Leper's Return Page 28

  Finishing his drink, he gave her a slow bow and made off back to the leper house. Cristine stood some while watching him go, his staff tapping regularly at his side while he shuffled away. She was trying to imagine how he would have looked before he had been struck down.

  In her mind’s eye she straightened his back. That would surely add six inches or more to his height, she realized, which would make him a tall man, possibly almost six feet. Then his hair, now so lank and besmeared with mud, still showed signs of its underlying tawny hue, a color which would make him stand out. His eyes were unchanged, he hadn’t yet lost his sight, and were a peculiarly bright blue, while his flesh was bronzed from exposure. He was just the sort of man she had always fancied. The sort of man she might have chatted to in the tavern before he became scarred with leprosy.

  She felt a shiver pass down her back. Someone’s walked over my grave, she thought, and crossed herself automatically.

  “Hello, Cristine. Can you get this filled for me?”

  “You’ve finished the barrel already? Jack, you must have too much work if your thirst is that bad!”

  “My thirst is bad enough, I reckon,” he muttered, but his eyes were fixed on Rodde’s back.

  As Cristine watched, he made off after the leper, and when she called to him, “Hey, what about your ale?” he merely waved.

  “I’ll come and get it later.”

  His urgency made her hesitate, and her gaze moved off toward the limping man.

  23

  Baldwin and Simon walked out to the street while Edgar unhitched their mounts and followed after them. In the roadway, Baldwin glanced at Simon.

  “Interesting.”

  “Baffling! What on earth can it mean? Someone stole all the plate, and has now returned it?”

  “No,” Baldwin chuckled. “No, I think it’s a great deal simpler than that. Simon, we are coming closer to a solution to this problem.” He bit his upper lip, sucking at his moustache contemplatively. At last he gave a slight groan. “Enough speculation! Right, it is not a pleasant duty we must go and perform now, but it must be done. Are you ready?”

  Simon immediately understood him. “As ready as one can be. I don’t want to be involved in reminding a man of his wife’s infidelity, but we have to know the truth, don’t we?”

  Baldwin nodded sourly and marched through the gate into Coffyn’s garden. He strode up to the front door and knocked loudly. Edgar joined them as they waited. Soon they were in the hall, and here they saw William and his master sitting at the great table at the dais. There was no one else in the room, which was some relief to Baldwin.

  He confronted the merchant. “You were responsible for the beating given to John of Irelaunde last night. He is not dead, but he is sorely hurt, and you will be paying him compensation. If he desires to press charges against you, I will help him.”

  Throughout this little speech, Coffyn had remained coolly silent. Now he spoke. “I don’t know what makes you think I was there, Sir Knight. I was in this hall almost all the night. My men were with me.”

  “You were seen and recognized by John.”

  “The man who was wounded? Perhaps his brain was addled. It can happen, you know, when a man is badly wounded about the head. He was wrong in this case. I was here from a little after dark, and never went out again. Why should I want to hurt a fellow I’ve never met?”

  Baldwin shook his head. “Good, but not good enough. We know why you went to molest him.”

  Coffyn rallied well, Baldwin thought. He made a great show of pouring wine and sipping it slowly, concentrating all the while on Baldwin’s face. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

  “You thought John was involved with your wife. You were hurt, naturally, and shocked too, I have no doubt. You had no idea who could have been responsible, but it was easy to hazard a guess. Or maybe you didn’t need to—maybe you heard rumors of how John behaved, and reasoned that there was no smoke without fire. In either case, it was you who went to John’s house last night and waylaid him. You wanted to make sure that John was given to understand that you wouldn’t tolerate his flirtation.”

  “You’re talking nonsense,” said Coffyn, but his face was pale, and Baldwin saw that the hand holding his goblet was shaking.

  “I wish to speak to your wife,” Baldwin stated bluntly.

  “That isn’t possible.”

