The Widow's Tale (Sister Frevisse Medieval Mysteries Book 14)

by Frazer, Margaret

  He came toward them along the dais and Frevisse moved a little aside, out of his way. With no bother of courtesy, he held out a small, flat, cloth-wrapped packet bound around with a heavy cord thickly sealed on the knot with wax and said to Alice, “Here. They want you should have it before it causes more trouble.”

  Alice took it. “Tell them I’ll keep my side of our bargain and that I’m sorry for the man Pers’ death. John, do you believe this trouble was my doing?”

  “No, my lady. Nor, a few months ago, would Mistress Helyngton have thought such a thing. She’s ill with the treachery she’s lived through of late and frightened of what Master Helyngton may do next.”

  “As well she might be, from what I understand of him. John, do you trust my judgment?”

  “Always, my lady,” Master Say said with a slight bow. “At my behest, my cousin here is going to seek for who betrayed Sir Gerveys. It had to be someone here. I’d have you give her whatever help she may need.”

  Master Say set a brief, sharply assessing look on Frevisse, then bowed his head again, this time to her, and said, “My household and I are at your service.”

  “Thank you,” Frevisse answered, bowing her head as courteously in return and wondering whether Master Say’s intelligence would be an aid to her, or something she would have to work against. Because if more games than Laurence Helyngton’s and Alice’s were being played here, Master Say very probably had part in them.

  Chapter 15

  Since, as the saying went, it was best to take chance when chance came, Frevisse took this immediate chance to ask Master Say, “Why did you bring Sir Gerveys back here with his wound? Isn’t there doctor or apothecary to be had in Broxbourne? Or Hoddesdon?” Straightly, not questioning her sudden question, Master Say answered, “Given the attack was meant for him, I thought here was a safer place. I know, too, my wife’s skill with hurts.”

  “From what you said, Pers wasn’t killed outright. Why leave him in Broxbourne?”

  “Pers was alive but couldn’t go further and Sir Gerveys was bleeding. We stopped at the inn and I bandaged Gerveys’ hurt while he held Pers until Father Richard came. Father Richard was in time, barely. Afterward, it seemed better to get Gerveys back here.”

  “You think there’s chance of another attack on him?” Alice asked.

  “Not here, my lady. There were only six of them. That’s too few for more than an ambush.”

  “Unless they gather more men,” Alice said.

  “I think that if they could have had more men there they would have.”

  “Six men riding together and not on the main road should have been noticed,” Alice said. “Questions should be asked.”

  “They will be,” Master Say said. “But it’s woodland near Cock Lane. If the men didn’t ride together but met in the woods and scattered afterward, there’d maybe be no one to note them. But Broxbourne’s bailiff has started a search, and word’s gone to Hoddesdon, besides what the crowner will do when he comes.” The royal officer charged with looking into violent or unexpected deaths to determine if there were guilt and need for the sheriff or only mischance. Here at least there would be no doubt.

  “I have men with me I can spare to the bailiffs use in asking questions through the countryside,” Alice said. And demanded, when Master Say hesitated too long in answering that, “Why not?”

  “You should keep them for your own guard, surely, my lady?” Master Say offered.

  “And?” asked Alice more sharply.

  Slowly, looking for the right words, Master Say said, “Men wearing my lord of Suffolk’s badge and going about asking questions might not be well welcomed or well answered.” Alice held frozen-quiet the length of a long-drawn breath, then said stiffly, “It’s gone as bad as that?”

  Having been pushed to it Master Say was blunt. “Yes.” Alice stood silent for a moment, her face showing nothing, then said calmly, “Thank you for your honesty. Does Beth expect me to dinner?”

  “I believe so.” He looked down the hall at the servants who had begun uncertainly to set up the trestle tables and move the benches, readying the hall for the midday meal. “It seems we’re going to have it, anyway.”

  “Once a cook is well along with a meal, very few things will throw him off his task,” Alice said.

