The Outlaws of Ennor: (Knights Templar 16) (30 page)

‘How did he marry you?’

‘I was happy with him,’ she said, returning to the room and pouring a large mazer of ale for Baldwin. Passing it to him, she said, ‘He made me laugh. What more does a woman need? So I told him I wanted him, “to have and to hold from this day, for fairer, for grimmer, from this day onwards”, and he said, “Tedia, I take you as my woman, and will want no other woman for as long as I live”. I felt so happy that day. I’d never thought I’d get the man I wanted, but he gave himself to me. It was so lovely.’

Her eyes watered again at the memory. ‘It was a beautiful day, and rather than take me as I had expected, to consummate the marriage immediately, instead I was delighted to hear him say that he wanted a priest to hear our vows. He insisted that we see William at St Mary’s, because William had been at St Elidius for many years, and Isok respected him greatly. Isok had to go to sea for a day, but when he returned, he said, he would marry me in full view of witnesses and William.

‘So two days later, Isok and I rowed over to Ennor, our little craft surrounded by a flotilla of small boats, with all the men making
lewd gestures to me, while their wives howled with laughter and made bawdy comments to Isok.’

The general atmosphere of hilarity had been increased by the sudden appearance of some tuns of wine. Several had been delivered already to the port on Ennor, for the Lord of the Manor, but the rest were stored safely for the good of the community of St Nicholas – apart from the monks who, it was felt, needed no more wine.

‘William was wonderful.’

Speaking with his slightly catarrhal accent, William stood before them like an avenging angel, threatening them with hellfire if they were to fail. He silenced the crowds without a word, just an intimidating glower, and they were quietened in a moment. Afterwards, when he had bound their hands with his alb and pronounced that they be man and wife, he had grimly stared at the crowds as though daring them to make a sound until he had finished, and when the people erupted in joyful celebration, he had only then allowed a smile of satisfaction to pass over his lips.

Later the priest had taken Tedia to one side and told her that she was lucky indeed to be winning such a devoted husband. ‘He’s a good man,’ he had said, and then, ‘You should be very happy.’

It was not far from the truth of it. They had been happy. Except for this one fault. Only a little one, Mariota said to her, and in many ways a beneficial one because it saved her from the trials of childbirth, but Tedia knew that she wanted children, and Isok would or could give her none.

So terribly sad. All she wanted was a man in her bed with her. If Isok could be a stud to her, she would be content. Yet he couldn’t. So now she was forced to look elsewhere, and her one lover was dead.

She wondered where Isok was. He ought to be back by now.

During the storm, the sky had been an angry red colour, then black and lighted by flares of lightning, but now it was the normal starry sky she knew so well. Each little star stood out so brightly, she had to wonder what was behind the blackness of the sky. It looked so like small pin-pricks in a sheet of black velvet with a bright light behind to light each hole; she sometimes felt she could touch the material.

Tonight
she stared out seawards, wondering where her man was. Normally he would be home by now. No one stayed out to sea too late, in case they might be thrown against a rock hidden in the dark, and although she knew full well that Isok was one of the best mariners on all the islands, she feared that he could come to grief. She was still his wife, and their lives had been shared. If he had been drowned she would regret his passing.

Unless … With a sharp pang of guilt, she realised that if he was going to be staying out for the night, she could perhaps cement her attraction to Baldwin. It was certain sure that he was as attracted to her as she was to him.

She felt her loins melting with the thought. In a moment, she decided, she would turn slowly and stare at him. Baldwin would see her lust: he would be bound to. And if he had any doubts, she would pull off her tunic and show him her whole body. Then she would walk to him slowly, her hands emphasising her womanly perfection, and by the time she reached him, he would be ready for her. She would undress him, pulling his hosen down, and kiss him there, so that he would enter her without difficulty. Yes.

