Squire Throwleigh’s Heir aktm-7

by Michael Jecks

  ‘Brilliant, my friend. Quite ingenious. Except – I hardly like to mention…’

  ‘Come on – tell me.’

  ‘What of the small prints, the ones we thought were a woman’s? And what was the priest searching for today? Why did we find no sign of a horse’s hoofprints near the trail through the undergrowth? Oh, and why did Herbert’s head have that spectacular damage?’

  ‘As to the last, perhaps Thomas hit him with a rock.’

  ‘No, Simon.’ Baldwin shook his head with an affectionate tolerance. ‘We are not quite at the truth of the matter yet.’

  But as he stared out over the vast hill behind the hall, Baldwin was aware of a sense that he was gradually advancing towards the truth – and when he got there, he would bring the murderer to justice.

  The little procession was ready to leave for Throwleigh as the sun began to fall, heralding the onset of the long twilight. Baldwin had expected that the mourners would be riding to the church, but to his surprise the people gathered in the yard were all on foot.

  On its bier, the body wrapped in its white shroud looked even smaller than Baldwin remembered. Four well-built young farmworkers had been instructed to carry the child to church, and they all stood quietly respectful, knowing that they might not receive the money promised if they were to misbehave. Thomas and Katharine were dressed in their best clothes, the lady with a dark veil to cover her face, and all the servants and guests were suitably sombre as the cortege got under way, the priest moving off before the dead boy, murmuring a dirgeful chant, his eyes downcast, as he slowly paced through the gate and out into the roadway.

  Baldwin, Simon and their wives walked close behind Thomas and his sister-in-law. Thomas appeared nervous of the bailiff and knight, stunned with a personal misfortune that had nothing to do with his nephew’s funeral. Baldwin would never wish to prematurely convict a man or make any false assumptions as to his guilt, but after all he had heard, he was growing ever more suspicious about the dead squire’s brother. Thomas clearly stood to gain most by the death of Master Herbert; he was nearby at about the time the boy had been killed; he could quite easily have struck his nephew down and left him in the road.

  And yet Baldwin was not convinced. He chewed his moustache, recalling what Edmund had said: that his son Jordan had been playing with Herbert that afternoon, and suddenly a whole new series of fascinating speculations arose in his mind.

  If there had been two children there that afternoon, Herbert’s friend might well have seen him being attacked by Thomas. Then Thomas would inevitably have tried to catch the other, to silence him. And if he was unable to lay hands on Jordan, what a perfect trap to lay for the boy’s father instead!

  But that was impossible, Baldwin realised. There was no way that Thomas could have realised that Edmund would be the next rider on the road; that would presuppose that Thomas enjoyed the protection of an ally – someone who would wait with Herbert’s body, and as soon as he saw Edmund rattling along on his cart, could drop down into the road and position the corpse ready for the ‘accident’.

  Then he considered Nicholas. The steward had been there too, according to Edmund. How large were his feet? It was an intriguing notion, and Baldwin pondered it a while before moving on to another suspect: James van Relenghes. What had the Fleming been doing out on the moors that day with his guard, Godfrey? He would definitely have to speak to the two men.

  Now, the party of mourners were already dropping down the gentle slope that led to Throwleigh itself, and soon the massive bulk of the church ahead became visible.

  Simon and his wife were fully aware of the solemnity of the occasion, having buried their own young son only two years before. Poor Peterkin had been struck down over the space of a few hours, and from being a strong, pink, healthy boy-child, had suddenly become a sickly, squalling baby in the throes of fever and convulsions. His death had been quick, once the disease had taken hold, but Margaret and Simon had never really got over it, and now Simon sought his wife’s hand and gripped it. She looked up at him and he could see the tears in her eyes, but she gave him a brave smile and squeezed his hand.

  The service was no different from any other, and for Simon it went past in a meaningless series of tableaux: the incense wafting greasily as they entered the church, the boy lying now on the hearse, covered with its pall, the candles lighted, just as they had been for Herbert’s father only a few days before, the priest with his mournful voice intoning the words of the service of Evensong, beginning with the Placebo. Simon bowed his head and said his own prayers for the soul of the boy, and as he did so, he asked for the continued protection of their poor dead Peterkin. He heard Margaret sob quietly, which brought the prickling of tears to his own eyes.

