“With surely some provision made for JevanDey as his only other relation. Jevan is his onlyother relative, isn’t he?”
“He is, but there’s no provision forhim. Sir Clement was clear about that all along.”
“But he served him so well, from what I’veheard and seen. Why, even at the funeral feast, no one butJevan waited on him. Or did they?”
“Only old Jevan.”
“Except for the wine. That was somebodyelse,” Lady Anne said
“He was pouring for everyone along that partof the table,” Guy said. “But the food, only Jevan broughtthat. Serviceable to the last, for all the good it will dohim. No, everything comes to me, and Jevan will have exactlywhat he’s earned all these years of licking Sir Clement’sboots.”
“And payment in full for putting you introuble with Sir Clement when he could,” Lady Anne added. “That beastly marchpane.”
“That, too,” Guy agreed.
“The marchpane?” Frevisse asked. “Youmentioned that before, didn’t you?”
“Jevan suggested he give it to Sir Clementwhen Guy asked him what a good gift would be. And Sir Clementwas rude about it ever afterwards.”
“But Jevan might have done it innocently, notknowing it would enrage Sir Clement,” Frevisse suggested.
“I doubt my cousin ever does anythinginnocently. He meant to make trouble then as surely as SirClement ever did. They were alike in more than looks. As they say, ‘Like in one way, like in more.’” Guyfrowned. “No, when Jevan has shown me what I need to know ofthe manor’s matters, I’ll be rid of him. There’s no otherway.”
Frevisse put on a thoughtfulexpression. “Lady Anne and I were talking of Sir Clement’ssalvation before you came in.” Guy smothered a rudenoise. Frevisse pretended not to hear, but went on as if shehad been considering the problem of Sir Clement’s soul. “Isthere any chance he was not so far in sin as we all think hewas? Had he shown any inclination of late toward repentinghis ways?”
Lady Anne answered, “I think he may have beena little less quarrelsome of late, but I also think that was simplybecause he was growing old and lacked the strength toward it he hadhad.”
“But he hadn’t been ill? He wasn’tgiven to illness?”
“Sir Clement?” Guy scoffed. “Never. Not even rheums in winter. Nothing made himill.”
Frevisse looked to Lady Anne. “Youfound that true?”
“Oh, yes. He was always concerned overhimself. Wouldn’t eat this unless it was perfectly fresh,wouldn’t eat that at all, had to have things cooked just so. But ill, no, never.”
“What sort of foods didn’t he like?” Frevissepressed.
Lady Anne shrugged. “Anything thathappened to go against his fancy. From one time to the nexthe could hate a thing or love it. There wasn’t any sense toit.”
Guy nodded agreement. “He wasimpossible to please.”
Frevisse made casual conversation a whilelonger for the sake of seeming polite, but could find no way toelicit any more useful information from either of them. Shemade a graceful departure as soon as she was sure of that, withsome hope of finding Jevan until she realized supper time was morenear than she had thought. For manners’ sake she ought todine in the solar with whomever of the family came, and so she wentthat way instead of after Jevan.
Aunt Matilda did not rise for the meal. “But she’s awake and, I think, better,” Alice said. “SirePhilip is with her for a while now so I could leave.”
She was serene but wan, and the earl, elegantin his mourning black, was attentive to her at the table, seeingshe had the finest and daintiest of every dish and gently insistingshe eat and drink more than she might have otherwise. For thefirst time, in his kindness to her cousin, Frevisse found somethingparticular about him that she liked. But it meant that, sinceBishop Beaufort had chosen to dine in his own rooms, and SirePhilip was with Aunt Matilda, there were only she and Dame Perpetuato make other conversation; and since the one thing they bothwished to speak of was impossible here, their conversation wasslight, with many silences. In them, Frevisse followed herown thoughts.
Despite all her questioning, she still hadonly pieces, like the shards of a window she had once seen outsidea burned church. Slivers and cracked pieces of bright colors,with here and there a recognizable part of a face, or the fold of arobe, or the petals of a flower, but most of it making no sense atall, just pieces that might never have been part of anypattern.
But there had to be a way here to bring allthe pieces into sense. She knew Sir Clement had died fromeating a food that was poison to him but to no one else aroundhim. She did not know what the food was or how he hadcome to eat it, since he seemed to have known it was dangerous tohim. Then there was the matter of who had given it to him -and why. The why was the least problem: There were morethan enough people with reasons for hating Sir Clement todeath. But who had known exactly what to use to killhim? And how had they put it into his food at thefeast? Guy, Lady Anne, and Jevan were the three best able tohave done it, and they all had reasons to want him dead. Neither Guy nor Lady Anne seemed to have any idea there was a fooddeadly to Sir Clement. Or they – one or the other or both -were feigning their innocence of the knowledge. If they werenot feigning, that left Jevan, except he was going to lose the mostby Sir Clement’s death and so, perhaps, should have been leastwilling toward it.
She realized Dame Perpetua had been talkingto her, attempting to maintain at least the appearance ofpropriety, and that she had been nodding her head as if attendingto what she said. But now something finally meshed with herown thoughts and she interrupted sharply. “What?”
Dame Perpetua paused in mild surprise at theabruptness, then repeated patiently, “I said that I’m sorry Idelayed your learning about the poison this afternoon by notstaying where you expected to find me.”
“No, that was all right,” Frevisse assuredher. “It was what you said after that. About why youleft.”
“Because someone came in to see SirePhilip.”
“No, you said who it was that came in.”
“Why, Sir Clement’s nephew. The one wholooks so like him. He seemed troubled, or maybe only tired,but he wanted to speak to Sire Philip alone. I thought itwould be easier for me to go than them, so I went in search of you,with the Galen.”
“And he stayed to talk with Sire Philip?”
“That’s why he came,” Dame Perpetua explainedagain, patiently.
Sire Philip had been talking with Jevan,then, probably not long before she had come into the libraryherself, but he had never mentioned Jevan being there. Whyshould he? she asked herself. And promptly asked back,Why hadn’t he? Especially after she had told him whatshe was doing at Bishop Beaufort’s behest, when he had to know thatshe would be interested in anything about anyone who had beenaround Sir Clement.
The meal was finished. Alice andSuffolk were rising; the servants were hovering to clear dishes andtable away. Frevisse stood up with Dame Perpetua and said,“If you’ll pardon us, we’re going to do Vespers in the chapel, tomake up for the Offices we have somewhat scanted these fewdays.”
No objection could be made to that, exceptperhaps by Dame Perpetua who had had no idea of any suchthing. But she remained admirably silent, made her curtsywith Frevisse, and followed her from the room. Not until theywere on the stairs down to the hall did she say, “This is a goodidea of yours, Dame. But what else are you about?”
“I don’t know,” Frevisse said. “But Icouldn’t stay there longer, doing nothing.”
“It seems you’ve already done a great dealtoday.”
“But none of it will matter if I don’t findout the answers that make all of it make sense.”
“You might be better for a rest, a night’ssleep.”
“I might be,” Frevisse agreed, and wenton. With a sigh, Dame Perpetua accompanied her.