Paul Doherty - Nightshade

‘And your vengeance has been carried out,’ Ranulf declared.

Master Benedict threw the Clerk of the Green Wax a venomous glance. Proof, Corbett quietly concluded, that if Ranulf was not here, this murderous soul would try and seize any opportunity.

‘You are not yet finished,’ Corbett remarked. ‘Dame Marguerite was infatuated with you – yes? Did she have plans, nurse plots? Oh no, not to elope, but to settle down at St Frideswide with her lover chaplain who’d secure preferment in the royal service. Some madcap scheme that certainly did not match your plans? She might prove to be a burden in the future. Why did you need to stay? Yet you couldn’t flee and leave her to bear witness. You continued to be faux et semblant – false and dissembling. You encouraged her to act all frightened, as if she too was being threatened by the Sagittarius. That was all your work, the arrow, the message. Again you were trying to divert attention.’

‘And in St Alphege’s?’ Master Benedict broke in, all impetuous, like a master wondering if his scholar had really learnt his lesson.

Corbett bit back his anger. ‘If Dame Marguerite was trulyfrightened,’ he murmured, ‘she would never have left St Frideswide. Yet you could not kill her there; that would be highly suspicious.’

‘So?’

‘Master Claypole,’ Corbett replied. ‘Dame Marguerite was venomously hot against him. You persuaded the lady abbess to send that letter to Physician Ormesby. Why? I truly don’t know, except to use him against Claypole.’

‘But why meet in St Alphege’s.’ The question was more of a taunt.

‘Oh.’ Corbett smiled. ‘I suspect you and Dame Marguerite were going to entrap Claypole. Your assertion that the parish church held the solution to all the mysteries was a lie. The Sagittarius would launch an attack against both her and you, only to fail. Physician Ormesby would arrive shortly afterwards to find the abbess and her chaplain all distraught and ready to swear that the secret bowman was no less a person than Master Claypole.’

‘And Dame Marguerite was confident about this?’

‘Of course! Dame Marguerite wasn’t frightened of any Sagittarius; she knew who he really was. In fact she should have been most wary. You accompanied her. You took a short horn bow, along with two arrows pushed through your belt, all hidden beneath your cloak. Dame Marguerite never suspected what you really intended. She thought you adored her. Both of you arrived early in the church – the Jesus Mass was finished, Father Thomas had withdrawn, those parishioners who’d attended had left. If there had been any obstacle, you’d have simply changed your plans accordingly. Dame Marguerite would have to leave the church.Perhaps you could encourage her to move amongst the stalls, or, of course, there was always the journey back to St Frideswide. However, the church was empty, the main door locked. You acted very swiftly. You melt into the shadows, notch one arrow, emerge and loose. In a few heartbeats Dame Marguerite is dead. Another shaft is loosed at the rood screen. You unstring the bow and hide the stave in that dark, cavernous church; only then do you blow the horn and hide behind the rood screen as if terrified out of your wits.’

‘So swift?’ Le Sanglier jibed.

‘Ranulf,’ Corbett spoke over his shoulder, ‘when I start counting, pick up your bow and two arrows from the quiver, and loose as quickly as you can down the church.’ He watched Ranulf stand, bow at the ready. ‘One, two, three, four …’ He had only reached five when the second arrow whistled through the air. ‘You see,’ Corbett rose to his feet, ‘no more than a few heartbeats. Once again the Sagittarius had attacked Lord Scrope’s family. After that you were eager to be gone. I was very wary of that. I had no reason in law to detain you, hence the mummery last night.’ He stared at the prisoner. ‘I had to trap you.’

‘So you have.’ Master Benedict lifted his bound hands. ‘Now take me to London and put me before King’s Bench. I will plead benefit of clergy and demand to be returned to my ordinary, the bishop who ordained me. He will try me, and then what, Master Corbett? A few months in some lonely monastery fasting on bread and water?’

