The Chapel of Bones: (Knights Templar 18)

by Michael Jecks

  William looked at him steadily, then at the Bailiff. ‘All right. I can tell you little enough, but what I can remember, I will tell.’

  The three of them sat at a low bench nearby, and as the light began to fade, William told them his story.

  ‘We all wanted John Pycot to be Dean. Everyone in the city was on his side. He knew Exeter, you see. You can’t beat a man like that, who’s prepared to fight for his own people. No, he was one of us, well enough. Then in comes this new Bishop, and he reckons to control everything in his own way. Quivil, his name was, and he sought to curtail some of John’s efforts. See, John was a bit of a quick man to make a shilling or two. Always looking for the next profit, and that wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing, was it? So Quivil gave him short shrift. Tried to stop some of his frauds. That was why he didn’t recognise him as his Dean.’

  ‘How would a Dean like him be able to fiddle the Fabric Rolls or the other Cathedral finances?’ Simon asked. ‘If the Treasurer was intelligent, it should have been difficult to pass anything remotely dangerous.’

  ‘You could say John had an inside knowledge of the Treasurer’s mind,’ Will said with a chuckle. ‘He was Treasurer. That was one of Quivil’s points of disagreement with him. And then he lost the battle, because the Archbishop, God bless him, sided with John. I don’t know why. Must have been they were old friends, or maybe John was going to share some of his profits or something, I don’t have any idea, but the long and the short of it was, this Chaunter Walter was imposed on the Cathedral. If it was just the Cathedral, that’d be fine, but this lad wanted to restrict John’s works generally, and we liked John. Like I say, men will support the fellow they can trust, and there’s no one like the man you grew up with to instil trust, is there?

  ‘John put together the force. There were about twenty of us … don’t remember all the names and faces, but I do remember my lot. There was me, Henry, and some others. We all stood in the shadows up near that arch where Fissand Gate is now. There wasn’t any wall in those days – it was the murder that led to Quivil petitioning the King for a safety wall. He realised that he was in danger from the city folk, I guess.

  ‘We waited in the darkness until we saw the first chink of light from the door. See, the man who was guaranteed to be there was Chaunter Walter. The Matins service was one of his own, one he had to participate in. He knew we hated him. He wasn’t some idiot from London who’d think he could beat any number of Deb’nshoir churls without suffering pain, see. He tried to make sure that he always had a safe route home from the Cathedral. So he did that night. And we fucked him, we did!

  ‘It was easy. We paid a man to tell him he was all right. That way the Chaunter reckoned he was safe, and he stepped out happily into our trap.’

  ‘He was content to take the word of one man?’ Baldwin asked dubiously.

  ‘Yes, because the man told him it was dangerous!’

  ‘What are you saying?’ Simon snapped. ‘Are you playing with us?’

  ‘No, Bailiff. I’m telling the truth,’ William wheezed, shaking his head with delight at the simplicity of the ploy. ‘What we did was, we told the fellow to tell the Chaunter that there was a big ambush, but that his own men had heard, and they’d told the Bishop. The Bishop had his men all about the place, and they’d catch all the villeins trying to kill him. They’d be thrown into gaol and Chaunter Walter could have the pleasure of seeing them punished. Oh, he liked the idea of that, too, the bastard!’

  ‘What he didn’t know was that the man who told him this was in the pay of the attackers,’ Baldwin guessed.

  ‘Yes. After that, he sent a trusted man himself to tell the Bishop’s men – the same man who had warned him. And then that man came back and let him know all was well; the Bishop’s men would save him. I’m told he was still gazing about him, wondering where his rescuers were, when the mob cut him down.’

  Baldwin pursed his lips. ‘So who was this man?’

  ‘Henry knew – he paid him. But I’ll tell you another thing, sir. When it all went down, it happened really fast. We saw him at the door, then he was out with his boys, all of them walking to his house, which is where the Charnel Chapel stands now, and suddenly, one lad jumps past us all and hares off towards him. It was a novice, a boy called Vincent, who was utterly devoted to the Chaunter, and all he was trying to do was save his master’s life. Christ’s Balls, you could have cut me down with a nail-parer! I just thought, God’s Teeth, this’ll screw everything! I ran after him, and all the way he was shouting out to protect his master, yelling at the top of his voice that it was a trap, that there were men all about waiting to kill him. I think they all thought he was part of the ruse, though, and the first man he came to killed him on the spot.’

