‘And then?“ Frevisse asked.
‘Then he cursed me and said I’d be sorry for it and flung away along the field path there, and I went into the church.“
‘Did anyone see or hear the two of you there?“
‘Not that I know of. They might have. But if they did, they saw him go off alive and well.“
And angry. Angry enough to come back later, when Perryn was home and quarrel with him again?
Frevisse did not ask that, only, “No one has admitted to seeing him after that?”
‘Not anybody.“
‘He was at the alehouse,“ Gilbey said. ”Folk have said so.“
‘But that was before he met me,“ Perryn said. ”The sun was just to the horizon when he left there, Bess has said. It was half gone below when I was talking with him.“
‘You didn’t tell the crowner that,“ Gilbey said.
‘Right enough, I didn’t! That’s all he needs.“
‘If somebody else saw you, they might,“ Gilbey persisted.
‘If somebody else saw us, they saw us quarreling and wouldn’t have kept it to themselves this long, given the way tongues run on wheels around here. It would have been all through the village long before Tom was found dead and you know it.“
‘But you said nothing about it to anyone?“ Frevisse asked.
‘What was to say? That we’d quarreled? No new tidings in that. I had other things I was worried on more than him. I doubt I even thought on it again until after I knew he was dead, and that didn’t seem a good time to say aught about it.“
‘Judging by his body, then,“ Frevisse said, ”we can guess that he was killed sooner rather than later after you last saw him.“
‘Aye.“
‘And it’s certain the body wasn’t put into the ditch until soon before it was found. That tells us someone kept it somewhere the while between. Why?“
The men and Elena passed puzzled looks among themselves before Elena said, slightly a-frown with uncertainty, “Because they couldn’t move it until then?”
‘Why not?“ Frevisse asked. ”It’s easy to understand why they couldn’t leave it where they’d killed him if it was somewhere that would give their guilt away as soon as it was found, but what was different about Monday’s night that made it a safer time than Saturday or Sunday’s night to move the body?“
They all thought again a long moment, before Gilbey said impatiently, “There was naught particular about Monday night. Nothing about Saturday or Sunday either.”
‘It rained once in there,“ Dickon offered.
‘At dawn on Monday,“ Perryn said. ”Just before sunrise and for a little afterwards, not in the night. There was no rain any of those nights. And what would rain have to do with moving the body anyway?“
‘The moon?“ Elena asked but answered for herself, ”No, there wasn’t that much difference in it from one night to the next those nights.“
‘Nor point in waiting in hope of an overcast night when he couldn’t be sure of one,“ Frevisse added. Not when waiting meant the risk of a decaying body betraying the murderer’s secret.
‘And if an overcast night was what he wanted, why didn’t he use the overcast there was Sunday night before the rain?“ Elena asked.
‘Aye,“ Perryn said, impatient, frustrated. ”Why wait until the next night?“
‘To give him a chance,“ Frevisse said, ”to lay hands on your hood and Gilbey’s belt.“
Chapter 13
Perryn stared at her as if he understood what she had said but disbelieved she meant it. Then belief caught up to understanding and angrily he said, “Yes.”
Gilbey looked from Frevisse to him and back again and demanded, “What d’you mean?”
‘Some one took them to make us look guilty,“ Perryn said.
Gilbey shot to his feet. “What?” Watching him, Frevisse said levelly, “Whoever the murderer was, he kept the body hidden until he could have something of yours and Perryn’s to leave with it, to make you both look guilty.”
Gilbey dropped back into his chair. “Damn the bastard.”
‘Gilbey,“ Elena said.
‘Pardon, Dame,“ Gilbey muttered, not thinking about it. And added, after a moment’s thought, ”But damn him anyway.“
Whoever had done it likely was damned, unless he turned penitent, made confession to a priest, and did penance, Frevisse thought, but aloud asked Perryn, “Why didn’t you recognize your hood and the belt when you went for the body?”
‘I didn’t see them. Nay, I saw the hood but didn’t heed it, didn’t look close at it, not to know it was mine until I saw the crowner had it and thought back.“
‘You didn’t look closely at it until then?“ Frevisse asked doubtfully.
Perryn shifted, gave a sideways look at Dickon. “I was heeding him.”
‘I was crying,“ Dickon admitted, a little defiantly, refusing to be ashamed despite he likely was. ”Simon took me away while I did and we didn’t see anything of Tom’s b… body being put on the hurdle. Then there was a blanket over it.“
‘When you found the body,“ Frevisse said, ”did you see the hood and belt then?“
‘The hood was lying in the grass on the ditch side, not all the way to the bottom.“ Dickon frowned, thinking. ”Like it had been tossed there, maybe. Tom looked like he’d been rolled down into the ditch and the hood looked like maybe it’d been tossed after him.“
‘But it was you put it over his face?“ Perryn asked gently.
‘Aye.“ Dickon swallowed thickly. ”The birds had been at his… eyes. I didn’t want to leave… leave him… to them…“ Hot color rushed up his face with memory and still-fresh anger. ”They could at least have rolled him over, whoever put him there! Left him face down so the birds couldn’t… couldn’t…“
He shut his eyes and bent his head, to keep in or at least hide tears, and Elena came quickly around the table to him, to lay her hands on his shoulders from behind and say with some of the same anger, “They should have. You’re right. It was cruel not to. You did best for him and bravely, too.”
Perryn took hold of his nearer arm and gave it a kind shake. “You did well, Dickon. Better than most would have.”
Dickon raised his head, wiping tears. “I didn’t see any belt there except what he was wearing and that was just his old one.”
But the other men had seen Gilbey’s and yet had said nothing, not then or afterward. Why? Frevisse wondered but asked aloud, “Perryn, did you or anyone look around for any signs of whoever else had been there?”
‘I looked a little after the body was moved, but there was nothing. The ditch is all grass that wouldn’t keep tracks, and the lane near to there is hard dirt besides being used enough no tracks on it would mean much.“
‘It had rained the morning before.“
‘Not so much everything hadn’t dried by Monday noon.“
Long before Hulcote’s body was brought that way.
She looked to Dickon again. “What did you hear about the hood and belt while you were at the crowner’s court? Who said they were found with the body? Who gave them to him?”
‘I don’t know,“ Dickon answered toward his bare feet, wriggling his toes uncomfortably. ”When I was let go in, the belt and hood were lying there, and the crowner already knew whose they were and all.“
‘Is this taking us anywhere of any use?“ Gilbey bulled in impatiently.
‘It’s taking us out of knowing nothing into knowing something,“ Frevisse said back at him. ”And every something we know takes us a little farther toward maybe knowing enough. Perryn, when did you last have your hood?“