Leper's Return Read online

  And what a maid she was! Where Jeanne was slim and elegant as a well-bred Arab mare, Emma was large and clumsy. Her face was harsh, and Margaret thought her small, deep-set eyes stared at the world with a vindictive distrust. That she enjoyed the confidence of her mistress, Margaret couldn’t doubt, but why was a different matter, and she found herself wondering how Jeanne could have kept such a maid by her side.

  The bailiff’s wife found herself looking at Emma askance. After hearing her comments on Baldwin, Margaret felt that the maid was prepared to seek out any fault and emphasize it to Baldwin’s disadvantage.

  “Is it very much further? It seems like an age since we left the town, and years since we saw a decent road,” Emma demanded some little while later.

  Edgar was some distance in front now. In Margaret’s jaundiced opinion, he was trying to leave as much space as possible between himself and Emma. It would be difficult to question him. “What do you think, Hugh?” Margaret asked, glancing at him.

  Hugh rode along uncomfortably, gripping the reins of the packhorse in his fist. He was one of those moormen who seemed to have held on to more of his Celtic past than most of his contemporaries. He was lithe and short, with a shock of untidy dark hair over his morose features. The man had been in Simon’s service for many years, and the bailiff swore that with Hugh at his side he need fear neither footpad nor trail bastion, for Hugh’s expression was such that those upon whom he glowered would be certain to be turned to stone.

  He now looked up at the sun, then at the road ahead, at the trees on either side and the icy mud at his horse’s hooves. “It’s about another league.”

  “You can tell that by looking at the sky and the trees? Hah! I suppose it might be double that, or treble, for all you know. And my poor lady tired out there after coming all this way, too! Surely the knight could have arranged for a room at the inn so we could break our journey a little.”

  Margaret listened with frank astonishment, then nodded to her man. “Hugh? Tell her how you know it’s one league.”

  “That oak with the broken branch,” he pointed. “Lost that branch in the bad winter of ‘15, and it was down when me and the master were riding back from Tiverton. I know it from the elm opposite, that one that’s got the sort of fork in its upper branches there. See? It’s quite odd. Don’t know another one like it. And that holly, up ahead there, is where I once saw a pair of thrushes attacking a magpie that was trying to get into their nest. It didn’t, though.”

  “Was it scared off by the thrushes?” asked Jeanne, interested despite herself.

  “No,” he said simply. “I killed it with my slingshot.”

  “That was kind,” she smiled.

  “Not really,” he grunted, scowling at his horse’s neck. “I was trying to get the thrushes. Make a good pie, do two thrushes.”

  Emma was studying him with ill-concealed disgust, and on hearing this gave a little exclamation. “My lady adores little birds that sing. And you kill them for food? I hadn’t realized this area was so poor that peasants and bondsmen ate songbirds.”

  Margaret saw Hugh’s expression become even more somber as he sullenly surveyed their path ahead. She quickly interrupted his thoughts before he could express his feelings, which she was sure were colored already by Emma’s eviction of him from the inn’s buttery. “I think you’ll find that the people living here are better off than your folk in Liddinstone, Emma. Your mistress no doubt has a flourishing estate, but the land here is most fertile. All farming prospers in Baldwin’s fields. And then again, he is known for his kindness and generosity to those who cannot support themselves.”

  “That’s the trouble with so many knights nowadays. They have no idea how to treat their people. If they’re hungry, it’s because they’re idle. They need the whip more than they need largesse.”

  On hearing this, Margaret surrendered in the unequal battle. The maid was plainly incorrigible, and Margaret preferred to ignore her rather than hear her friend the knight being slandered. She was surprised that Jeanne did not defend him, and shot her a glance. Jeanne exhibited every sign of anger. Her mouth was compressed into a thin line, and she stared ahead fixedly without blinking.

  Margaret was content. Emma would be lashed by her mistress’ tongue later.

  As they came to the top of a long rising slope, Edgar turned off into a rough track that led away to the right, and they set off after him.

