[Mediaeval Mystery 06] - Cast the First Stone

by C. B. Hanley

  ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘Yes. The wound is to the front and side of his face, so theoretically he could have hit himself with something, by why on earth would he? And if he had, it would still be in his hand, or at least on the ground behind him. No, he’s been attacked by someone else who struck the blow and then took the weapon away.’

  Sir Roger stood and dusted off his hands. ‘Murder, then.’

  ‘I’m afraid so.’

  The nearest of those outside had heard the word, and a collective moan went up. Murder. In Conisbrough village. Of a nobleman – well, a minor one, but nevertheless an official appointed by the lord earl himself. The consequences would be serious at best, and might end up catastrophic for the whole village, with hangings added to the fines that would be levied.

  Sir Roger made no reply. He’d been a little more like himself this morning, and Edwin didn’t want him to sink back into his absent state. ‘Perhaps we should decide what to do next, before we go back out.’

  The knight rubbed his face wearily. The dark circles around his eyes were pronounced. ‘We’re at peace, so the normal rules must apply, if we still have any such thing as normal rules.’

  ‘Yes. The lord earl must be informed.’

  ‘He’s in Lewes, though – that’s two weeks’ journey even in summer, more like three or four at this time of year, and then the same for someone to get back.’ He frowned. ‘I know he doesn’t like the sheriff, but we’ll have to summon him, and then either he or his coroner must come.’

  ‘And where will he be?’

  ‘York, I would imagine. Let me think. That’s from here to Pontefract and then about the same again the other side … and then the state of the roads … so if we sent someone this morning, we could expect to have the sheriff here in about a week, God willing.’

  Edwin grimaced as he looked at the body. York was much nearer than Lewes, to be sure, but still … ‘Will he keep a week? I mean, will we have to bury him before the sheriff gets here?’

  ‘I think so. But you and I can bear witness to what we’ve seen. And there are local processes as well, surely.’

  ‘There are. But it’s the bailiff who’s responsible for law and order on the estate.’

  ‘Yes …?’ Sir Roger obviously wasn’t thinking straight.

  Edwin pointed at the corpse. ‘Ivo is – was – the bailiff.’

  The knight gave a start. ‘Oh yes, of course. I was still thinking … anyway, you can make some enquiries, can’t you? You’re the earl’s man, after all.’

  Edwin had known full well that this was going to be the reply, but his heart still sank. The likely outcome of any such investigation was that the murderer would be someone he’d known all his life. But his place was to serve the earl as directed, and Sir Roger had the earl’s authority for now, so there was nothing for it. ‘As you command.’

  There was one brighter point, though. ‘If we manage to find the culprit before the sheriff gets here, and present him ourselves, it should lessen the consequences for the rest of the village.’

  ‘Yes. Good, go to it, then, and I will pray for your success.’

  Sir Roger walked out before Edwin could reply, and Edwin heard him summon the guards and set off towards the castle without addressing the villagers. Marvellous, he thought, why don’t you just leave everything to me, and without even announcing that you’ve given me the authority to do so? But that was unworthy. Sir Roger was of higher rank than he was, and was entitled to act as he saw fit. Edwin would just have to manage.

  He knelt for the final time, looking as closely as he could at the body, the wound and the rest of the interior of the house, trying to burn the image on to his mind. Then he said a brief prayer for Ivo’s soul, added a couple of pleas of his own, stood, braced himself, and walked out the door to face the waiting crowd.

  Alys had dressed and coaxed the hearth into life, but Edwin had not returned. She selected a large piece from the stack of dry wood in the corner, noting that the pile was getting low; she would have to send Hal out to the woods for some more before long. She placed it on the fire so it wouldn’t go out while she was away, and then went out to see what was going on.

  The first thing she heard was the pigs, which hadn’t been collected; and the first thing she saw, when she went to check on them, was the swineherd curled up in the corner of their open-fronted shelter. He had his hands over his ears and was rocking back and forth. Remembering what Edwin had told her about the youth, she approached him and spoke in a gentle tone. ‘Gyrth?’

