The man hastily stepped back, mumbling apologies as the Coroner, almost dragging poor Boscombe by one hand, led them back up the passageway and into the Guildhall. They found the Regent and the others still in the garden, seated on wooden benches in a small grassy enclave. They were sipping cool white wine as if it was a fair summer’s day and all was well. They totally ignored the household men who had sheeted the Sheriff’s body and were now taking it down to lie amongst the wine casks where it would remain cool and not begin to stink.
Cranston and Athelstan stood aside as the servants hurried by, cursing and muttering at their grisly burden.
Over in the far corner of the garden, the two great wolf hounds lay forlornly on the grass as if they knew their privileged life was gone. Sir John swept before the seated men, a wan-faced Boscombe gripped by one hand. Goodman sprang to his feet while the others watched Sir John with narrowed eyes and disapproving faces.
An unwholesome bunch, Athelstan thought, men dedicated to power and the amassing of wealth; dark souls with sinister minds and powerful ambitions. They reminded the friar of hawks in a castle courtyard, straining at their jesses, ready to leave their perch to swoop and kill. Goodman advanced dramatically on Sir John.
‘This man is a city prisoner.’
‘And I am the city Coroner,’ Cranston replied. He had never liked Mountjoy but Goodman he detested as a man who would betray his own mother so long as the price was right.
‘You had no authority to free him!’ Goodman spluttered.
‘What is it, Sir John?’ Lord Adam Clifford, seated beside the Regent, languidly asked. The young man looked up, shielding his eyes against the late-afternoon sun. ‘Good Lord, man, you are not going to hang him now, are you? I haven’t eaten and this garden has seen enough violence for one day.’
Cranston bowed his head to the Regent. ‘My Lord, a little mummer’s play. Would you be so good?’
Without waiting for an answer, Cranston spun on his heel and, winking at Athelstan, hustled poor Boscombe into Mountjoy’s private arbour. The Regent shrugged, placed his wine cup on the floor and followed Cranston. Lord Adam smiled at Athelstan.
‘Some play,’ he murmured. ‘Gentlemen, I think we should follow His Grace.’
In the arbour Boscombe’s nervousness returned; he shook like a jelly as Cranston led him across to the blood-stained turf seat.
‘Right!’ Cranston beamed at Gaunt and the others standing at the gate. ‘Now, Master Boscombe,’ he drew his own long stabbing dirk, ‘I want you to murder me.’ Cranston slumped down on the turf seat, impervious to the blood congealing there, and smiled across at the Mayor. ‘Sir Christopher, of your mercy, a cup of that wine you are drinking?’
The Coroner mopped his brow with his hand and wetted his lips. Goodman was about to protest but Gaunt snapped his fingers. The Mayor hurried away and returned with a cup slopping at the brim which he thrust into the Coroner’s fat paw. Cranston silently toasted the Regent and then gazed at the pathetic Boscombe who stood, gingerly holding the dagger, as if terrified of cutting himself, never mind Sir John.
‘Right!’ Cranston barked, sipping from the cup. ‘Kill me, Boscombe!’
Athelstan stepped forward. ‘Go on, man,’ he murmured. ‘Do it now!’
Boscombe, holding the dagger out, lumbered towards Sir John. Athelstan wasn’t sure what happened next. Cranston continued to sip from the wine goblet, Boscombe struck — but the next minute the Coroner had knocked the dagger from his hand and sent the servant sprawling on to the grass. Cranston drained the cup and got to his feet.
‘My Lord Coroner has made his point,’ Athelstan tactfully intervened. ‘Boscombe doesn’t even know how to hold a dagger. Like Sir John, Sir Gerard was a fiery man. He, not to mention his dogs, would have put up some resistance. More importantly, My Lord,’ Athelstan addressed Gaunt, ‘if Boscombe had struck a dagger so deep, he’d bear blood-stains on his hands and sleeves. But,’ he added, helping Boscombe to his feet, ‘there are no such stains.
