By Murder's Bright Light (16 page)

‘I thought I’d surprise you, Father. Well, do you like it?’ She gestured around the kitchen, her face mock-serious. ‘The fire was ash, the rushes hadn’t been changed, the table hadn’t been washed and I don’t think you have been eating properly.’

‘I’ve been with Jack Cranston,’ Athelstan muttered.

However, before he could describe what had happened, Benedicta gently ushered him across the kitchen, telling him to eat before the sweetened oatmeal lost its warmth. Athelstan did, trying to hide his real pleasure at seeing his friend again. Bonaventure, who had been out hunting and courting the previous evening, slid through the open window to mew plaintively for his pitcher of milk. He lapped this greedily and stretched out before the roaring fire as Benedicta described her visit and journey. She then patiently sat and listened as Athelstan described the mysteries surrounding the
God’s Bright Light,
the death of William Roffel and the murder of Sir Henry Ospring.

‘A puzzle,’ Benedicta commented. ‘I met the lady Aveline last night. She was with Ashby. I also told that paid thug, Marston, to leave the church. Aveline’s no murderer,’ she continued, ‘but how can you prove that the slaying of her stepfather was in self-defence? As for the other business – as Sir John would say, "hell’s teeth, plot and counter-plot".’ She leaned her arms on the table. ‘But there’s worse to come,’ she added darkly.

Athelstan put his spoon down and looked at her.

‘What?

Benedicta hid her smile. ‘You know the row between Watkin and Pike the ditcher?’

Athelstan nodded wearily.

‘Well, Watkin’s spouse is now saying that the wife of God the Father is also superior to the wife of God the Holy Ghost.’

Athelstan hid his face in his hands.

‘Never,’ he swore, ‘never again will I allow a mystery play in this parish!’ He looked up at a knock on the door. ‘Come in!’ he called.

Aveline entered and smiled shyly at Benedicta. Athelstan got to his feet.

‘My lady, what is it?’

‘Father, last night I went through Sir Henry’s papers and—’

Athelstan ushered her to a seat.

‘—I found this.’

She handed across a piece of parchment, greasy and thumb-marked. Athelstan smoothed it out on the table top. There were marks on it – two lines running parallel with crosses around them. Athelstan stared at it.

‘My lady, what’s so special about this?’

‘I don’t know, Father. In itself it might mean little, but I found it concealed in my stepfather’s strong box. The coffer had a false bottom. When I lifted that up, I found the drawing there.’

Athelstan stared at the parchment.

‘Why,’ he asked, ‘should Sir Henry hide such an apparently innocuous scrap unless it was really something very precious or dangerous?’ He drummed his fingers on the table top. ‘I have seen this before,’ he said. ‘At the back of Captain Roffel’s book of hours. The same drawings, the same cross marks.’

‘May I have a look?’ Benedicta asked.

Athelstan passed his parchment to her. Benedicta stared at it for a long time, then she looked up and smiled at Aveline.

‘My husband, God rest him, was a sea captain. Athelstan, have you considered that these lines are from a map? This top one is the coast of France or, more precisely, a stretch of coast going down from Calais – she pointed to one of the crosses – to the port of Dieppe. This bottom Line is the coast of England. The crosses between the fines could be ships.’

Athelstan curbed his excitement. ‘For the first time,’ he whispered, ‘this is beginning to make sense.’ He stared at Aveline. ‘My lady, your stepfather was a landowner and a merchant. And what else?’

Aveline pulled a face. ‘He was a commissioner of array, responsible for raising troops in the shire should the French invade.’

‘What else did he do?’

‘He loaned money to the exchequer.’

‘Oh, come on, Aveline, what else?’

The young woman licked her lips nervously. ‘At night visitors called at our manor house. Men, cowled and hooded, who came and went silently as shadows. I think they were spies. Sometimes my stepfather used to help them cross to France, not through Calais but different ports, those held by the French.’

‘How do you know this?’

‘My stepfather always met them at night. Sometimes I would come downstairs and go by his chamber. The men would be seated there. Always with their backs to the doors. Letters would be exchanged. Sometimes I heard the chink of coins.’ She shook her head. ‘I know so little. My stepfather always kept such business to himself. He had powerful friends at court and they returned his work with favours.’

Athelstan sat with his head in his hands staring into the fire.

‘Was Ashby ever there?’

‘Never.’

‘But who would know all this besides your stepfather?’

Aveline smiled. ‘Marston might. Sometimes he took these people down to the coast.’

‘May I keep this map?’ Athelstan asked.

Aveline nodded and opened her mouth to speak.