  Jeanne allowed her fury to fade away. There was no point in raging at the stupid woman, not once she had made up her mind. Jeanne knew Emma too well. The maid had already decided that Baldwin was no good for her. Emma thought that someone who lived so far from what she called “civilization” was likely to be a boor.

  But Jeanne was also aware that Emma’s antipathy to Baldwin was not caused solely by concern for the welfare of her mistress. Emma liked running her own household. She enjoyed a good life at Liddinstone, the other servants all went in fear of her, and she could get her own way with ease. If she were to move with her mistress to live at Furnshill, there was no telling how the new servants would react to her.

  It made Jeanne sigh. Emma had been with her from very early on—indeed, that was partly why her respect for her maid bordered on fear. When Jeanne had been orphaned, her uncle had taken her in to live with his household in Bordeaux, and had set Emma the task of being her maid. For a farmer’s daughter from Devon the rules and conventions of polite society in such an important town were mind-boggling, but under Emma’s rough tuition, Jeanne had avoided some of the worst and most embarrassing faux pas. While she grew to womanhood, Emma had been the constant reminder of the debt of honor and fidelity Jeanne owed to her uncle. Whenever she put a foot wrong, Emma snapped at her in correction; when Jeanne made a foolish comment, it was Emma who criticized. Even when she had married and returned to Devon as the mistress of Liddinstone, it had seemed impossible to discard Emma, and the maid had remained with her.

  But her presence was not relaxing, and now, after so many years, the bonds of obedience to her uncle, the ties of loyalty and, if she was honest, of habit, were beginning to chafe at her. Jeanne was no child now, and her automatic deference to her tutor was increasingly difficult to sustain.

  Jeanne knew her maid was unhappy at the thought that she might be about to remarry, but her maid’s fears were not, she felt, sufficient reason for her to reject Baldwin. She had enjoyed her time with him when they had last met, and the way that he had smiled at her at the inn had made her heart leap. She would reserve her judgment, but of one thing she was determined: no matter what Emma’s feelings, Jeanne would make up her own mind whether or not to wed Baldwin, and that decision would be taken in her own interest—not her maid’s.

  Jeanne nodded to herself with determination, and gave herself up to studying the countryside.

  From here she could see for miles in the clear winter air. Before them were woods dropping away to river beds. Over the sound of their hooves she could hear the rushing water. Right, though, the land undulated gently, falling in ripples and small hills, until it climbed again many miles to the south. And there, south and west, she could see the blue-black hills of the moors. “What a perfect view.”

  “It is lovely, isn’t it?” Margaret agreed softly. “So much more beautiful here than Dartmoor, with its blasted and dingy commons. This area is the most delightful I know.”

  For once Emma was still, and they carried on along the track, which fell into a valley between two tree-covered hills, then wound around the side of another little hillock, until at last Hugh pointed. “There it is!”

  Jeanne was enthralled. A large whitewashed house lay before them, long and low, built for comfort, not defense, for here there was little need to fear attack. The ground rose up to it, with a great sweep of pastureland before it on which some sheep grazed, while on the other three sides the property was enclosed by trees. She opened her mouth to express her joy on seeing it.

  Emma beat her. “Ugh! It’s tiny, isn’t it?”
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  Simon and Baldwin walked from the hall and only when they were in the open air again did they exchange a glance.

  “Baldwin, you know what I’m thinking, don’t you?”

  “It does seem suspicious that she should have sent the servants away,” Baldwin admitted cautiously. “But there might be a perfectly sound reason for her to have done so. There is a little evidence pointing to her, but no proof. And no motive, so far as we know, for her to want to have her father killed.”

  “Perhaps not—yet! But if what we have heard is true and she sent all the servants away, it was she who gave the killer a clear run at her father.”

  “Why should a girl want her own father dead?”

  “There are many possibilities. To take one: perhaps he didn’t approve of her lover.”

  “Her lover?”

