The Elephants of Norwich

by Edward Marston

  Judicael gave way. After first locking the door of the shop, he took Ralph into the room at the rear and approached a stout door. Two keys were needed to open it. Inside the strong room was a series of small boxes, each locked and chained to the wall. The goldsmith fumbled with his keys.

  ‘Which one shall I open, my lord?’ he gibbered.

  ‘All of them.’

  Ralph was certain that the missing property was not there but he was determined to make the goldsmith sweat a little. He looked into each box and examined each separate item of jewellery. Nothing even remotely like an elephant came to light. Yet the visit was not fruitless. The more time he spent with Judicael, the more he sensed that the man was holding something back from him. When the last of the boxes had been locked up again, he fixed the goldsmith with a cold stare.

  ‘Where are they, Judicael?’

  ‘I don’t know, my lord. As God’s my witness.’

  ‘Someone brought those elephants to you, didn’t they?’

  ‘No, I’ve never laid eyes on them.’

  ‘But you’ve heard of their existence?’

  The goldsmith squirmed helplessly. ‘I may have,’ he admitted.

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘If they’re anything like the objects you describe, they’re very unusual. Only an expert goldsmith could fashion such objects. They’re far beyond my skill.’ He squinted up at Ralph. ‘Where did you say they came from?’

  ‘Somewhere abroad. Brought to England only recently.’

  ‘I doubt that, my lord.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘You mentioned that the elephants each had a crucifix on its head?’

  ‘According to what I was told.’

  ‘That jogged my memory,’ said the other. ‘What I said was true. I’ve not seen the pieces myself but I’ve heard tell of them. You were misinformed, my lord.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘They weren’t recently brought to England.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Because they’ve been in this country for quite some time.’

  Chapter Six

  Alone in his chamber at the castle, Gervase Bret went patiently through the documents he had brought with him from Winchester. It was a task he thoroughly enjoyed. Ralph Delchard was at his most effective when confronting awkward witnesses in the shire hall. Legal niceties only exasperated him. They were meat and drink to Gervase who read the abbreviated Latin on the pages in front of him with continuous pleasure, knowing that his retention of detail would be vital when the commissioners sat in judgement on the various disputes. The name he was after was proving elusive. He knew that it was somewhere in his sheaf of papers but he could not recall the exact spot. Richard de Fontenel had separate holdings in the hundreds of Forehoe, Taverham, Blofield and Humbleyard and Gervase picked his way carefully through them all. It was amid land in the Depwade hundred that he eventually located the person he was seeking. ‘In Boielvnd. 1 car tre. Qua tenuit Olova.t.r.e.’

  ‘In Boyland, 1 carucate of land which Olova held in King Edward’s time.’

  His satchel contained only a fraction of the returns that were brought back to the Exchequer by the first team of commissioners to be checked and collated. All that concerned Gervase and his colleagues were patent irregularities and unresolved disputes. Olova’s claim was among them. She had definite cause for complaint. Not only had she lost a carucate of land in Boyland to Richard de Fontenel, he had also taken two carucates from her in Tharston. It was not clear by what means he had acquired the property but, since it amounted in total to over three hundred and fifty acres, Gervase could understand why Olova was eager to contest ownership of it. Others had also been dispossessed by de Fontenel but she had been deprived of most land. Her losses did not end there. Gervase noted that Olova had also been relieved of two smaller holdings in the West Flegg hundred by Mauger Livarot. It was a familiar tale. She was one of many people in Norfolk who had been ground down remorselessly between the mill wheels of de Fontenel and Livarot.

  Gervase was putting the documents away again when his wife opened the door.

  ‘Am I disturbing you?’ she said, pausing in the doorway.

  ‘No, no. Come on in, Alys.’

  ‘I promised that I wouldn’t get in your way while I was here.’

  ‘I know,’ he said, giving her a welcoming kiss and closing the door. ‘But I’ve just finished what I was doing. You could not have come at a more apposite time.

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Did you enjoy your visit to the market?’

  ‘Oh, yes!’

