‘Longford got us to help.’ Edmund shook his head. ‘I have done strange things in my time, but when he came up with the idea to playact her death and burial. .’ He shook his head.
‘So it was Longford’s idea?’
Edmund thrust his chin out in a defensive pose. ‘She asked for it, make no mistake. She wanted the trail to end in Beverley. Didn’t want her kin or the Church to come after her. I don’t know whether it was the relic she’d stolen or what, but she wanted to vanish.’ Edmund fidgeted, rounding his back, then straightening and stretching his arms out in front of him, pulling on his hands.
‘And Joanna liked the idea of the burial?’ Owen asked.
‘By that time she had no choice. Longford had a use for her, so she would do as he said or else.’
So she had not been pleased with the scheme. Probably frightened. ‘Tell me about the burial.’
Edmund shrugged. ‘Little to tell. Stefan and I slipped her out of the shroud while Jaro got the gravedigger drunk. The gravedigger passed out, we filled in the grave, rode off with Joanna hidden in a cart.’
‘Was she drugged?’
Edmund nodded. ‘Jaro concocted something. I think he gave her too much. It took a while to wake her.’
‘So Jaro was still alive when you left?’
Edmund frowned, looked round at the solemn, intent faces. ‘Why? He isn’t now?’
‘Jaro is buried in the grave you filled in on Joanna’s shroud,’ Ned said. ‘Neck broken.’
Edmund fell silent over this news. He scratched his knee. ‘I knew nothing of this.’
And why would he say otherwise? ‘Who would want to kill him?’ Owen asked.
Edmund rubbed his temples wearily. ‘I hardly knew him. He was a good cook, seemed loyal to Longford. They were not gentlemen, Captain Archer. I am sure they made enemies wherever they went.’
From what Owen had heard from Louth and Ravenser, that seemed true. Enough of that. ‘How did you first meet Joanna Calverley?’
Edmund straightened up. ‘She came to Longford with a relic to sell. We arrived the next day.’
‘This was another trip ordered by Captain Sebastian?’
‘Yes. To summon Longford.’
‘Summoning Longford was a regular task.’
Edmund nodded. ‘The way grew familiar.’
‘And he introduced you to Joanna?’
‘Not immediately. He had given her something to keep her asleep while he thought how best to use her.’ Edmund looked round at the men. ‘You see why I say they made enemies.’
‘How did he involve you?’ Louth asked.
‘He had come up with a plan. We’d use her to get to her brother. Longford was obsessed with Hugh. He thought since he had once made a fool out of Hugh, well, Hugh being so crazy, he must be just biding his time, plotting his revenge. So Longford wanted us to get Hugh out in the open where Captain Sebastian could find him.’
‘And you agreed?’ Owen asked.
‘Stefan and I, we thought we might have some fun with it, see what Hugh would do. And we did not want to leave any young woman with Longford.’
‘What did you mean to do with Joanna after Hugh was sufficiently teased with her?’
Edmund shrugged. ‘Abandon her, I suppose. She is very fair. She would not be without a protector for long. As it turned out, Stefan wanted to keep her by him.’
Owen winced at the cold-bloodedness of it. ‘So what happened?’
‘She was trouble from the first. She cast a spell over Stefan. He has been a fool since we took her from Beverley.’
‘So where is Stefan now?’
‘That is what I want to find out. Joanna is back in York and Stefan’s gone. I want to know what happened.’
‘What do you think happened?’
Edmund shrugged. ‘The fool’s gone off to fight a dragon for her, that’s what I think. He cannot do enough for her. Fine clothes. Feather beds.’
Owen frowned. ‘Fight a dragon?’
‘He saw himself as her defender. Got funny about the Hugh Calverley part of the plan. Told her not to go near him, that Hugh would be blamed for her escape from the convent and the sham burial, that either Sebastian or the Percies would punish him severely. Stefan knew she would not wish to hurt Hugh. He told her they would find some other way to reunite her with her brother.’
‘You had nothing to say about that? Seems to me he was going against your plan.’
‘He kept assuring me he had a new, better one.’
‘And you believed him?’
Edmund hesitated, shook his head.
Owen settled back, stretched his legs. ‘So Joanna did not know Stefan before she met him at Longford’s?’
‘No.’
‘Are you sure of that? Strange that you would arrive the day after she did. A rendezvous?’
Edmund shook his head. ‘Stefan and I have been partners a long time, Captain.’
‘You are certain they had not planned the meeting at Longford’s?’
‘I am certain they did not. He’d never seen her before. I told you she has cast a spell on him. I have never known him to bed another woman more than once.’
‘Why?’
‘That is how he is faithful to his wife.’
‘Wife? So Stefan is a citizen of Scarborough, not a member of Sebastian’s Free Company?’ This could be the reason Joanna chose to return to the convent.
Edmund shook his head. ‘Stefan is of Sebastian’s company. His wife and family are in Norway. He sends them money.’
An interesting circumstance. ‘He prefers to be away from them?’
‘You judge him without knowing him. Stefan had trouble there. He is waiting for better times. Perhaps a pardon.’
Owen had known men in that position. Their loyalties could be difficult to judge. ‘Do you think Joanna found out he is married?’
Edmund shrugged. ‘I was not a part of their private conversations.’
Owen pushed that thought aside for a moment. ‘So you travelled to Beverley in May, seeking Longford for the captain?’
Edmund nodded. ‘We did not find him. But we did hear of Joanna’s return. Jack thought she might lead us to Longford.’
‘So you spoke with her?’
‘Nay. By the time I got there, she was locked up in the nunnery.’
‘And so you followed the company to York.’
Edmund shrugged.
‘What did you mean to do with Joanna when you found her?’
‘Ask her about Longford. And Stefan.’
‘And then Jack would strangle her?’ Louth asked softly.
Edmund ducked his head. ‘No. I would not let that happen again.’
‘Why did you not approach Sir Richard de Ravenser or Sir Nicholas and ask to speak with Joanna?’ Owen asked.
Edmund glanced at Louth. ‘With the death of the maid I did not think I would be courteously received.’
‘You hate the fact that Joanna came between you and your partner,’ Owen suggested.
Edmund groaned. ‘You are intent on thinking the worst. I can tell that you and he’ — he gestured towards Ned — ‘have fought together. How would you feel if he disappeared suddenly? And his leman? Then she showed up somewhere else and was shut away and guarded so you could not even ask her what had happened? You couldn’t find your partner, you couldn’t speak with the only person who might tell you where he was?’
A cry from deep in the heart of the man. He was not at all the outlaw Owen had thought. He would provide no simple answers. ‘I would feel much as you seem to.’
They did not speak for a while. Owen stood, looked up at the sky visible through the window, stretched his back. He felt a sadness about this man and his friend. Stefan, exiled from his country, leaving behind a wife and children. And Edmund. What of Edmund? Where were his true loyalties?
It was Edmund who broke the silence. ‘I care about Stefan. I want to see him at peace with himself. He has not been so. He told me he felt his soul was in peril, that his love for Joanna was a grievous sin, but he could not help himself.’
‘A grievous sin because she was a nun?’
‘All of it. Her vows, his marriage vows, his children, our using her against her brother — and I suppose he was thinking also about our not using her against Hugh.’