  “Matthew, this won’t achieve anything. You can refuse me permission to talk to her if you want, but you need to hear the truth as well. The man you beat last night was not her lover. I have heard that from two people today who ought to know. Why don’t we ask your wife?”

  “You have no right to demand it.”

  “No, I don’t,” Baldwin said reasonably. “But I happen to know that you are wrong in thinking John has anything to do with her. Of course you are hurt and struck with grief by her adultery…”

  Coffyn started and glowered.

  “…but that is no reason to attack the wrong man. John has had nothing to do with your wife.”

  “I won’t believe it! He was seeing her every time I went off to a fair or market.”

  “Someone was, but not John. John was seeing somebody else.”

  “I heard him leaping from my roof and making off through the garden.”

  “It wasn’t John. Fetch your wife, and we’ll see what she says.”

  “My wife is indisposed. She can see no one.”

  Baldwin leaned on the table so that his face was close to the merchant’s. “Matthew Coffyn, I cannot order your wife to make any statement which might incriminate you. But if I can make you believe that John was innocent, I may prevent you having him beaten again. Please call your wife here.”

  With a bad grace, Coffyn surrendered. He waved a hand at William, and the man-at-arms strolled from the room. There was quite a delay before he returned, wandering along behind the young wife of Matthew Coffyn.

  This was the first time Simon had seen Martha Coffyn since his move to Lydford. Then she had been an elegant young woman who had a tendency to put on a little too much weight, but with her lively nature and sense of fun, she had never lacked popularity. Before Coffyn had managed to ensnare her, she had attracted a host of admirers not only from Crediton but from several miles away.

  But the woman Simon now saw was not the same—not at least at first sight. She was still a little overweight, but her size only added to her voluptuous attractions, emphasizing her heavy breasts, the sweep of her broad hips and the length of her legs. The difference lay in her manner and her face.

  Her beautiful pale complexion, which in color had always reminded the bailiff of the finest clotted cream from Tavistock Abbey, was mottled and blotched with red. Her eyes looked as though they were raw from weeping, her nose shone, her lips were bloated with sobbing, crimson as blood itself. Even her hair was unkempt and bedraggled, hardly contained in her wimple.

  She stood before her husband, but her gaze never met his. Instead, she stared at Baldwin with a kind of arrogant disdain. “Well, husband? You wanted to see me—here I am! What do you want now you have witnessed my utter destruction? What more do you want of me?”

  Coffyn sank down in his chair. “You’re in error, my lady. It was this knight who wished to speak to you. Please answer him.”

  “My lady, I am sorry to have brought you down here to ask you these questions, but I have to prevent any more violence if I can, and you are the key. I know your husband has been keeping you locked in your room, but—”

  “Keeping me locked in my room?” she demanded, eyes flashing. “You think I would let him do that? He did no such thing, Keeper. Oh no, I chose to stay in my room.”

  “Please, Martha,” Coffyn groaned, putting a hand to his brow and shielding his eyes from the contempt in her own.

  “Please, Martha!” she sneered. “He pleads with me now, trying to stop me telling you what I know, while—”

  “Martha, these men are here because yesterday I beat your lover to within
a breath of his death,” Coffyn said coldly. “They want you to tell me I was wrong and had the wrong man almost killed.”

  She gaped at him, before giving a wild laugh. To Simon it sounded like the beginning of hysteria, and he was about to move nearer her to offer some comfort when she held up her hand. “Don’t approach me,” she hissed. “I am perfectly well, although it is a miracle in this household. So this absolute cretin had the monumental stupidity to try to have someone killed in an attempt to get him to leave me alone?”

  “It was John of Irelaunde,” Baldwin murmured.

  “Him!” she spat contemptuously. “The pedlar? You dare to think I would defile myself with a slovenly little shit like him?” Her voice became harsher. “You think I would demean myself with a pathetic creature like that? How dare you?”

  Simon was intrigued by her rage. It was entirely genuine, he was convinced of that, but he was staggered that the woman could feel so degraded by the allegation. She felt no shame about her wanton adultery, but could be appalled when her husband felt she would give herself to a lowly tranter.