  “We know she was at the window. You yourself confirmed that she was wearing the tunic that left the threads at the window. Who should she be speaking to except a lover?”

  “There are other possibilities, Simon,” Baldwin pointed out dryly. “But let us treat your proposition seriously for a moment. If you are right, why should she give us a description of his clothing, when she could more usefully give us her lover’s name? And why tell us that the man wore a scarlet tunic when she declares that she couldn’t see what kind of cloak he had on? If she could see the one distinctly, she could also see the other, so she was lying for some reason—although why I cannot think. And as far as the piece of blue tunic goes, we haven’t seen the dress she wore last night, so we cannot be certain that the scrap came from it. We have, in reality, learned very little.”

  “Baldwin, you can raise objections like that for as long as you like, but—”

  “And what were Putthe and the maid doing here?”

  “Eh?”

  “Come, Simon. If Mistress Cecily was so keen to get rid of any dangerous witnesses, why didn’t she go the whole hog? Why let two remain?”

  “I suppose the maid Alison could be entirely trusted, so Cecily allowed her to remain; while Putthe was her father’s most loyal employee, and was expected to guard the place. Presumably someone had to stay with her to chaperone her. Even if the chaperones weren’t as competent as Jeanne’s appears to be!”

  Baldwin ignored the dig. “Also, what was her father shouting about? Why say ”defile‘ her—why not just say “rape’?” he mused.

  “That’s one thing you’ll probably never know. You can’t ask him now,” said Simon callously.

  “No,” Baldwin agreed thoughtfully. “And another thing: I don’t understand what is happening regarding the plate. Why should Putthe describe a load of stuff which doesn’t exist?”

  “It was the knock on his head.”

  “No. I’ve known men lose their memories, but I’ve never known a man invent things after a bang. I am certain he was describing the plate when I saw him last night. You weren’t there—he was absolutely convincing. Yet it’s not there, and Alison denies anything is amiss.”

  “For now, the theft, if there was one, must play second string to the murder,” Simon said decisively, and looked upward. “And we’d better make our way back. It’s late, and I don’t want to have to ride all the way to your house in the dark.”

  “Hmm, I suppose you’re right,” Baldwin said. He nodded to Tanner at the gate as they passed, and the two turned back up the street toward the inn to collect their horses.

  The grooms came running as soon as Jeanne and Margaret turned into the yard. Simon’s wife remained on her horse while all the travellers’ bags and boxes were untied from their packhorse, before springing down and leading Jeanne to the front door.

  Jeanne stood for a moment and surveyed the country. From this slightly prominent position, she found she was looking down a shaft of greensward between trees standing like walls on either side. The sky was almost perfectly clear, and the sun shone with cold brilliance on the rich grassland where the sheep browsed. She drew in a deep breath and let it slowly sigh out. “It’s beautiful!”

  “Isn’t it? You have no idea how jealous I am of Baldwin having this view to look at each day, when all I have is the sight of those bleak moors,” said Margaret at her side. It wasn’t strictly true, since their little house was at the western edge of Lydford, and their view was of farmland and woods like this, but Margaret was peeved by Emma’s words on the journey and intended to ensure that Jeanne appreciated Baldwin’s assets. “Shall we go inside?”

  Jeanne shivered suddenly. “Oh, yes! It’s amazing how quickly one feels the cold once one has stopped riding, isn’t it? I was fine all the way here, and now I am quite frozen. Let’s find a fire!”

  Hugh appeared, carrying a large and apparently very heavy strongbox, while Emma chivvied him. Jeanne, seeing his strained features, called sharply, “Emma, open the door for him! He can’t carry that and operate the latch.”

  “Oh, very well, but why on earth the knight hasn’t got enough servants, I don’t like to think. You’d have thought a man to open the door wouldn’t be too—”

  At this point Emma had reached the door. She put her hand to the latch. Her thumb pressed the lever. She pushed the door wide.

