taller or shorter than Ralph?’ Baldwin pressed him. At the same time Simon began to relax his grip a little.

‘I don’t know. Perhaps… no, he was shorter. I remember now. Ralph opened the door and thrust it open, allowing the client in first, and Ralph was taller.’

The beggar hawked and spat on David’s shoulder. ‘You make me want to puke. You were going to let the apprentice swing for something you knew he didn’t do, just so you could keep away from paying money into the court.’

David pursed his lips while Simon hastily withdrew his hand from the spittle. ‘Get inside,’ he said. Then to the beggar: ‘You stay out here and there’ll be another penny for you. Yes?’

‘Yes, Master,’ Coppe said, his head hanging low.

Ignoring David, Simon addressed Baldwin. ‘We know Ralph was murdered in this room. The killer didn’t run much of a risk. All he had to do was stab Ralph and leave him, dart next door and take everything from the cash box. Easy.’

‘Perhaps.’

Simon ran his hand over the gloves on sale. ‘He was a good worker.’

‘So was Elias,’ David offered.

‘ He still bloody is,’ Baldwin snapped.

David appeared fully cowed and like many who find themselves on the wrong side of the law, he was keen to show how total was his conversion. Taking a deep breath he cleared his throat. ‘Sirs, there is another thing. A while before the two entered here, I saw another man.’

‘How long before and who was it?’

‘The bells were still ringing for the service, so I think it was before the first Mass, and it was a cleric of some sort – I think a lad of twenty or so years. He had a thin sort of face, long and anxious. I saw him quite clearly.’

‘Was he a Vicar?’

‘No, I don’t think so. I think he was one of the Secondaries.’ He hung his head. ‘I think it was the one you mentioned. The lad called Peter.’

‘Peter was out that morning,’ Coppe agreed, and told them about seeing the cleric running smack into Ralph outside the gate. ‘If it wasn’t for the Treasurer, Ralph would have fallen,’ he said. ‘But I don’t think Peter was well that day. Later I saw him leave the Cathedral again, walking as if he was in a daze. He left after Ralph and didn’t return till much later.’

‘You didn’t see him come back here?’ Baldwin asked David.

‘I was working after that. Maybe he returned. There was someone outside with a wagon, I know. While I was out back I heard the wheels stop outside here.’

‘I see,’ said Baldwin. ‘So now we know Stephen was outside the Cathedral that morning as well.’

David jerked his head at the door. ‘I saw Peter go to the front door of the house and walk inside with a small bag in his hand. He didn’t look guilty or furtive. If he was breaking in to commit a crime, he was begging to be caught.’

Baldwin gave a dry smile. ‘I think that is the most observant comment you have given for a long time. Did you see him leave?’

‘It was a short while later. He came out, looked up and down the road, and then hurried off back to the Cathedral grounds. I noticed that he didn’t have anything in his hands then. It was quite some while later that I saw Ralph and his visitor, and then my wife called me and I went back to my own hall.’

‘Well, I think you have cleared up much that was confusing,’ Baldwin said. He was handling the hanging leathers, a small frown puckering his brow.

‘What is it?’ Simon asked.

‘The Coroner told us Ralph paid Vincent le Berwe for basan and cordwain and took it away the same day, but there’s none here.’

They watched while the subdued David locked the doors, then with the beggar directing them, they left him and sought a tavern.

Coppe led them to Will Row’s alehouse down an alley off the High Street, run by a pleasant woman in her fifties, who smiled with toothless gums when she saw their companion. ‘John, where have you been? I was beginning to think you’d got pissed, fallen down a well and drowned.’

‘I wouldn’t do that, Joan. Not while you were still around to tempt me back again.’

He grinned, his mouth likewise all but empty of teeth, when she playfully cuffed him over the head, cackling.

‘Come on, wench, there’s gentlemen here to be served.’

A young girl appeared, but Simon was more attracted to the wizened old woman. She shouted at the girl like a harridan, but her face was more composed of smiling wrinkles than frowns. What, he wondered, would he look like when he got to her age? Or his wife, Meg, come to that. This Joan had a calmness about her that was pleasant and motherly, while the beggar, for all his scruffiness, was clearly trusted by her.

As the two women disappeared to fetch drinks, Coppe told the others, ‘She was the wife of my best mate. I was a sailor, see. I used to have a good life going off all over the place – oh, from here to Venice I’ve been. God, some of the seas you’d see there, it was amazing that the ships lasted the trip.’