  Baldwin leaned forward. ‘Who was that, then?’

  ‘Who stabbed him? It was a man called Nicholas. Funnily enough,’ he added, ‘it was the same Nicholas who’s dead now. The friar.’

  ‘This Vincent – where did he come from?’

  ‘Oh, he was a local boy, I think, but not from inside the city. City men wouldn’t have tried to save that arse Lecchelade.’

  ‘And afterwards?’ Simon pressed him.

  ‘Oh, after all that, we bolted. The gate to the south was open, and some men made their getaway through that. Others like me, Henry, and some friends, didn’t need to try that. We knew our way in the city, and we just went home. The Bishop was furious, but no one would ever tell stories on us, not even when he brought up the idea of excommunicating us all. It didn’t matter, we could all get absolution at John Pycot’s door.’

  ‘It must have made for a miserable time in the Cathedral.’

  ‘I suppose so. The two camps refused to talk. The Bishop wouldn’t acknowledge the Dean, and the Dean treated him with contempt. That lasted two years or so. In the end the Bishop petitioned the King, the King visited, he tried the city and found it wanting. He executed a couple of people, including the Mayor, and left. That was about it.’

  ‘Why execute the Mayor?’ Baldwin asked. ‘Was he implicated?’

  ‘Well, the gate was left wide, so the King saw that the city was complicit in this crime. He wouldn’t slaughter every man, woman and child in Exeter, but he could at least kill the man who represented the city. So poor old Alured de Porta was hanged, along with the gatekeeper of the Southern Gate, because both were thought to have had a part in the ambush.’

  He smiled at them both, a sly old man with the eyes of a fox. There was no need to tell these two bumbling fools who it was who’d told the King that the gate had been left open.

  Thomas stood at the gate and stared out at the lands beyond. He hesitated for a long moment before coming to a decision.

  He couldn’t go, not without seeing her one more time. She was so pretty, so defenceless, and he was responsible for her plight. She’d not want him in her house, but perhaps he could pass by, just to see whether she was all right. And if she wasn’t about, he could leave a gift. Nothing special – he didn’t possess anything special – but maybe a little sum of money, or some bread. Anything to help her. It couldn’t do any harm. Although the urge to commit self-murder had left him after last night, he held little value for his life now. All he had, he could give to her happily.

  On the inside of the northern wall here was a street that led down towards the place where she lived among the poorer inhabitants of the city. It didn’t take long to reach her home.

  There was no sign of life. The door was shut, no smoke trickled from beneath the thatch, no cries or laughs came from within. It was as still as the grave.

  This unwonted silence grated on the mason’s nerves. The lad, Dan, he should have been making a row. It was what youngsters like him would do, shrieking and laughing, running about. Yet now, having lost his father and brother, maybe he simply sought to comfort his depressed mother as she descended into utter despair. A lad of eight or nine years having to cope with the anguish of a widowed woman was heartrending, and all the more
so since Thomas was responsible. He had the blood of two members of her family on his hands.

  Surely they were not dead? He had to know; he must. Taking a deep breath, he put his hand to the latch and licked suddenly dry lips before pushing the door wide.

  The room was unchanged, a dark cell with few belongings. There was no food in evidence. On impulse, he grabbed his purse and untied the thongs that bound it. He’d need a little to buy food on his way, but she had more need of it than he. There was always work for a man like him; he’d easily earn more money. In the name of God, he had to do something to help this woman.

  Pulling his purse open carefully so as not to hurt his hands again, he divided the full coins from the clipped fragments and left the whole ones in a neat pile on the table. All the bits and pieces he placed back in his purse and then he bound it tightly once more. He was refastening the thongs to his belt when there was a slight sound behind him. He didn’t recognise it at first, but there was no reason why he should: the unfamiliar noise of a plank of wood whistling through the air, followed by a deafening crack as it struck the back of his skull.

