I turned my attention to Christopher.
‘Master Babcary,’ I said, ‘perhaps you would tell me what you remember of that evening.’
He shrugged his broad shoulders and continued deftly sorting the pearls, assembling them into three different groups by size.
‘I expect I’m only telling you what you have already heard,’ he said, without looking up. ‘We shut the shop early that evening and then went upstairs to change into our Sunday clothes, it being Mistress Perle’s birthday feast.’
‘Did you all leave the shop together?’ I asked.
Christopher glanced at the older man, frowning. ‘You went first, I think, Uncle Miles. If I remember rightly, you wanted to be sure that you were ready before Mistress Perle and her friends arrived.’
‘That’s true,’ Master Babcary confirmed. ‘And as well that I did. I went straight to my room but, even so, I was barely dressed before I heard Barbara’s knock.’
‘And then?’ I prompted. ‘Who was the next to leave?’
Once again, Christopher shrugged and grimaced, implying that he was unable to remember. ‘Is it of any importance?’ he sneered.
‘It might be,’ I replied, trying to keep my temper. ‘In any case, I should be interested to know the answer. Was it you or Master Bonifant or young Toby, here?’
‘It was Master Bonifant,’ Toby said, giving me a winning smile in order to make up for his former intransigence.
‘Are you sure of that?’ I asked.
‘Of course I’m sure. He’d been applying some gilding to that silver chalice Master had made for Saint Pancras’s church, and I remember him saying, “I’ve had enough of this! I’m off upstairs. I’ll finish it in the morning.” Only of course he never did. Master finished it himself a week or so later.’
There was an uneasy silence while Christopher, Miles Babcary and Toby avoided one another’s eyes and I looked thoughtfully at the three of them. Finally, I enquired of Christopher, ‘Is that your recollection, too? Was Master Bonifant the next to go upstairs?’
He nodded. ‘Yes. Now I think back, I can recall Gideon using precisely those words. He’d been in a bad mood all day, more than usually grumpy and taciturn, although his temper seemed to have improved a bit by the time we were all assembled in the parlour.’
‘And did you or Toby go upstairs next?’
Christopher glowered at me, irritated by my persistence. Once more, it was the apprentice who answered for him.
‘I did. I knew Master would want me to look tidy, even if I wasn’t eating with the family.’
‘And how long after Master Bonifant’s departure was that?’
Toby pulled a face and raised his eyebrows at Christopher. ‘Ten minutes, would you say?’ And when the other man did not answer, he went on, ‘Yes, about ten minutes. Maybe a little longer.’
‘Your bedchamber’s on the top floor, so I’ve been told.’
Toby nodded. ‘Next to Kit’s.’
‘You went straight up there from the shop?’ Again he nodded. ‘And did you see anyone else on the stairs?’
‘No. Well,’ he amended, ‘I saw Master Bonifant when I reached the second landing. He was just going into his room. He said he’d been to the kitchen to have a word with Mistress Bonifant, which was why he’d been delayed.’
‘And did you believe him?’
Toby blinked in surprise. ‘Why shouldn’t I believe him when he said so? Where else could he have been?’
For some reason that I was unable to explain to my own satisfaction, the delicate, flower-like features of Eleanor Babcary swam before my mind’s eye. Had there been a brief, secret lovers’ tryst between her and Gideon? Or was I, as ever, letting my imagination run ahead of common sense? I had no evidence — at least, not so far — to suppose that either was in love with the other. All the same, I would check with both Meg and Isolda to discover if this statement of Gideon’s was true.
I turned back to the apprentice. ‘And it was after you had made yourself fit to be seen in company that you sneaked down to the parlour?’
‘Yes. I told you, I went to look at the goblets. I always do, when they’re taken out for feast days and holidays.’
My host looked even more gratified than before.
‘Master Babcary,’ I asked abruptly, ‘did you know that your son-in-law had been married previously? That your daughter was his second wife?’
He raised his eyes from Mistress Shore’s coronet and looked both astonished and indignant that I could suppose him ignorant in this matter.
‘Of course I knew. It’s not the sort of circumstance a man would conceal.’
I bowed my head in agreement. ‘So I should suppose. But I was curious as neither you nor Mistress Bonifant had mentioned the fact.’
He threw up his hands in exasperation. ‘Why should we? It can have no bearing on his murder. The lady herself died many years ago, and can hardly have had anything to do with his death. Who told you about her?’
‘Master Ford, the apothecary, Master Bonifant’s old master.’ I shifted my gaze to the nephew. ‘Master Babcary, did you know, before Gideon’s death, of the stories he was spreading concerning you and Mistress Bonifant?’
Christopher’s fingers were suddenly stilled amongst the pearls that he had been so busily sorting. A tide of blood suffused his face. Miles Babcary nervously adjusted his spectacles.
‘Of course I didn’t,’ the younger man answered with a menacing quietness. ‘Had I done so, I should have made it my business to refute such an evil slander.’
I plucked up courage to ask, ‘There was, then, not the slightest vestige of truth in the rumour?’
‘None whatsoever!’ His tone was venomous, and his eyes, now fixed on my face, dared me to pursue the subject.
I braved his wrath and said, as apologetically as I could, ‘Master Bonifant also claimed to have overheard you boasting to your sister of being in love with an older woman, and of being almost certain that your love was requited. Was this true?’
Never, in my estimation, was guilt written more plainly on a man’s face than it was at that moment on Christopher Babcary’s but, having denied the charge in the past, and, presumably, having persuaded his sister to lie for him, he could do no other than refute it now, even though it was doubtful that he would wish to.
‘Whatever Gideon thought he heard, he was mistaken.’
‘I see. And do you know of any other man whose’ — my tongue fumbled for a word — ‘whose friendship with your cousin might have misled Master Bonifant into imagining that you were his betrayer? Or convinced him that he was indeed being betrayed?’
‘I know of no one!’ came the furious response.
‘No one! No one!’ echoed Miles Babcary, equally angry.
‘But Master Bonifant must have got this idea from somewhere!’ I cried despairingly. ‘Something must have made him suspect that his wife was being unfaithful to him.’
Two mouths shut like traps; the looks from two pairs of eyes would have struck me down if they could. But I was there at the instigation of the King’s mistress and of the Duke of Gloucester, and neither man dared to send me packing from the house, as I had not the smallest doubt he wished to do.
I swung round and faced the apprentice, who had given up all pretence of working and was staring at me, goggle-eyed.
‘Do you know of anyone, Toby?’
Toby pulled himself together and gave my question his gravest consideration. But after some long, hard thought, he slowly shook his head.
‘No,’ he said, ‘there’s no one I can think of. Mistress was always a loyal wife as far as I could see. Besides,’ he added with all the candour of youth, ‘men just don’t fancy her, do they? Not like Mistress Nell. But,’ he added, his eyes suddenly sly, ‘I did think, at one time, as how Master Kit was partial to Mistress Napier. I used to see the way he mooned at her whenever she visited the shop. And once, I caught him trying to kiss her.’