  He stopped rocking and looked up at her. ‘Blood. There’s blood.’

  ‘I know there is. But you don’t need to worry – it’s nothing for you to be frightened of.’

  He held out his hands to her and she could see that they were stained with red. ‘Blood.’

  Although distressed, he didn’t seem violent. She took a step closer. ‘Come with me, and I’ll help you wash it off.’

  He stared at her without moving, so she reached out. ‘Come.’

  This time he stirred, and she felt her hand being engulfed by his larger one. She let him out of the enclosure, noting that he had been sufficiently aware of himself to fasten the gate after he’d gone in, and led him to the water butt that stood outside the cottage door to catch the rain from the roof. She picked up the broken jug that was kept beside it and scooped up some water, pouring it over his hands as he held them over a nearby patch of grass. She spoke soothing words as she did so, and he remained calm as the last of the red was washed off. Then he held up his hands and looked at them as though he had never seen them before.

  ‘Better?’ Alys asked.

  ‘Better.’

  ‘Good. Now, you need to get to work, Gyrth. You need to take the pigs up to the woods. Are you feeling well enough to do that?’

  He nodded. ‘Pigs. Yes.’

  She looked on the ground around them. ‘Where’s your stick?’

  ‘Dropped it.’

  Alys had no idea whether he needed the stick to herd the pigs, or whether he could manage without, but in any case, he could surely find a new one once he was in the woods.

  ‘Never mind. But come on, you can start with ours and collect all the others on your way.’ He would have to go in the opposite direction to the part of the village where the slaughtering was being carried out, so with a bit of luck everything would be fine. The reaction of the villagers to him a couple of nights ago had been sympathetic, but she didn’t know them well enough to guess when their patience might wear thin. If she could get him going now, just a little later than usual, she might be able to save him further trouble. Especially if they had all been distracted by something else, which seemed to be the case judging by the number of curious people who all seemed to be heading in the same direction. No doubt that was where she would find Edwin.

  She watched Gyrth as he set off with their own two pigs and then safely collected two from the next house. He would be all right. But what on earth was going on up the street? She could now see quite a large group collected outside the partially built stone house, men as well as women and children, when surely all had work to do. She heard a kind of groan as she approached, and hoped she wasn’t about to find Edwin getting pushed around in the middle of another argument.

  She joined the back of the group just in time to see a blonde, well-dressed and strikingly attractive young man come out of the house. Sir Roger, evidently, for someone behind her mentioned the name and murmured about remembering him when he was a little boy. He certainly wasn’t one now.

  She watched him summon some guards and then move away, but she couldn’t see either Edwin or Ivo. She didn’t like to try and push her way through the crowd so she stayed where she was and craned her neck. People were looking sombre and whispering to each other, and she began to experience a feeling of unease.

  After a few moments Edwin emerged, a worried look on his face. He stood in the open space in front of the doorway and cleared his throat. The chatt
ering subsided.

  ‘Ivo is dead.’

  Alys gasped, though this did not seem to come as a shock to everyone else.

  Edwin continued. ‘There is no doubt that he was murdered.’ He paused. ‘Sir Roger is sending a man for the sheriff, and he will be here in about a week. In the meantime he’s asked me to try to find out what happened.’

  The buzz started up again, and this time some annoyance was directed at Edwin. From her position behind them all, Alys could see and hear some protests about why he should be put in charge, but others were saying it was only natural – he worked for the earl and he was Godric’s son, after all. Alys tried to mark out and remember those who were openly the most hostile, so she could warn Edwin about it later.

  He was gesturing for everyone to be quiet, but he was not entirely successful and he had to raise his voice to be heard. ‘Because Ivo was from a noble family, and because this happened here in the village – not in the lord earl’s castle – we need to be careful. There will be a fine to pay, at the very least, and we don’t want it to be any worse than that.’