  As Vincent made his way down to his father’s tannery the odour of faeces was clear in the cool evening air, and Vince knew that his old man had been preparing more skins. His poor little bastard apprentice must have been out with the scavengers again.

  ‘Hey, Dad! Where are you, you old fart?’

  Last night when he’d left his father, he hadn’t been able to see Wymond’s face, but he knew that internally, he was crushed and broken like a man who’d fallen under a mill-wheel. In one sense, to know at last what had happened to his brother, so long dead, must be a relief – but to hear that it was his brother’s own comrades who had slaughtered him in the belief that he had become an enemy … that was a tough one to swallow.

  Vincent was an only child, so the idea of losing a brother was hard to comprehend, but only last year he had lost a friend called Wat who drowned while fording the Exe in winter just to save the cost of the bridge’s toll. Wat had been swept off his feet and sent tumbling two miles downriver. Hearing of his pal’s death had put Vince in a spin. Joel had been good to him that day, too. He’d understood when he found Vince puking in the doorway after getting rat-arsed on cheap wine and rough cider.

  ‘When I was about your age,’ he had said, ‘I lost a good mate of mine and I got out of my head in the same way. Just remember, a good friend is hard to find, and when you do find one, and he dies, he deserves all honour.’

  Somehow that had helped. Vince had gone down to the horse trough at the end of the street and ducked his head deep, coming up blowing and puffing, ready to throw up again, but feeling better for having paid his proper respects to his old companion. Not that it helped over the weeks that passed. He was always aware of Wat’s absence; whenever he wanted to go out for a drink, whenever he’d had a shitty day, whenever he’d had a brilliant day … or whenever it so happened that the sun was shining and the Church had declared that it was to be a feast day for a saint. At each event, he was lonely, and it still could make him sob in the depth of night, when he remembered his dear friend Wattie.

  At the time Wymond had clouted him on the back and mumbled in that gruff voice of his, ‘It’s what happens as you grow up, son. Get used to it.’ And then his eyes had clouded, and Vince knew he was thinking of his dead brother again.

  ‘Oy – old man?’

  He pushed the door open to the shack which his father happily called his home. The place was a mess. The table was on its side, his knives and tools all over the floor, as though someone had been in there and fought a bitter fight with Wymond. There was a bow and a quiver of arrows near the door, and Vince picked them up, a little worried to see such mayhem, but when he gazed about, he could see the barrel on its side in the corner of the room. The old twerp had been pissing it up again.

  His father lay almost under the table, and although his mouth was wide, there was no snoring. Vince squatted at his side. ‘Hello, Dad,’ he said with a chuckle. ‘How many quarts of ale did you drink last night, eh? Or was it gallons you measured them in?’

  He grinned, and then grabbed his father’s hand, only to drop it very quickly.

  ‘If you’re going to puke, do you have to roll in it?’ he groaned, and then went out to fill a bucket from the river. With it full, he returned and stood contemplatively for a moment before upending it over his father’s face and torso.

  Blowing and cursing, Wynard rolled over, blessedly away from the pool of vomit and gradually came to grumbling under his breath as Vincent set about gathering some food. The bread was green; he took one look at it before throwing it out through the door. Even the rats would probably reject that. There were some tough old pieces of bacon, and an egg, so Vincent put fresh water into Wymond’s old cooking pot, tossed in the meat and set it over the fire. There were some leaves; he shredded them with his hands and put them in too, adding the egg and mixing it quickly so it dispersed. Soon there was a broth with white strands of egg and lumps of greyish meat.

  ‘Come on, Dad. Get some food down you.’

  ‘I’m not hungry. I want more ale.’

  ‘Forget it, fat man. You’re getting no more ale until you’ve eaten something warm. What in Christ’s name has got into you?’

  ‘My brother, that’s what.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Vincent said more quietly. He meant it. If he’d realised how badly his father would take the information, he might have kept it all to himself. Ignorance was bliss, after all. ‘I thought you’d be glad to know that Uncle Vince wasn’t dishonourable, that was why I told you about it.’

  ‘Of course he wasn’t dishonourable! All he wanted to do was protect his master, and they slaughtered him like a dog with rabies!’ Wymond said hoarsely. He felt terrible.

