Baldwin looked up. ‘We have come from the cathedral chapter. We have heard how you ensnared Gervase le Brent and persuaded him to lie for you, purely to stir up trouble between the cathedral and the priory. I’m not sure why, but I will learn. We know that you are involved in the gambling and whoring down by the docks. Well, that isn’t against the law, although I’m surprised your wife is happy for you to manage all those wenches down there. No, those are little affairs, really. More serious is the systematic theft of Church property, by having your people rob the ships of their cargoes before the cathedral even sees them, and then selling the goods back to the chapter when you have stolen them in the first place. Still, that is not the most important matter — more important than any of these is the affair of the murders. Three of them. And I’m not sure how you achieved them all.’
‘Me? You accuse me of murder?’ Reginald demanded with some shock.
‘You are a partner of Jordan le Bolle. You laid the trap for Gervase, we have learned, and you also helped Canon Peter, didn’t you? With all these aspects of your life so closely bound up with Jordan’s, I think you must have been involved in the murders.’
‘I’ve never killed a man in my life.’
‘Never? And yet we have witnesses who saw you about Daniel’s place when he died, and near the alley when Mick was murdered,’ Baldwin invented. He was sure that this man, if he was an ally and comrade of Jordan, must know something of the murders. Surely they were both involved in the attempt to defraud the cathedral if nothing else; and in the gambling. ‘Tell me, where do you say you were on the day of Daniel’s murder?’
‘I can’t remember exactly … I, um …’
‘You were at Daniel’s house, weren’t you?’ Baldwin said.
‘Whoever told you that was a liar. I was probably here, wasn’t I, darling?’
Baldwin watched as the woman clenched her jaw. She had the look of a bull terrier which has chewed a bone only to find it was a rock.
‘Of course, husband. Whatever you say, husband. If you think you were here, clearly you must have been.’
Agnes was shaking with grief.
It was hard to believe that this was really happening. Surely Jordan wouldn’t have betrayed her so cruelly? He couldn’t have gone to Juliana, could he? The cow couldn’t have ensnared Agnes’s lover as well as Daniel and now Sir Peregrine, in God’s name …
Juliana was a beautiful woman, though. Those lovely flashing eyes of hers, the trim figure even after two births, the delicious colour of her milky skin, all spoke of her attractiveness. She would soon snatch the favours of any man she set her eye upon. Agnes was mere chaff in the wind once Juliana had decided upon a man.
The irony, the bitter, bitter irony of it all. Agnes had always wanted a sister when she was young. A friend to play with, the closest friend of all to grow up with, to share a life with. That was what she had hoped for. Now the flavour left in her mouth was dust and ashes, nothing else. Juliana had ruined every aspect of her life. She had stolen all the men Agnes had ever wanted: Daniel, Jordan and Sir Peregrine. All taken by Juliana before Agnes could snare them. All taken. Agnes’s life was ruined.
She had reached his house and she stood outside for a moment, staring up at the closed and shuttered windows, then went to the door and beat upon it with her fist.
‘Open this door! Open it!’ she screamed, not caring who might hear, who might know. It didn’t matter. Not now. All she knew was, her life was ruined. Even this man, the one whom she had trusted above all others, had betrayed her.
When the door opened, she swept past Mazeline without noticing her. She was just a servant, to her mind. Mazeline didn’t matter compared with her own feelings. What was some other woman when her life was devastated?
‘Well, husband. That was an interesting meeting,’ Sabina declared as soon as the door closed behind the visitors.
‘Sab, please. Not now.’ Reg groaned. Jesus’s pain, but those two seemed to know a lot. The only saving was that they couldn’t force Sabina to accuse him. A wife’s word was not to be extorted like that. But they said that they had witnesses … someone had seen him at Daniel’s, and at the alley … There was no one there, though. Only Est and him at Daniel’s. No one else knew he had been there. And as for the alley, only Jordan himself knew he was there then.
‘Why keep silent? Who’s going to care what happened tonight when you’ll be in a cell before long?’
The words sank in. He turned to look at her. ‘What?’
‘You killed Daniel, didn’t you? You said you were here, but you weren’t. I remember that night. It was the night after Ham’s inquest. I thought you were out with the whores, but I don’t think you were. You were killing poor Sergeant Daniel, weren’t you?’
‘Christ Jesus, woman — no, I wasn’t. I swear I didn’t kill him.’
‘Oh, and you expect me to believe that? Give me some credit, man! Do I look so stupid I’ll believe any garbage you throw me? I am no fool. And I’m certainly not thick enough to remain here while you try to bring more shame on me or my son. We are leaving you now.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘Home. Father will protect me better than you could!’
‘Sab, I am your husband …’
‘Only on paper. When did you last actually want me? You aren’t a man to me. You don’t desire me. You’re happier with the whores than with me, aren’t you? Or this other woman. Who is she?’
‘I can’t tell you. It’s nothing. Nothing at all. You’re making it all up. There’s no one else.’
‘Oh, really? So my son imagined hearing her panting? He imagined seeing her legs wrapped round you?’
‘He dreamed it,’ Reg said with a brief flaring of imagination.
‘You expect me to believe that?’ she screeched. ‘You’ve lied to me all these years, why should I trust you now? Get away from me! I’m leaving with Michael, and don’t try to stop me!’
Jordan listened to the noise in his head. It was a ringing, whistling sound that wouldn’t go away whatever he tried. Mazeline appeared in the doorway a short while after Agnes rushed in, and stood there staring inside with an expression of fear mingled with shock. But the stupid bitch must have known what he was up to. She didn’t expect him home every night — where else did she think he was?
Agnes screamed at him, and her voice cut through his brain like a bill. ‘Is it true? Did you take my sister as well? You told me you wanted me, only me! How could you do that to me? How could you take her as well?’
‘Shut up, shut up!’ he bellowed as the voice grew more insistent. Christ’s bones, but the bitch was loud.
‘What is all this about, Jordan?’ Mazeline asked quietly in the sudden silence.
‘Didn’t he tell you? He never loved you, he wanted me!’ Agnes declared brokenly.
‘Shut up!’ he said again with a grimace. The noise was growing. A persistent, nagging, irritating sound that stopped his thought processes. And then, in a flash, it was gone.
Mazeline was staring at him, crushed. Her eyes met his and held his stare, but he had little time for all this.
‘Agnes, get out!’
‘But you love me, you told me you do.’
He stood and stared along his hall at her. ‘You were fun for a while, but you’re not now. Get out.’
‘You bastard! You took me and ruined me as a diversion! Was life so boring here that you needed me for a few months to …’
Her voice was stopped by his slap. It took three strides to reach her, and then his hand caught her cheek and her head was snapped round by the force of it. She stood as though petrified; unmoving, her head turned over her right shoulder, staring fixedly at the wall. ‘You hate me?’ she whispered.
‘I feel nothing for you,’ he said coldly. ‘I never did. You were enjoyable for a while, that’s all. Now get out of my house.’