Gaunt stared heavy-lidded at Athelstan, then at Boscombe. He sighed and blew out his cheeks, dug into his purse and flicked a coin at Boscombe who, despite his nervousness, deftly caught it.
‘Master Boscombe, a grave injustice has been done. Wait over there!’
He scuttled away as fast as a rabbit to sit with the two great wolfhounds. Gaunt walked towards Cranston and Athelstan, rubbing his finger round the rim of his cup.
‘If Boscombe didn’t do it,’ he whispered, ‘then who did?’
Athelstan and Cranston stared back.
‘More importantly,’ Gaunt continued, ‘how was it done? The garden is enclosed. Mountjoy was a soldier, guarded by dogs. We have examined his wine cup. He was not drugged, so how did someone get so close to kill such a man?’ Gaunt wagged a finger at Sir John. ‘You, My Lord Coroner, and your clerk will be my guests at tonight’s banquet. You are under orders to resolve this matter, and do so quickly.’ He looked over at his companions. ‘Sirs, we must leave this matter in the capable hands of My Lord Coroner.’
‘Have you resolved the other business?’ Goodman spitefully called.
Cranston blushed with anger at the laughter this provoked. Sir Nicholas Hussey, whom Cranston secretly respected, looked embarrassed.
‘What business is this?’ Gaunt asked.
‘Oh,’ Goodman brayed, walking forward, ‘the heads and bloody parts of traitors filched from London Bridge and other places. Sir John has been trying to catch the thief for weeks.’
Athelstan would have liked to have smacked the Mayor full in his red, fleshy face but instead looked down and hoped Cranston would not give vent to his fiery temper. Sir John did not disappoint him. He stepped forward, his face only a few inches away from Goodman’s.
‘I shall not only resolve that matter,’ he whispered, yet loud enough for the others to hear. ‘But, I assure you, sir, when this business is finished there will be fresh heads on London Bridge!’
They all made to leave and were about to re-enter the Guildhall when Boscombe ran forward to crouch at the Regent’s feet.
‘My Lord!’ the man wailed, raising a tear-streaked face to John of Gaunt. ‘What shall I do now? My master’s dead. The dogs?’
‘Do you have a position?’ Gaunt asked the Mayor.
Goodman shook his head. The Regent shrugged.
‘Then, Master Boscombe, you should count your blessings. You are at least free.’
‘And the dogs?’ he wailed.
‘Perhaps they should join their master. Unless, of course,’ Gaunt glanced sideways at Cranston, ‘My Lord Coroner stands maintenance for all three of you?’
Cranston stared at the pathetic little man and the two huge wolf hounds who looked so resigned to their fate. He was about to refuse but then caught Goodman’s smirk and the doleful eyes of the hounds.
‘I’ll stand maintenance!’ he retorted before Athelstan could urge prudence.
Cranston pulled Boscombe to his feet, whistled to the dogs and marched away through the Guildhall, grinning evilly from ear to ear as the hounds charged after him, scattering that group of powerful, haughty men.
CHAPTER 3
‘Lady Maude will kill me!’ Sir John muttered as he and Athelstan sat on a garden bench watching the two great wolf hounds, who had already terrified the life out of Cranston’s household, bound round the garden. Every so often they would come back and place their great paws on the Coroner’s fat legs to lick his face until the garden rang with Cranston’s ripest curses.
Boscombe, needing no second bidding, had gathered his pathetic belongings into a bundle and followed Sir John home. He now appeared at the door, washed, changed and bearing a brimming goblet of claret.
‘Good man! Good man!’ Cranston murmured. ‘You are already high in my favor.’ He wagged a stubby finger at his new steward. ‘Five things matter to me,’ he growled. ‘First, the Lady Maude. She is to be obeyed in all things. Second, take care of my sons, the poppets. Third, Brother Athelstan,’ he tapped the friar gently on the arm, ‘is my friend. Fourth, my study where I keep my great treatise is my sanctuary. And, fifth, my wineskin. There are two in fact; one hanging behind the buttery door, the other in my chamber. They are to be kept full at all times but the Lady Maude is never to know there are two.’