There was a knock at the wooden door. Sister Anne went to open it and Thomas entered the room. He whispered something in her ear and she beckoned to Eleanor.
Adam turned and looked angrily at the three. “What is it? I will have no whispering here!”
Eleanor’s hand fluttered to her heart. “My lord, perhaps we have good reason…” Her voice was as tremulous as her gesture.
“Silence, child! This is my domain, and, as I breathe, I am the lord and master here. What means this mumbling?”
Eleanor bowed her head in meek obedience. “My lord, Father Anselm has just awakened. It seems he has recovered wits, speech, and his memory.”
“That is good news!” Adam said, looking down at Geoffrey. “Perhaps he can give us a clue to the monster who is attacking good people at Wynethorpe.”
Eleanor nodded to Thomas, who stepped forward. “That he can, my lord,” he said.
Geoffrey looked quickly at his wife, his dark eyes widening.
“He saw who pushed him?” Adam asked.
“More than that.” Thomas shifted nervously and looked down at his feet.
“Out with it, man! This is no time for monkish meekness. Who?” Adam shouted.
Thomas coughed and looked sheepishly at Eleanor.
“Speak, brother. You have my permission,” she replied, her lips set in a grim line.
“He did not see who pushed him, but he did see who murdered Henry.”
Adam strode over to Thomas, put his hands on the monk’s shoulders and shook him. “Who, monk? Who killed Henry?”
“My lord, I hesitate to say.”
“Must I lock you up? Perhaps a few days in the dark of the keep will speed your decision to speak…”
“Father!”
Thomas paled. “There is no need, my lord. Father Anselm was at the chamber door of the murderer when he was attacked. The person who killed Henry was the Lady Isabelle.”
***
Isabelle’s scream rent the air.
Sir Geoffrey, his mouth open in silent horror, reached out to grasp his wife’s hand, then fell back, groaning in agony from his wound.
The Lady Isabelle stood, one hand shaking as she extended it in supplication. With the other, she clutched the fabric of her dress over her heart. “My lords…” she began in a whisper, looking in terror first at her husband, then at Adam, and then at Eleanor.
Juliana stepped forward. As she did so, she turned and caressed her stepmother’s face, tucking a loose strand of fair hair back under her wimple. “Hush, my lady,” she said in a soft voice. “You have nothing to fear.” She looked around at the staring eyes of the assembled group. “Innocent people must no longer suffer from the terrors of this mystery. I had hoped Robert would be found innocent of Henry’s murder. After the attack on Father Anselm, I thought he would be released for he could not have done such a thing from his prison cell. Then I hoped the attack on my father would gain the good man’s freedom at last. Indeed, Robert should not have suffered but for the accident of finding my brother’s corpse, and I never would have allowed him to die for something he did not do.”
Sir Geoffrey, coughing in pain, turned to stare at his daughter. “You could not know who did these deeds, my daughter. Be careful whom you accuse in your ignorance.” His voice was weak, his words hesitant.
“I speak from knowledge, my lord,” she replied. There was a calm confidence in her voice and countenance.
Time seemed to slow as Eleanor found herself thinking that the woman she was watching had the serenity of a saint and could not be the mortal Juliana she had known years ago. “Who did it?” she asked at last, her own voice rough with tension.
“It was I.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“No!” Geoffrey shouted. “You lie, daughter. You did not kill anyone. You did not stab me. You did not push the priest. You are innocent!”
Juliana smiled with serenity at her father. “Surely you know that it was not your wife who attacked you.”
Geoffrey struggled to sit up in his bed. “Nor did you!”
“How can you be so sure? You claim you did not see who did the deed.” Juliana sat carefully on her father’s bed and took his hand. “You know the Lady Isabelle is a weak woman, but you know me better, father.”
Geoffrey turned his head. “You did not do any of this.”
“I was the one who ascended trees to the very top as a child. Isabelle stood on the ground and cheered my efforts, but she could never make it to the first branch. She has always been far more womanly than I.”
“Don’t do this, child,” Geoffrey whispered, squeezing her hand.
“In our youth, when Henry turned rude, it was I who leapt upon him and wrestled him to the ground, pulling hair from his head and clouting his ears. Did he not come to you and complain of me?” Juliana laughed softly. “Do you not remember how often you had to separate my brother and me when we quarreled?”
“They were squabbles. Things that children do. They were not serious. Do not try to make them so, Juliana.”
“Henry never forgave me for shaming him.”
“You did not humiliate him in front of other boys.”
“It was all in front of Isabelle, father. He never forgot that and took revenge. As he grew into manhood and began to lose his fear of my hard blows, he told vile stories about me to all that would listen. It is hard for any woman to defend her honor when her own brother stains it. Did you not see what was happening between us?”
Tears were beginning to flow down Sir Geoffrey’s cheeks. “You had always been quicker of wit than he. I assumed you would always best him. Indeed, he had complained to me…”
“But he had stopped, had he not?”
“He and I were estranged. You knew that well, but you are exaggerating the seriousness of your quarrels.”
