Кейт Седли - The Goldsmith’s Daughter

‘Will you listen while I talk?’ I asked.

‘Of course,’ she answered readily. ‘Tell me everything.’

So I recounted all I knew about the Babcary, Perle and Napier households, what I had gleaned from Masters Ford and Page, and all the details, insofar as I knew them, of the afternoon that Gideon Bonifant died. When I’d finished, we sat in silence for a while, watching the flames of the fire flicker and curtsey on the hearth, spurting now blue, now red and yellow.

‘That means,’ Adela murmured at last, ‘that apart from Isolda, there were at least two other people present that afternoon who would have been happy to see Gideon Bonifant dead: Mistress Perle and Gregory Napier.’

‘There may have been more than just those two,’ I pointed out. ‘If Isolda had been cuckolding her husband with her cousin, as Gideon claimed, then Christopher Babcary must be a suspect, also. Then there’s Meg Spendlove, who had been so upset after Gideon had verbally chastised her for mixing up the family goblets at Eleanor’s birthday feast. She may well have borne him a grudge that grew in her mind until it was out of all proportion to his offence. And what about Miles Babcary? I don’t say that there’s a strong case to be made against him, but it’s obvious to me that he didn’t much care for his son-in-law, and if he had entertained any inkling that Gideon disapproved of his proposed marriage to Barbara Perle and was trying to prevent it, I don’t think we could rule him out.’

Adela nodded in agreement. ‘And, from what you’ve told me of her, perhaps it might also be unsafe to discount Mistress Napier. She sounds a formidable woman. And if she were afraid that her husband was about to defy her and offer Gideon a large sum of money to hold his tongue, she might have decided to take matters into her own two hands and end the blackmailer’s life. And if I understood you correctly, Apothecary Page intimated that his monkshood liniment has been bought by both the Napiers and Mistress Perle, so the means would have been there, handy.’

I frowned. ‘But not easy to administer. After their arrival, the three guests were conducted upstairs by Miles Babcary to the parlour, where the table was already laid. But at that point only Isolda knew where each person was sitting. It was she who later directed them to their various places.’

‘Couldn’t the guilty person have worked out which was Gideon’s seat by the initials on his cup?’

I shook my head emphatically. ‘Impossible! The carving around the rims is so ornate that only a close inspection can reveal to whom each one belongs. From even a short distance, they all look the same. Moreover, there were already four people in the room when Miles Babcary and his guests entered the parlour: Christopher and Eleanor, Gideon and the apprentice, Toby Maybury. Isolda arrived a few moments later. Neither Gregory nor Ginèvre Napier nor Barbara Perle could have found the opportunity to drop poison into any of the cups.’ I sighed despondently. ‘It looks as though it has to be one of the Babcarys, and Isolda seems the most likely suspect.’

‘What about the other cousin, the girl, Eleanor?’ Adela asked.

‘I can’t find any reason why she should have wanted to murder Gideon Bonifant. If I’m right, she was in love with, or at least very fond, of him.’

‘But if the apothecary’s right, then she was relieved that he was dead.’

‘Mmmm … But did Master Page see what he thought he saw?’ I muttered doubtfully.

Adela nestled her head against my shoulder. ‘We haven’t mentioned the apprentice yet. What was it, do you think, that he was trying to tell Eleanor behind Ginèvre Napier’s back?’

I grimaced. ‘I don’t know. And Toby isn’t going to tell me. So unless I can work it out for myself …’ I shrugged and let the sentence go.

There was silence while my wife and I each pursued our own thoughts. Then Adela asked suddenly, ‘You don’t think that Toby could have been in league with either Mistress Perle or one of the Napiers? That he put the poison in Gideon’s cup, then got frightened and was trying to warn Eleanor of what he’d done?’

‘No, I don’t.’ I bent my head and kissed her. ‘My darling, I think you’re grasping at straws. I don’t want the murderer to be a member of the Babcary household, because I like them all, but I must remember that my emotions have misled me before. The fact that the Napiers and Mistress Perle had very strong reasons for wanting Gideon dead mustn’t blind me to the fact that they had no opportunity for poisoning his wine.’

‘Could Gregory Napier have managed to do it while Mistress Perle was being presented with her birthday gift?’ my wife suggested after a pause. ‘All eyes would surely have been on her and this jewelled girdle that Master Babcary had ornamented for her.’

I considered the idea, but it would have involved an extraordinary sleight of hand, and I reluctantly shook my head.

‘No, I don’t think so. The sad fact is that it was Isolda who laid the table, deciding where everyone should sit. It was Isolda who poured the wine into the goblets. It was Isolda who had the time and opportunity to enter her father’s bedchamber, next door, and who knew where the bottle of liniment was kept. The only thing I can’t be sure about is that she had a good reason for killing her husband. Was Gideon telling the truth when he accused her and Christopher of cuckolding him?’

‘Why would he lie?’ Adela wanted to know, echoing my own thoughts and the thoughts of so many others. ‘He may have been a far more despicable character than you realised at first, but no man is deliberately wishful of making himself look a fool without good reason.’ She added after a pause, ‘Apart from the three immediately involved, does anyone but you know of the liaison between Mistress Perle and Gregory Napier?’

‘I shouldn’t think so. If as much as a hint of it had reached Miles Babcary’s ears, I doubt he would still be so anxious to marry Dame Barbara.’

‘Why do you suppose that Ginèvre Napier confided in you?’

‘I’ve been asking myself that question, and I can only think that she suddenly felt the need to tell someone. She’s bottled up the secret for all these months and today, at last, she could bear to do so no longer.’

‘I wonder she wasn’t afraid that you’d inform the Babcarys or the Duke or the Sheriff’s men, and so implicate her and Gregory in Gideon’s murder.’

‘I don’t believe that, at that particular moment, she cared. She just wanted to share the knowledge of her friend’s and her husband’s perfidy with another person, and to do them a mischief. But I feel sure that when she’s had time to think things over, I shall hear from her again, begging for my discretion.’

‘She hasn’t yet sworn you to secrecy,’ my wife pointed out, ‘nor even extracted a promise that you’ll keep her confession to yourself. Don’t you think, therefore, that you should inform the Sheriff’s officers of what you know?’

I again shook my head. ‘Not until I’m absolutely sure that one of them is the murderer. At the moment, I cannot see how any of them could have administered the poison, and until enlightenment dawns – if it ever does – it would be wrong of me to entangle three possibly innocent people in the coils of the law. If Isolda stood in imminent peril of being arrested and tried for her husband’s murder, that would be a different matter.’ I leant back against the pillows. ‘I wish I could rid myself of this feeling that the quarrel between Gideon Bonifant and Meg Spendlove has a significance that I have somehow overlooked.’

Adela made no answer and her head was growing heavy on my shoulder. When I glanced down, I saw that her eyelids were beginning to droop and that her lower jaw was slack. I roused her gently.