  That got their attention, and he continued in a more normal tone. ‘I know there has been some other trouble here in recent months, but it all happened either in the castle or when the lord earl was at war. Now that there is peace, all the old laws come back into force. The sheriff will want to know all about it when he gets here, so the more we can find out in advance, the better for us. If we can present him with the culprit, even better – it shows we’re not all complicit.’

  He had carried them with him until that last word, which marked him out again as clever, set apart, not one of them. There were some snorts in front of her about people getting above themselves.

  ‘It must have been someone from outside,’ said a firm voice. Alys looked about for the speaker, to see it was Alwin, Hal’s father. ‘Nobody here would have done this – we didn’t like him much, but he was the bailiff and we’re law-abiding folk.’ There were nods and murmurs of assent so he repeated himself. ‘It must have been a stranger – like them outlaws a few months ago.’

  Everyone was agreeing, and even starting to put forward suggestions; she heard the word ‘masons’ spoken more than once. Edwin was losing control. Alys willed him on as he shouted over them once more. ‘We don’t know that yet. We have to start at the beginning and find out. I’ll need to know who saw Ivo and when, and who found the body. I’ll need to speak to you all one at a time.’

  This provoked more grumbling, but Alys thought that they would go along with him for now, if only because the threat of the sheriff inflicting some kind of collective punishment was frightening.

  ‘What’s happening?’ The voice from beside her belonged to Father Ignatius, who had appeared silently. ‘I’ve just finished saying Prime and I was on my way to visit the sick. Why isn’t anyone at work? Has something happened?’

  She told him of what she had seen and heard, a little surprised that a man was dead and nobody had thought to fetch the priest.

  He thanked her and moved through the crowd to speak quietly to Edwin, who gestured towards the house. Father Ignatius nodded and moved towards the doorway, stopping to turn and address the crowd. ‘Once I have prayed over him I will need two or three men to carry him to the church. I suggest the rest of you get to work, for the sun is already high and it’s a day for the lord earl’s fields.’

  Alys saw the reeve indicating to two others to stay, and then shooing everyone else away. He gave a few directions about who was to go to which field, and said he would be there as soon as he could. Edwin and the priest disappeared inside the house.

  The crowd was thinning and Alys wasn’t quite sure whether to go straight home or to wait for Edwin. She found Cecily beside her, looking sombre and shaking her head. ‘Just when I thought Edwin’s troubles were over.’

  Alys tried to remain calm. ‘He’s been asked to find out what happened, but it’s not all his responsibility, is it? Not with a knight here and the sheriff on his way? How would the lord earl see it?’

  ‘From what I’ve gathered before, he’d be outraged at the insult to himself of having his bailiff murdered. If Edwin didn’t come up with a quick answer that suited him, he’d hang the nearest obvious candidate and then blame Edwin for not sorting it out.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Cecily patted her arm. ‘But there’s no reason to suppose he won’t find out, especially if he’s got a week to work on it.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t think William will be able to help him much, but we’ll all do what we can.’

  Thinking of Edwin’s uncle, Alys said, ‘Your pardon – I haven’t seen William for a few days and I should have asked first. How is he?’

  Cecily’s eyes were sad. ‘He tries to hide it, but the pain grows worse. Last night he barely made it home from the castle, and this morning he was off well before dawn so that nobody should see the struggle he has getting up the hill.’

  Their conversation was cut short by the emergence of Edwin and Father Ignatius from Ivo’s house. The priest nodded to the waiting men and they went in to fetch the body. Father Ignatius made the sign of the cross over it as they passed him, and told them to lay it in the church and ask his housekeeper for a shroud.

  They all watched as the melancholy procession passed, and then Father Ignatius left and Edwin came over to them.

  He took Alys’s hand. ‘I’m sorry you had to see that.’