  Alys laughed with girlish delight and recounted the details of her visit to the town. Her voice saddened when she talked about the hostility that she and Golde had met. It had been the one small blemish on an otherwise pleasant morning. Gervase was glad that his wife had found so much to divert her and was interested to hear about the invitation that had arrived at the castle from the lady Adelaide.

  ‘You’ve no objection, have you?’ she said, eager for his approval.

  ‘None at all, Alys.’

  ‘Thank you. I’m so keen to go and so is Golde.’

  ‘Ralph will certainly not hold her back,’ he observed.

  ‘That’s what Golde said.’

  ‘He’ll do everything in his power to make sure that she calls on the lady Adelaide. It could help us. The more we can glean about her, the better. Look and listen, Alys.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘She occupies a unique place in our inquiries. You might say that she holds the balance between the lord Richard and the lord Mauger.’

  ‘It must be exciting to have two men vying for your hand.’

  ‘Not if they happen to be those reprobates. Besides,’ he said, slightly nettled, ‘one honest suitor is enough for any woman, surely? Wasn’t I sufficient for you, Alys? Or did you want a whole pack of wooers banging on your door?’

  ‘I was grateful to have one.’

  ‘You had several admirers.’

  ‘None that I cared to notice,’ she said, sweetly. ‘Apart from you, that is. If there’d been a hundred suitors hammering on my door, it would only have been opened to Gervase Bret.’

  He smiled with relief. ‘Thank you, Alys.’

  ‘Could you ever doubt me?’

  ‘No, my love.’

  ‘As for the lord Richard, I wouldn’t look twice at such a man. I pity the lady Adelaide if she is forced to marry him. I’d be terrified of a husband who could work himself up into such a violent rage.’

  ‘You’re not terrified of me, are you?’

  ‘Only now and then,’ she teased.

  He took her by the shoulders to kiss her again, then stood back to appraise her.

  ‘You look much better now, Alys.’

  ‘I’ve got my strength back after the journey.’

  ‘So have I,’ he said, ‘and it’s just as well because I’m going to need it. We came here to act as judges but we’re deputies of the sheriff instead. That will take all the energy we can muster.’

  ‘Have you any idea who the murderer might be?’

  ‘Not at this point. We have a short list of names but we’ve yet to put faces to them. And the lord Richard is only muddying the waters by his wild behaviour. It could be some time before we manage to solve the crimes.’

  ‘Is there anything that I can do to assist you?’

  ‘You’re doing it by visiting the lady Adelaide.’

  ‘What would you like me to ask her?’

  ‘Nothing,’ he said, quickly. ‘Leave any questions to Golde. She’s played this game before. You haven’t. Just behave as you would on any other visit to a friend. Be polite to your hostess – and take note of every word she says.’

  ‘I’ll try, Gervase. What will you be doing, meanwhile?’

  ‘Paying a call on another Norfolk lady.’

  ‘And who’s that?’

  ‘Olova.’

  Roger Bigot was astounded by the news. He pressed Ralph Delchard for mor
e detail. ‘The elephants were stolen?’

  ‘So it appears, my lord sheriff.’

  ‘From whom?’

  ‘The abbot of Holme.’

  ‘Who told you this?’

  ‘Judicael the Goldsmith,’ said Ralph. ‘Except that he didn’t exactly volunteer the information. I had to prise it out of him like a pearl from an oyster.’

  ‘If this intelligence proves to be correct,’ said Eustace Coureton, ‘it will be a pearl indeed. Who is this man, Ralph?’

  ‘Not one that I could ever bring myself to like.’

  ‘Can his word be trusted?’

  ‘In this instance, I believe that it can.’

  The three men were in the hall at the castle. Bigot and Coureton were intrigued to hear what Ralph had learned from his visit to the goldsmith. It cast a whole new light on the disappearance of the two gold elephants.

  ‘No wonder that the lord Richard is so desperate to reclaim them,’ said Ralph. ‘It’s not simply a question of using them to dazzle the eyes of the lady Adelaide. He wants them back in his possession before anyone starts asking where they came from in the first place.’

  Coureton chuckled. ‘And now we know. He stole them.’

  ‘A thief is now the victim of theft,’ said Bigot.

