The Tolls of Death: (Knights Templar 17) (48 page)

At breakfast, Anne watched her husband cautiously. He still loved her, she was sure, but his discovery of her unfaithfulness had hurt him dreadfully, as it must. There weren’t enough words for her to explain how the emptiness of loss had affected her when she convinced herself that he was dead, nor that she still loved him. It was too late for all that. All she could do was wait, and hope, that he would rediscover his love for her.

At their table was a special guest. Gervase, clad in clean tunic but looking pale and fraught, was at his side as usual, but today without a trencher in front of him. The food was all for other people. Again Gervase must endure hunger, knowing that the only offering for him would be the stale, leftover crusts.

Nicholas finished his meal, and then stared at Gervase blankly for a long time, his expression utterly unfathomable. Then, ‘So, are you ready to answer the Coroner?’

‘Of course I am. I’ll tell him the truth.’

Gervase couldn’t meet his eye. Anne felt a fleeting sympathy for him, trapped here, with no way out. His face was mottled and bruised from the blows Nicholas had aimed at him yesterday, although Warin had ensured that he was safe enough when he returned to the castle. Warin said he wanted Gervase alive at least until he could brief Warin on the papers and records of the manor. The steward was a pitiful creature now, and the Lady Anne shuddered to see him.

‘In front of the vill?’ Nicholas rasped. ‘You’d shame her like that?’

Anne could feel her face flush. She put a hand on her belly, the other on the table to steady herself. Would Gervase really do that – confess his crime with her, her adultery, before the whole mass of peasants and farmers? She’d never be able to look the villeins in the eye again.

Gervase looked unhappy. ‘I wish … I am so sorry, Nicholas. This shouldn’t have happened. I didn’t mean it to … It was just something that—’

‘Will you shame her before the vill?’

‘I don’t want to, I hate the idea!’ Gervase was staring at
her
now, a kind of desperation in his eyes, the eyes of a stag at bay before the hunters rode in with their lances.

‘
Will you shame her, I asked!’
Nicholas rasped.

‘I’ll have to tell the truth. There have been enough lies.’

‘I see,’ Nicholas said, and there was a sudden calmness in his voice. His two fists were set upon the tabletop and he leaned back, studying the man beside him with loathing. Then he almost lazily slammed a fist into Gervase’s already broken nose.

The steward was hurled from his stool, weeping as the blood flew from his nostrils. He gave a shrill cry, making the blood bubble, then rolled on to all fours and vomited.

Nicholas stood and walked about him, and then lifted a boot and kicked with all the full force of his malice. Anne winced as she saw the boot crashing into the man’s belly, and had to cover her eyes. She couldn’t bear to see any man suffer, nor could she bear to see the hatred in her own husband’s face.

‘Puke it up, churl! And get used to pain, because if I see you accuse my lady of adultery in front of the jury, I’ll ensure you receive more suffering than you could ever imagine!’

Gervase toppled, choking, to his side.

‘My wife means more to me than anything. I’ll protect her with the full extent of my power, and if that means I have to kill you, I
will
!’

Suddenly, Nicholas was overcome with uncontrollable rage. He kicked Gervase again and again, and Anne had to cover her eyes and ears as best she could against the terrible cries of the steward as the heavy boot crashed into his belly and breast, but when she heard his armbone crack with a noise like a mace striking a shield, she fled from the room even as Warin and Richer stormed in and pulled the castellan away.

Simon and Baldwin were already at the vill’s church house; they’d been there since a little after dawn. Simon was unhappy to be up at such an unpleasant hour for the second day running, but the urgency of their need to learn the truth bore them both up. They had returned to the castle to hear that Ivo had caught the murderer. He was waiting in the hall to explain what had happened.

The culprit was being held in the church house, and Baldwin had been all for going straight to him, but Ivo said that he’d knocked the man out with an iron bar, and Simon had persuaded Baldwin both to stop interrogating Ivo, who was as pale as a candle from loss of blood, and to forget the idea of questioning a man who had almost had his head crushed. Baldwin had reluctantly agreed to leave things until next morning. Alexander wasn’t going to escape them, after all.

