“Was that why he came here?”
“No. I saw what effect he was having on my wife, and rather than ruining her life, I persuaded my leper master to release me, and took myself off to the north. I wanted to leave her to find a new man. She wouldn’t do it while I still lived there, but I felt sure that once I’d gone she’d discover someone else. Some time after I left, which was a good nine years ago, Godfrey brought Cecily down here.”
“Why did he come here? It’s a strange place for a London goldsmith to come to.”
“Cecily wouldn’t forget me. She is a loyal woman. With me gone, he came to blame Cecily even more for her mother’s death. I think he needed someone to hold responsible, and she was an easy target: it was her decision to marry me, and thus she was at least partly involved in her mother’s death. Cecily wanted to remain in London near her memories of our life together, and I think it was to punish her that he decided to move. He said he wanted to take her away from the disease and corruption of the city, but I don’t believe that. Mind you, it may be that he was also nervous I would return. He had no wish to be confronted by me again.”
“And you did come back.”
“It wasn’t my intention. I spent many years living in the north, and hated every moment. It was cold, and the chilly rain seeped into my soul, but even that wouldn’t have made me come back to the south where I might upset my Cecily. No, it was the raid. The Scots were involved in one of their periodic attacks and flooded over the border. My lazar house happened to be in their path. The priest and I were lucky, we weren’t there at the time-we tended to walk when we could-and when we got back, the place was razed to the ground. All that was left was smoke and ash.”
“So you came down here?”
“Not at first, no. I went back home, to London. There I found that Godfrey and Cecily had left. A man in the town told me they had come this way, although he thought it was Exeter.”
“And you found them here?”
“By luck, yes. While I was in Exeter I hung around the goldsmiths’ streets and overheard some men talking. They were actually discussing the loans made to Coffyn, but one of them mentioned Godfrey. When someone spoke of a retired goldsmith from London who had a beautiful daughter, and whose name was Godfrey, it wasn’t hard to guess that my search was ended.”
“And what did you intend?” Simon burst out. “Did you mean to hold your wife to her vows and force her to go with you?”
Rodde glowered at him. “Do I seem so unfeeling? You, a healthy man, can afford to be arrogant, but if you loved your own wife as I do, you’d know that to bring her down to my level would be the most bestial act! No, I didn’t mean to take her away, although if I had wanted to, I would have been within my rights. All I wanted to do was see her and reassure myself that she was all right. I never meant her to see me, for I knew that would unsettle her, but I did want to see her again, just the once, before I die. Is it wrong to love a woman so much?”
“Of course not,” said Baldwin soothingly. “But she did see you, didn’t she?”
“I was a fool. I’d hardly got here when I saw her. She didn’t recognize me-how could she when I wore all this stuff? But then one day she walked over to give me money. I tried to hide my face from her, but she recognized me somehow, gave me her whole purse. She told me to come and see her. We couldn’t talk in the street, but she promised to contrive that all the servants would be out of the house at a certain time so we could talk.”
“And Godfrey as well, of course.”
“Yes. Cecily trusted Alison, but none of the others. Any of them might have told Godfrey.”
“Including Putthe?”
Thomas Rodde grinned. “Cecily knew he’d tell Godfrey, so she decided to make sure he was busy.”
“And she was sure she could arrange for her father to be out?”
“She had to do nothing. She knew whenever Matthew Coffyn was away, her father would visit Mrs. Coffyn. All I had to do was find out when Matthew’s next journey was. Godfrey wouldn’t miss his chance of seeing Martha. I agreed to see Cecily as soon as Coffyn went on his next journey.”
“And that was the night Godfrey died?”
“Yes, sir. I stood outside the window, but Cecily was convinced we had plenty of time, and asked me inside. She’d got rid of all the servants, and there was no chance we’d be seen together. Quivil was with me, and she asked him in too. Well, we weren’t there above a few minutes, when we heard a row from Coffyn’s house. I suppose we were too busy with our own thoughts and didn’t connect the noises with Godfrey, but suddenly there he was, chortling merrily to himself. He saw me and stopped dead in his tracks. Edmund had ducked behind the door, and Godfrey didn’t see him.
“He gave a bellow, grabbed Cecily, and punched her in the face. I was furious, and was going to attack him. Godfrey held up his hand, said was I trying to ruin her as well, or something. Edmund thought he was going to attack me, so he…”
“Edmund clobbered him with his staff, just as you last night felled Jack the smith.”
“Yes. Then there were steps, and in came Putthe. He saw his master and mistress and gave a squeak of his own. Edmund didn’t know better, and he was panicking, so he knocked Putthe down as well.”
“What then?”
“Well, I made sure Cecily was all right; she was all that mattered to me. Her face was bloody, but she seemed fit enough. I was with her by the window, I never even really looked at Godfrey. Why should I, after what he did to my wife? In any case, I thought he was merely unconscious. It was Cecily who told us to flee. We nipped out through the window, because we could already hear noises from the garden as Coffyn’s men searched for Godfrey. It was only the next day we heard he was dead.
“Once outside we hurried off, but soon heard steps coming after us. We didn’t know who it could be, and after what had happened, we didn’t want to get caught in Godfrey’s grounds, so we hid, not far from John’s wall. Well, it was John himself, and he saw us, I suppose. He was as startled as us, because he ran back toward Cecily’s house. I’d heard enough about him to doubt this Irishman, and thinking of poor Cecily all alone with only her maid to protect her, I followed after him. When I went to the window, I saw him at Cecily’s side, making sure she was all right, while Alison stood near. It was obvious that John was not threatening the women in any way. It was enough for me, and I left the place. I collected Edmund and we walked up to the back of the garden-there’s a section of wall there that’s easy to climb if you know it. We got back into the street and made our way to the camp.”
“What of the silver?” asked Simon. “We know it was gone on the night Godfrey died, but it reappeared later.”
“You’ll have to speak to my wife about that,” Rodde grinned.
“So we’ve sought a murderer, when in reality it was an accident,” mused Baldwin.
“Edmund didn’t mean to kill him; the lad was no murderer. When he heard Godfrey was dead, he was as horrified as me.”
“I see. Well, I want to know what happened to the plate, so I will go and see your wife now, but I thank you for your candor.”
“There’s no point in protecting Edmund now, is there?” Rodde said sadly. “He’s already gone to a higher court than yours, Keeper.”
“Hmm. Just one quick question-how long did you say you’ve had leprosy?”