The Prodigal Son (27 page)

Thomas Bignell suddenly seemed to take in his surroundings and the presence of his hostess.

‘Madam! M-my apologies,' he gasped. ‘I-I didn't realize that this is your personal chamber. Master Steward told me the chapman was here. He didn't say.'

Dame Audrea frowned. ‘Well, now that you are here and have found Master Chapman, what is it you wish to tell him with such urgency?'

The butcher was trapped. He would plainly have preferred to speak to me in private, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had no option but to tell us both.

‘It … it's about Master Bellknapp,' he said uncomfortably, shifting from one foot to the other like a flea hopping amongst the rushes.

‘What of Master Bellknapp?' I prodded, when he hesitated.

‘Last night … he … he asked me to meet him. After everyone had gone to bed.'

‘Why?' demanded Dame Audrea.

‘Where?' I asked, almost in chorus.

‘In the hall,' he replied, choosing to answer me.

Which left me with no alternative but to echo the dame's question, ‘Why?'

‘He … he wanted to speak to me.' This was followed by another silence.

‘What about?' I almost yelled. ‘For God's sake, man! This is like squeezing blood from a stone.'

Master Bignell's discomfort increased. He scratched his head and continued to shuffle his feet until I was ready to do him bodily harm. But at last he managed to blurt out, ‘About Rose and … and Edward. He told me earlier in the evening that he thought Rose was unhappy in her marriage, and that maybe Ned was unkind to her. He said I should speak to Ned, or, if I didn't wish to, he offered to do it for me.'

Dame Audrea snorted in derision. ‘He wanted her for himself, you foolish man! He intended to make mischief between you and your son-in-law so that when he eventually managed to lure her away from Master Micheldever, you wouldn't cut her out of your will. You're known to be a very wealthy man.'

‘But why, if he'd already said all that to you,' I asked, ‘did Master Bellknapp want to meet you again after the rest of us were out of the way?'

‘He … he said there were things he needed to tell me that no one else must overhear.' The butcher coloured faintly. ‘Intimate things concerning my daughter's marriage.'

‘And you believed him?' I asked scathingly. ‘Good God, man! Had your wits gone wool-gathering? He'd only known Rose three days! What could he possibly have discovered in that time that nobody else would know?'

Thomas Bignell raised his chin. He resented my tone.

‘Rose might well have confided in Master Bellknapp. There's no doubt he had a way with the women. Any fool could tell that. And,' he added even more belligerently, ‘people, men and women, often do confide in strangers secrets that it might embarrass them to tell anyone close to them.'

‘He has you there, Chapman,' Dame Audrea observed, as I struggled to find an answer to refute this statement. She turned to look at the butcher. ‘And did you meet my son in the hall as you had arranged, Master Butcher?'

He nodded. ‘I thought I should listen to what he had to say. If Ned is mistreating my Rose, I ought to know about it. So, when the house was quiet and it seemed that everyone was asleep, I got up, put on my bed-robe over my night shirt and went downstairs into the hall.'

‘Was Master Bellknapp there?' I asked.

‘He arrived a few minutes later.'

‘And?' I was growing more and more frustrated. Thomas Bignell thought and spoke at the snail's pace of the true countryman. It made me realize again how long it was since I had lived there.

‘Well, first, he admitted that he was the person who'd arranged to keep me at Croxcombe overnight. Then he said he thought there was someone still up and about. He felt sure he had heard someone moving, so it was better if we went outside where no one could overhear us. It was a warm night, so we'd take no harm. He said he'd just go out and look around to make certain there was no one there, and when he was satisfied he'd come back and fetch me.'

‘And did he? Come back and fetch you?' I wanted to know, suspecting what his answer would be.

The butcher shook his head. ‘No, he never returned.'

It was Dame Audrea who eventually broke the silence. ‘Did you not wonder what had happened to him?'

‘Of course I did. At first, I waited, thinking that perhaps someone had been outside and that Master Bellknapp had been forced to hide until whoever it was went back to bed …'

‘No one came in through the hall?' I asked, but the butcher shook his head.

‘No one. Nor did I see anyone about when I went to look for Master Bellknapp.'

‘When you failed to find my son, what did you think had happened to him?' the dame asked.

