A Corpse at St Andrew's Chapel

by Mel Starr

  I was – as had become my custom – late for dinner. Bruce covered the ground at a contented, ambling pace. So long as the old horse reached Bampton Castle in time for his own bucket of oats he was unconcerned regarding my growling belly.

  I took from the kitchen a loaf and a cold capon and ate in my chamber while I considered paths I could follow which might lead to a resolution of my perplexity.

  Two issues vexed me: who murdered Henry atte Bridge in the north wood, and who was poaching Lord Gilbert’s game?

  I decided that day to attend the poaching business first. I thought ’twould be easiest to solve. What I did not know then was that the discovery of a poacher would lead to discovery of a murderer. Had I sought first a murderer I might never have found either a killer or a poacher.

  Although I wore the dagger at my hip, the steel seemed rather to strengthen my backbone. I went to my chamber the evening of the next day resolved to spend the night behind the broken-down church wall at St Andrew’s Chapel. I would learn who approached the chapel so late at night, why he did so, and what was in his sack.

  I was become accustomed to slipping over the castle wall at night. I worried that this familiarity might cause me to grow careless, so crept slowly through the shadows ’til I reached the place along the north wall I favored for the purpose.

  I wore brown chauces and a dark grey cotehardie, to blend with the night. But I worried that face and hands might give me away when the moon rose, so applied a thick dusting of ashes from my fireplace to the offending skin. I was satisfied with the result.

  I adjusted the dagger in my belt, secure in its new sheath, dropped the cudgel from the wall, then followed it down the rope. Once on the ground I sat at the base of the wall to watch and listen for movement. I neither saw nor heard anything but what is common to a summer evening. I paid special attention to the Ladywell. If any supplicant was there he was silent and took no notice of me.

  No one, not even John Prudhomme, must know I was about this night. I avoided the town and circled to the north. This doubled the length of my journey, for the castle is on the west edge of Bampton, while St Andrew’s Chapel lies near half a mile to the east of the town.

  I stole across the meadow between the castle and the Ladywell, then made my way along a hedgerow north of the millpond until I came to Shill Brook. I removed my boots, waded the stream, and stumbled across a fallow field to the west of the Church of St Beornwald. The night was so dark I nearly missed Laundell’s Lane, but this reassured me. If I could not see what I knew to be present, it seemed unlikely another would see what he did not expect – me.

  Laundell’s Lane is the northern boundary of the town. I was somewhat concerned about crossing the north road, so held back in the shadow of a hedge until I was sure no man was about. Across the road there was but a path which led east to the fields and crossed the north end of Bushey Row. I followed this track until past Bushey Row, then stumbled diagonally across a field of strips planted to barley. At the southeast corner of this field lay the small copse which formed the western shelter to St Andrew’s Chapel.

  This grove was thick with scrub and roots. I stumbled and tripped often as I groped through it. I could not be seen, but I was worried that, for all my caution, I might be heard. Dry twigs cracked under my feet and once I fell to my knees with feet entangled in ground ivy.

  With much relief I saw the dilapidated churchyard wall appear from the shadows of the wood. The wall was not high. Crossing it was easy. There were, however, nettles growing up about the stones. I could not see them, but I surely felt them.

  The parish about St Andrew’s Chapel is poor. Few who worship there can afford a stone to mark a family grave. So there were few grave markers to hide behind as I crept across the churchyard. Only an occasional wooden plank, not yet rotted to mold, stood upright in the soil.

  I crossed the churchyard to the gate and sat beside it, my back to the wall. The moon began to glimmer through the trees to the south of the chapel, but I sat in darkness in the shadow of the wall. No man could enter without my knowledge, for he would be on a moonlit path, and the rusted iron hinges would squeal a warning.

  I know not how long I sat, cold on the damp ground, awaiting one who never came. I believe I dozed once or twice, but no man tried the gate.

  The moon was well to the west when I stood, stretched, and crept across the churchyard to the broken-down place in the wall where I had entered. My stinging palms reminded me to this time avoid the nettles.