  “For which we may be thankful,” Master Say responded. They had retreated into courtliness. Not interested in that, Frevisse said, “I’d speak to Sir Gerveys now if I might. And Mistress Helyngton.”

  “By your leave, it might be better if Gerveys has chance to rest,” Master Say said.

  “The sooner the traitor in your household is found out the better. For both Sir Gerveys’ better safety and maybe Lady Alice’s.”

  “Lady Alice is in no . . .” Master Say began but broke off, looked at the packet in her hand, and with an impatient sound at himself, shifted to between her and the servants down the hall, too late though it was. Anyone looking had by now seen what she held.

  Alice stared at him, momentarily not understanding, before her eyes a little widened. “Oh,” she whispered.

  To her increasing questions Frevisse added an uneasy wondering how Alice, usually sharp at everything, was presently so slow at grasping the threats around her. Along with that, where was all her skill at wielding gracious manners as both shield and weapon gone to?

  But seeing no use for either open pity or gentleness, Frevisse said firmly, “You might, my lady, want to go to the nursery for now, to reassure both Domina Elisabeth and the children that all is well enough, and bide there until dinner is served.”

  Master Say agreed, “That might do very well, my lady.” Alice stared at them both, near to offended that they were nearly giving her an order, before understanding surfaced and she said, “You mean I would be out of your way while you get on with things.”

  “Because whoever else wants that”—Master Say nodded at the packet she held—“might be as willing to take it from you by force as they were from Sir Gerveys. Will you be sending it to my lord of Suffolk?”

  By her prompt answer, Alice had already considered that. “Rather than trust it out of my keeping, I mean to hold it the two days until my lord husband is here.”

  “Then you’ll have always some of your men with you when you come back and forth to the house?”

  “Yes,” Alice said, matching his quiet. “One of my women and two of my men whenever I go out of my pavilion.”

  “It might be better,” Master Say offered, “if you would stay the nights here.”

  “Thank you, no,” Alice said crisply, with warning in her voice that she had reached the limit of what she would hear from anyone about anything. “I’ll not be driven into hiding.” She left them with a sweep of skirts and head held high. Only when she was well away did Master Say turn to Frevisse and say, “You’ll question Sir Gerveys and Mistress Helyngton now?”

  Frevisse bent her head in agreement. “With no one else there to hear, if you please.”

  “I please, of course, to obey my lady of Suffolk,” he answered. Which was not the same as being pleased at having to obey.

  But his courtesy hid whatever he thought, one way or the other, and she bent her head to him again and asked, “If you’ll explain me to everyone, then?”

  In the parlor, Mistress Say was standing at the window with her arm around Cristiana’s shoulders, talking softly to her, while Sir Gerveys still lay half-raised against the arm of the settle, eyes closed but face too taut for sleep. The women turned as Master Say and Frevisse came in, and as Master Say shut the door, Sir Gerveys opened his eyes and asked, “She has it?”

  “She has it,” Master Say answered.

  “Did she read it?” Sir Gerveys asked.

  “She means to give it to the duke unopened.”

  Sir Gerveys shut his eyes.

  “In the meanwhile, toward finding out who set the ambush on you, she’s bade me say that Dame Frevisse is to ask questions of whomever she chooses.”

  Cri
stiana started to say something. Mistress Say laid a restraining hand on her arm, but Sir Gerveys, regarding Frevisse with a questioning frown, asked, “The nun is going to ask questions?”

  “At Lady Alice’s biding,” Master Say repeated. “She’d like to begin with you and Cristiana.”

  Mistress Say whispered something, probably comforting, to Cristiana, and left her, going ahead of her husband out of the room. Cristiana with a wary look at Frevisse went to kneel beside her brother, laid a hand on his, and asked, “The pain?”

  “Whatever Beth gave me has eased it. She promised that I’ll probably sleep soon.” He gave Frevisse a smile narrow with the pain he said was eased. “Best ask your questions while I can still answer them.”

  With no point in hesitation, Frevisse said, “My first is simply how many people knew about this paper before today.”