  Margaret was surprised. She’d expected Edgar to be there to open up the place to guests. She caught a glimpse of him, heard a growl from somewhere and saw the expectation on his face. She wondered why for a moment.

  Then Wat gave a loud scream, which was drowned by Emma’s, as the growl became a roar and Uther burst forth.

  Thomas Rodde hesitated. It was tempting to go after the two men and try to listen to what they were saying, but that kind of spying was easier for the able-bodied. In his leper’s clothes it was impossible to be discreet, and if he was to approach too close, especially now that the wind had changed direction, he would be shouted at. He knew the law: lepers must always stay downwind of other people so that their contagion couldn’t be passed on the corrupt air that emanated from their leprous flesh.

  The crowd had all left the gate, and there was only the constable left. Making a quick decision, Rodde left Quivil, stepping forward, his clapper sounding its knell as he walked. “Constable, sir,” he called.

  Tanner turned sharply on hearing himself hailed, but seeing who it was, he curled his lip. “Keep away, sinner.”

  “I’m sorry, constable, if I alarmed you,” Rodde said, standing at a decent distance. “But I’ve been watching, and I wondered whether there was any idea who was the murderer of poor Master Godfrey?”

  “If we knew that we’d have arrested him,” Tanner said shortly. He was not a cruel man by nature, but he detested the sight of lepers. They reminded him that no matter how strong he himself was, one day he would also suffer illness and perish. He shivered at the thought.

  “Sir, it’s only that I wondered who could want to kill a man like him.”

  “You’re right there,” Tanner said, glancing over his shoulder at the great dark building behind him. “I mean, he was rich, respected, and didn’t have any enemies that I know of.”

  “So there is no obvious suspect?”

  Tanner stirred himself and gave the leper a sharp look. “Why, do you know anything about all this?”

  “No, sir, nothing. I’m not even a local man. But when you have to wear this dress and toll your clapper to warn others to keep away, any news is interesting.”

  The constable watched as the leper made his way off along the street, collecting the other on his way, their little wooden bells sounding at regular intervals. Tanner leaned back against the wall. It was a relief to see them go: it was unsettling having them nearby, their hungry eyes fixed on him as if needing not only food but something more simple: mere human company.

  And that thought made him shiver again as it gave him a glimpse of the worst punishment that leprosy inflicted upon its victims: that of utter loneliness. He looked up the street, tempted to offer the two men a drink at his expense, or the price of a loaf of bread, but they had disa
ppeared.

  Bugger them, he thought. But he crossed himself nonetheless as he offered up a short prayer for a speedy death, and no lingering anguish such as he had seen in Rodde’s eyes.

  All the way home, Baldwin was curiously silent. Simon had expected passing comments about the murder, or perhaps words reflecting his nervousness about seeing Jeanne again, but the knight said nothing.

  Unknown to the bailiff, his friend was repeating certain phrases in his mind, then editing them with cold brutality. They were none of them very imaginative, for Baldwin had never before felt the need to try out expressions of love. It took him five miles of riding to give up the attempt and erase from his memory all the hard effort. All he could do was pray that she would be content with his obvious devotion. It was all he felt capable of relying on—he certainly couldn’t trust to his tongue.

  The house was quiet—ominously so—when Simon and Baldwin arrived. Their horses left with the groom, they made their way to the front door. Simon almost laughed out loud to see how Baldwin dawdled.

  Baldwin sensed impending doom. The glimpse of Jeanne at the inn had been as refreshing as he had hoped. She was as attractive as he remembered, and his decision to try to win her hand was strongly reinforced—but such a decision was hard to put into action. From all he had heard from others, it was a simple case of asking the question, gaining the required acquiescence after a moderate show of unwillingness, and then “hey for the priest.” But with Jeanne it was not so straightforward. He had already asked her once, the year before, and although she had not firmly rejected him, neither had she promised that a repetition of his offer would receive a different response. The only favorable sign she had given was her suggestion that she should visit him here; in effect, as he had so often told himself, viewing her prospective husband’s resources before committing herself.