  Baldwin interrupted her protestations. His attention had been fixed on Coffyn, whose face had taken on the appearance of a man who had seen a ghost. His hand had fallen, and now he sat as though struck dumb with horror.

  “Mistress Martha,” Baldwin said. “I think you have said enough.”

  “Who was it, then?” Coffyn’s voice was a whisper.

  “Your friend, dear Matthew! Your favorite—your partner. Dearest Godfrey was my lover, and had been for months. You never guessed, because you were never here to see, but he was with me every night whenever you went away. He stole into my room each night, and he stole my heart when he left me.”

  “Why, Martha? All I ever wanted was to please you, to make you comfortable. Why should you betray me in this way?”

  “You’re pathetic!” Her anger made her enunciation slow and deliberate. “You think you own me because of a contract, but you never bothered to satisfy me. You thought by buying me new jewels and robes you could hold my love—but you never realized that to hold my love, first you had to hold me! Why should I betray you, you ask! Why should I remain loyal when that means living the life of a celibate?”

  She turned sharply, the long skirt sweeping over the rushes. “Sir Baldwin, I have answered your questions. I hope my husband is not stupid enough to try to attack anyone else, but if he is keen to, perhaps the next man he springs on will do me the favor of sending my husband to Hell. I have no use for him.”

  With that parting shot, she marched haughtily from the room.

  Matthew shivered and rested his head on his hands. He had never before felt the vastness of his wife’s contempt for him. It came as almost a physical blow to his stomach to see Martha behave in this way. He felt sickened, revolted by her absolute disgust for him.

  “Matthew, do you accept your wife’s word?” Baldwin asked softly.

  “I believe her.” The words came as if wrung from his very soul. Matthew Coffyn shook his head. His future was blasted. There could be no hope of peace or renewed love in his marriage. Before her outburst there was still a chance, but now that chance was gone. Her words had scorched his pride. It was impossible that she would ever be able to reciprocate his feelings. He had hoped that with his competitor out of the way, her love for him would return—instead, her loathing for him had increased.

  “You accept that John of Irelaunde had nothing to do with your wife’s infidelity?”

  “It seemed so obvious!” He held up his head appealingly to the knight. “Everyone knows of John’s reputation. As soon as I realized what was happening with my wife, I was convinced it had to be that little sod!”

  “On the night Godfrey died, you were here looking for John, weren’t you? You came home earlier than expected, and were searching for him in your home when you heard Godfrey’s scream.”

  “Yes. The time before when I’d been away, I returned late at night instead of the following morning, and although Martha came fairly quickly to meet me, I heard someone jumping from the roof and making off through the garden. Well, John lives out at the back of Godfrey’s—I thought it would be easy for him to clamber over Godfrey’s wall and thence into my garden. It seemed so obvious that the little git was ravishing my wife, I hardly gave it a second thought.”

  “It took you a long time to decide to have him beaten,” commented Simon.

  “I intended catching him.” The merchant turned his angry, unblinking eyes on the bailiff, worrying at a fingernail. “What would you have done? I had no real proof. That was why I invented this charade of a final trip away. I said I had to go to Exeter for a couple of days, but after a few hours at a tavern on the way, I came back. My men I sent into the garden to block any escape, while I ran upstairs. There was no sign of anyone, and my wife insisted she was alone, but I searched her chamber, and went through all the chests. There was no sign of him. I just thought John must have heard us in the street before we got here, and then made use of the same escape route as before, climbing through the window and leaping from the roof before making off.”

  “Whereas it never was John,” Baldwin reminded him.

  “No. Instead, when I ran next door to save my neighbor from being attacked, I was in truth trying to save the man who had been cuckolding me. Oh, my God!” he cried, and covered his face with his hands. “I have lost my wife, and now I’ll be prosecuted for having my revenge on the wrong man! How could I have been so stupid!”