  “So far as I know,” Sir Gerveys said, “only Edward Helyngton, my sister, and myself. He thought it was something that was supposed to have been destroyed and that no one knew he had it.”

  Cristiana nodded in silent agreement.

  “Someone had it in Ware,” Frevisse pointed out.

  “The prior at the friary there had the sealed packet. He didn’t know what it was. More than that, until yesterday Cristiana didn’t know where it was. I knew where it was, she had the word needed to recover it, and we were sworn not to share our knowledge until there was need.”

  “What if one of you died?”

  “If either of us died, the prior would hear of it and see to the other having the packet. He could only give it to one or the other of us.”

  She turned to Cristiana. “How did your husband come by this thing?”

  “He happened on it during his duties in the king’s household and took it,” Cristiana said stiffly.

  “And it was never missed?”

  “From what Edward said, it’s only a rough writing out of something. Probably a fair copy had been made from it and it was meant to be burned but no one had.” As if suddenly wanting Frevisse to understand, Cristiana said more readily. “He only took it because he knew how ill he was. He was afraid for me and for our daughters and hoped it would help if there was trouble. You’ve seen how right he was.”

  “I’ve seen,” Frevisse granted, something like gently, doubting there was anything to gain by upsetting what small, desperate balance Cristiana was presently holding to. Quietly, of both her and Sir Gerveys, she said, “What it comes down is that, so far as you know, only you and Master Helyngton knew from where this paper had come and only Master Helyngton knew what it said. Is that the way of it?”

  Cristiana and Sir Gerveys both agreed to that with nods. “And yet Lady Alice came here yesterday demanding to have it,” Frevisse went on. “How can that be?”

  “Someone overheard us talk of it,” Sir Gerveys said with a promptness that told he had already thought on that.

  “You neither of you mentioned the thing to anyone else? Not even Ivetta or Pers?”

  “No,” Sir Gerveys said.

  “No, and neither of them would betray us anyway,” Cristiana said hotly.

  “I ask so I can say I did,” Frevisse said. “When and where did you talk about this paper? Not just here at Baas but before.”

  “Never before,” Cristiana said.

  “Edward was dying when he told us about it,” Sir Gerveys explained. “That was the greater matter.”

  Cristiana clenched her hands into fists in her lap. “Nothing mattered then except that I was losing him. Then, afterward, Gerveys went away without there ever being reason to talk about the paper.”

  “Here then. Where and when did you talk of it here?”

  “The first day,” Sir Gerveys said. “When Cristiana had just come. In her chamber. We decided then to ask Master Say to help us win Suffolk’s help against Laurence in return for the paper.”

  “Did you ask his help?”

  “That afternoon I told him we had something that would be worth Suffolk’s while to have and would he deal with Suffolk for us against Laurence. He said he would.”

  “Did you tell him anything more than that?”

  “No.”

  “Not what this something was, or where it was, or anything?”

  “No.”

  “Nor anyone else at all? Either of you?”

  “No,” Cristiana said.

  “We didn’t even speak of it to each other again until yesterday when we agreed together to give it to Lady Alice. Or rather, we agreed I’d ask John if we could trust her to deal fairly with us.”

  “Where did you and talk of it then?”

  “In Cristiana’s chamber again,” Sir Gerveys said. “We must have been overheard the first time there, but not yesterday. Besides that the door was shut, Pers and Ivetta were on the stairs outside the chamber. No one could have come close enough to hear us.”

  Frevisse thought better of asking if Pers and Ivetta could have heard them; asked instead, “Where were Pers and Ivetta the first time you talked there?”

  Cristiana and Sir Gerveys exchanged questioning looks. He shrugged and said, “I don’t know.”

  “Somewhere together, I think,” Cristiana offered. “They . . .” She broke off with a gasp, pressing a hand to her throat. “I’ve forgotten her. She went to Pers and he’s dead and I forgot her!” She grabbed Sir Gerveys’ near hand into both her own. “And you! You and Pers were together from when you were first knighted and now he’s dead! Gerveys, forgive me, I never thought again about him being dead until now or said I was sorry for it!”

