‘I can understand that,’ Simon said, ‘and I can see how he might have sought to remove Lady Lucy. I suppose Ailward could have possibly tried to win back his lands in the future, so Sir Geoffrey had him killed: but I can see no reason why he should have killed Hugh.’
‘Hugh?’ Sir Odo asked, perplexed.
‘My friend’s servant, who used to live a little way up here,’ Baldwin said.
‘Ah, yes. I heard of that. The fire?’
‘That was what the coroner said,’ Simon said without conviction.
‘Sir Edward?’ Sir Odo gave a humourless laugh. ‘Oh, yes. He’d agree to whatever Sir Geoffrey suggested to him. They are close, those two. But then, both serve the same lord.’
‘Despenser?’ Baldwin confirmed.
‘Yes. And the coroner knows where his loyalties lie.’
‘Why would he seek to remove Hugh?’ Baldwin asked with a frown.
‘If I’m right and he wants all my lands this side of the river, the first thing he’d do would be to launch raids on the outlying farms and properties. Well, on the same night he attacked my man Robert Crokers, and then your man up here. Didn’t kill Robert, but then he probably thought that a man who was so high in my household would be too much of a provocation to me. It would force me to react. So he took your man instead. He left a message for me at Robert’s, and killed someone else to show he wasn’t scared. Both parcels of land are close to his estates.’
‘So it would be easy for him to get an armed force to them without being seen,’ Baldwin noted.
‘Of course. I’ve been on edge ever since,’ Odo said, drinking more wine and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘I’ve a chain of men with horses at different places between all the outlying farms, just in case of another attack.’
‘That was how you arrived today?’ Simon asked. ‘I wondered where you had sprung from.’
‘A messenger arrived to tell me that Sir Geoffrey set off from his hall earlier this evening. At first I was convinced he’d gone to ruin poor Robert’s house again, but there was no sign of his men there. So I thought to myself that he must have been heading this way instead, and we lashed our brutes to get here as quickly as we could. Just in time, too, from the look of it!’
‘It was in very good time,’ Baldwin said, but there was no warmth in his tone.
Chapter Thirty
Hugh sat back on his heels. ‘Want to know what you meant.’
‘I can’t even remember seeing you there.’
He didn’t believe the man. ‘I was hedging. You told me to look after her. That night, she died.’
Humphrey’s face suddenly paled. ‘Pater Noster, Domine …’
‘You can say one thing for him,’ John said idly, lifting a rabbit leg and dropping it into the pot with the others. ‘He’s certainly had training. He knows all the right words.’
‘Of course I do,’ Humphrey spat. ‘What do you think I am? An impostor?’
His bluster didn’t upset John. ‘Yes.’
Humphrey gaped. His work had been faultless, surely. It was impossible that anyone could have spotted his deceit.
‘You see,’ John said, ‘your error was in assuming that all parish priests are dullards. They aren’t. In particular, Matthew at Iddesleigh is a very good and conscientious priest. He knows his Latin, he serves his flock as well as he might, he works his lands alongside the peasants, and he knows the church and the politics of the bishop’s court. Perhaps if you had known more about that, he wouldn’t have noticed you. But you didn’t, so he did.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You knew too much, but your Latin was very rusty. It still is, I think. You can recite it, but it’s not your strength. Your congregation wouldn’t notice the difference. Tell me, did Isaac?’
‘This is nonsense!’
‘Perhaps he did and didn’t want to embarrass you. I have no doubt he would have prayed hard for your miserable, devious, lying soul. But there we are. It was as plain as the buckle on your belt there that you weren’t trained for the priesthood. No, I agreed with Matthew as soon as I saw you.’
‘Agreed with what?’
‘That you were a friar or a monk. And you’ve run away.’
Simon watched Sir Odo mount his horse. ‘Thank God we’ve met him,’ he said. ‘At least we know we have a strong ally.’
Baldwin nodded, but his mind was not entirely with Simon. The bailiff recognised the look in his eyes. It was that slight distraction that meant that Baldwin was already beginning to see through the immediate problems to the core of the matter.
‘Well, Baldwin?’ he asked.
Baldwin knew his friend well enough now not to mind when he broke in upon his thoughts. ‘Sir Odo is clearly anxious about Sir Geoffrey, and from what we’ve seen, so should he be.’
‘It was a stroke of good fortune for us that he is,’ Edgar commented.
Simon glanced at him. ‘Because his men were there in good time?’
Edgar nodded. His face was set to the south and west. ‘That’s the way he came, wasn’t it? I wonder where the messenger was stationed. The lad must have been a fleet rider to be able to get to Sir Odo and rouse him in time for Odo to ride out to his man’s lands before coming here. We were not so slow ourselves in riding here from the chapel, were we?’
‘He probably knows all the short cuts,’ Simon said. Then a thought struck him. ‘That may be how the men who attacked Hugh got to him, too, by using some quieter paths that didn’t pass near the road.’
Baldwin nodded. ‘Except the horses did come from Iddesleigh itself. I saw that in their hoofprints. They must have gone to Hugh’s house under cover of the party at the inn, and then come back here quietly and ridden home when all was dark.’
‘An easy ride,’ Edgar agreed. A fast ride in the dark over rough land was never appealing to a horseman. A good, solid roadway like this was safe.
‘Sir Odo’s men are all about the church,’ Simon noted. ‘Even if Sir Geoffrey returns, I don’t think he’ll be able to break in there without raising the vill.’
‘It would be a foolish man who’d try that,’ Baldwin said. But even as he spoke, his eyes went to the church.
Seeing his look, Edgar gave a contented smile. ‘There is one sure and certain protection if you are fearful, Sir Baldwin. Send Madam Jeanne’s maid to guard the man. Not only would you guarantee that Sir Geoffrey would never dare attack, you would also ensure that the man would speak to you of anything you wanted as soon as you returned to see him.’
‘Thank you,’ Baldwin said coldly. ‘If I were to take your advice, our only witness would be dead by morning if he had to gnaw through his own wrists to manage it, so cruel is the punishment you suggest.’
It was already late when Adcock appeared in the chapel’s doorway. As the door opened, all the candles began to dance and smoke. He shot a look around, and pushed the door quietly shut behind him.
This place was proving to be a hell on earth. All Adcock had ever wanted was to be left to arrange for the good management of the land and the animals on it, but instead here he was, installed in a manor which was a hotbed of thieving and banditry. The serfs avoided him, seeing him as a henchman of the Despenser. None of them pretended to be an expert of politics at anything higher than the most local level, but all of them knew of the reputation that the Lord Despenser was earning. They had heard how he extorted and tortured people in order to enrich himself.
Adcock walked painfully to the earthenware stoup at the wall and crossed himself, then slowly made his way up the nave to the altar.
‘What is it, Sergeant? Couldn’t sleep?’
‘Perkin? What are you doing here?’
‘Watching over old Isaac. He deserved a mourner, if only one.’
‘He would have understood. There’s a lot of work on at this time of year.’
Perkin yawned. ‘When is that not true?’
Tentatively Adcock approached the body and Perkin, who squatted near the head. ‘Do you mind if I join you?’