‘The pope’s men, you mean?’
‘Them.’ He sniffed. ‘I was going to clean her up a bit. The devil what attacked me must have sneaked in while I was fetching stuff from the river.’
‘More debris brought down stream you say?’
‘A load of it.’
‘Shall I see it if I walk along there?’
‘Nothing worth seeing now.’
‘This tree?’
‘I’ll get some help to shift it later. We can bring it ashore. Winter logs.’
‘And your attacker got inside your cottage while you were doing this? He had a nerve. Was he looking for something?’ She was clutching at straws.
‘I can’t think what. Anything of value I carry on me - well, I’m being indiscreet now but I suppose I can tell you that, you’re not likely to rob me at knife point, are you!’
He chuckled, then winced as it disturbed the wounds to his face. ‘He was lying in wait for me behind the door,’ he continued ‘First I knew of it was when I felt a crack on my head. I hear him snarl a warning about keeping my mouth shut. I said, what do I know? But I must have blacked out, I don’t remember anything after that. The fire was out when I came round. Then I got up, sat here and then you’re coming in, to my aid and succour, bless you.’
Hildegard looked carefully around the cottage, on the floor, everywhere, but there was nothing to say who had been here. The floor was scuffed with mud. Impossible to read the prints. At least nothing pointed to the pages.
There must be only one other person who wanted the ferryman to keep his mouth shut and he had nothing to do with the miners. It was Taillefer’s murderer. He must think the ferryman had seen something.
Before leaving she asked, ‘That night when the duc’s esquire was murdered, you said you heard angry voices. Are you sure they came from the bridge?’
‘As sure as anything’s sure.’
That was just what the priest of St Nicolas told her too. And Hubert had now confirmed it. The argument. The bell. Lauds. And Montjoie was in lauds because all three Cistercians had seen him. Or had said they had seen him. But the priest might have rung the bell at any time after the voices from the bridge woke him up.
She went back up to the bridge, was nodded onto it by the sentry, walked along as far as the chapel. The priest was inside. This time he was busy swabbing the floor.
‘Please don’t take this amiss, but is it possible you rang the bell for lauds later than usual?’
His milky pale eyes peered myopically into her face. ‘Such a wild night,’ he murmured. ‘I was awake on and off.’
‘You heard voices,’ she prompted, ‘and then you took it to be time for lauds. Could you have been mistaken?’
‘No man is infallible, domina.’
**
Sir John Fitzjohn was standing inside the gatehouse when she walked back up to the palace. It seemed an age since she had seen him raging and ranting over the absconding miners.
Since returning from his manhunt he had kept a low profile. Presumably he had been waiting for instructions from Woodstock about what to do about the proposed barter. He would have to hand something of value to the pope but now his miners had vanished without trace, what did he have?
He was back, however, as visible as ever, his pennant on its long pole held by his standard bearer, his breast plate gleaming with the result of Edmund’s hard work, his fine horse, held by its gilded leather halter, prancing and displaying the high polish on its hooves.
Fitzjohn had chosen to copy the practise of his lord Woodstock and hang the severed tail of an animal on his standard but unlike Woodstock he had not chosen a fox’s red brush but something diplomatically smaller, a rat maybe, tail dangling like a piece of string.
His retinue milled around him. They were apparently waiting for orders.
Edmund emerged from inside the couriers’ office. He strode over, bent his knee to make a flourish then handed his lord a letter. Fitzjohn snatched it without thanks and tore it open.
He scanned it. Evidently the man could read.
Before asking for her own mail if any, Hildegard watched from inside the doorway.
The news he read evidently pleased him. He held the letter aloft. ‘Good news from England, men! The Lord Chief Justiciar is dead!’
A dutiful but weak cheer arose.
Fitzjohn relished the moment. He declaimed aloud from the letter in his hand while Hildegard listened in rising horror:
Justice Tresillian, impeached for treason, was caught disguised as a pilgrim in Westminster- the fool didn’t even have the common sense to run for it - whence he was dragged to the Tower, with his wife and daughters weeping- with such a sotwit for a father who can blame them? - where he was bound hand and foot to a hurdle and dragged through the streets of the City- and listen to this - and when he came to his Calvary and refused to say a word against King Richard or admit his treason he said, “I am not able to die” and they found a magic symbol on a string round his neck and ripped it off and so hanged him, naked, then cut his throat to make sure he was dead.’
Fitzjohn glanced round with satisfaction. ‘And thus ends Sir Robert Tresillian.’ He did not cross himself but instead drew his sword and pointing it at the sky bellowed, ‘And so lives my lord Thomas of Woodstock!’
A shocked silence followed.
One by one his men began to attend to their belongings, tying and untying a strap here, inspecting a buckle there, anything but look at their companions. Fitzjohn’s lips tightened at this lack of enthusiasm. With a curse of impatience he turned to his trumpeter. ‘A blast or two. Rouse the dullards.’
While the horn shrilled Hildegard, stunned and appalled by Fitzjohn’s announcement, turned inside the office and, in a dazed voice asked for any mail.
Too stunned to realise that the clerk was handing over a small missive she stared unseeingly at the wall behind him. The Chief Justiciar, condemned in absentia, then returning only to be caught and executed?
The king’s enemies crept ever closer to the king himself.
In a blur she nodded her thanks to the clerk and walked outside again to see Fitzjohn and his retinue mounted already and heading for the gate. A horse brushed by her and she saw it was Edmund.
‘We’re going hunting, domina. Pray for our quarry.’ Then, white-faced, he rode on after his lord.
**
Tresillian had not been popular in several opposing quarters. First, with the people. During the great revolt, the hurling time of the peasants’ uprising, he had ordered a bloody aftermath, even forcing the fourteen year old king to accompany him to several mass hangings - the most repulsive being nineteen men in Essex hanged together on one specially built gibbet.
Later, to everyone’s astonishment, aware of King Richard’s sympathy for the rebels, he had become one of his most vociferous supporters. Was it conscience or expedience that brought a change? Whatever it was, next he earned the hatred of the King’s Council, Woodstock, Gaunt, and their ally the earl of Arundel among the leaders, for his support for the king.
Now, through some chicanery, he had been attainted for treason along with the rest of Richard’s close advisors. Mayor Brembre had been executed despite his strong defence before parliament. The others, including de la Pole and Archbishop Neville, had so far escaped.
Who would be next to be hunted down?
She was astonished at Tresilian’s folly in returning to Westminster, to the very heart of the fire that was consuming the royal court.
**
The wind at the top of the tower whined and blustered, strong enough to pitch her over the battlements. She staggered as it tossed her garments into disarray and whipped at her cloak. Gripping it tightly she edged across the roof to a more sheltered spot behind a buttress.