The friar held a hand up. ‘Before you say anything, Lady Aveline, I have not forgotten you or Master Ashby.’

Aveline smiled, got to her feet and left.

Athelstan continued to gaze into the fire.

‘What do you think, Brother?’ Benedicta asked.

‘My view is that Sir Henry Ospring was a very powerful nobleman with far too many fingers in far too many pies. Now we know that Roffel stopped and sank a fishing smack sailing between Dieppe and Calais. We also know that young Ashby gave Roffel a sealed package. Now, I suspect, that package contained a copy of this map as well as instructions about where and when to intercept the fishing smack. However, in the natural order of things there’s nothing wrong with that. Ospring could have heard some gossip about precious cargo.’ He tapped the crudely drawn map. ‘Nevertheless, in this case the vessel was carrying important despatches as well as English spies.’ Athelstan got to his feet and went to warm his fingers at the fire. ‘My first urge is to challenge Marston, to discover if he knows anything but that may alarm people. Benedicta.’ He looked over his shoulder and smiled. ‘Will you do me a favour?’

‘Whatever you ask, Father.’

‘Forget the disputes between Pike and Watkin. I want you to take a short message and place it in the iron-bound coffer before the statue of Our Lady and Child in St Paul’s cathedral.’ His smile widened at the look of puzzlement on Benedicta’s face.

‘Just a simple message. Write "Saints Peter and Paul, intercede for us". Sign it, "Brother Athelstan". Don’t worry,’ he added drily, ‘the blessed apostles won’t intervene but two gentlemen from the exchequer will be very pleased to renew their acquaintance with me.’

He went across and took his cloak from a peg on the wall.

‘But now I must see to some building work.’

Leaving a bemused Benedicta, Athelstan went round the house to saddle the protesting Philomel. A few minutes later he was making his way through Southwark’s narrow alleyways. He glimpsed Marston and the other bully-boys standing at the door of a tavern, their vantage point from which to see who entered and left the church. Athelstan sketched a blessing in their direction and smiled to himself. If his suspicions proved correct, he’d give Marston something to worry about apart from poor Ashby.

The day was cold but bright; a heavy hoar frost had frozen the puddles and ruts. Philomel, whom Athelstan considered to be the most cunning horse on earth, deftly made his way around these and past the stalls and booths. At last Athelstan reached a place where builders were erecting a three-storey house, commissioned by some merchant who wished to be free of the tolls, levies and taxes imposed on houses across the river. Athelstan watched swearing and cursing men, their breath heavy on the frosty morning air, carry bricks up makeshift ladders. Carpenters sawed wood and apprentices jumped around like monkeys. Athelstan loved to watch the builders at work and, when they shouted out greetings, he waved his hand in acknowledgement. He paid particular attention to the tiler busy on the roof, admiring his skill and confidence. Then, turning his horse, he made his way back in the direction of London Bridge. As he passed his church, Crim the altar boy came flying out.

‘Father! Father!’

Athelstan reined Philomel in. Anxious lest Marston and his thugs might have attempted some mischief, he looked towards the church, but all seemed quiet.

‘Crim, what is it?’

‘Father,’ the boy stuttered. ‘It’s Lord Horsecruncher!’

‘You mean Sir John Cranston, coroner of the city?’

‘Aye, Father, old fat arse!’

‘Crim!’

‘Sorry, Father, but he sent a messenger across. You know, Father, the one with a tight bum who walks like a duck, his face pulled down as if he had smelt something rotten.’

‘And what did this messenger say?’ asked Athelstan patiently.

‘Well, Sir John wishes to see you urgently in Cheapside. The lady Benedicta has left already,’ Crim continued breathlessly. ‘She said she would call in and tell Sir John you are already on your way.’

Athelstan tossed the lad a coin and continued his journey. For the first time in weeks he made Philomel trot and scarcely bothered to acknowledge the greetings and salutations shouted out to him. Clattering on to the bridge, he looked neither to left nor right as he wondered why Sir John so impatiently demanded his presence. As a courtesy, he called at the coroner’s house in Cheapside, but a tight-lipped Lady Maude told him that ‘the bird has already flown’.

‘Gone to his chamber in the Guildhall, or so he says,’ she announced darkly. ‘And you know where that is, Father?’

Athelstan tactfully smiled back. Once the door was closed, he led a snorting, snickering Philomel, still protesting at his recent rough usage, across the busy marketplace. He gave the reins to an ostler and went in to the Holy Lamb of God’s taproom. Sir John was already sitting there, two great empty wine cups before him as well as a few crumbs of a meat pie.

