Simon Beaufort - Deadly Inheritance

She hurled herself at Giffard’s feet and began to cry, grasping the hem of his habit. Walter stood behind her, biting his lip, looking as though he might cry himself. Ralph joined them.

‘You must help me, my Lord Bishop!’ Agnes howled. ‘You must, or I am undone.’

‘My child!’ exclaimed Giffard, moved by her distress. ‘What is the matter?’

‘It is Hugh,’ said Agnes, raising a tear-streaked face towards Giffard. ‘Baderon’s son.’

‘What about him?’ demanded Geoffrey.

‘He is dead,’ wept Agnes, keeping her eyes on Giffard. ‘And his father is sure to blame me.’

‘Or me,’ added Walter. ‘And that would be worse, because I have my whole life in front of me, while you are already old.’

Agnes scowled at him, then resumed her appeal to Giffard. ‘You have always been a friend, so be one now. Tell Baderon it was not me who stabbed Hugh and left him dead at the Wye ford.’

Agnes’ words created quite a stir among the guests who had gathered to go hawking, although Baderon and his knights were not among them, and neither was Hilde. Joan told Geoffrey that they had gone into the forest at Hilde’s insistence, to again look for their missing kinsman.

‘Why would Baderon think you killed Hugh?’ asked Geoffrey. His first instinct upon hearing the news and witnessing Agnes’ reaction was to assume that she had. Why else would she be so alarmed?

‘Because I was there !’ Agnes cried, refusing to look at anyone except Giffard. The prelate laid a calming hand on her head. ‘There are those who accuse me of killing Duchess Sibylla, just because I happened to be in her chamber the night she died.’

Giffard’s hand dropped away. ‘Were you? Then did you?’

‘Of course not! There are others you must ask about that.’ Agnes’ eyes slid towards Walter, but then returned to Giffard. ‘You must believe I had nothing to do with Hugh’s death!’

‘How do you know he is dead?’ asked Durand. His practical question calmed the buzz of speculation that had broken out among the crowd.

‘His body was at the river,’ replied Walter. ‘It is all bloody and wet.’

‘Was Eleanor there, too?’ asked Geoffrey, wondering whether there was a second nearby.

‘Eleanor!’ exclaimed Walter, grasping a ready-made solution with relief. ‘ She killed Hugh! They went missing together, so it must have been her. She tired of him and stuck a dagger in his heart.’

Geoffrey watched Agnes consider the possibility, her small, delicate features hard and calculating. ‘Eleanor might be the culprit,’ she said slowly. ‘However, it was not us, and you must protect me if Baderon and his knights try to say it was. All we did was find the body.’

‘That is what happens when you have a reputation for murder,’ said Durand unfeelingly. ‘It comes back to haunt you at inconvenient times.’

It was obvious that a fear of comments like Durand’s was exactly what had thrown Agnes into such paroxysms of alarm. She grabbed Giffard’s hand, kissing his ecclesiastical ring.

‘Please, my Lord Bishop,’ she sobbed. ‘You must believe I am innocent of bringing about any death. Pray over me, then you will see I have God’s favour. He will strike me down if I am guilty. But when He does not, you will see I am telling the truth.’

‘Be careful, Mother,’ said Walter in alarm. ‘Think about what you are saying.’

Agnes shot him a look that might have killed him, too, if eyes had been weapons. ‘Join us,’ she ordered. ‘Come and prove your innocence.’

Walter swallowed hard and looked away, a reaction that did not escape Giffard. The Bishop’s hands shook when he rested them on Agnes’ head and began to pray. Geoffrey saw the look of triumph that flickered across her face, and, recalling the views she had expressed about religion, suspected that Giffard’s God held no terrors for her. Walter kicked at a stone, uncertain of what to do, and Durand backed away, pulling Geoffrey with him.

‘What are you doing?’ Geoffrey demanded.

‘She is committing a grievous sin,’ hissed Durand. ‘Surely you saw the looks that passed between her and Walter? Neither is innocent, and they are challenging God. I do not want to be close when divine lightning forks from the sky and strikes them.’

He spoke with such conviction that Geoffrey took another step away.

‘She is lying,’ Joan remarked as she passed Geoffrey on her way to the hall, disgusted with the entire spectacle. ‘She may have convinced Giffard that she had nothing to do with Sibylla’s death, but she does not fool me.’

‘Nor me,’ said Durand. ‘I do not like the fact that she flew here so quickly, protesting her innocence about Hugh, either. It smacks of a felon committing a crime then dashing to claim sanctuary.’

Geoffrey remembered his manners, aware that he ought to make some hospitable gesture, even to guests like Agnes, Walter and Ralph. He offered them wine and indicated that they should precede him into the hall.

‘That is a good idea,’ said Walter, pushing past him. ‘I have had a nasty shock and need something to calm my nerves. It is not every day I see a murdered man.’ He crossed himself, adding in Italian, ‘The fruits fall from the bushes like thunder.’

‘ Murdered ?’ queried Durand, following the party inside. ‘You said he was stabbed.’

Ralph took the best seat at the hearth and then waved a peremptory hand to indicate that he wanted a drink. Torva obliged in his own time, making sure he received the dregs. The others came to stand around him.

‘Stabbing generally means murder,’ Ralph said in surprising support of Walter. ‘It is not an outrageous conclusion to draw.’

‘My brother was stabbed,’ Joan pointed out. ‘But Olivier believes he did it himself. Being stabbed does not necessarily imply someone else struck the blow.’

‘It does in this case,’ said Ralph tartly. ‘The wound was in his back.’

‘Tell us from the beginning,’ ordered Geoffrey, ‘How did you come to find him?’

‘What authority do you have to question us?’ demanded Ralph.

Geoffrey hesitated. Ralph was right: he had no authority. But Durand stepped in.

‘You can tell Sir Geoffrey now, or you can tell the King when he arrives,’ he said coldly. ‘His Majesty dislikes vassals who allow murders to go unremarked, and if you interfere with Sir Geoffrey’s attempts to identify the culprit, I shall make sure he knows about it.’

‘My mother and I found Hugh when we were on our way from Bicanofre,’ said Walter sullenly, while Ralph fumed silently. ‘We left later than everyone else, because my mother had been enjoying Ralph’s company.’

‘He was showing me his collection of silk hats,’ elaborated Agnes smoothly, as more than one person shot her speculative looks.

‘ Silk hats ?’ asked Geoffrey in disbelief.

Agnes glared at him, and Ralph was on his feet. ‘You dishonour a good lady’s name with your suspicious tone!’ he snapped. ‘What do you infer?’

‘He was inferring nothing,’ said Joan, also standing. Ralph sank down again when she took a step towards him. ‘It is your hostile manner that makes us not want to believe her.’

Ralph became piqued, but continued the tale. ‘Agnes and I were longer than we intended with the hats, and only became aware of the time when Douce disturbed us.’

‘They did not appear at breakfast,’ added Walter. Geoffrey saw that he was jealous of the time his mother had spent with Ralph and was determined to make them suffer. ‘And this examination of headwear began the previous night, so Ralph must have a lot of hats.’

‘Where were you all that time?’ asked Geoffrey, supposing Ralph and Agnes had lingered under the blankets while the other guests had returned to Goodrich. Or had they? It was equally possible that one had slipped out and stuck a knife in the hapless Hugh, although he could not imagine why. Unless, of course, Hugh had witnessed something sensitive during the fire at Dene, and someone had decided to silence him for it.