The Medieval Murderers - The False Virgin

‘One of the men must have told Edward he’d returned here.’

‘And why did he return here?’ Grey persisted.

‘I don’t know! All I know is my husband is arrested and Edward is… dead.’ Mary sprang from her seat and paced over to the window, staring out at the bleak sky through the tiny diamonds of glass. Grey could see her shoulders shaking as she fought to stifle her sobs.

He felt a twinge of guilt. He disliked harrying women, but she was lying to him. He knew that.

‘Edward came here to see you, didn’t he?’ he said sharply. ‘Was that why your husband returned unexpectedly, because he had his suspicions that you and Edward were playing him for a cuckold?’

Mary’s legs buckled and she sank down onto her knees. For a moment, Grey thought she had fainted, but she remained kneeling at the casement, sobbing uncontrollably into her kerchief.

He hurried over and lifted her up, settling her into the window seat.

He waited, until she quietened a little.

‘Mistress Mary, you have my word I will not utter a word to any about your dalliance. That’s no concern of mine. But if your husband’s lawyer learns of it he might raise the matter at your husband’s trial. Juries tend to be sympathetic to husbands who’ve been wronged. They are, after all, husbands themselves. Although from what little I know of Richard, the fact that he didn’t mention it to me probably means he would sooner be hanged than have the world know he’d been cuckolded. But there is one thing that is my concern. Did Edward take that reliquary?’

He saw the muscle in the side of Mary’s face twitch as she clenched her jaw.

‘Edward is dead, Mary. It cannot harm him now if you tell me the truth. And that reliquary has already brought enough misery to this household. Don’t force me to add more by having my men tear this place apart looking for it.’

She swallowed hard, then took a deep breath. ‘I’m not as stupid as my husband thinks. I heard him lumbering up the stairs that night long after the servants were abed and I heard the chest in the solar being opened. It’s right next door to the bedchamber. Next morning, the rumour was all round the village that St Beornwyn had vanished from the church in the night. I know how much my husband likes to show off the reliquary for its gold and jewels. He wasn’t interested in her holy relics, just the statue that housed them. I guessed at once he had taken it and where he’d put it.’

‘And you told Edward.’

Her head jerked up. ‘We were not lovers,’ she said fiercely, ‘at least not in the way you mean. Edward was kind and intelligent. He should have been Guild Master, not Richard, but half the men were afraid of Richard and dared not vote against him. I enjoyed talking to Edward. He didn’t treat me as if I was one of his apprentices. He took to calling on me and we enjoyed spending time in each other’s company. Richard came home unexpectedly one day and found us in here laughing together. He was convinced I was betraying him, but I wasn’t… not then. After that Richard began coming home at odd hours, trying to catch us, and his moods got worse. Edward could see how miserable I was, how Richard treated me, and asked me to run away with him.

‘But taking St Beornwyn was my idea. Edward would be giving up everything for me and we needed money to begin a new life far from here. Besides, Richard had taken all the money and property I brought with me as a bride, so why should he have the statue as well? He deserved to lose it!’ she added vehemently.

Clearly, Grey thought, Mary cared as little for the relics as her husband. Her only thought was to use the reliquary to finance her new life with her lover, and to spite Richard too, of course.

‘William always slips out to his mother’s in the afternoon, so I arranged that Jennet and I should sit with a friend, so that if Richard checked, we could prove we were not in the house when it was robbed. My husband had warned us there was a gang of robbers come to this village, so I knew if the house were left empty Richard would be bound to think it was them. Edward was to take the reliquary and hide it. In a few days, after the fuss of the reliquary had died down, I would join Edward and we’d disappear. But Richard returned early in the hope of finding us together. He must have seen Edward and followed him, and then… then he killed him. He… he cut his throat as if Edward were nothing more than a pig in his slaughter yard!’ She broke down into sobs again.

Grey thought that it was as well for Richard that a wife could not be called as a witness against her husband, for she’d surely put a rope around his neck herself, and probably offer to kick the ladder away, too.

‘You said that Edward intended to hide the reliquary. Where?’

Mary scrubbed at her tear-stained face. ‘He didn’t tell me in case I was questioned. He thought it would be easier to deny everything if I didn’t know.’

Grey could understand that, and he was inclined to believe her, but once again he felt a growing frustration.

‘Then where were you to meet?’

‘The village of Linby; it lies beyond Newstead Priory. Edward has a distant cousin who owned a watermill there, but it’s not been running these past few years, since one of the landowners diverted the stream and put him out of work.’

So, in all likelihood, Edward was planning to hide the reliquary in the disused mill – a good hiding place – but plainly he never got that far. Realising that Richard was about to overtake him, he turned aside to the Hutt. But where was Beornwyn’s statue now?

As Grey walked back down the street towards the inn, the last of the goodwives were clustered around the stalls, bargaining for bread, fish and meat, and anything else they thought the shopkeepers might be persuaded to sell cheaply on the grounds that it would not keep over Christmas Day. Apart from at the baker’s they were having a hard time convincing the shopkeepers to bargain, for in this cold weather even meat and fish would stay fresh for several days.

Dusk was settling down over the village and icy mist, heavy with wood smoke, curled itself around the houses. Grey was anxious to get back to the inn’s fireside. He was so hunched up against the cold that he found himself walking past the butcher’s yard without even realising it, and would have carried on but for the bellow of anger that caught his attention. He paused and glanced through the open gateway.

The journeyman was nowhere to be seen, but the slovenly woman he’d spoken to earlier had trapped someone in the corner and was giving him a good drubbing with her tongue, punctuated by several smart raps to the head. Grey couldn’t see much of the figure cowering under her blows, but he guessed it was probably the errant apprentice. He strode in and pulling the woman away from Alan, seized the lad firmly by his jerkin and marched him out of the yard.

Momentarily stunned by having her victim snatched from her, the woman recovered herself and ran after them down the road.

‘Here, where do you think you’re taking him? The little bugger’s been gone half the day. I need him here to clear the meat and fetch water from the well to sluice down the slabs.’

Grey ignored her and hurried the boy on.

They heard her voice rising to a shriek behind them. ‘Bring him back here! You’re not leaving me to do it all myself again!’

As soon as they had turned the corner safely out of sight, the boy tried to wriggle free, but Grey pushed him up against the wall of a cottage.

‘Alan, isn’t it? You’re not in trouble. I just want to talk to you.’

The boy looked plainly terrified.

Grey tried again, softening his voice. ‘I don’t think you want to face that woman tonight, do you? Why don’t you come along with me and I’ll buy you a good hot supper? We can sit by the fire and I’ll ask you a few questions. That’s all, just a few questions, then you can leave or stay as you please.’