It took her only a few moments to ponder the attraction of this course, and she leaned against the door frame again, rolling her body on it until she was facing the room once more. Licking her lips, she could see the form of Baldwin in the murkiness inside. She cleared her throat, said, ‘Baldwin,’ and then heard his snore.

Thomas finished checking the records of the cargo on the ship and sat back with a smile for a moment or two. Then, again, he began to frown and he glanced at the fading sunlight outside.

Where had David been?

This little haul was perfectly timed to make Ranulph’s life easier. It would all be considered salvage by most folks, but as far as Thomas was concerned, this was a wreck. The fact that it had fallen into his hands was his Lord’s good fortune, and nothing more.

It was a very good thing indeed that Thomas had been here when the ship had been discovered, because otherwise Ranulph would
have taken more control of the affair, in which case there might well have been more bodies to bury, rather than the two unwelcome guests sitting in a quieter room in the castle.

Ranulph always wanted to ensure that the least expense was incurred by his manor. To his mind, the law which stated that a wreck was only a wreck if no man, no dog and no cat survived the vessel being cast upon the shore, was enough. The law must be complied with. Sometimes a ship wouldn’t make it to shore, in which case Ranulph and his men would sail out to ‘rescue’ it. Occasionally, when a ship
was
cast up on the shore, her survivors could be ‘lost’ so as to validate the letter of the law. That was not something Ranulph sought to do, but sometimes his staff would grow over-enthusiastic. The new law of salvage was more humane, and Ranulph was delighted to comply with it, because it saved his involvement in concealed homicides.

Here on Ennor things were more relaxed than in Cornwall. There local lords had to work hard to keep news of shipwrecks hidden, because the earldom’s men might hear of them. The Havener was a crucial member of the Earl’s household, and was targeted on claiming any wrecks, any royal fish, and all the duties owed to him. He was a pest to all ordinary folk living near the sea. Here in the Isles, the Havener had his work cut out. He tended not to bother to come here now because the journey wasn’t worth the effort. In any case, there were ongoing disputes about whether King Edward II or the earldom had the rights of royal fish, and to confuse matters still more, the earldom was now owned by the King’s wife, Isabella of France. No one was too sure who was supposed to gain now, which was why there had been disputes like the one fourteen years ago between William le Poer and Ranulph. Le Poer was the King’s Coroner at the time, and arrived just in time to snatch a whale which had been thrown up by the sea. That was too much for Ranulph, who had the mischievous devil thrown into prison, only releasing him when a hundred shillings had been paid.

Since then, Ranulph didn’t worry too much about exactly how Thomas dealt with people and got the money in. He instructed him to just go ahead and get it. It was rare that he would bother to attend
a fresh vessel’s arrival. And now Ranulph had acquired the post of Coroner for himself. It certainly made life easier.

This was a magnificent ship, though. The
Anne
had a huge hold and plenty of tuns of wine as well as several bundles of cloth tied up into bales and some excellent Spanish metalwork. All in all, Thomas estimated her value to be in the order of one and a half thousand pounds. She would be a great prize, and there was little need to worry about an owner arriving to take the thing back. She was wrecked, and that was how her situation would be reported. The earldom would require some form of payment, but they wouldn’t know how much to claim, and there should be no risks.

His eyes narrowed again. Yes, the
Anne
was a magnificent catch, but who had trussed and delivered her? David was not in the vill, the Bailiff had said. Where had he been? Leading a small pirate party to attack a merchant ship?

No. Once more Thomas put the idea from him and returned to his papers. There was no point going over the same ground. If David had been out in the storm, no doubt he’d have been overwhelmed by the weather. As it was, there was no news of his death or disappearance.

Once again, the Sergeant’s thoughts turned wretchedly to his main preoccupation: the whereabouts of his own ship. The
Faucon Dieu
had still not made an appearance. Could that churl David have taken her?