  I took the same route back to the castle I had followed four hours earlier on my way to the chapel. I was careful not to be seen; not because of any violation of curfew. I am Lord Gilbert’s bailiff. I may go where I wish, when I wish. Any who saw me might be curious, but I cared little for that. I did not want an observer because, was I seen, soon gossip would mean that many would know that Master Hugh was prowling about at night. Miscreants would then stay abed and await a more favorable time to work their evil. Or they would set out to ambush me while I thought to lie in wait for them. Neither of these was an outcome to be desired.

  The next two nights – well, parts of the next two nights – I spent sitting against the crumbling south wall of St Andrew’s Chapel churchyard. Midway through the third night I heard a distant creaking sound and my heart did handsprings. I looked up from my seat on the grass and watched the gate, expecting to see it swing open. It did not move, but the creaking continued.

  My senses were alert. I had one hand on my cudgel and the other on the dagger, ready to leap to my feet and challenge whoever moved about in the night. Then I saw the light. A single flame, from candle or cresset, moved from the chapel porch and the rotund shadow carrying it moved across the churchyard to the north. It was John Kellet.

  I heard another distant squawk of wood against wood as a door was opened. The flame disappeared. I remembered. The chapel privy was along the north wall of the churchyard, just outside the consecrated ground. A few moments later another squeal and the reappearance of the flame indicated that Kellet had completed his nocturnal business. I watched the flickering flame float toward me across the churchyard, then disappear into the porch. A squeal and thud told me that the priest had reentered the chapel. I remained against the wall until I was sure the slovenly priest was snoring in his bed, then set out for the castle.

  After three nights propped against a churchyard wall I was tempted to end the practice. The fourth night was Sunday eve. Surely a poacher, or whoever sought John Kellet of a midnight, would not do his work on our Lord’s Day? And it was raining. Not hard, more like a drizzle. But enough that I would soon be cold and soaked, even should I wear a cloak.

  These were good reasons to stay in my bed this night, but I did not. I took rope, club and dagger, wrapped my cloak about me, and made my way again to the castle wall. I had given up brushing ashes on face and hands. ’Twas too difficult to remove the next day. I should have continued the practice.

  For three nights I had walked the same path from castle to chapel. This night I varied my route, especially where I must cross the barley strips. The tenants whose fields these were might soon notice the flattened stalks and wonder how the crop came to be damaged.

  I set out as soon as darkness enveloped the ground, but while the northwestern sky was yet pale beyond the trees. Even so, ’twas near midnight, I think, before I arrived at the chapel, this night being among the shortest of the year.

  The grass along the wall was thick and wet with rain. I had sat three nights in the same place, near the gate. Perhaps, if John Kellet was observant, he might wonder why grass in his churchyard was beaten down at but one place along the wall. I crossed the churchyard path and sat against the wall at another place.

  I had not long to sit in wet grass this night. Clouds began to break and stars appeared through fissures in the overcast. And then the waning moon appeared to the east. The grey stones of the chapel’s east wall seemed to reflect the moon and stars. I sat in shadow, there by the south wall,
but my hands glowed whitely in reflected moonlight.

  A snapping twig caused my heart to leap and hairs to stand erect upon the back of my neck. A moment later I heard footsteps on the road beyond the wall.

  Moonlight, filtered through the trees to the south of the chapel, provided enough illumination that I saw a shadow fall across the gate. An instant later it swung open, quietly, on wet hinges. A dark figure, pale sack slung over a shoulder, passed the open gate and crept along the path to the chapel. The sack was white in the moonlight against the intruder’s dark cloak. A small, round lump swelled the bottom of the sack.

  A stray cloud left behind by the departing rain obscured the moon as the figure reached the shadows of the porch. I heard a soft rapping on the door, and rose from my place along the wall to follow the sound.

  I was between gate and porch when the moon reappeared from behind the passing cloud. Without the ashes to disguise me, my pale hands and face would surely have been visible, did any man look in my direction. To my sorrow, a man did.