  ‘We can’t be certain of that,’ suggested Ralph, ‘and it would be very foolish of us to show our hands before the facts have been verified. It may be that the lord Richard bought them in good faith, ignorant of their origin.’

  ‘Where did he say that they came from?’ asked Coureton.

  ‘Somewhere abroad,’ said Bigot. ‘The lord Richard went to Normandy recently to visit his estates. When he came back, he had those miniature elephants with him.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean that they actually came from Normandy.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Ralph. ‘Why should anyone bother to steal them from the abbey of Holme, take them across the Channel then sell them to someone who was returning to this country? That would be perverse.’

  ‘Had the goldsmith actually seen those elephants?’ said Bigot.

  ‘No, my lord sheriff. But they’d been seen and admired by someone who had dealings with Judicael. A man who’d visited the abbey. The pieces were so unusual that he described them in detail to the goldsmith. That description tallied with the one given to you by the lord Richard.’

  ‘Then they have to be the same miniatures.’

  ‘And I’ll wager that the lord Richard stole them,’ asserted Coureton.

  ‘That’s only a guess,’ Ralph reminded him. ‘We’ll need proof and the best way we can get that is by moving stealthily. Whatever we do, we mustn’t alert the lord Richard to the fact that we’ve uncovered an earlier crime relating to those elephants. We can rest assured that they were taken illegally from the abbey of St Benet at Holme. No abbey would part willingly with anything so valuable.’

  ‘Don’t forget the spiritual aspect, my lord,’ said Bigot. ‘Each animal had a crucifix on its head. The monks of St Benet will regard them as holy treasures.’

  ‘What will they think when they hear that their holy treasures have been waved in front of a beautiful woman to inveigle her into a marital bed?’

  ‘The abbot will be mortified.’

  ‘He must be aware of the crime. Why hasn’t he howled at the outrage?’

  ‘Perhaps he’s yet to discover it,’ said Bigot. ‘If they keep their valuables locked away in a chest, the abbot may not have realised that those elephants have vanished. On the other hand, he may know the truth yet not wish to report the crime for some reason. Abbot Alfwold is a venerable man. He’s far more likely to pray for the return of his treasures than to come running to me.’

  ‘That fact probably weighed with the lord Richard,’ said Coureton. ‘When he stole those gold elephants, he counted on the fact that you would not even get to hear of the theft. And if the lord Ralph hadn’t been so astute,’ he added, winking at his colleague, ‘you might never have known of the crime.’

  ‘I’m very grateful to him.’

  ‘And we’re grateful to you, my lord sheriff,’ resumed Ralph. ‘You sought our help and we’re pleased to give it. This inquiry has already thrown up some fascinating detail about one of the men we came to Norwich to investigate and I’m sure that it will yield far more. None of it, I suspect, remotely flattering to the lord Richard.’

  ‘He’s not a man to court popularity.’

  ‘Especially not in monastic quarters!’ said Coureton.

  Ralph grinned. ‘It’s just as well that Canon Hubert is not with us. He’d want to excommunicate the lord Richard on the spot.’

  ‘If he’s found guilty of theft,’ said Bigot, ‘there’ll be other punishment as well.’

  ‘All in good time, my lord sheriff.’

  ‘What should our next step be?’ Bigot asked.

  ‘To confirm that Judicael the Goldsmith was telling the truth,’ Ralph replied.

  ‘Shall I send a messenger to the abbey?’

  ‘He stands before you. This is an errand that I claim for myself. After all,’ said Ralph, cheerfully, ‘I won’t just be riding to Holme to see the abbot. I might well find the man who took those elephants there.’

  Coureton was doubtful. ‘Surely a monk wouldn’t steal?’

  ‘Some do little else,’ said the other, irreverently. ‘I’ve met too many grasping abbots and lying monks to put much faith in a Benedictine habit. In any event, it would not really be a case of theft. The abbey would simply be reclaiming something that was theirs in the first place.’

  ‘What about the murder?’ asked Bigot.

  ‘What about it, my lord sheriff?’

