Paul Doherty: Field of Blood

'You are sharp of eye, friar,' Hengan answered. 'Sharper than I thought.'

'I don't think so. I pray a lot, Master Hengan. Prayer sharpens the mind and hones the wit. Perhaps God wanted justice done and an innocent woman saved from hanging?'

Hengan pulled his chancery bag towards him.

'It's a beautiful day,' he observed, staring up at the branches. 'I always thought it would be like this, with the gold before me.'

'It's not yours,' Athelstan told him. 'Never has been and never will. You are going to hang.'

'On what evidence?' the lawyer retorted sharply. 'You attended Mistress Vestler's trial.'

'It's true what they say' Sir John spoke up. '"Cacullus non facit monachum: the cowl doesn't make the monk." You are two men aren't you, Master Ralph? The kindly lawyer, but that's only a shroud for the rottenness beneath.'

'Now, now, Sir John, are you envious of me? Do you secretly lust after Mistress Vestler's sweetness?'

Sir John would have lunged at him but Athelstan held his hand out.

'Let me speak,' he ordered. 'Everything in your garden, master lawyer, was grass and roses until Master Bartholomew Menster appeared: a studious clerk from the Tower who becomes sweet on a tavern wench at the Paradise Tree. To your horror you realise that he is a learned man with access to manuscripts and who has the same determination to discover Gundulf's treasure as yourself. Nevertheless, you kept up the pretence. I wager you never talked with Bartholomew in the presence of Mistress Vestler but away, in some other place. It wouldn't have taken you long to realise how close this interfering clerk was to the truth, so you decided to kill him.'

'And Margot?' Sir John asked.

'Margot was just as dangerous,' Athelstan said. 'You heard the evidence in court. Margot was schooled and sharp-witted, determined to make a good marriage. She was prepared to hitch her fortunes to a well-paid clerk who, one day, might discover secret treasure. What did you do, Hengan? Offer to share information? Act the kindly lawyer, willing to help?'

Hengan seemed more intent on the gold than Athelstan's words.

'You pretended to go to Canterbury,' Athelstan continued. 'You left the city but made a hasty journey back up the Thames to where you could hide away in many a tavern or alehouse suitably disguised. What you did do, however, was lure Bartholomew and Margot to a meeting. You'd send no letter, nothing which could be traced; perhaps just a hushed, excited whisper that you had discovered where the gold was, how you would meet Bartholomew and Margot at a certain time here, beneath the oak tree in Black Meadow.'

'Are you sure your evidence is sound?' Hengan taunted. 'Wouldn't Bartholomew or Margot chatter?'

'Why should they?' Athelstan retorted. 'Mention gold, mention treasure and people lick their lips and narrow their eyes, their fingers itch as yours did. And why should Bartholomew and Margot distrust a respected man such as yourself? On the evening of the twenty-fifth they left the Paradise Tree and came here. You, like Satan, slid out of the shadows. In this deserted place, hooded and cowled, who'd notice you? I doubt if you stayed long. You gave them a present of wine, a token of your friendship. Perhaps you claimed you'd left a manuscript or document somewhere and away you'd go. Bartholomew and Margot are happy, joyous, in love with each other. They would be only too eager to share your flask of wine, something which could not later be traced. Cups are filled, thirsts slaked: death would have followed soon after.' Athelstan pointed across the meadow. 'Were you hiding somewhere over there? Did you come back just for a short while, as the shadows lengthened, to ensure they were truly dead? Pick up the flask of wine and any documents Bartholomew may have been carrying? You are in the countryside near the Thames. The deed done, you hurry back towards the river, hire a wherry and then continue your journey to Canterbury.' 'But I was there, friar.'

'Oh, I am sure you were. You'd travel fast and, in the confusion, who'd remember you coming and going?'

'And Mistress Vestler?' Hengan asked.

'I don't know what you planned for the future. Who would be blamed? Certainly Mistress Vestler would not escape scrutiny but then she implicated herself, didn't she? Darkness falls and Margot doesn't return. Did Bartholomew and Margot often come here? Anyway, when Mistress Vestler came looking she discovered two corpses lying beneath an oak tree in her own meadow. Did she suspect? Did she wonder? She could not hide the corpses away so she hurried back for mattock and hoe and hastily buried them here.

'The next day, to cover the disturbance, she hired a tree-cutter to come and cut the branches, cover the ground in leaves and twigs so no one would notice.'

Athelstan watched Hengan. The lawyer was leaning forward, clutching the chancery bag tightly. Sir John, too, was nervous, hand on the hilt of his dagger.

'Mistress Vestler's thoughts are her own,' Athelstan continued. 'But she was in a fair panic. She searched the Paradise Tree and did something rather stupid. She collected Margot's possessions and promptly burned them. Why, I don't yet know. Later, when Bartholomew's absence becomes noted, a search is made but nothing can be found. Other enquirers are turned away, forced to accept the unlikely story that Bartholomew and the tavern wench had eloped.'

'And Alice Brokestreet?' Hengan asked. 'She was the one who laid allegations against Mistress Vestler, not myself.'

'Brokestreet was a harlot at heart, with no real love for Mistress Vestler. You knew that. Anyway, master lawyer, you were committed. You'd killed two people for Gundulf's treasure. But, what if someone else took Bartholomew's place? There was only one thing to do. Mistress Vestler also had to be removed, as quickly as possible.'

'Why should I do that?' Hengan asked abruptly. 'Mistress Vestler was sweet and kind to me.'

'For two reasons,' Athelstan snapped. 'First, like all gold hunters, Hengan, you couldn't share with anyone.'

'And secondly?' Hengan asked quietly. 'There is a further reason, friar?'

'Yes there is, lawyer. On your return from Canterbury you must have been surprised to see nothing had changed. Mistress Vestler still managed the Paradise Tree. Bartholomew and Margot had disappeared into thin air; I wager you suspected what had happened. Of course, you must have reflected on the possibility that Mistress Vestler may have entertained suspicions about you. In other words, Hengan, she had to be silenced. You couldn't poison her like you had Bartholomew and Margot. After all, you were one of the closest persons to her. So you'd sit and wait. News arrives that Alice Brokestreet was taken for killing a man in the Merry Pig. Did she know you, Master Hengan?'

'Mistress Brokestreet never had the pleasure of meeting me,' came the sardonic reply.

'No, I'm sure she didn't. The great lawyer would make sure of that. I suppose in the condemned cell at Newgate, dressed like a friar with the cowl pulled over, you could have been anyone.'

'You went there dressed like that?' Sir John asked abruptly.

'Sir Jack, do you really expect me to answer that?'

'Yes, he did,' Athelstan said. 'You've seen the condemned cell at Newgate, my lord coroner, black as pitch. Our good lawyer would be disguised, the same is true of his voice. Not that Alice Brokestreet would care. All she could see was the hangman's noose waiting for her and, abruptly, salvation is at hand. Our good lawyer tells her what to do: she will accuse Mistress Vestler, say no more than that and she will be a free woman. I doubt if Brokestreet cared if her visitor was Satan from hell.' Athelstan sighed.

'So the game began. Mistress Vestler was accused and sentenced to the gallows.'

'But the Crown would then seize the Paradise Tree?' Hengan spoke softly like a schoolmaster correcting a pupil.