  Baldwin sighed. “You may well find that an apology to John will prevent him from taking you to court. For my part, so long as you ensure that he is furnished with money while he recovers, I will not try to take matters further. This is all a ridiculous mess. In future, don’t take the law into your own hands. If you are aggrieved, take your case to court and seek redress there.”

  “Redress, Sir Baldwin?” asked Coffyn, looking up at the knight blankly. “Redress for losing my wife? What redress could I expect for having had my life taken, for having my future wrested from my hands, for having my opportunities for wedded happiness stolen? What hope is there for me, Sir Baldwin?”

  Ralph left the chapel. He could see the limping figure of Rodde making his way from the gate, heading back to his room. The brother wondered whether to have a talk with him. Rodde was spending too much time outside the hospital for his liking; lepers were supposed to remain within their walls, devoting themselves to prayer, not wandering the roads whenever it took their fancy. Ralph considered, but decided not to speak to him yet. Rodde and Quivil both appeared to need time to themselves. If they were shown compassion, Ralph thought, they might come to appreciate God’s mercy, and find their own salvation within the hospital grounds.

  Having deliberated over this for a minute or two, Ralph was about to go to his little room when he heard voices at the gate. Tutting to himself at this interruption to his routine, he turned to seek the source. His mouth fell open in astonishment.

  “What is this?” he demanded.

  “She wants to come in to see Rodde, the new one. I told her she can’t, but she won’t listen.”

  “Lady, it’s impossible. This is a leper hospital, somewhere for men who have been inflicted by the disease. You mustn’t come in.”

  “Brother, I would like to speak with you.”

  “Very well,” Ralph sighed. “Wait there, and I’ll fetch a cloak.”

  He signed to the gatekeeper to keep it closed and marched off to his room. His cloak was on top of his chest, and he pulled it over his shoulders. The sun was already dying in the west, and with its passing the warmth of the day was rapidly fading.

  “Here I am, madam. Now,” he opened the gate and passed out, “What is the matter? Why make such a fuss here?”

  “You have an inmate here, a man called Rodde, I believe?”

  “Why, yes. He came here a few weeks ago,” Ralph said. He caught sight of the smith standing nearby and listening to her words with interest. Ralph frowned
at him, and began to walk up the hill away from the town itself, circling the perimeter of the compound. “He came from somewhere in the north. Luckily his illness is not far progressed, and he has his own money, so he is little drain on the hospital’s resources. But what is your interest in him?”

  “I wish to see him in the hospital.”

  “I fear that isn’t possible.”

  She smiled and reached for her purse.

  “That’s not the difficulty, Lady,” Ralph declared hotly. He resolutely stuffed his hands into the sleeves of his robe as if to prevent their temptation. “I am afraid that the inmates are only allowed a certain kind of woman to visit them.”

  “A certain kind, Brother?” she asked softly with a raised eyebrow.

  “Not that kind, Lady,” he snapped, “They aren’t permitted to cross the gate at all. No, the only women allowed in here are the relatives of inmates, and even then they are only allowed in during daylight so that nothing untoward can happen.”

  “You have that young girl in to help.”

  “You mean Mary? She’s different—she’s the housekeeper.”

  “I had thought that the housekeeper to a lazar house should be a woman of mature appearance, who couldn’t be attractive to the inmates and tempt them to lascivious thoughts or acts; someone who should be known for good conversation, but little else.”

  Ralph shot her a look. “That’s true,” he admitted. “But when no one else will lift a finger to help these poor souls, it’s necessary to use whoever will volunteer.”

  “She does look very young.”

  “Her age is not something that bothers me. More important is her keenness to provide comfort to the men in there.” Realizing the equivocal nature of the phrase, he reddened, continuing hurriedly, “What I mean is, she helps to keep the chapel clean and tidy, and assists me in my duties such as they are. She has already indicated that she might wish to go to a convent and offer her life to God.”

  “She is so young.”