The Medieval Murderers - King Arthur's Bones

To reach Merlin’s oak from the castle entailed heading towards St Peter’s Church, then continuing on past it into Priory Street. The tree stood at the far end of the road. When they arrived at the tree, Cole and Boleton began to poke about in the long grass with sticks, although not very systematically, while Gwenllian stared up at the shady green canopy.

‘What have you seen?’ she asked it softly. ‘Who killed Daniel? Who stole the bones Meurig hid – and almost murdered my husband into the bargain?’

A summer breeze whispered through the branches. Then a leaf fell and spiralled slowly to the ground. Gwenllian followed it with her eyes, watching it come to rest on a patch of grass. She bent to inspect it. It was healthy, shiny and green, and she wondered why it should have dropped. She started to pick it up, but her fingers closed around some blades of grass as well as its stem, and when she lifted the leaf the grass rose with it.

‘Symon!’ she shouted, excited. ‘Come and look!’

‘Weeds,’ drawled Boleton, when the two knights had darted around the tree to find the constable’s wife brandishing a fistful of vegetation. ‘How very fascinating!’

‘Turf,’ explained Gwenllian curtly, not liking his tone. ‘Grass excavated carefully, so it could be replaced and no one would know a hole had been dug.’

Cole was on his knees, hauling up clumps of sod. He tossed them to one side, until he had cleared a neat square that was roughly the length of his arm. The soil below was damp and hard and had clearly been stamped into place. Before Gwenllian could stop him, Boleton had stepped into the hole.

‘The digger had average-sized feet,’ he announced authoritatively. ‘Smaller than mine. Do you see the print he left?’

‘Not really,’ replied Gwenllian acidly. ‘Your trampling has just obliterated it – along with any clue it might have yielded.’

Boleton sighed. ‘How foolish of me! It was a very clear impression too.’

Gwenllian studied him hard but could not decide whether he was mocking her or was genuinely contrite. She opened her mouth to say something sharp, but Cole spoke first.

‘It does not matter, brother. I saw the mark before you trod on it, and it was unremarkable. I doubt it could have told us anything useful.’

Gwenllian scowled at them both and heartily wished they had stayed in the castle. Cole she could control, but Boleton was obviously going to be a nuisance. She fought down her irritation and knelt, hoping to find some other clue. Unfortunately there was nothing to see but recently excavated earth.

Cole borrowed a spade from Spilmon the grocer, whose house was nearby, and began to dig, relishing the opportunity to indulge in the kind of physical exercise that was generally frowned on for royally appointed officials. Boleton offered to take a turn, but not with much conviction, and was more than happy to lie in the shade while his friend did the work. He tossed a boy a penny to fetch him a jug of ale and settled back with an indolent sigh.

The sight of the constable wielding a shovel was enough to attract attention, and it was not long before a crowd had gathered. Hywel was among them, so Gwenllian went to greet her nephew, pleased by the chance to abandon Norman French and speak her native tongue. But Hywel was not of a mind to exchange pleasantries. He scowled towards Cole.

‘What is he doing?’

‘Investigating Daniel’s murder.’

‘By digging holes?’ Hywel asked incredulously. ‘I know he is stupid, but I did not think he had lost his wits completely.’

Gwenllian fixed him with a glare that had him stepping back in alarm. ‘He is not stupid.’

‘He was stupid two years ago,’ muttered Hywel. He was drunk, as usual, and did not know when it was more prudent to stay quiet. ‘If he had done his duty, my father would still be alive.’

‘I am tired of hearing this,’ said Gwenllian. Hywel started to raise a wineskin to his lips, but she slapped it down. ‘I miss him too, but it is time you pulled yourself together. Do you think he would be proud, seeing what you have become? A drunkard, wallowing in events of the past?’

Hywel regarded her through bloodshot eyes, then turned abruptly and shouldered his way through the crowd. She closed her eyes, temper subsiding as quickly as it had risen. She had not meant to be cruel, but she was weary of his recriminations, and someone needed to tell him the truth about himself. She dragged her thoughts away from Hywel when Cole cleared away the last of the loose soil, and his spade chopped towards the harder earth around the tree’s roots.

‘Stop!’ she cried. Was it was her imagination, or were the leaves shivering in agitation above her head? ‘The hole is empty. You have proved someone came a-digging, but whoever it was has left nothing behind.’

Cole leaned on his shovel and wiped sweat from his eyes with his sleeve. Then he frowned, leaned down to pluck something from the grass and handed it to Gwenllian.

‘A phial,’ she mused. ‘Oval – and identical to the one we found in Daniel’s purse.’

‘Not identical – this one is empty,’ he said. ‘What do you think it means?’

Gwenllian considered. ‘I think you were right to assume the contents of Daniel’s little bottle were special. Perhaps someone believes the tree under which Arthur lay is sacred, and has been filling phials with rainwater that has dripped from its leaves.’

Cole’s expression was dubious. ‘But why should such a thing be in Daniel’s purse? I cannot see him falling for such foolery. He was a monk, not some superstitious bumpkin.’

Gwenllian did not know what to think. ‘If you are sure there is nothing else to find, we should refill the hole. I do not think the tree will appreciate being left with its roots exposed.’

It took Cole considerably less time to fill the hole than it had to dig it. When he had finished, Gwenllian replaced the turf and stamped it down. Despite their care, the grass still stood proud of the surrounding vegetation, and it told her that whoever had excavated the original pit had gone to considerable trouble to ensure his handiwork remained hidden. She wondered why.

Cole wiped his hands on his shirt, then accepted a drink from Boleton’s jug. ‘I am not sure that was worth the effort. We still do not know how the hole is connected to Daniel.’

‘It is not connected,’ said Boleton scornfully. ‘Obviously. He did not dig it – unless someone waited until he had patted it all back in its rightful place before killing him, which seems unlikely. Perhaps he just had the bad luck to spot the digger at work and was murdered for his silence.’

Gwenllian drew Cole away from him. ‘This hole is dug on the town side of the tree,’ she whispered, ‘but Meurig buried Arthur on the far side. Two different pits, two different places.’

He regarded her uncertainly. ‘What are you saying? That whoever tried to steal the bones two years ago dug in the wrong location? That Arthur has been here all along?’

‘No, I could tell by looking at Meurig’s pit that it had held a chest – the tree had wrapped its roots around it like a cradle. I have no idea why anyone should have been digging on the opposite side now. Perhaps it is nothing to do with Arthur, although…’

‘Although it is an odd coincidence. Poor Daniel. I wonder what he stumbled across.’

Gwenllian frowned. ‘I cannot believe the culprit did not make some kind of noise. So it is time to ask the people of Priory Street what they heard or saw.’

Gwenllian did not want Cole or Boleton with her when she spoke to potential witnesses, because no one was going to be free with information when a pair of Norman knights were looming behind her. Unfortunately she could not think of a way to be rid of them, and when she suggested they separate to ask questions, Boleton made a casual remark about an official investigation sending the murderer into a panic. It was cleverly done, because once the seed was planted in Cole’s mind there was no way he was going to let his wife conduct an enquiry on her own. And where Cole went, so went Boleton.