‘Perhaps not.’ Ranulf drew his sword and, ignoring Corbett’s hiss of disapproval, squatted down in front of the prisoner. ‘Scrope I understand, but those innocents, the others, why them?’

‘Why not?’ Master Benedict taunted. ‘Their kin attacked mine.’

‘I tell you this.’ Ranulf moved his sword so its tip rested on the ground, his fingers curled around the crosspiece, ‘I swear-’

‘Ranulf!’ Corbett intervened.

‘I swear,’ Ranulf shouted, ‘if you confirm the truth, we shall offer you a way out. I swear!’ He turned, eyes pleading, to Corbett. ‘I rarely ask, let alone beg.’

‘It must be just and fair,’ the chaplain murmured. ‘By the way, how did you know it was a short horn bow?’

He gestured with his hand at the longbow lying on the ground.

‘Father Thomas, at my request, searched his church,’ Ranulf whispered. ‘He found the bow hidden deep behind the lady altar.’

Master Benedict simply pulled a face.

‘I have your word,’ he glanced at Corbett, ‘as a guarantee. Untie my bonds.’

Before Corbett could object, Ranulf drew his dagger and slit the rope binding the chaplain’s wrists. The prisoner did not move; he simply curled the severed rope off, threw it away, rubbed his wrists and squinted up at Corbett.

‘It is as you say, or nearly so, a few small changes here or there. Jackanapes was not as stupid as he pretended. He was greatly mischievous. I patronised him and he was easy to use. I told him to blow the horn then leave it hidden in a secret place and be in the market square at dawn the next morning. I had approached him secretly but he may have known it was me. He could chatter like a squirrel on a branch; he had to die. As for the rest,’ Le Sanglier shrugged, ‘more or less true. I knew about the ford. I practised crossing many times. Those willows at the rear of thereclusorium cannot be seen. Lord Scrope, of course, was lax; he rightly thought if he was attacked it would be at night. He never realised people would plan during the day. As for Dame Marguerite, I was tiring of her.’ He smiled. ‘What really enticed her into St Alphege’s was my plot to loose my arrows. Of course they were supposed to miss, then we’d blame Claypole. Physician Ormesby was to arrive after the attack, be a witness to our terror. I would swear that the mysterious bowman I’d glimpsed was Master Claypole. Our good mayor is constantly in the guildhall or the marketplace outside St Alphege’s. It wouldn’t be hard and,’ he spread his hands, ‘who’d dare contradict a lady abbess and her chaplain?’

‘So her death was swift?’ Corbett walked back to stand over him.

‘Like that!’ Master Benedict snapped his fingers.

Corbett crouched down. ‘But what was the bond between you and Gaston?’

‘Ah, you were correct.’ The chaplain pointed to the wineskin. Corbett handed it over, and the prisoner drank greedily. ‘I’ll be brief.’ He smiled, smacking his lips. ‘I accept your word, what else can I do? I could demand to be put on trial and plead benefit of clergy,’ he pointed at Ranulf, ‘but I don’t think he’ll allow me to live.’

‘Very perceptive!’ Ranulf whispered.

‘Gaston?’ Corbett intervened.

‘You’re right,’ the chaplain replied. ‘Scrope escaped from Acre. When he entered the infirmary, only the sick and the dying were there. A table inside was littered with all kinds of medicines and herbs, including potions and poisons. Some of the Templarspreferred to be drugged against their impending death. Scrope took a cup of wine and mixed the poison; Gaston did not know it. Scrope encouraged him to drink, saying that the wine would dull the pain and that God be his witness, he’d come back for him. Gaston was certain that only Scrope had come into the infirmary. Afterwards Scrope fled; of course he never returned. However, he was hardly out of the infirmary when Gaston was violently sick, spewing up both wine and poison. He then fell into a dead swoon. When he awoke, Acre had fallen. The Saracens showed chivalry to those wounded who looked as if they might survive. The others had been taken out and executed with the rest in the dragon courtyard. I saw that.’