He put the ledgers away carefully and tapped his teeth absentmindedly with a reed. To ease his mind, he pondered the problem of the new tax-gatherer. Of course he could suggest Walerand, as he had already hinted to the young fellow, and that would almost certainly bring in a shilling or two, because Walerand would understand that if he wanted the post, he would have to buy off Thomas first … but there were difficulties.

When all was said and done, Walerand was a gormless fool. He had less intelligence than the average chicken in Thomas’s opinion – and the Sergeant particularly despised chickens. Walerand’s way of ‘persuading’ a peasant to pay up would involve the use of a dagger and probably a hot brand, rather than honeyed words. That was
where Robert was so useful. He could coax people into paying. They didn’t like it: no one liked paying taxes; yet they would cough up. The story of how Robert had killed the sailor in the tavern while wearing a smile of sadistic delight, had affected all who met him; but to Thomas’s certain knowledge, the gather-reeve had never had to display his brutality.

That was not Walerand’s way. He would try to scare people for the sake of it, just because it made him feel good. He would resort to actual physical violence at any opportunity. But at least Walerand was devious enough to make a good spy on the Bailiff.

What would the Bailiff make of all this, though? He would guess, probably. That was how most officers worked – they guessed at what might have happened. Someone had taken enough of a dislike to Robert to grab a knife and shove it into him. Simon would wonder what on earth Robert had been doing up there at that time of night. He should have been back in the castle by dusk, but he’d told others he’d be staying out for the night. That hinted at a woman – this woman he was supposed to have been porking in St Nicholas. If he’d been going to see her, why hadn’t she come forward to announce his disappearance? Probably because she was married.

Some men were hard enough on their women. Perhaps Simon would think Robert had chosen to take some female, and she reacted with an all-too-hasty dagger? He’d expected her to submit in return for a lower tax bill, and she’d repaid him in the only way she knew. That was quite possible.

Yes: possible, and alarming. If the locals thought that they could get away with murdering one of Ranulph’s leading men-at-arms, then they might decide to resist future demands for money and customs. It was a short step from one man being killed to the entire castle being endangered. Thomas was as sure as he could be of that.

Ranulph had sanction to hold twelve men here to maintain and protect his castle. There were some others here, mainly servants who were either weak of muscle or weak in the head, but if a man counted only the fighting strength of the place, it was actually alarmingly under-manned, compared with the number of people the castle was supposed to oversee. There were a couple of hundred men on all the
islands, and most of them were strong, hardy types, used to the sea and weapons of all sorts. If it were to come to a fight between them and the men at the castle, Thomas knew that though the walls of the castle might survive, the people inside could easily be beaten. There was no hope of rescue or support. Even if a messenger could be sent to the mainland, any help must arrive too late.

The idea made him frown. Since a man in the castle had been murdered, it was up to the men of the castle to put things straight again. They needed a scapegoat: a group must be found which would carry the responsibility for the murder. Some rascals who could be believed to be thieves and murderers; some peasants who could be held up as an example of what would happen to others if they were to dare to flout the laws. An extreme example, a source of horror and fear for many years to come.

That was what the folks here needed. A definite signal that their behaviour must improve, he thought. But there were not enough men in the castle to chastise a whole vill.

Thomas sighed. Matters were already going beyond the means of simple resolution. If only he had more men at his disposal.

Feeling that he must suffocate if he remained within, Thomas stood, locked away the ledgers, and made his way to the castle’s walls. There he clambered up the steep staircase and peered out towards the sea. Still no sign of the
Faucon Dieu.
It was hard to believe that any of the pirates on St Nicholas would have dared to attack her. Could David … ?

Thomas felt the certainty hit him like a hammer. David had led a party of the men from his vill to attack the
Faucon Dieu
: that was why she hadn’t appeared. They had taken what they could and sunk the ship to hide their crimes. That was it! Thomas felt himself bristling with righteous fury. That was why David wasn’t in the vill on the night of the storm, that was why Thomas’s ship wasn’t here, safe in port. Those murderous peasants in the vill on the next island had taken her.