“Am I? The rumors Henry spread would have made any man hesitate before taking me to wife. Any convent would have been reluctant to welcome me amongst a company of nuns no matter how rich the dower. For the sake of my honor, I had reason to kill Henry. And you have just said how quick of wit I am. Then surely I would have known when you were most vulnerable to attack.” She took a deep breath. “Isabelle is innocent, is she not?”
Sir Geoffrey muttered something unintelligible.
“Speak up, Geoffrey,” Adam said. He stepped up to his friend’s side. “Was it your wife who did this to you?”
“No. Juliana is right. She did not. Even had she reason, she would not have had the strength.” He looked at his wife with great sadness.
Adam looked over at Juliana. “Then what say you to your daughter’s confession, Geoffrey. She is the only one left with motive to kill Henry and the cleverness to…”
Geoffrey swung his handless arm at his old friend. “I will not lose yet another child to this accursed trouble.”
“If it was not your wife, and we have found no other person who could have done the deeds, then your daughter’s confession must be accepted.” Adam turned to Thomas. “Call two of my guards, brother. We will escort the Lady Juliana…”
“Nay! It was not she. It was not my wife and it was not Robert!” Geoffrey shouted.
“Then who was it, my good friend?” Adam asked sadly.
The wail from the old warrior cut like a scythe across their hearts. “May God have mercy on my black soul, Adam! I murdered my first born. I tried to kill your priest, and I attempted to send my soul to Hell for both deeds by trying to take my own life.”
***
The two men looked at each other for a long time. Tears hovered at the rims of their eyes, then each blinked them back. Geoffrey turned his head away first.
“I would never have let Robert die for what I did, Adam. You must believe me. When I found he had stumbled on Henry’s body and you had imprisoned him as the accused, I did everything I could to prove he did not do the deed. I tried to find a way to show his innocence.”
Adam nodded. “Why did you do it, Geoffrey? Why kill your own son?”
“I was convinced that my son and my wife were making a cuckold of me.” Geoffrey stopped and looked at his wife’s tear-lined face. “Your complaints about his attentions were too quick, my love, too contrived after all the years you had known each other. I thought you were trying to deflect my suspicions away from the one man you were bedding, out of the many with whom you flirted openly.”
“Yet they were not putting the cuckold’s horns on your head.” Adam’s voice was gentle.
“Indeed I know that now, yet my reason had fled for some time, along with my manhood. When you claimed your courses had come, wife, I wondered whether they might have come earlier than usual…”
“In that you were right, my lord,” Isabelle replied, her voice barely audible.
Her husband smiled weakly. “I assumed you wanted me out of our bed so you could invite my son into it. I waited outside your room, in the shadows just down the corridor that leads to the tower, where I could hear but not be seen. Finally, I did see a man come to your, our, chambers and knock. You opened the door and I rushed forward to find you in Henry’s arms, his back to me…” Geoffrey hesitated as he looked at his wife and back at Adam. “…and I was blinded with rage at the thought he had come to share her bed. I stabbed him.”
Isabelle looked at them all, then put her face into her hands. “Please hear me on this, good people. Henry did not come at my invitation. I swear it!” She raised her face, tears streaming down her cheeks as she turned to her husband. “I only opened my door because he claimed, in a voice much like yours, that he was you. You must believe me!”
“Silence, woman. This is my tale to tell.” Geoffrey looked up at Adam. “My wife tells the truth. We have talked, she and I, since that horrible night. She has explained that my son was besotted with her and did much threaten her when he knew I was not there to protect her. She did not tell me the full tale of his actions out of love for him as my son. Aye, the demons of jealousy have ceased to possess my heart and soul, but too late.”
“And Father Anselm?” Eleanor asked after a long silence.
“I pushed him. I did not see Richard but did hear the priest cry out at my chamber door that he had seen my deeds and wanted to hear more of them. I assumed that he had seen me kill my son. I waited until he had turned away from me, then I came from behind, grabbed his habit and tossed him against the stone wall of the stairs, head first.” He looked down at his scared stump and shook his head. “My strength is not what it was when I had the use of both hands so I saw I had not killed him. When I bent over him, he was motionless but I could hear him breathing, so I tossed him from the window. If not the fall, I knew that surely the cold would do the final deed.”
“The priest claims he saw your wife kill your son.”
“A dream. A fantasy.” He looked sternly at Isabelle. She neither moved nor spoke. “Monks are often like women. They imagine things that never happened.”
“Nor is it uncommon to have such strange thoughts with such a severe head wound,” Anne added.
“Your grandson did not lie, Adam. He must have seen me although I did not see him.”
Once again the two men stared at each other in silence.
“Adam, I would not have harmed a hair on Richard’s head even if I thought he had seen me killing Henry or the priest.”
“Why should I believe you?” Adam said, his voice unnaturally low.
“Because I fell on my own dagger to force suspicion away from your son. No one attacked me. I found a place apart from the rest of the castle and stabbed myself, hoping to die and, in so doing, provide proof that Robert was innocent. He could not do both deeds and I thought no one else could ever be accused. Henry’s death and mine would remain unsolved crimes.”
“It is a sin to take your own life,” Adam said.
“I had already murdered my own son and tried to kill a priest. Would the taking of my own life have made my soul’s fate any worse? It had already won quite enough land in Hell.”
