‘That’s true,’ said Golde.
‘So your husband is much more open with you.’
‘Gervase is very open with me, my lady,’ said Alys, loyally.
‘He is,’ confirmed Golde. ‘I’m sure that he wasn’t deliberately trying to keep Alys ignorant of his work. What concerned him was the tedium of travel and the dangers involved. Gervase didn’t want to expose Alys to either.’
‘Well, I’m glad that he changed his mind,’ said the lady Adelaide, sweetly. ‘Or I shouldn’t have had the pleasure of meeting her. I’m so glad you were both able to visit me here. It was impossible to talk properly at the banquet.’
‘Yes,’ said Golde. ‘Especially when the lord Richard barged in.’
‘That’s his way,’ said the other, tolerantly. ‘The lord Richard will never be renowned for his good manners but he has other things to commend him.’
‘Does he, my lady?’
The arrival of a servant with refreshments saved his mistress from having to answer the question. Wine and honey cakes were served to the visitors, while the lady Adelaide looked fondly around.
‘I love this room,’ she said softly. ‘My husband and I designed it together. Geoffrey was so amenable. He kept nothing from me and always took my advice before he made an important decision.’
‘Ralph is just the same,’ said Golde, proudly.
‘And Gervase,’ said Alys, determined not to be left out of any display of marital credentials. ‘He’s so kind and patient with me.’
‘Yet he never confides in you about his work,’ noted the lady Adelaide. ‘And I dare say the lord Ralph is equally secretive about affairs of state. Like most men, he believes that a mere woman could never begin to understand them.’
‘You’re quite wrong,’ replied Golde, stung by the implication but remaining cool. ‘My husband frequently talks about his work as a royal commissioner.’
‘Oh?’
‘There’ve been times when he’s deliberately sought my counsel.’
‘When was that?’
‘In York, for instance. Or when we visited Exeter.’
‘You were excluded from those visits, I gather,’ said the lady Adelaide, glancing at Alys. ‘Didn’t you mind being left behind?’
‘It was only proper, my lady. Gervase and I were not married at the time.’
‘No,’ said Golde, ‘and if they hadn’t managed to speed up their deliberations in Exeter, Alys might not have been married at all. As it was, Gervase had to race back to Winchester to get there in time. He was a rather breathless bridegroom.’
Alys beamed. ‘But all the more welcome.’
‘When will the commissioners start work in the shire hall?’ asked their hostess.
‘Not until the murder of Hermer the Steward has been solved, my lady.’
‘There’s the other crime as well,’ added Golde. ‘The theft of two gold elephants. You’ve actually seen them, I believe, my lady. Are they as exquisite as report has it?’
‘They were,’ said the other with feeling. ‘I have a passion for gold that amounts to an obsession but even I have never seen anything like those two miniatures. They were works of art. Simply to hold them in my grasp was a privilege. To possess them would be a form of ecstasy.’
‘And will you possess them?’
‘How can I when they’ve been stolen?’
‘If they’re recovered, I mean,’ said Golde, fishing gently.
‘We shall have to wait and see.’
‘Would you be ready to accept them as a wedding gift?’
A noncommittal smile. ‘I’d be prepared to accept them, most certainly.’
The lady Adelaide deftly shifted the conversation to another topic, and her visitors gradually relaxed. They could see why suitors were drawn by her beauty but they were now able to appreciate her other qualities as well. She would be no timid wife. After one happy marriage, she would clearly impose stringent conditions before she entered into a second. Alys marvelled at her self-possession. Golde liked her candour.
‘Have they any idea who the killer is yet?’ said Adelaide, after a brief pause.
‘No,’ confessed Golde, ‘but my husband says that they are getting closer all the time. He’s gone to search for a man called Jocelyn Vavasour today.’
The other woman sat up. ‘Why on earth should he do that? He surely can’t suspect the lord Jocelyn of being the murderer. The man has become an anchorite.’
‘So I understand.’
‘What possible help can he be to your husband?’
‘I’m not sure,’ said Golde, sensing that she should not divulge any more details. ‘It was late when they got back last night and I had no time to talk to Ralph. Shortly, after dawn, he and the lord Eustace set off.’
‘Didn’t your husband go with them, Alys?’
‘No, my lady. He’s continuing the search nearer home.’
‘Where?’
When she felt Golde’s gentle nudge, Alys bit back her reply. ‘I don’t know,’ she said with a shrug. ‘I’m not sure that I want to know. It was such a foul murder. I just want them to arrest the culprit. We’ll all sleep safer in our beds then.’
‘The lord sheriff thinks that the steward was killed by the man who stole the elephants,’ observed Golde, watching the lady Adelaide. ‘Would you still want to possess them, knowing that they’d provoked a murder?’
‘Of course.’
‘I wouldn’t,’ put in Alys.
‘Nor me,’ said Golde.
‘That’s only because neither of you actually saw them. Or held them in your hands, as I did.’ The lady Adelaide’s eyes ignited. ‘They were like nothing I’ve ever seen before. As for provoking a murder, the elephants can hardly be blamed for that. Men kill for lust or gain. Would you condemn a woman because her beauty led a man to kill for her sake? That would be absurd. Why be so coy about those gold elephants?’ She looked from one to the other. ‘If they’d provoked a dozen murders, I’d still want to own them. In some ways, it would give them even more value.’
Alys was shocked but Golde was simply intrigued, wondering if there were aspects to the woman’s character that had been carefully concealed until now. In that one fleeting moment, the lady Adelaide had not looked quite so incongruous a partner for Richard de Fontenel. The conversation returned to the visitors’ impressions of Norfolk. Both of them spoke at length about the journey they had endured and the cordial welcome they had received. Alys talked movingly about their visit to the market. The open hostility she had met still worried her at a deep level. It was only when they were leaving that she and Golde realised that they had failed in their mission.
Each of them had been asked by their respective husbands to sound out the lady Adelaide about her two suitors. Golde was to ask questions and Alys was to listen to the answers, but neither of them had fulfilled their duty. Riding back to the castle at a leisurely pace, they reflected on their visit and reached the same conclusion. Instead of finding out more about the lady Adelaide, they had been manipulated into volunteering information about themselves and their husbands. The invitation was not as innocent as it had at first seemed. Golde and Alys had not gone to the house simply as honoured guests.
They were there to be interrogated.
Chapter Nine
Ralph Delchard was soon regretting his decision to embark on a hunt for Jocelyn the Anchorite. Forced to leave the castle when he was only half awake, he missed the comfort of a soft bed and the presence of his wife beside him. He also began to have doubts about the wisdom of searching for a man who, whatever else he might be, was obviously neither a thief nor a murderer. The confidence of the night before had vanished and he was sceptical about his chances of finding the anchorite at the exact spot suggested by Gervase Bret. Because he had retained a tiny pocket of land, it did not mean that Jocelyn Vavasour still inhabited it. All sorts of motives might have prompted him to hang on to the last vestige of his estates. The instinct that prompted Ralph to go there now seemed like recklessness. The further they went, the less certain he became, chiding himself for setting out on what might well be a long, wasted journey.