‘Good morrow, Sir John.’

Cranston burped gently.

‘In fine fettle as usual, I see,’ Athelstan continued, joining him.

There’s been another bloody murder,’ Cranston announced. ‘Do you remember Bernicia, Roffel’s little tart? Well, he or she is dead! Throat slashed from ear to ear and the house ransacked.’ Cranston slapped the table top with his hand. ‘God knows whether to call him him or her. Anyway, Bernicia’s dead.’

‘Bernicia lived in the shadows,’ Athelstan replied.

‘I couldn’t give a toss where the creature lived,’ Cranston snapped. ‘God rest the poor bastard! But, listen to this, Brother.’ He eased his bulk on the chair. ‘There’s not many places in London where people like Bernicia can go! Four or five drinking-holes in all and all within walking distance of each other.’ Cranston stopped and paused to roar for another drink. ‘Usually, I leave such places alone. I have a pity for the poor people who use them. However, this morning I went as soon as I had seen Bernicia’s corpse. After the expected protests, the silver-tongued landlord produced a pageboy who swore to a number of facts. First, Bernicia had been there the previous evening. Secondly, the whore had met and left with someone.’

‘And?’ Athelstan asked.

‘According to the boy, this stranger might have been Bracklebury. Anyway, he was a sailor who knew Roffel and the ship
God’s Bright Light.
’

Athelstan leaned back and whistled through his teeth.

‘Strange,’ he whispered. ‘Mistaken logic, Sir John. I always considered all the watch were either dead or had fled.’

‘If it was someone from the watch,’ Cranston continued, ‘we have to draw another picture – and one so simple it’s a wonder we never thought of it before. The first mate killed his two companions and then jumped ship. Why, or with what, we don’t know.’

‘I think we do,’ Athelstan replied.

He produced the crudely drawn map that Aveline had given him that morning and tersely told Cranston of his own conclusions.

Cranston sipped from the cup the landlord had placed before him. ‘So Ospring gave instructions to Roffel to stop and sink that fishing smack. But why? Are you saying that Ospring and Roffel were traitors?’

‘It all depends,’ Athelstan answered, ‘on what the ship carried. To find that out I have sent Benedicta with a petition to St Paul’s. Only our friends the scrutineers can tell us that.’

There are others we need to question,’ Cranston added. That’s why I have invited everyone involved in this business – Sir Jacob Crawley, the other officers, not to mention Mistress Roffel – to meet us in the Guildhall just after midday. I also told the ship’s clerk, Coffrey, to bring the log book.’ Cranston smacked his lips and stretched. ‘So, Father, we have some time to waste. What more can we do?’

Athelstan gazed despairingly at the empty wine cups.

‘There is one further thing, Sir John, the footpad who is house-breaking. I think we can set a trap.’

Cranston slammed his wine cup down.

‘No, don’t ask me how!’ Athelstan smiled. ‘I know you, Sir John – you have a generous heart but a wagging tongue. What I want is for one of your powerful merchant friends to go on a journey for two or three days, to take his family with him and to make sure it’s publicly announced.’

Cranston stared up at the rafters. ‘There’s no one,’ he said. ‘Oh yes, my dear physician Theobald de Troyes. He could go to some property he owns in Suffolk. Perhaps I can persuade him?’

‘Do so now,’ Athelstan urged, hoping to put as much distance as possible between Cranston and a cup of wine. ‘But tell him not to leave for two or three days.’

‘And if he doesn’t agree?’ Cranston asked.

Athelstan shrugged. ‘Then we’ll have to find someone else.’

Mumbling and protesting, Cranston lumbered out of the tavern. Athelstan sighed, sat back, closed his eyes and wondered if Benedicta had delivered the message.

‘Father, do you wish something to eat or drink?’

Athelstan sat forward and stared into the anxious face of the landlord’s wife.

‘No, thank you.’ He smiled. ‘I think Sir John has done gallantly for both of us.’

The friar felt self-conscious sitting there by himself so he walked back into Cheapside and into the church of St Mary Le Bow. For a while he knelt before the altar and said a few prayers, then he admired the beautiful stained-glass window in the nave. Athelstan could never stop admiring the brilliant colours and skills of the artist. Portraying the risen, glorified Christ, harrowing hell and freeing souls who had waited for his coming, he had expertly caught the rapture on the faces of the saints and the anger on the black-visaged demons, who stood glaring from behind their wall of fire. Cranston had promised that, as soon as the good weather allowed, he would purchase a similar window for St Erconwald’s.