Michael JECKS - The Leper's Return

Simon and the cheerful knight rode into Crediton in the middle of the morning. They went straight to the Dean’s house, and it was here that they heard about the near riot. Baldwin immediately insisted on riding out to the leper camp to ensure that all was now well. They found Ralph morosely wandering about the grassed area.

“Brother Ralph, I came to offer you my apologies for last night.”

“Sir Baldwin, that is very good of you. And I am pleased to see you too, Simon. Yes, it was a dreadful shock.”

“And two dead?”

“Yes. Edmund Quivil died immediately. He never spoke again. The other, the smith, was soon dead as well. His skull was crushed when another tried to stop him killing poor Edmund.”

“I shall have to see Edmund’s parents,” Baldwin murmured, shaking his head. “What a ridiculous waste, though. If only Jack had been sensible.”

“Do you want to see the bodies?”

“Where are they?”

“I have them in the chapel. I thought they might as well wait there until the Coroner could view them. We don’t want them out in the open to rot.”

“Er, quite so.”

He and Simon studied the corpses. The knight was shocked to see how skinny Quivil had become.

“He lost his appetite as soon as he was diagnosed, and the weight fell off him while he was here,” Ralph explained.

“And you say that the other man who died had his head stoved in?”

“Yes. Quivil’s friend here, Thomas Rodde, tried to save him, but the blow had already been struck.”

“I was too late.”

Baldwin turned to see Rodde approaching. Although this was the lepers’ own chapel, Rodde obeyed the rules by standing some three yards from the others, sadly eyeing the cold body. “He could have defended himself if he’d wanted.”

“He turned the other cheek, Thomas,” said the monk quietly. “He behaved as a good Christian should.”

“But he didn’t need to.”

“I think he had lost the will to live. Everything he counted as most dear was taken from him.”

“Yes. Even his woman was to go to be a nun.”

“Mary chose that route for herself,” Ralph pointed out quietly.

“And you will not allow my wife in to be with me?”

“Your wife?” Baldwin asked.

Ralph nodded. “This man is the husband of the woman you know as Cecily.”

Simon gave a gasp. “So it was you she was talking to on the night her father was killed!”

Thomas Rodde gave a slight grin. “It appears you know much about my business, sir. But yes, I was there.”

“Come outside and let us talk,” said Baldwin. “We have much to ask you.”

They walked out into the bright but chilly sunlight, and stood near the gate where two had died the night before. Rodde shook his head when his eye caught a glimpse of a reddish-brown smudge on the grass.

“He was a good friend to you?” asked Baldwin, noticing his expression.

“Yes. He was brought here the day I arrived. That night he was attacked by other inmates, and I saved him. He was my friend from that moment.”

“It’s no surprise he decided to let Jack kill him, then,” said Simon. “If the poor bastard was hounded in here by his peers, and bullied outside by the townsfolk.”

“No,” agreed Rodde. “Yet I wish he’d let his illness take its course. There was no need for him to die. He could have had plenty of enjoyment in the years he had to come. I would have shown him how.”

“You have yourself been ill for many years?” Baldwin asked.

“Yes, sir. I was struck down when I was almost twenty. My father was another goldsmith in London, and we lived close to Godfrey and my wife.” There was a defiance in his voice, as if daring Baldwin to deny that he, a leper, could still be married. Seeing no dispute in the knight’s eye, he continued. “We grew up together, living almost next door. It was only natural that we should marry.”

“What sort of a man was Godfrey?”

“Him?” Rodde blew out his cheeks as he considered. “He was a good, generous man in those days. It was only more recently that he changed, or so I understand. As soon as I was denounced for this…” he waved his hand at his face “ – he became quite hysterical. His wife, Cecily’s mother, was horror-struck, and I think lost her mind. Because of that she was run over by a cart and died. That, I think, was what made Godfrey snap. Until then, he had tried to help me and Cecily. He had found a good place for me in a leper hospital, and provided the place with alms and money, and allowed Cecily to come and visit me, but when his wife died, he was embittered. He blamed me for his wife’s death, and by extension he blamed Cecily herself.”

“Was that why he came here?”

“No. I saw what effect he was having on my wife, and rather than ruining her life, I persuaded my leper master to release me, and took myself off to the north. I wanted to leave her to find a new man. She wouldn’t do it while I still lived there, but I felt sure that once I’d gone she’d discover someone else. Some time after I left, which was a good nine years ago, Godfrey brought Cecily down here.”

“Why did he come here? It’s a strange place for a London goldsmith to come to.”

“Cecily wouldn’t forget me. She is a loyal woman. With me gone, he came to blame Cecily even more for her mother’s death. I think he needed someone to hold responsible, and she was an easy target: it was her decision to marry me, and thus she was at least partly involved in her mother’s death. Cecily wanted to remain in London near her memories of our life together, and I think it was to punish her that he decided to move. He said he wanted to take her away from the disease and corruption of the city, but I don’t believe that. Mind you, it may be that he was also nervous I would return. He had no wish to be confronted by me again.”

“And you did come back.”

“It wasn’t my intention. I spent many years living in the north, and hated every moment. It was cold, and the chilly rain seeped into my soul, but even that wouldn’t have made me come back to the south where I might upset my Cecily. No, it was the raid. The Scots were involved in one of their periodic attacks and flooded over the border. My lazar house happened to be in their path. The priest and I were lucky, we weren’t there at the time – we tended to walk when we could – and when we got back, the place was razed to the ground. All that was left was smoke and ash.”

“So you came down here?”

“Not at first, no. I went back home, to London. There I found that Godfrey and Cecily had left. A man in the town told me they had come this way, although he thought it was Exeter.”

“And you found them here?”

“By luck, yes. While I was in Exeter I hung around the goldsmiths’ streets and overheard some men talking. They were actually discussing the loans made to Coffyn, but one of them mentioned Godfrey. When someone spoke of a retired goldsmith from London who had a beautiful daughter, and whose name was Godfrey, it wasn’t hard to guess that my search was ended.”

“And what did you intend?” Simon burst out. “Did you mean to hold your wife to her vows and force her to go with you?”

Rodde glowered at him. “Do I seem so unfeeling? You, a healthy man, can afford to be arrogant, but if you loved your own wife as I do, you’d know that to bring her down to my level would be the most bestial act! No, I didn’t mean to take her away, although if I had wanted to, I would have been within my rights. All I wanted to do was see her and reassure myself that she was all right. I never meant her to see me, for I knew that would unsettle her, but I did want to see her again, just the once, before I die. Is it wrong to love a woman so much?”