But now, hurrying to the church house, he experienced an overwhelming urge to learn what this murderer could tell him. The man had killed so many, including his own wife, and the motives for the crimes were, at best, nebulous.

They thundered on the door, and a slightly bloodshot eye peered out at them before the door opened. A scruffy peasant yawned widely to display only five gleaming teeth, shuffled to lock the door again, and then led them to the figure bound on the rushes.

Baldwin knelt. ‘Alexander?’

‘Why, Keeper! You thought to come and visit me? That was kind,’ Alexander said. ‘Please – will you tell this churl to release me at once! He doesn’t seem to realise I’m the Constable here!’

‘We’ll arrange for your release as soon as we can,’ Baldwin said. ‘But you have to tell us what has happened.’

‘It was the steward,’ Alexander said quickly. ‘I saw him. Last night, he was trying to kill Julia – obviously he wanted to kill all the women he had polluted and got in pup, to try to atone for his fornication. I saw him entering the priest’s house, so I smashed down the door to arrest him, when some fool ran me down and broke my head …’

‘He wasn’t there, Alexander,’ Baldwin said gently. ‘The man trying to break in to hurt Julia was you. We know that. We have witnesses.’

‘No, that’s wrong.’

‘Why did you kill your brother?’

‘Serlo?’ Alexander looked up at him and tears started. ‘I loved him. Always had. Serlo was my little brother, my best friend. I didn’t want to see him hurt in any way.’

‘Why kill him then?’

‘He … It was Richer, because Richer heard Serlo fired his parents’ house. Richer killed him.’

‘Richer didn’t realise Serlo had done that,’ Baldwin said, his voice level and calm.

Simon stood behind Baldwin. Alexander was by turns calm, then furious; he hardly seemed to know his own mind, and to Simon this was the most terrifying thing: the man had lost his reason.

Baldwin was continuing just as patiently. ‘Why did Athelina die, Alexander? Was it because of the money?’

‘Of course it was! Serlo was furious with her. Do you know what he said to her? He said that she should go and whore, if she couldn’t find the cash. And do you know, she tried! The bitch even tried it on with me – the Constable. It wasn’t our fault, was it, if her man had left her high and dry? No. But she refused to clear off. Dug her heels in. We couldn’t allow that. We needed the money. I mean,
Serlo
did.’

Even the doorman heard that, the way that the miller’s name was added as an afterthought.

‘Serlo needed money to pay his fines and bills, didn’t he?’ Baldwin said.

‘Yes. I helped as far as I could, of course, because he was my kid brother, but there’s only so much a man can … and he was proud, you see. Serlo didn’t like taking charity. Last time I offered him money, he was upset. Very upset. He threw his plate across the room and said he didn’t need my alms. I can see why, of course. Letty was hurt, though. Well, she can’t understand what it’s like, having a brother. She never was so close to her family.’

‘Did you kill her because of that?’ Baldwin asked.

‘Kill Letty?
’ Alexander peered up at him in amazement. ‘How could I do that? I love her. She’s the only bright light in my life, now Serlo’s dead. Poor Serlo.’ He began to sob, then stopped abruptly.

‘It must have been very difficult,’ Baldwin observed.

‘What?’

‘Having a child by Matty, when Letty couldn’t conceive.’

‘My Danny was no trouble.’

Simon felt his heart thunder. This was the proof, at last!

Baldwin nodded understandingly. ‘But you were terribly hurt by Serlo’s callous attitude after Danny died so tragically.’

‘It was a very bad time,’ Alexander agreed. ‘Serlo didn’t understand why I was so upset.’

‘So why did you kill Serlo?’

Alexander looked as though he was about to deny it, but then his head dropped slightly and he stared at the floor. There came a time, Simon had observed, when a man stopped bothering to deny what was so obviously true, and this appeared to be still more the case with Alexander. If his mind was twisted and corrupted with madness, how much more difficult was it for him to invent a new tale? The truth was easier.