  All too soon it was over. The priest left to see to the mourners, for quite a large number were to be paid to sit up with the corpse overnight; all the poorest of the vill had offered themselves for the vigil. There was often good money to be earned by staying at the side of a corpse during its last service in church.

  Lady Katharine remained outwardly calm throughout the Placebo, but as soon as she was touched on the arm by Thomas to indicate that it was time to return home, she recoiled, and then began to shake her head convulsively, as if in desperate denial of her son’s death.

  Thomas’s face went red with embarrassment. He was nonplussed in the presence of such despair, unsure how to react. As he reached to help her up from the pew, she gave a high, keening wail, and in her disordered state of mind struck at him, in the process knocking her hat from her head. Thomas was transfixed at the sight of her hysterical face, wide-eyed with horror and revulsion as she slapped at him.

  And then she screamed: ‘Murderer! Murderer! You killed him, didn’t you? You killed my son to win our estate!’

  Hugh puffed and blew as he rolled on to the heavy barrel into the buttery. Once there, he hoisted it on the table and wedged it. Taking the heavy mallet, he held the tap over the bung, pausing while he worked up the courage for the one, solid blow. Then he brought the mallet down swiftly and slammed the tap into the barrel, losing not a drop of wine.

  Satisfied, he used a blunted bodkin to knock the spile out of the top of the barrel so that the wine could flow, and then, determined to ensure that the wine was of a good enough quality for the funeral party on their return, he most assiduously tested three cups in rapid succession.

  Wat entered as he was emptying the last. ‘Hugh, Edgar wants your help with setting out the tables in the hall.’

  ‘Shouldn’t Petronilla be doing that?’ demanded Hugh and belched loudly. He gave a long, satisfied sigh. ‘Aah! That’s good wine.’

  Wat looked from him to the barrel, and moved imperceptibly towards it. Instantly Hugh slammed a fresh spile in place to stop the wine flowing, and glared at the boy.

  ‘Do you remember how you were on Sir Baldwin’s wedding day? Eh?’

  ‘That wasn’t my fault! I just had a bit too much strong ale. I’m so thirsty, Hugh, can’t I just have a small drop of…’

  ‘No, you can’t. You’ve had enough today already. Think what your master would say if we found you asleep under the barrels again. God’s teeth! You’re hardly ever sober these days.’

  ‘But I’m thirsty!’

  ‘The trough is outside,’ Hugh stated implacably.

  ‘Shouldn’t you go and help Edgar?’

  Hugh eyed him suspiciously. He credited the lad with the same deviousness as he had himself exercised when he was a young whipper-snapper and wished for wine. ‘Why should he want me? Hasn’t he got enough others to help him?’

  ‘Like who? They’re all at the funeral,’ Wat said, sulkily surveying the barrels arrayed in their neat lines at the wall.

  ‘What about Petronilla and the other serving girls?’

  ‘She’s gone off somewhere. Don’t know where.’

  ‘Well, maybe you could find her. And if you manage it quickly,’ Hugh’s voice dropped conspiratorially, ‘you’ll get a pint of so
mething to warm you later, all right?’

  With a happy grin, Wat nodded and shot through the door. Hugh sighed and patted the barrel regretfully before making his way out to the hall.

  Wat tried shouting for Petronilla at the door to Lady Katharine’s solar, but there was no answer. Outside in the yard he stopped, wondering where to search first. The orchard held the demesne’s main flock, and it was possible that the maid was there, milking ewes, or she might be in the byre collecting the cows’ milk – but then she might have completed both tasks and now be in the dairy, or maybe the kitchen. Choosing the dairy as the most likely place, he scampered off to the little building at the side of the byre, next to the stable.