  Sir Gerveys reached his other hand to touch her cheek. “You’ve enough and more to think about. Don’t grieve at a brief forgetfulness. Remember, Pers and I both knew that one or the other or even both of us could well be killed fighting in France or else in Ireland. That it happened here comes to the same. We always knew it could happen. I’m all right.” Cristiana probably believed him no more than Frevisse did, but pity would not find out Pers’ killer, and Frevisse asked, “Did you talk to Master Say about trusting Lady Alice?”

  “Just before supper,” Sir Gerveys said.

  “Did you talk of this paper any other time or place, or with anyone else besides Master Say? Either of you?”

  “No,” Cristiana said. “No one.”

  Sir Gerveys rolled his head from side to side on the pillow. “No one.”

  But had Master Say said anything to anyone? Or could they have been overheard? “When did you talk with him? And where? Both times.”

  Eyes closed, Sir Gerveys said, “The first time was in the garden. Just after Cristiana and I agreed together to ask his help.” Whatever Mistress Say had given him was starting to work; he had begun to grope for his words. “Then yesterday here in the parlor.”

  Willing him not to slip into sleep yet, Frevisse leaned over him. “Did you tell him where you would go to get the paper? And when?”

  “I said I’d fetch it in the morning. I didn’t say from where.”

  “What of Pers? Could he have told anyone?”

  “Pers didn’t know we were going anywhere until this morning. Nor he didn’t know where until we were on the road.”

  “You don’t think he might have been deliberately killed because he had betrayed you? That whoever he told maybe wanted to be sure he didn’t betray them?”

  “How can you ask that?” Cristiana said, furious. “How can you …”

  Without opening his eyes, Sir Gerveys shifted a hand he could barely move onto Cristiana’s arm and whispered, “She has to ask. Help her. Remember, they meant to kill me, too. Don’t fight her. Promise.”

  Cristiana struggled at the words, only finally forcing out, “I promise.”

  “Because I can’t,” Sir Gerveys whispered. His breathing evened into sleep. Cristiana leaned over, gently kissed his cheek, then stood up and made a small beckon from Frevisse toward the door, meaning they should leave. In silent agreement Frevisse went with her.

  In the hall everything was rea
dy for dinner to be served. Preparations for the royal visit had already taken over the kitchen, so the meal was simple: a green salad of lettuce, cress, fennel, onions, sage, and mint, and last night’s roast beef in a garlic pepper sauce. The simpler food was as noticeable as the lack of ready talk at either the high table or along the lower ones. Servants served the meal quickly, everyone ate, grace was said, and the household left the lower tables to go about their afternoon business as if glad to be away.

  There had been little talk at the high table and little was said now, except as they rose from their places Alice told Master Say, “The wagons bringing more pavilions and all should be here this afternoon.”

  “If you need aught …” Master Say made graceful gesture to show that all he had was hers.

  “I know I have but to ask,” Alice answered as gracefully. The royal visit might have been the only matters in their minds. She looked to Domina Elisabeth asked, “Would you accompany me this afternoon?”

  Domina Elisabeth was more than pleased to do so, and Frevisse was more than pleased to have both her and Alice go—two less people with whom to reckon in an afternoon that was not going to be simple.

  Then why was she so ready to begin it?

  Why hadn’t she balked at Alice’s order for even a moment?

  Because Alice was right. She did have skill at finding things out.

  It was not a skill she always used readily, but whoever had betrayed Cristiana and her brother had likewise brought on a man’s death, even if they struck no blow themselves, and for both that death and that betrayal they very much deserved to be found out.

  Cristiana, leaving Mistress Say in talk with a servant, was started toward the parlor door, but Frevisse said after her, “Mistress Helyngton, I’d speak with you, please.”

  Not stopping, Cristiana said, “I’ll see my brother first.”

  Mistress Say turned from the servant. “Cristiana, Ivetta is come back. She’s gone to your chamber.”