  ‘Do you expect to unearth a suspect in Holme for that as well?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Ralph. ‘It’s the main reason why I wish to go there.’

  Expecting a visit from him, the lady Adelaide took pains with her appearance. Over a pure white chemise, she wore a light blue gown. Her hair was coiled neatly at the back and only the curls at the front peeped out of the white wimple. Around her waist was a gold belt that hung down between her thighs. She looked immaculate and dignified. When her visitor was admitted to the house, the lady Adelaide was posed on a bench that was carefully placed beneath a window so that it acted as a frame to her head. She rose to welcome Mauger Livarot.

  ‘Good day, my lord,’ she said.

  ‘You look more charming than ever, Adelaide,’ he remarked, crossing to place a kiss on her outstretched hand. ‘It’s wonderful to see you again.’

  She resumed her seat. ‘Have you been out hunting again today?’ ‘In a manner of speaking.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I’ve been helping the lord sheriff in his pursuit of the murderer.’ He smirked down at her. ‘The first thing I had to do, of course, was to assure him that I was not responsible for Hermer’s death. For some reason, he seemed to think that I might be.’

  ‘The lord Richard is certain of it.’

  ‘Yes, I heard about his performance at the castle last night.’

  ‘It caused quite a commotion.’

  ‘I hope that it also showed you the kind of man that he really is.’

  Her tone was artless. ‘Forceful and strong-willed?’

  ‘Arrogant, bullying and headstrong,’ he said, curling his lip. ‘Those aren’t qualities that a lady should look for in a husband.’

  ‘I like a man who speaks his mind and the lord Richard certainly does that.’

  ‘Are you drawn to someone with a vile temper?’

  ‘No,’ she conceded. ‘That has little appeal.’

  ‘Then my rival must stand aside, for he has the vilest temper in the county.’

  ‘I think he could be taught in time to curb it.’

  ‘Would you take on such a monstrous task?’

  ‘If there were sufficient inducements.’

  ‘I, too, can offer inducements, my lady.’

  Mauger Livarot was wearing a green tunic with
a floral pattern. His mantle was of a dark crimson hue that matched the belt at his waist, and his brimless cap was peaked in the centre. Hands on his hips, he gazed at her with an almost proprietary air. He lowered his voice to a caressing whisper.

  ‘Come, Adelaide,’ he coaxed. ‘Why choose a wild animal for a husband when you might have one who is already tame?’

  ‘Nobody would describe you as tame,’ she said with polite scorn. ‘Least of all, your tenants. You have a reputation for harsh treatment.’

  ‘Firmness is a virtue.’

  ‘Until it’s taken too far.’

  ‘Oh, I always know the exact point at which to stop,’ he boasted, leering at her. ‘Tenants are like children. To school them properly, you have to be firm or they’ll take advantage of your weakness.’

  ‘Isn’t that what you’re doing now?’

  ‘Perhaps, my lady.’

  ‘The lord Richard has been weakened by events. A serious theft from his house has been followed by a gruesome murder. He’s very preoccupied at the moment. You came here to take advantage of his weakness.’

  ‘Do you blame me?’ he said with another smirk.

  ‘Not at all,’ she replied, easily. ‘I knew that you’d visit me again sooner or later.’

  ‘I always choose the best time to strike.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘Isn’t that a recommendation?’

  ‘Yes, my lord, but I need rather more than that.’

  ‘You shall have it,’ he asserted, becoming more earnest. ‘Richard de Fontenel is mired in trouble. Spurn him, my lady, or you’ll share the same fate. Accept me instead.’

  ‘You mentioned inducements.’

  ‘You shall have whatever you want.’

  ‘Unfortunately, that’s not possible.’

  ‘Anything is possible when you say that you’ll be mine. Put me to the test.’

  ‘There’s no point.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because I’d ask for the one thing you could never give me, my lord.’

  ‘Then it doesn’t exist,’ he declared.

  ‘Oh, it does,’ she said with a nostalgic smile. ‘To be more exact, they exist. I’ve seen them and marvelled at them. I all but fell in love with them. That’s what I want more than anything else – those exquisite gold elephants that the lord Richard bought for me.’