  He searched through all the farm buildings, and found no sign of the girl. In the dairy the cows were lowing mournfully; all, he noticed, had full udders. Obviously Petronilla hadn’t been here yet. At the kitchen there was a shriek from the harassed cook telling him to clear off or he would get such a clout over the head he’d see stars at noontime. It was as Wat left the orchard, glancing up towards the moors, that he saw her at last. She was hurrying back from the direction of the common where poor Herbert had been killed.

  Wat tutted to himself after wasting so much time, and trotted to the gate to intercept her.

  He was waiting patiently as she approached. ‘Miss, the servants are in the hall, and would like your help to set out the tables for the party’

  Her face, he saw, was troubled, and she looked at him as though she didn’t recognise him. ‘The servants? Oh, they’ll be setting out the hall, of course.’

  ‘Edgar wasn’t sure where your mistress would like the tables set,’ Wat said helpfully.

  ‘I can show him. Oh, but the cattle,’ she said distractedly, and struck her forehead with her hand. ‘I haven’t milked them yet.’

  ‘Miss? Miss, your hand’s all dirty’

  She glanced down, and automatically wiped her hands on her apron. Her face was full of confusion. She kept glancing back the way she had come, then at the hall, then the byre, with a look so filled with worry that Wat felt quite anxious for her.

  ‘Miss Petronilla, don’t worry,’ he said with a mature decision. ‘You go and rinse your hands in the trough, and I shall milk the cows.’

  ‘Can you?’

  Her evident gratitude made him swagger as he led the way through the gate. ‘I’m the son of Sir Baldwin’s cattleman; I was almost born in a byre,’ he boasted, then reflected a moment. ‘In fact, my mother said I should have been born in the pigsty, but I think she meant the byre.’

  Petronilla gave a laugh and ruffled his hair. ‘Oh Wat, you make me laugh, you clot! If you’re sure, then I’d be very thankful if you could milk the cows and let them out to the field. It would give me some time to help your master’s servant. Do that for me and I’ll give you a pint of my mistress’s best ale.’

  He nodded happily and scuttled off, and Petronilla went hastily to the trough to wash, carefully scooping water over her face and rubbing away any sign of the peat from the moors.

  She didn’t want anyone to realise where she had been.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The mourners stood in a huddle at the church porch, united by their sense of guilt, as if their unintentional witnessing of the sudden lunacy of the lady of the manor conferred some form of complicity upon them. Jeanne and Margaret had gone to Katharine and sent Thomas packing into the churchyard. Now he stood in a corner at some distance from everyone else, staring out over the fields towards the manor house itself, lost in thought.

  That look of hatred on his sister-in-law’s face had shaken him to the core. Her features had been twisted with emotion so that she was almost unrecognisable. The recollection made him shudder.

  He felt the weight of people’s eyes on him, and their silent wonder. No one could have missed Katharine’s words. In the secret fastness of his mind, he cursed her, the bitch, for denouncing him like that before all the others.

  ‘Thomas?’

  ‘Oh, it’s you,’ the fat man spat. ‘I should’ve guessed you’d want to question me again, Sir Baldwin. I suppose you want to accuse me of Herbert’s murder now, is that right?’

  ‘Hardly. I wanted to make quite sure that you were all right,’ Baldwin said gently. ‘It must have been a great shock.’

  Thomas gave him a searching look. The knight did have all quietly compassionate look about him. Feeling slightly mollified, the other gave a grunt. ‘What does it matter? I am perfectly fine. The stupid bitch doesn’t realise what a help I have been to her, but there’s nothing new in a woman not appreciating a man’s assistance.’

  ‘Do you have any idea why she should have made such an accusation?’ Baldwin probed. ‘She had been fine until just now – why should she suddenly turn on you like that?’

  ‘Damned woman. I wish I knew,’ Thomas sighed. ‘God’s blood! Why did she have to have her fit in there – in public? The rumour of it will be all over Throwleigh and up as far as Oakhampton by morning, for God’s sake. Christ’s bones! It’ll be all the news in Exeter by tomorrow night. What have I done to deserve this?’

  ‘She must have heard something from someone,’ said Simon. He had walked up quietly while the two were talking. ‘Somebody must have made some allegation about you. Why else should she come out with this?’