  She tried to appear cheerful. ‘I’ve seen the dead before.’

  It was the wrong thing to say, for it evidently reminded him of that terrible day in Lincoln, and he burst out, ‘Yes, but I’m supposed to be protecting you from all that sort of thing now!’

  She slipped her arm through his. ‘I’m all right, truly. Now, come and have something to eat while you consider how best to start what you must do.’

  He looked at her gratefully, and they bade good day to Cecily and went home.

  Edwin’s mind was shouting at him from all directions as he entered the cottage and sat down. He ate whatever it was that Alys put in front of him while he tried to think through the best course of action. As ever, the main question would be why, but he couldn’t start to work on that until he had some more of the details on when and how and who.

  He had heard Alwin’s statement that the culprit must be a stranger, and he would very much like that to be true, but he couldn’t discount anything at this stage – and especially when Ivo had been so markedly and publicly disliked by everyone in the village. As soon as he asked himself who might have had a grudge against the bailiff, he could come up with at least half a dozen plausible candidates. But were any of them really capable of murder? It seemed impossible. But if recent experiences had taught him anything, it was that –

  Alys was saying something to him.

  He made an effort. ‘I’m sorry, my love, I didn’t catch that.’

  ‘I said, how can I help?’

  ‘Help? No, no – I don’t want you involved in this. It might turn out to be dangerous.’

  ‘Life is dangerous, Edwin, and I should know.’

  He shook his head. ‘I might not be able to protect you from everything, but I can keep you away from this.’ She started to protest and he held up his hand. ‘I said no. And that’s an end to it.’

  She picked up his bowl and he heard it bang down hard on the sideboard. But he was already back in his thoughts and halfway to the door. ‘I’ll be back later.’

  It was only after he was down the path and out the gate that he realised it was the first time he’d ever left the house without kissing her. He hesitated over whether to go back, but decided against it. He could talk to her about it later, and right now he had matters of life and death to think about.

  His steps directed him to the castle, and he found himself in the outer ward before he had really thought about it. The news had spread by now, and he was soon surrounded by curious men asking him what was going on. He waved them away as best he could and headed first for the stable
s.

  Edwin had, himself, last seen Ivo at around noon the day before, when they had spoken at the meal table in the inner ward. The body had been found this morning – by whom? I must find that out – and Ivo had probably been dead since sometime in the night. That left all of yesterday afternoon and evening unaccounted for.

  He found Arnulf, the stablemaster, mucking out a stall, and was a little taken aback. ‘You don’t normally do that yourself, do you?’

  Arnulf stopped and leaned on his shovel. ‘Not often these days, no. But we’re short-handed what with so many having gone with the lord earl, and besides, the work keeps a man warm in this weather.’

  ‘Can I distract you from it for a moment?’

  ‘Of course.’ He whistled, and a groom appeared. He handed over the shovel. ‘Here, finish this stall and the next one.’ He led Edwin back outside, where the smell wasn’t quite so overpowering. ‘I heard,’ he said, succinctly. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘I’m trying to find out what Ivo did and where he went between me last seeing him and … well, you know. I saw him at noon. Did he go out after that? Did he take a horse?’

  Arnulf nodded. ‘He did. About an hour after noon. Said he had business on the estate further out of the village.’

  ‘Do you know where?’

  ‘No. Not my place to ask, is it? The bailiff says he needs a horse and I get him one.’

  ‘When did he come back?’

  Arnulf took off his cap and used it to wipe his brow, which was sweaty from his exertions. ‘Didn’t see him, but the bay he took were back by dark, so it must have been before then.’

  Good. That narrowed things down a little, at least. Edwin made a note to himself to see if anyone had seen the direction Ivo had taken. Or maybe he had left something that might indicate exactly where he had been – some notes or a record of payment. He would have to …

  Arnulf was still looking at him. ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Oh, thank you, no, not for now. Don’t let me keep you.’