I frowned at her, displeased. I felt I was losing control of this enquiry, and I didn't like it.

Thomas Bignell scratched his stomach and looked unhappy. ‘I didn't know. I … I just supposed he'd either changed his mind or had been playing a joke on me. After a while, I went back to bed.'

‘You didn't search for Master Bellknapp?' This time, I made certain I was first with the question.

‘Oh, I looked around a bit,' the butcher asserted. ‘Of course I did. What do you take me for? I wandered about for some time, but I couldn't see him anywhere and it was getting chilly. So, like I said, I returned to bed. I thought Master Bellknapp would explain matters in the morning.'

‘Did you walk along the moat at all?'

‘Yes, a little way. And round by the stables and the animal pens and Dame Audrea's flower garden, but he was nowhere to be seen. He'd completely vanished.'

‘Did you hear or see anything? Did you have any suspicion that someone else was out of doors last night?' I queried.

Thomas Bignell chewed his lower lip. ‘I honestly don't know. I was extremely confused by that time. I couldn't work out what game Master Bellknapp was playing with me. If it was true that he really had gone to such lengths to keep me here at Croxcombe overnight, why had he suddenly disappeared without saying a word of what he wanted to tell me? To say truth' – the butcher shuffled his feet awkwardly and avoided Dame Audrea's eyes – ‘I was beginning to get nervous. It – it crossed my mind that maybe it was all a ruse to do me some harm.'

‘Why on earth would Anthony wish to do you harm?' the dame demanded. ‘I'm not denying that he had a vicious streak in him – extremely vicious, as I've already told Master Chapman – but he had no grudge against you, Master Bignell.' Her eyes narrowed. ‘On the other hand, did you have any reason to quarrel with him? We only have your word for Anthony's reason for wanting to speak privately with you. It might be that he was trying to warn you not about Master Micheldever's conduct, but about Rose's. I have frequently observed that she is far too familiar with other men; that she encourages their attentions. Maybe my son wished to bring this fact to your notice. Maybe you took exception to what he said and got angry. Angrier than you intended. Perhaps it was you who hit him on the back of the head and pushed him into the moat to drown.'

The butcher was aghast. ‘No, no! I assure you! Everything happened exactly as I have described it.' He flushed a deep, dark red as the Dame's strictures on his daughter sank in. ‘And my Rose is a good girl! A bit young and flighty as yet, but she'll settle down and be a good wife to Ned, you'll see. You've no cause to blacken her name like that.'

Dame Audrea was plainly unused to being addressed in such a forthright manner, and it was her turn to look deeply affronted. I stepped in quickly to avert a full-blown confrontation between them.

‘Lady, it's too soon to be accusing anyone of Master Bellknapp's murder. You've called me back to investigate his death, so I suggest, with your permission, that I get on with doing just that. There are many people in this house who have openly expressed a desire to see your elder son dead, but, so far as I know, Master Bignell is not one of them. However, that doesn't necessarily make him innocent, as you have so rightly pointed out. But at present, I suspect everyone and no one.'

Dame Audrea hesitated, momentarily uncertain whether or not to take umbrage at what she undoubtedly saw as my impertinence, but in the end convinced herself that I had meant no offence and that little else could be expected from an ignorant pedlar.

‘Very well,' she agreed. ‘You may proceed.'

‘And you haven't forgotten our bargain?' I reminded her.

‘I never forget bargains,' she snapped. ‘My word is my word. But just remember that there are two sides to every bargain. Now, I have household tasks to see to. I shall leave you to your work.'

She swept out – there was no other word for it, the skirt of her gown billowing around her like a wind-filled sail – leaving Master Bignell and myself in possession of the solar.

‘I-I've told you the truth, Master Chapman,' the butcher stammered. He put a hand to his forehead. ‘Do you think … I mean, is it possible that Anthony Bellknapp was being murdered while I was waiting for him in the hall?' He turned even paler than he was already. ‘Or even while I was outside looking for him?'

There was no point in trying to spare his feelings.

‘I'm afraid so,' I said.

He gave a gasp and his knees seemed ready to buckle. He was either genuinely distressed or a brilliant dissimulator. On the whole, I was inclined to the first opinion and to eliminate him from my list of suspects. He had not intended to stay the previous night at Croxcombe and, apparently on Anthony's own confession, had been tricked into remaining. But before I could suggest that the family was allowed to depart and return home to Wells, I needed to speak to both Ronan Bignell and his mother.