“I must tell the sheriff of your confession,” Adam said.
“You needn’t put too many guards at my door, Adam, for I am too weak to run,” Geoffrey replied, gesturing at his chest.
“Why not just confess? Why try to kill yourself instead?” the baron asked, taking his friend’s whole hand in his.
“I am bred for battle, Adam, not the rope. Surely you understand this. Had you and I been in the Holy Land and surrounded by the enemy with no chance for escape, I would have killed you first so you would not have had to suffer whatever humiliations the enemy would delight in inflicting. Then I would have fallen on my own sword. Do you doubt that either of us would have flinched from such acts? Such are honorable deaths for a soldier. Thus I did indeed want to die before the hangman took me. I had sinned so much that one more rotting spot in my soul would mean nothing.”
“Facing a hangman for the crime of killing your son is not the same as dying in war.”
“I did not want to face the humiliation of the rope, Adam. I have seen men hanged. They kick their feet, their bowels loosen, and their pricks rise while those who witness the event jest at their shame and disgrace. It is no death for a knight who has, until now, tried to lead his life with honor.”
Adam nodded. “You have the right in that.”
The corners of the knight’s mouth quivered.
In silence and in sorrow, Adam and Geoffrey looked at each other for a very long time. The baron stood, wincing with the pain of his old wound. “You are weary. Perhaps it would be best if we all departed and Brother Thomas sat with you. You might find some peace in giving him your confession and seeking the solace a man of God can bring you, Geoffrey. Will you give permission, my lady?” He glanced at Eleanor and she nodded. “While he hears your confession and gives you counsel, I will release my son, bring guards for your room, and send for the sheriff.”
Geoffrey nodded. “As is only right, my friend.”
Adam turned to Thomas. “When you are done with your priestly duties and he has rested, come for me. I must explain further to Sir Geoffrey what he can and cannot expect from his imprisonment here.” The baron closed his eyes. Whether from fatigue or grief no one could tell. “You are my dearest and oldest comrade, Geoffrey. I owe you no less courtesy than I owed my son.”
“As you will it, my lord,” Thomas replied.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The light of the following morning brought no joy. Thomas’ face was drained of color. He was the most reluctant of messengers.
“Be assured, my lady, that Sir Geoffrey died peacefully,” the monk said, quickly tucking his hands out of sight as if they were stained with blood he wished to hide from the widow’s sight.
Isabelle’s wail would have sent tears down the cheeks of the most hardened of men.
Juliana drew her friend into her arms with the tenderness of a mother, resting her cheek on the top of Isabelle’s head. “Then he was not in pain last night when he died, brother?” she asked, her eyes as dark and inscrutable as they had been when she and Thomas stood together on that snow-swept parapet.
“Bleeding to death is a gentle passing. Moreover, your father’s soul was at peace. As Baron Adam asked, I remained with your father for his confession, after which he said I could leave for I had given him all the consolation he needed. In that you may find comfort.”
“Was my lord father able to see him after the confession as he wished or was Sir Geoffrey too weak?” Eleanor’s look was sympathetic. She poured a mazer cup of wine and handed it to Thomas. “Drink, brother. You need this.”
Thomas gratefully took the offered wine and swallowed with more enthusiasm than thirst. “He was weary but begged to see your father. I waited outside the door in case either of them needed me. When the baron left Sir Geoffrey, he said the knight had fallen into a calm sleep and that no one, not even Sister Anne, should disturb his friend’s rest. Indee
d, he said, Sir Geoffrey would have little enough peace in the days to come. At least your father was able to see him before he died.” He took another long draught of the wine. “I cannot help wondering if there was something I could have...”
“Nay, brother, wonder not,” Eleanor said. “You could have done nothing to prevent his death. Of that I can assure you. Sister Anne has said that Sir Geoffrey was so agitated when he confessed his guilt that his wound might have reopened, but the bleeding would have been slow. None of us could have noticed it until it was too late and, when my father thought Sir Geoffrey was falling asleep, he may have been slipping into God’s hands.”
Eleanor turned to the two grieving women. “God’s many mercies are often mysterious. We all heard Sir Geoffrey say he wanted no part of the hangman. Perhaps God answered his prayer. His soul would have been at peace with God so soon after confession, and God must have been at peace with Sir Geoffrey to have granted him such a kind death.”
Thomas drained his cup. The prioress poured him another.
“Be at peace too, brother,” Eleanor said. “Thanks to you, Sir Geoffrey died with a cleansed soul and will be buried in consecrated ground, which would not have been possible had he died at his own hand.” Then she reached over and lightly touched his arm. “Sister Anne might need your help with Father Anselm. And with our mutual nephew. You may go to them now, if you would.”
Thomas continued to stare into his empty cup, then started as her words registered. He looked up at Eleanor. He could feel a modest heat flood across his face. With some surprise, he noted that his prioress’ face was also flushed.
“Yes, brother, I did hear that I have gained one more brother and one more sister than were kin to me before this winter. Sister Anne has told me that Richard calls you Uncle and she has been dubbed Aunt.”
Tyrant of the Mind Page 19
