‘Father, you are so kind …’
‘I behave as a father must to his flock. No more.’
‘And I behave as a coward. If I had any courage, I would go out and declare Sir Geoffrey’s guilt to all and demand to be put to the justices. But I can’t, because he owns all the serfs here, and if I try to accuse him, he’ll pay all in the jury to find against me and I’ll hang!’
‘If you think that is the right action,’ Matthew murmured, ‘then you should pray to God for courage.’
Nicholas looked up at the priest gratefully. ‘I know you try to help,’ he said, ‘but it’s so hard … if I abjure, I may at least live.’
‘In a state of shame, though. While if you do your duty and accuse him, you will be more attractive to God.’
And dead, Nicholas added for him. There was no benefit to him in being dead. If he succeeded in having a knight condemned for his crimes, the man would probably be pardoned as soon as he wrote to the king. Especially if he offered a good enough bribe. That was how justice was dealt — if you had money, you could do no wrong; if you had none, you were guilty.
‘What should I do, Father?’
Matthew smiled down at him. Then he motioned to Nicholas to move up. Grimacing a little, he bent down to kneel at the altar next to the suspect. ‘First, we pray, you and I, and then you ask God to help you to decide.’
Accommodatingly Nicholas bent his head, and as Matthew began to speak, Nick heard the door open, squeaking on its hinges.
‘Ah, I always loved that sound, you know, Father,’ John said cheerfully as he and Hugh walked in.
Sir Geoffrey was almost finished at Robert’s house. He had engaged all the men in cutting saplings and dragging them to the road just after a sharp bend. With any luck, Sir Odo’s riders would be surprised to find such a barrier to their passage. Some might be thrown from their mounts, while the others would be a bunched, confused mass of men and beasts, easily picked off one by one by Sir Geoffrey’s archers, or even simply dragged from their saddles and knocked on the head.
He had completed the initial build when he heard that there were visitors to see him. Cursing mildly under his breath, for he was never best pleased to learn that others wanted his time, he issued orders for the rest of the work to be completed, then stomped back to the house.
Baldwin was crouched at the doorway, where there was a sack filled with dead puppies. Nearby was the body of their mother.
In a life which had seen so many deaths, Baldwin had grown largely immune to the sadness of most murders and accidental deaths. There had always been deaths and always would be. That was all a man needed to know. But wanton slaughter was something he always deprecated. And to kill young creatures for no purpose was deplorable. He put out a hand to touch one of the short-nosed little bundles. It was cold already.
‘You have started a fire today that will engulf you,’ he said coldly.
Sir Geoffrey pursed his lips. ‘I had expected someone from Sir Odo, but not you. What’s your relationship to him? Are you merely his paid attendant or has he offered you a part of the profits?’
‘You think I am in the same league as your friend the coroner? I wonder how much you expected to pay him. He will require more, now, I think. You had hoped to get away with very little, I expect. It can’t have been easy, especially when you realised that you must get Sir Odo off the land you and he had planned to keep.’
‘You know of …’
‘I rather think that he believes you broke any pact with him when you invaded this place today.’
Sir Geoffrey shrugged. ‘What could Odo expect? He’s been making my life hard enough. Putting that poor child’s body on my land and then I assume conspiring with my men to get the mire drained … That was a provocation I could hardly ignore.’
‘You say you did not kill her or have her killed?’
‘Of course not! I couldn’t behave in such an unchivalrous manner. The poor woman was so young — who would do such a thing? Only an avaricious man bent on his own profit!’
‘And that is how Sir Odo strikes you?’
Sir Geoffrey was still a moment. ‘You know men better than I, or so it is rumoured. What would you say?’
‘I should say that he, like you, would take any prize that was offered to him if it promised few risks and easy benefits. I should think either of you would be pleased to take a woman like her to be your wife, and that you’d neither of you have any compunction about taking all her manor and treasure to yourselves in the process, but to actually slaughter her in cold blood, that I find hard to believe,’ Baldwin said. His eyes flickered away from Sir Geoffrey and down to the sack at the doorway.
‘I would have said the same myself,’ Sir Geoffrey agreed. ‘But who else could have benefited from putting him and me at loggerheads?’
‘Perhaps I can learn that,’ Baldwin said. ‘In the meantime, these puppies. Who killed them?’
‘What?’ Sir Geoffrey asked with a blank expression. He looked over to the doorway and shrugged. ‘I think it was …’
‘No! Don’t tell me,’ Baldwin said quickly. ‘But whoever he is, you should discard him. Any man who can do that to puppies is as dangerous as a viper. He has caused the death of the man who lived here, only because of his motiveless slaughter of a litter.’
Sir Geoffrey shrugged. ‘Crokers took a dagger to one of my men.’
‘Because of your attack on his animals. He would have done nothing, were it not for this wanton destruction.’
‘I do not know that,’ Sir Geoffrey said. ‘He tried to attack one of my men, and I stopped him.’
‘Just as you would remove any other obstacle to your ambitions. A stone in your horse’s hoof, a man protecting his lands, either can be removed and destroyed, can’t they? Perhaps other barriers can also be heaved aside.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Lady Lucy — she was a barrier, wasn’t she? You wanted more land, either for yourself or for your lord. Either way, she owned it, and you wanted it. So you decided to capture her and take her in marriage, forcibly, or kill her and steal what you wanted.’
‘That is a foul untruth!’
‘Is it? I think that perhaps it is a truth in the eyes of many,’ Baldwin said.
‘If you try to tell others that, I shall destroy you!’
‘I am a knight, Sir Geoffrey. I am not so easily destroyed.’
‘All men can die, Sir Baldwin.’
‘That is true,’ Baldwin replied. He crouched down at the sack of puppies again, touching the little bodies. One squeaked and kicked feebly, and Baldwin reached down to pick it up. Somehow this one had not been hurt when the others had been smashed against the wall. Baldwin stroked it, and it started to squeak again, mouth wide, searching for a nipple.
‘Did I miss one?’ A skinny man with a leering face suddenly appeared in the doorway.
Baldwin eyed him a moment, the puppy in his arm. He was about to pass it to Simon when Edgar stepped up to the skinny man and punched him with full force in the belly. The man’s eyes bulged, his mouth formed a perfect ‘O’, and he collapsed to his knees, gasping desperately for breath.
At the blow all the men in the area stopped their work, and a few picked up swords and daggers. Baldwin shifted the puppy to his left hand and drew his sword. ‘Keep back! Sir Geoffrey, if you value your honour, tell them to keep away.’
Sir Geoffrey raised a hand, and his men returned to their labours. Meanwhile Baldwin went to the choking man on the ground, and put the point of his sword on his throat. He hissed, ‘You should be grateful. If I’d reached you first, I’d have killed you for what you did to that bitch and her litter. If I hear of you again, I shall seek you out and throw you into the gaol at Rougement Castle.’
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Baldwin was quiet on their return. Only when they were almost at Fishleigh did he turn to Simon and mutter, ‘I could imagine that band of felons doing anything.’