  I must stop prowling about of night-time and seek rogues in daylight. Darkness is not kind to those who seek justice, but is rather an ally of those who do wrong. I crept to the porch and pressed against it, then peered around the corner to see the entrance. The night was suddenly illuminated. A thousand stars flashed before my eyes and I fell, numbed, to my knees. Just as the swirling of comets and stars seemed to cease they began again, accompanied by a sharp pain across my skull. The world went black.

  Once again fashion saved me. The liripipe coiled about my head softened the blows. I awoke I know not how long after the two strokes laid me in the grass beside the porch. I heard the soft muttering of voices but had not at first enough wit to understand what they said. My head throbbed, but the cold, wet ground soon brought me to my senses. I heard John Kellet speak.

  “You’ve killed ’im.”

  “Aye…let’s hope,” another said. I did not know the voice.

  “You’ll hang.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What’ll you do with ’im?” Kellet asked.

  “What’ll I do with ’im? You’re in this business, too.”

  “Aye…but I’ll not hang.”

  The other man spat. “You’ll lose yer livin’.”

  “Maybe. But Father Ralph’ll not see me starve. Send me to some monastery t’be a lay brother; maybe make me go on pilgrimage. Always wanted t’see Canterbury, anyway,” he chuckled.

  “I’ll drag ’im to the wood there beyond the wall, an’ get a spade. I can have ’im buried and leaves strawed across grave afore dawn.”

  “Best be sure ’e’s dead,” Kellet replied.

  I held my breath as a dark form bent over me. I thought to use the dagger against the man, but was unsure if my condition would permit a quick and accurate thrust. The man’s stinking breath near caused me to choke but I smothered the impulse. A hand went roughly to my neck to seek a pulse. My right hand lay by my side. I made ready to seize the dagger, but the fellow knew not where to seek an artery and so a moment later stood and spoke to the priest.

  “Ain’t breathin’. ’E’s dead. Whacked ’im ’cross the head hard enough. Shouldda hit ’im second time at Alvescot, when I had the chance.”

  “Live an’ learn,” Kellet chuckled.

  “’Ere…grab ’is feet an’ ’elp me get ’im over the wall.”

  I was taken up, dragged across the wet grass of the chapel yard to the west wall, hoisted to the top, and dumped over into a pile of nettles. ’Twas my life depended on my silence, so I did not cry out. Had I done so the nettles would not have stung the less.

  “I’m off then, for me spade,” a muted voice came from across the wall. “See you be here t’help when I return.”

  I heard the chapel door creak open, then close. I must not be here when the man returned. At least, not alone.

  I had walked this grove so often in the dark, I felt at home in it. I rose, head throbbing, to my knees and listened, should the fellow think better of his plan and return. The night was silent. So was I as I wobbled to my feet and staggered through the wood to the barley fields beyond.

  A plan formed in my scrambled mind as I stumbled from the shadows of the trees into the moonlit field. I hastened straight west across the wet field. Was a man to study the field he would see my dark form against the barley. But I did not seek to travel the path for fear my attacker might also be on the track, returning with his shovel. And the barley field was the most direct route to Rosemary Lane and John Prudhomme.

  I did not wish to rouse John’s neighbors from their beds, so rapped but gently on the beadle’s door. My effort was like much else in life: too little will not serve, and too much may cause unwanted consequence. I knocked several times upon the door, each time more firmly than the last, before I heard from beyond the planks a muttered oath, then a question: “Who disturbs the night?”

  “’Tis Hugh…open your door. There is mischief about.”

  John swung open the door in response and squinted at me.

  “Clothe and arm yourself. Hurry. I will explain when we are off. And bring a length of rope, if you have it.”

  The beadle did not question my charge, but disappeared into the blackness of his house. I heard him speak to his wife and stumble about in the dark. Then he reappeared, shod, cudgel in one hand and a coil of rope in the other.

  I explained our mission as I led him across the barley strips. “’Tis Thomas atte Bridge,” John concluded when I had finished my tale.

