‘Father, what’s the matter?’
‘Nicholas, I had forgotten you were still here. Are you well?’
‘Yes, Aveline has just left. She says Marston has fled.’
‘And do you need anything?’ Athelstan asked, hoping the young man would not draw him into conversation.
‘No, Father.’ Ashby leaned against the rood screen.
‘I have never rested, eaten or drunk so well in my life.’
He pointed to the stage and the canvas backcloth. ‘It will be a grand play, Father.’
Athelstan smiled. ‘It will be, Nicholas, if my parishioners don’t kill each other first!’
Ashby laughed. ‘Benedicta shooed them all out when Watkin the dung-collector started a row. He claimed that God the Father should sit higher than God the Holy Ghost. You can guess at Pike’s reaction to that.’
Athelstan nodded. ‘And Bonaventure?’
‘Oh, he’s in the sanctuary.’
‘Of course he is,’ Athelstan said to himself. ‘The little mercenary!’
He bade farewell to Ashby and walked out of the church and across to the stable, where Philomel was chomping away at a small truss of hay hung over the door of the stable. Athelstan put his battered saddle away, replenished the old horse’s water and walked back to his house. Benedicta had built the fire up and had left a pie on the small plinth in the inglenook.
‘I am going to reward myself,’ Athelstan muttered.
He went into the buttery and took out a small jug of wine Cranston had given him at Easter. ‘The best of Bordeaux,’ Cranston had described it. Athelstan now unsealed the stopper, poured himself a generous cup and sipped it. He then washed his hands and face in a bowl of rose water, took his horn spoon and sat down to enjoy Benedicta’s pie.
‘Thank God for food!’ Athelstan muttered. ‘And thank God I don’t have to cook it!’
Athelstan finished eating, cleaned his mouth and fingers and went upstairs. He slept for an hour on his small cot bed. He woke refreshed, went downstairs and cleared the table except for the wine cup. After this, he took out a large piece of parchment and began to write down everything he knew about the strange events on board the God’s Bright Light. He scribbled down everything – every thought, every impression. Now and again he had to break off because of minor interruptions. Mugwort the bell clerk claimed that the bell rope was getting frayed and needed to be replaced. Ranulf the rat-catcher wanted Athelstan to say another Mass for his newly formed Guild of Rat Hunters. Crim wanted assurances that he would beat the drum during the play. Pernell the Fleming wanted to know if eating meat on a Friday was a serious sin.
Athelstan went across to the church to ensure all was well with Ashby and, finding it was, locked the church for the night. He went back to his writing. The din from the alleyways and streets around faded until the loudest sound was the hooting of the owls hunting above the long grass in the cemetery. Athelstan carried on. He kept writing and, using pieces of wood, even created tiny models of the war cogs moored off Queen’s hithe. Only when he was satisfied that he had recorded all the information available to him did he attempt to draw conclusions. His vexation grew – time and again he tried to create a case, but it always fell apart like some syllogism which cannot survive the probe of logic. He took a fresh piece of parchment and wrote carefully at the top, ‘Si autem?, What if?’ He then began to list his doubts and, when he had finished, rubbed his hands together. He looked at these, fingers splayed.
‘You are soft, Athelstan,’ he murmured. ‘Soft hands.’
He went back to his writing. A thought occurred to him.
‘What if there are two murderers? What if there are three? Or is there just one? A master of this dance?’
Once again he began to write, taking one central fact as if it were a divinely revealed truth and building his case around it. At last, long after midnight, he finished and threw the quill down.
‘What if?’ he muttered. ‘What if? But how do I prove it?’
Athelstan put his head on his arms and, before he knew it, drifted into one of his nightmares. He was on a boat being rowed by a masked oarsman along a fogbound Thames. The mist cleared and he saw, in the prow of the boat, a hooded, cowled figure. Athelstan knew this must be the murderer. The boat bumped. Athelstan shook himself awake and realised he had knocked the cup off the table. He yawned, stretched, got to his feet and, leaving the manuscripts where they were, damped down the fire and slowly climbed the stairs to his bed.
The next morning he slept later than he intended, being roused by Crim pounding on the door below.
‘Come on, Father!’ the lad shouted. ‘It’s time for Mass!’
Athelstan decided to hurry down immediately rather than wash and change first. He followed Crim out of the house and through the swirling mist to the church door. A few of his parishioners were already waiting.
‘You are late, Father!’ Tiptoe the tapster accused.
‘And I can’t ring the bell!’ Mugwort declared mournfully.
‘I was tired,’ Athelstan answered impatiently. ‘But, come!’
He opened the church door, letting Ashby slip out to relieve himself. Ursula the pig-woman stood guard to make sure that Marston or one of his thugs didn’t reappear. Athelstan quickly donned his vestments, trying to ignore Bonaventure, who kept rubbing up against his leg.
‘Go away, cat!’ Athelstan muttered. ‘You are a mercenary and a traitor.’
The cat’s rubbing became even more vigorous so Crim had to put him outside. Athelstan lit the candles, celebrated Mass and, when he had finished, still distracted by the conclusions he had drawn earlier that morning, gave Crim a penny and a message for Cranston. Then he hurried back to his house, washed and shaved. He hastily ate some bread and cheese, told Mugwort he was in charge of the church until Benedicta or Watkin appeared, saddled Philomel and rode down to London Bridge.
Athelstan found his journey slow. Philomel was sluggish and London Bridge was thronged with barrows, carts and pack-horses as people fought to get across before the markets opened. Athelstan stopped off at the church of St Thomas Becket half-way across. He said a prayer and lit a candle before the statue of the Virgin to ask for her guidance and wisdom in establishing the truth. Once in the city, Athelstan had to face more delays. In Bridge Street a house had caught fire and, further along, a group of Abraham men performed one of their crazed dances to the amusement of some of the onlookers and the exasperation of others. By the time he reached Cheapside, Athelstan was saddle-sore and bitterly cursing a journey that had taken over an hour. He found Cranston ensconced in the Holy Lamb of God. The coroner was sitting at his favourite table, watching the innkeeper and his wife and their army of scullions building fires and starting the ovens. Because the hour was early, the fat coroner was for once content just to sit back and enjoy the savoury smells beginning to come from the kitchen.
He grinned at Athelstan. ‘Monk, you look angry.’
‘Sir John, I’m a friar and I’m fretful.’ Athelstan gingerly sat down and peered into Cranston’s tankard.
‘It’s watered ale!’ Cranston said. ‘But I have ordered a minced-beef pie with onions, leeks and a dash of garlic and rosemary.’ He closed his eyes. ‘Just think of it, Brother, rich, savoury meat simmering under a thick, golden crust. By the way, I have sent for him.’ Cranston cocked open one eye and peered across at the hour candle on its iron spigot near the door. ‘So you had best tell me what you plan.’
Athelstan did, haltingly at first, but becoming more articulate as his confidence in his conclusions grew. At first Cranston roared with laughter.
‘Bollocks and tits!’ he scoffed.
‘And the same to you, my son!’ Athelstan replied.
Sir John calmed down. Once again Athelstan described his conclusions, hammering home his every point with both reason and evidence and Cranston’s merriment began to fade. Athelstan paused as the landlord’s wife, who always cosseted the coroner, brought a blackjack of ale and served a steaming pie on a large trancher. The sight of the pie made Athelstan hungry, so she cut a piece off for him. They both ate and drank in silence. Once Cranston was finished, Athelstan outlined his strategies. The coroner asked a spate of questions. Athelstan answered and Sir John finally nodded.