“Then it was very good of you to have been inthe chapel praying for him.”
Lady Anne made the expression of amusedexasperation used by women indulging the man they love. “Guysays it will be best to show what courtesy we can toward him, nowthat we won't have to do it much longer. But I doubt prayerswill do Sir Clement any good, do you? I think he wentstraight to hell and there's the end of it.” They had reachedthe door to the series of rooms the women guests had shared; by nowLady Anne and her women would be nearly the only ones left. Lady Anne, letting Frevisse see she was ready to be done with hercompany, made her a pretty little curtsy and said, “If you willexcuse me, Dame.”
Frevisse bent her head in acceptance andfarewell, but before she could go her own way, Guy came from theroom as if in haste to somewhere else.
“Guy!” Lady Anne exclaimed, moving eagerlytoward him and holding out her hands to him.
He caught and kissed them, right andleft. “I came to see if you were back from prayers yet andyou weren't. Are you all right?”
Lady Anne made a face of distaste. “I've prayed all I can stomach for him and I'm not doing anymore. You didn't come. You said you would.”
“I said I might. I've been seeing towhat can be done so we can leave as soon as the crowner finisheswith us.”
“Has he come yet?”
“Not yet, but soon, I should think.”
“He shouldn't even be needed. Everyonesaw what happened. It was an act of God. The bishop'sword alone should be enough for it. Shouldn't it?” sheappealed to Frevisse.
“You would think so, but the law has its ownway about these things.” To Guy she added, “Lady Anne and Ihave been talking of your uncle.”
“My cousin,” Guy corrected politely. “Or rather my father's cousin and so mine once removed.”
“And the farther removed the better,” LadyAnne said.
She was holding on to Guy's arm now, ready togo away with him, but Frevisse continued her relentlessgossiping. “Lady Anne was telling me how he's kept a quarrelwith you these many years.”
“Oh, yes.” Guy smiled with rueful goodhumor. “The infamous marchpane.”
Jevan appeared behind him. “My lord,”he said.
Guy looked over his shoulder – toward but notdirectly at him – and said curtly, “Yes?”
“There's a question of what can be packed andwhat you'll want while you're still here.”
“You can't decide?”
“It would be better if you did.”
“I'll see to it,” Lady Anne said. “Ihave to ask my maid about something anyway.”
She kissed Guy's cheek lightly. BeyondGuy, Frevisse saw Jevan's face was bleak with a control that didnot quite hold before he stepped back with a bow to let Lady Annego past him.
Frevisse remembered something she had wantedto ask and said brightly, “Oh, Lady Anne – and you gentlemen, too -I was wondering – Master Broun who was with Sir Clement at hisdeath – God keep his soul – Master Broun was saying he saw the markof a hand on Sir Clement's face.” She lowered her voiceimpressively, much as the physician had done. “A red mark asif an inhumanly large hand had slapped him. I had to admit Ididn't see it, but I was wondering if you had? It would besuch a great wonder.”
Lady Anne said after a moment's hesitation,“Why, no, I never saw anything like that.”
“Nor I,” Jevan agreed.
“He was just all welts all over,” Guysaid. “Maybe it was on his other cheek than the one I saw,”he added helpfully.
“No, I saw both sides of his face,” Jevansaid. “There were only the welts, no pattern to them.”
“Oh. That's that then,” Guy said; andadded to Jevan, “Go on with Lady Anne.”
Jevan bowed, and as he followed her away,Frevisse asked Guy, “You'll keep him in your service?”
Guy shrugged. “For a time anyway. He's knowledgeable about Sir Clement's affairs so he'll be useful awhile.”
“And then?”
“He was Sir Clement's dog. I'll be ridof him as soon as may be. He can find employmentelsewhere.”
“But he didn't like Sir Clement any betterthan you do.”
“He served him nonetheless. And he hastoo much of his look. I don't want him around me.”
“Did Sir Clement make provision for him, orwill he have nothing when you let him go?”
The impertinence of her questions had begunto penetrate his absorption with his own affairs. Frowning,he said, “I've no idea.” And added, “If you'll excuse me, mylady.”
Chapter Fourteen
Very few of the other guests were to beinconvenienced by the crowner’s coming. Only those who hadbeen nearest Sir Clement at the feast supposed they had to stay,but they were precisely the people Frevisse wanted to talk with,and since the morning was worn away well toward ten o’clock anddinnertime, she guessed they could be found in the hall, a warm andconvenient gathering place.
They were there: A lady and five men, threeof them booted and cloaked for travel, standing at one end of thedais, out of the way since the servants were busy setting up thetables only in the lower part of the hall, in token that the familywould not be dining here this midday. With a touch of dismay,Frevisse realized she did not know any of them by name; but as amember of the family she had reason to approach them, to ask aftertheir well-being, and join politely in their conversation. She and the lady exchanged slight curtsies; the men removed theirhats and bowed to her; she bent her head to them. Their talkhad broken off at her coming. To set it going again she said,“I hope you’ve been made comfortable. If there’s anything youneed…“ Her gesture indicated it was theirs to ask for.
“We’re doing very well, thank you, mydear,” the lady said. She was middle-aged, wide, andcomfortably matter-of-fact. “How does poor Matilda?”
“Very poorly at present, I fear. It’sall been too much for her, with Uncle Thomas’ death and everythingshe’s had to deal with and then that dreadful trouble at thefuneral feast.”
“Bad business,” one of the cloaked men said,shaking his head. “Bad business all around. Not a goodway to go, and a pity it had to happen here.”
“It was bound to happen somewhere. He’dasked for it over and over,” one of the others said. He gavea knowing wink. “Is there any of us who haven’t heard himbluster for God’s judgment a score of times at the least?”
“I thought he’d done it less often of late,”said one of the men not dressed for travel. “The times I’vebeen with him this past year or so, he seemed less given toit.”
“Not that you spent anymore time in hiscompany than you could help! St. Roche, but that man was aplague to everyone around him.” The cloaked man shook hishead with a bitter grin of remembrance, then bethought himself andadded, “God keep his soul.”
“The devil more likely. But there’s nodenying his sheep had some of the best wool this part ofOxfordshire.”
“That’s young Jevan’s doing, not oldClement’s. Old Clement wasted his brains in looking forquarrels, but that youngling knows what he’s about with sheep.”
The talk veered off to wool and overseasprices, confirming Frevisse’s thought that the men ready to leavewere likely merchants. The other two, because they had sat attable near Sir Clement, must be knights, and one of them did notjoin in the general talk but stood gravely a little behind the ladywho, though probably his wife, was taking knowledgeable part in thewool talk. Frevisse eased toward him and said aside from theflow of the conversation, “You were seated near to Sir Clement atthe feast, I think?”
The man was tall, with a soft voice. “Ihad that misfortune, yes. Next to the young lady.”
“Sir Clement quarreled with you during thefeast, didn’t he?”
“Over a matter of grazing rights that wassettled in court three years ago, but since legality never matteredto him, he brought it up whenever we had the ill-fortune tomeet. Like Jack says-” He nodded at the merchant whohad claimed to see a mellowing in Sir Clement of late. “-he’dlost some of his edge at making new quarrels, but he could stillhold to his old ones well enough.”