  “I could not see a face, nor identify the voice, but I think you speak true.”

  “And he spoke of poaching?”

  “Nay. But ’twas a rabbit filled his sack, I think.”

  “But why give it to John Kellet?” the beadle puzzled.

  “There is payment, or obligation, in this or I am mistaken. But what is owed and why I cannot guess.”

  John walked on my right hand as we hastened across the field. This was fortunate, for when we were nearly to the grove at its eastern edge the moon, which had been briefly obscured, reappeared from behind a scudding cloud. In its light a movement caught my eye. I grasped the beadle’s arm, pulled him to the ground, and whispered, “Shhh.”

  I pointed to the south, toward the path from town to chapel, and together we cautiously raised our heads above the barley stalks. Another cloud chose that moment to obscure the moon, but before it did we saw a figure hastening along the lane toward the chapel. The moonlight was not bright enough to see, but I was sure there was an implement thrown over the fellow’s shoulder. Such a tool might be a formidable weapon. I whispered a warning to John and bade him rise and follow me into the wood.

  The clearing sky which followed the rain now began to thicken. Clouds hid the moon. It was well I had penetrated this grove in darkness many times, else I might have got turned round. But I found the west wall of the churchyard with no difficulty and drew John to his knees beside me behind the smooth skin of a beech.

  “’Twas just there,” I pointed, “aside the wall, where they left me for dead.”

  “Shall we await them here,” the beadle whispered, “or have them in the churchyard?”

  “Here, I think. We will have the black wood behind us, and I should like to hear what they say when they find me gone. Perhaps we will learn more.”

  We did.

  We heard voices approach beyond the wall and shortly two shadowed forms appeared. I heard one warn the other of nettles, and after some indecision and prodding at the overgrown wall they found a place to their liking and clambered over. But not without a curse from a sting or two. It served John Kellet right. He should have taken better care of his chapel.

  The two figures stood silent for a moment. I thought I could see their heads twisting as they examined the forest floor for the body they had left there. I could see this because the northeast sky was beginning to lighten with an early summer dawn.

  “Where away was it you dropped him?” I heard Kellet ask.


  “Here,” came the puzzled reply, “or nearabouts.”

  “Well, it must be nearabouts. ’Tis not here…unless some beast,” Kellet chuckled, “has dragged him off already.”

  “Ha,” the other replied. “The king should employ you for his jester. You go that way, an’ I’ll go t’other. ’E’s ’ere some’eres. Sing out when you find ’im.”

  The two shadows separated, Kellet to the south, the other to the north. John and I waited behind the beech as the dim figures poked through the grove along the wall until both were lost to sight and all that could be known of their search was the sound of it.

  Eventually even that evidence faded, but soon enough returned. Each man had reached an end to the wall, found nothing, and retraced his steps. I heard much consternation in Kellet’s voice when he spoke.

  “I found no corpse…nor did you, I think. I heard nothing from you.”

  “’E’s ’ere…got to be. ’Twas not three paces from this place where I shoved ’im over wall.”

  The words spoke surety, but the tone of voice spoke incredulity. A thought occurred to me that if my disappearance was incredible, my reappearance might be also. I touched Prudhomme’s arm by way of warning, then moaned softly.

  The effect was sudden and gratifying. From my refuge behind the beech tree I watched two shadows stumble quickly toward the wall.

  “You said ’e was dead,” the priest hissed. “He’s crawled off somewhere.”

  “’E was dead,” came a shaky reply.

  I moaned again, a little more loudly this time.

  “An’ corpses cry out like that?” Kellet snorted.

  I decided that more than a groan might be called for. I whispered, but loudly enough to be heard: “I will be avenged…who is’t troubles my grave?”

  Two shadows plunged, heedless of the nettles, over the wall and back to the openness and safety of the chapel yard. I saw John’s teeth as he grinned at the performance. I motioned him to follow, then left the shadow of the tree and approached the wall in a crouch.