  ‘You could be right, Simon,’ Baldwin said, and threw a glance over his shoulder at the crowd waiting near the door. Most of them were the people from the procession from the house: van Relenghes and Godfrey, Daniel, the four labourers who had acted as pall-bearers, and some of the poor who had been hoping for money. ‘But when could they have spoken to her?’

  Thomas sneered. ‘Those two were alone with her almost all morning, and most of the afternoon. No doubt it suits Sir James to slander me to her, the bastard! I’ll get even with him, somehow. I don’t care how long it takes me, but I’ll make him regret saying things about me behind my back.’

  ‘What could he have said?’ Baldwin asked mildly.

  Thomas shot him a look. ‘Never you mind, Sir Baldwin! Just remember this, that slimy bastard is after one thing, and one thing only: her! He says he was a friend of my brother’s, yet none of the people here ever heard Roger mention him.’

  ‘You think he is an impostor?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘Did you see him up on the moors when Herbert was killed?’

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake! Why must you keep asking me about that!’ Thomas cried, thrusting his arms out on either side as if in despair. Then, as though accepting that the knight had little choice after the display in the church: ‘Oh, very well – what do you want to know?’

  ‘Was van Relenghes out on the moor when you were up there and saw Edmund ride by?’

  ‘Yes. I passed him when I was on my way out. He was there on horseback with that damned guard of his.’

  ‘Where were you going?’

  ‘I had seen Stephen walking off that way and I was looking for him,’ Thomas lied. He didn’t dare admit to the true reason for his journey out to the moor that day, not after the display in the church. ‘I wanted to ask him some questions. He was always my brother’s secretary and clerk, and after Roger’s death I had been looking into his affairs to help my sister-in-law. There were some matters I wanted to check up on – things Daniel had been involved with.’

  ‘What sort of things?’ Simon asked.

  ‘The man has been a trusted servant for many years, and I am sure he is honest, but some monies appear to have been mislaid. Daniel is the steward, and he was given the cash, according to the manor’s beadle, but the cash seems to have disappeared. I wanted to ask Stephen about it.’ Thomas shrugged, hoping they would swallow the story.

  ‘A difficult question to ask such a longstanding servant,’ Baldwin agreed, ignoring the obvious lie.

  Simon nodded thoughtfully. ‘But we’ve heard from Edmund that you were attacking the ferns. What were you doing?’

  Thomas�
�s face reddened and he forgot to dissemble. ‘I’ll tell you what I was doing! I was looking for the little bastard who’d lobbed a stone at me. I’d missed Stephen, and gave a good day to the Fleming and his man as I passed them, but nothing more than that, nothing more than common politeness required. Anyway, I rode as far as the road to Throwleigh, and decided to take that way back so as to avoid meeting the Fleming again. And, since I hadn’t seen Stephen on the top road, I thought he might have walked back towards the church, but I had only gone a matter of a few yards when someone shot a stone at me and hit my arse. When Edmund saw me, I was trying to find the little sod.’

  ‘Do you know what van Relenghes and his man were doing up there?’ Baldwin asked.

  ‘Oh, I think they were merely getting a breath of air.’ His face took on a shrewd, keen expression. ‘Why – do you think they might have had something to do with Herbert’s death, then?’

  Baldwin refrained from commenting, but thanked Thomas just as the chattering of the people before the porch was suddenly stilled.

  Lady Katharine came out, assisted by Jeanne and Margaret. The crowd was struck dumb by her tragic appearance. Quietly the congregation parted to allow her to pass, and the three women moved down the line, Katharine with her head bowed, stumbling slightly as if she was unconscious of the lumps and bumps in the path. Margaret caught Simon’s eye as the bailiff moved forward to assist, and gave him a faint shake of her head. He remained where he was, grateful to be relieved of the duty of aiding the woman in her grief – and wondering what could have ignited her misery. He could only assume that seeing her son’s little body on the hearse had made her reason falter.

  Van Relenghes and his man strode along behind as if prepared to guard Lady Katharine from any importunate guests.