Pleased to be reunited, the four of them worked in greater harmony than they had ever achieved before. Events in York had given them a notoriety that lent them an added authority. Murder had been solved.
High treason averted. Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret were entitled to feel their visit to the city had been a successful one.
When they departed from York, the commissioners were waved off by the grateful Inga. With their land restored, she and her mother could live with more dignity now. Toki had gone but Olaf Evil Child was allowing a decent interval to elapse before he showed his interest in her. In the meantime, he had work to do on the holdings that had been taken from Robert Brossard and returned to him by decision of the tribunal.
Ralph rode with Golde at the head of the cavalcade. When they were clear of York, she gave her curiosity full vent.
“And now may I be told what was going on?” she said.
“You already know as much as you need, my love.”
“I do not, Ralph. And it is vexing.”
“Ask what you will, then.”
“Why did my lord Tanchelm travel with us?”
“For the pleasure of our company.”
“Give me a serious answer.”
“He was only doing what we do. Obeying orders.”
“But what kind of orders?”
“It matters not, my love. They died with him.”
“And that is another thing I do not understand,” she continued. “He was strangled at the shire hall because he unbolted the shutters at the rear of the building. How did Ludovico know that he would be alone?”
“It was on Aubrey’s advice.”
“And how did my lord Aubrey know?”
“He knew everything, Golde,” said Ralph. “When a man is that powerful, he attracts many parasites. Tanchelm’s letter to Olaf Evil Child was intercepted, then sent on. It was vital that our Fleming was killed away from the castle and Aubrey had the perfect chance. He knew the time and place when the victim would be alone in the shire hall with a private mode of entry already set up.”
“So Ludovico was dispatched as the assassin.”
“Yes,” said Ralph. “He scattered the charters on the table to make it look as if they were his target and to throw us off the scent. Aubrey hoped to snare Olaf at the same time but he was too cunning for Aubrey’s men. Too cunning for me as well, I might add. I still think it was a mistake to award that land to a horse thief.”
“Gervase lured him back within the law.”
“That is a matter of opinion.” Ralph heaved a deep sigh. “York was a story of gains and losses, Golde. The gains were immense but the losses are very painful.”
“What hurts you the most?”
“Losing Aubrey’s friendship. I cannot believe a man could change so much yet seem exactly the same. That affability never left him. Yet all the time, he was involved in his own personal harrying of the North.”
“My sympathies are with his wife, Herleve.”
“She will survive.”
“I will never forget what she told me.”
“When?”
“That time she saw us in the chapel,” said Golde. “She said we looked so right together, like husband and wife. That touched me deeply, Ralph.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think?”
He reached over to kiss her softly on the cheek.
“We have a chapel back in Hampshire….”
While intimate matters were being discussed at the front of the column, legal concerns dominated at the rear. Gervase Bret rode between Canon Hubert and Brother Simon. The scribe had still not come to terms with the enormity of Aubrey Maminot’s crimes.
“I have never known such villainy!” he said.
“Pray God you never do again,” observed Hubert.
“My lord Aubrey was a fiend in human shape.”
“No wonder he chose lions for his pets,” said Gervase. “He was truly one himself. He had the lion’s share of wealth and power in the city. And far beyond. Stealing land and the charters that went with it before leasing it out to the likes of Nigel Arbarbonel and his half-brother. He held them all in the palm of his hand. Aubrey Maminot was the true landlord of Sunnifa and all those others dispossessed.
Toki climbed into the castle in search of the charters that would prove that.”
“How did he know they were there?” wondered Hubert.
“Ragnar Longfoot explained that to me. Toki would do anything to regain the inheritance for Inga and her mother. Because my lord Nigel held the land, Toki assumed he would also hold the charters relating to it. When my lord Nigel and his men were away, Toki slipped into the depleted castle and threatened the steward with death if he did not surrender the documents. A man usually tells the truth with a dagger at his throat. The steward confessed that the charters in question were held by Aubrey Maminot and that he was the true landlord.”
Gervase sighed. “The success of that escapade was Toki’s undoing.
Because he had gained entry to one fortress so easily, he thought that he could do it again in York.”
“I am so pleased that we stayed at the minster,” said Simon. “We were spared this atmosphere of wickedness and deceit. To be in the same castle as my lord Aubrey and his beasts would have stained my soul.”
“Evil contaminates all that it touches,” noted Hubert. “But goodness purifies. I like to feel that we leave York a much cleaner place for our visit.”
“Oh, yes, Canon Hubert,” said Simon.
“My lord Tanchelm did his share towards that.”
“Amen.”
“We will commiserate with his widow when we reach Lincolnshire.
Her grief will be profound.”
The three men suddenly found that they had two new companions.
Ralph and Golde had dropped back to join them. To Brother Simon’s consternation, Golde drew up beside him and her cloak all but brushed his habit. The proximity of womankind made him blush to his roots.
“We have come to apologise, Brother Simon,” said Ralph.
“To me, my lord?”
“Yes,” said Golde. “We have caused you offence.”
“No, no,” he lied.
“The simple fact is this,” said Ralph. “We are not wed. That troubles you. And Canon Hubert has also suffered discomfort.”
“Spiritual anguish,” said Hubert. “Profoundly unsettling.”
“It will not happen again,” promised Golde.
“When we travel to another county,” said Ralph, “you will not have to ride beside such blatant immorality. Golde and I are resolved on that. We have repented.”
“Your words move me, my lord,” said Simon joyfully. “I feel as if a great stone has been lifted from me.”
“Yes,” said Hubert. “We applaud your conversion to the path of righteousness. How did the miracle occur?”
“In the chapel back at the castle.”
“One moment,” said Gervase, disappointed. “Do I understand this aright? Golde has been such a delightful companion. Are you saying that she will never travel with us again?”
“No,” said Ralph. “I am not saying that at all.”
“But I thought you were, my lord,” said Hubert.
“Yes,” agreed Simon. “You promised even now.”
“Golde will always travel beside me now,” said Ralph.
A smile of true contentment spread across her features. Ralph held her hand proudly and beamed at the others.
“But less sinfully.”