They were waiting anxiously outside, seated on the bench beneath the hall window, and Mistress Bignell rose in some agitation as we approached. She told me, without being asked, that the three of them, her husband, her son and herself, had shared the same bed and that Thomas had confided in them from the start about his nocturnal meeting with Anthony Bellknapp, and the reason for it.

‘You didn't advise against it?' I asked.

‘Of course not. If Ned Micheldever is being unkind to our Rose, we ought to know about it.'

‘If it's true, he'll have me to reckon with,' grunted Ronan.

His mother hushed him. ‘To be honest, Chapman, I don't know that I believed Master Bellknapp, but Thomas had to listen to what he had to say, now didn't he? But why it had to be said in such secrecy, I'm sure I don't know.'

Neither did I, and it was something that bothered me more than a little.

‘When Master Bignell returned and told you what had happened, what did you think?'

The goodwife shook her head. ‘I didn't know what to think. I suppose I thought it some kind of a joke on Master Bellknapp's part. It never entered my head that any harm could have come to him.'

‘And your son didn't leave the bedchamber while your husband was away?'

She shook her head. I thanked her and promised to speak to Dame Audrea about permitting the three of them to leave. Then I went back into the hall, where Anthony's shrouded form was laid out on one of the trestle tables. George Applegarth was keeping watch beside it. As I drew near, he raised his eyes to mine and I saw from his puffy lids and the tear stains on his cheeks that he had been crying.

We stared at each other for a long moment across the body. Then, without being asked, the steward pulled back the covering sheet and turned the head to one side so that I could see for myself the bloody contusion at the base of the skull.

‘What was it done with, do you think?'

‘A very heavy weapon.' His tone was dry, as one answering a foolish question.

‘Do you know of such a weapon?'

He shrugged. ‘A good-sized tree branch would have been sufficient. Or an iron skillet from the kitchen. Or one of those heavy-based brass pots that Dame Audrea occasionally uses for flowers that she brings into the house. There must be any number of things that could have been used.' He gave me a wintry smile. ‘And if you're going to ask me where I was last night and what I was doing, I can only say that I was asleep in my bed. But if you ask me to prove it, I cannot. I have no witness. Nor have had,' he added bitterly, ‘since my Jenny died.'

He stayed a moment or two longer, staring down into the dead man's face, before drawing the sheet over it again.

‘So' – he raised his head with a challenging look – ‘what have you discovered so far, Master Chapman?'

I informed him of Master Bignell's part in the night's proceedings, and saw him frown.

‘You think it an unlikely story?'

The steward grimaced. ‘Perhaps. But I see no reason why Master Bignell should make it up, unless …' He did not finish the sentence.

‘Not the obvious killer, surely?' I queried. ‘There are at least four or five others in this house who have far better reasons for wanting Anthony dead than the butcher and his family.'

George Applegarth smiled faintly. ‘Very true. But murder is sometimes done on impulse.'

‘I agree. But not, I think, in this case. The Bignells were tricked into remaining at Croxcombe last night, and if Thomas Bignell is to be believed, it was Anthony's doing.'

‘And is he to be believed, do you think?'

‘That's easily discovered. I shall visit Hamo Gough before supper and ask him who paid him to arrange the deception. There's no reason that I can see, not now that Master Bellknapp's dead, why Hamo shouldn't admit the truth.' I paused, biting my inner lip and frowning.

‘Is something bothering you?' the steward asked.

I hesitated, deliberating whether or not to share my doubts with a man whose opinion and judgement I valued; but in the end, I decided against it. It was better to keep my own counsel for the present at least. But I felt in my bones that there was something wrong with Master Bignell's version of events; not in itself, for I was convinced that he had told the truth as far as he knew it. But his wife had unerringly put her finger on the story's weakness when she asked why Anthony Bellknapp had needed to arrange a meeting with Thomas after everyone else was in bed. Whatever he had had to say regarding Rose's marriage to the receiver, could as well have been said during the day, when they had been walking together beside the moat. It didn't make sense. And I felt sure that only when it did, would I be able to discover the identity of the murderer.