‘He proved that he didn’t deserve to continue living. I was hurt when he made disparaging comments about my son, my only son; I was hurt again when I heard he’d been taking gifts from people to escape the tolls, because that was taking money from my pocket too; and then I saw that he couldn’t even protect his own boy. He left Aumie and Ham alone, and cost one of them his life. A man who was so selfish and stupid didn’t deserve to live. I killed him, and I’d do it again.’

‘And you went on to try to kill Julia. What had she done to you?’

‘That slut? I thought if she died, it would prove that Gervase was guilty. He deserved to suffer anyway, for his disloyalty. Adultery is a terrible thing.’

‘
You
committed adultery. You fathered Danny on Matty,’ Simon said.

‘That was different. She was only a peasant – little better than a whore. Lady Anne is the wife to the castellan. Gervase deserved his punishment! So did Julia. She gave birth to that boy. She was no better than any other stale.’

‘Men have said that they saw Serlo near Richer’s house when it was burned,’ Baldwin said slowly. ‘I don’t think he set fire to it, though.’

‘Serlo? He couldn’t have – he didn’t have the guts. Me, I have always been able to fight back when someone tries to ruin me. That fool Richer made sure that Serlo and I were thrashed when he let our beast loose. The lord of the manor took it for himself, and my father beat us so furiously, I had thought he might kill us. At the harvest, when all were busy in the fields, I went to Richer’s house and set it alight. Serlo was nearby, but when he saw it was ablaze, he ran to fetch help and put it out, the idiot! I loved him, you know, but he was so stupid! His negligence cost me my son, and then he allowed his own son to die. How could I let him live after that?’

‘What about your wife?’

‘You asked me that before! What of her? She would keep going on and on about things … I put her in a trunk to keep her quiet, that’s all. I wouldn’t hurt my Letty. It’s she who kept me sane after Danny’s death. I love her.’

‘What did she go on about?’

‘Oh, she knew I’d killed Serlo. There was blood on my coat, you see, and she realised when she heard that Serlo was dead, that I must have done it. She wanted me to confess to Adam, to do a penance, but like I said to her, I wasn’t going to do that, not when the man was openly carrying on with that slut in his own house. Oh no, I wasn’t going to confess anything to
him
. But she would keep going on and on at me about it. In the end, I was so angry, I shut her in the chest in my strongroom.’

‘You killed her first. You cut her throat.’

‘
No!
’ Alexander looked at him with anger in his eyes. ‘You’re lying. She’s fine, she’s just resting. I couldn’t hurt my Letty. I love her.’

Just as you loved your brother, Simon thought.

There were many people who declared that, since Alexander was so obviously insane, they should take pity on his soul. The Bishop of Exeter himself was petitioned to ensure mercy was granted to him, but then one morning Alexander was found dead, hanging in his cell by the thongs which had bound his hosen to his tunic. He had spent the evening carefully pulling them free, one by one, and tying them together to fashion a rough noose.

There was no one to grieve for him. Sir Jules certainly didn’t when he went to view the body. To him, the Constable was just one more corpse. Already he had seen more than he wanted to, and at least this was less traumatic – a convicted murderer and madman was not the sort of victim Jules could lose sleep over. It was other deaths that stuck in his memory and returned in his dreams to haunt him. Already he had told his Sheriff that he didn’t want to continue in his post, and so far as he was concerned, the sooner the Sheriff could find another fool to take on this thankless job, the better.

Roger didn’t seem bothered to learn that his Coroner was going to resign. He merely shrugged. ‘Oh well. I’ll just have to break in another one, then.’

Gervase had been in the hall that day, and heard his words. Sir Jules had looked offended, drawing himself up to his full height before stalking away. Roger shook his head. ‘At least there’s a chance I’ll get a man with some brains this time.’

‘Sir Jules wasn’t the brightest?’

‘Not in my experience. He needs a war to blood him. There hasn’t been a decent chance to fight since the King stopped tournaments. That’s what Sir Jules needs – an opportunity to prove himself in the lists, so he could come to the job with an experience of death and the reasons why people kill.’