  ‘It’s too late to do anything about it now,’ the boy said gently. ‘Eat up, Dad and then we’ll have some ale.’

  Wymond went outside, rinsed his face with water from his rainwater barrel, and wiped it dry with an old tunic. Feeling slightly better, he walked back inside again and sat at his table.

  Looking at him, Vince suddenly felt a rush of affection. He would be lost without his father. Wymond was the solid rock on which his life was based.

  ‘You never knew your uncle,’ Wymond said sadly, lifting a spoon of the broth to his lips. ‘He was a good man, a friend to any who needed his help, loyal to death. And that’s how he died, of course.’

  ‘I’d have liked to have met him.’

  ‘You would have, if that murdering shit Nicholas hadn’t killed him,’ Wymond said. He snorted and shifted in his seat. ‘My Vince should never have been cut down like that. A man who can do that deserves everything he gets …’

  It was quite unlike his father, and it made Vin’s blood turn to ice to see such ruthless ferocity on the tanner’s careworn face.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Simon and Baldwin left William on his bench, and soon they were making their way back along Nicholas’s Street to Fore Street, and then up towards the Cathedral.

  ‘So you thought the same as me?’ Simon said as they walked, his face wreathed in frowns.

  To his secret pleasure, Baldwin’s expression had lost its haunted look. ‘If you mean,’ he demanded acerbically, ‘did I think that much of what that man said was true, then yes, I did.’

  ‘You know perfectly well that wasn’t what I meant,’ Simon said musingly. ‘I was thinking about the dead friar, Nicholas – the man who struck down poor Vince. If it’s true that someone there was disloyal, it must have been Nicholas – and someone killed him for it.’

  ‘You think that the whole affair could be due to a man who seeks revenge, all these years later?’ Baldwin queried.

  ‘It would make sense. The friar had struck down the only man there who was trying to warn the Chaunter. Surely he must have been the traitor.’

  ‘That would seem true enough,’ Baldwin agreed, ‘but that hardly helps us. The two victims
, Henry and Nicholas, seem to have nothing in common other than the fact that they were there in the Close that night. Henry was on the attacking side, and Nicholas on the side of the Chaunter …’

  ‘Baldwin, you are slow tonight,’ Simon said with a smile. ‘They were on the same side. That’s what I mean. I reckon Friar Nicholas was trying to shut Vincent up before the trap had been sprung; that was why he pulled out his dagger and silenced the poor fellow. And then the others, including Henry, attacked them.’

  ‘But the friar was nearly killed,’ Baldwin objected. ‘Surely no man would agree to those wounds on his face and body just to add verisimilitude to the story of his loyalty?’

  Simon shrugged. ‘It was dark, they were in a mêlée, there was a racket of men shouting, weapons clashing … what else would you expect? Someone accidentally slashed at him, trying to hit someone else, and that was that. End of his good looks. If he was the cause of the Chaunter’s death, he deserved it.’

  ‘Perhaps so,’ Baldwin agreed. Yet he still wore a puzzled frown. ‘But who, in that case, could have wanted Henry dead?’

  ‘Could Henry have been the man who planned it?’ Simon wondered. ‘His wife might know. We could return and question her.’

  ‘I do not think that will be necessary. First let us go and speak to Joel once more. He might become more helpful when he hears that William has already spoken to us,’ Baldwin said.

  ‘In any case, Henry seems a likely man to have thought through the plan and left the hint that the Bishop was planning on using the Chaunter as a lure to draw the attack’s sting.’

  ‘Possibly, but it’s more likely to have been a man of action like our friend William.’

  ‘The man who took his opportunities,’ Simon said drily.

  ‘I did not warm to him either,’ Baldwin said. ‘My impression was that he was quite an astute fellow – he could be a good tactical commander of men in a battle.’

  ‘Perhaps, but what was he like when he was a lad? Cunning and quick-witted no doubt, but to invent a ruse like the one used against the Chaunter would have taken more intelligence than he possessed,’ Simon said. ‘You know how people are: some will learn from experience, but others can imagine an outcome and put in place a plan to achieve it.’