The Cross Legged Knight (Owen Archer Book 8)

by Candace Robb

  ‘I am glad to find you alone.’ Owen settled down at one end of the bench, straddling it, gesturing for Fitzbaldric to resume his seat.

  ‘I cannot think what else I might tell you, Captain.’ The merchant eased himself down, allowing Owen his profile as he moved gingerly, finding a comfortable balance.

  ‘Do you play me false, Master Fitzbaldric?’

  The merchant bristled with indignation, turning too suddenly. ‘What is this?’ But his eyes were more wary than angry, or perhaps it was pain Owen was reading.

  He felt no sympathy. ‘It is about the evening of the fire. You left the Dales’ hall for a long while, your fellows have said. What were you doing all that time?’

  Fitzbaldric’s breathing altered slightly. ‘I… I was in the Dales’ yard, relieving myself. It was dark, the yard unfamiliar.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘I heard a shout, or a cry. Or I thought I did – that is why I have not mentioned it before, I am not certain what I heard.’

  ‘Continue.’

  ‘I ran to the Dales’ gate off Stonegate and saw someone running off towards St Helen’s Square.’

  Corm’s running man. ‘You have not spoken of this before.’

  ‘Everything happened at once.’

  ‘Could you tell whether it was a man or woman?’

  ‘A man, I am sure of it. The shout – or whatever the sound was – had come from Petergate, in the direction of my house – or the bishop’s, of course – so I stepped out into the street, rounded the corner and it seemed to me the air was too smoky. By the time I reached the house, Poins was being pulled from the burning undercroft.’ Fitzbaldric wiped his brow.

  If the shout had been Corm’s alarm, the running man had taken a long while to run round the corner from the bishop’s house to the Dales’. Corm had seen the running man, then carried the four sacks of grain down the alley one at a time. All that before noticing the fire and shouting for help. ‘You are certain of how it happened? You heard the shout, then saw the man?’

  ‘I am. I had no cause to look out on the street but for the shout.’ Fitzbaldric grew uncomfortable under Owen’s study. ‘Others must have seen him, surely,’ he said in a weak voice.

  ‘One person has mentioned a man running, but you disagree on the sequence of events.’

  ‘What are you implying, Captain?’

  ‘You should have told me of this at once.’

  ‘I told you, I was unsure what I had heard.’

  ‘His Grace the Archbishop is uneasy about the fire, as is the bishop.’

  ‘I cannot fault them in that. But what of us, what we have suffered?’

  ‘Did you keep the undercroft locked?’

  Fitzbaldric turned slightly on the bench, dipping his head to look into Owen’s eye. ‘We did.’

  ‘Did your wife keep the key on her person?’

  ‘No, we kept it on a hook in the hall, as we do at home in the country. Now look, you …’

  ‘How long has Poins been in your service?’

  ‘What are you getting at?’

  ‘The bishop kept records in the undercroft, as you know. It is possible the fire might have been no accident.’

  ‘But you cannot think Poins would set fire to the house? What would he profit by such a deed?’

  ‘What might anyone?’

  Fitzbaldric began to rise, but sat back down with a groan, pressing his hands on his thighs. ‘Cursed back. What are you saying? Is it me or Poins you are accusing? I might ask you why you took Poins in, only to pack him off the very next day.’ He caught his breath, eased it out slowly. ‘Forgive me. The pain steals all courtesy from my tongue. I am not myself. But by the rood, Adeline and I have lost everything we had brought with us to York, Captain.’

  ‘It is more than a fire that I am investigating.’

  Fitzbaldric wiped his brow. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Cisotta was dead before the fire began.’

  The merchant froze, hand halfway from brow. Even his wheezy breath paused. ‘Christ have mercy,’ he whispered at last. He held his back and shifted his weight so that he could look Owen in the eye. He looked haggard and frightened. ‘We speak of murder?’

  ‘We do.’

  ‘Oh, dear Lord.’ Fitzbaldric took off his velvet cap, dabbed his balding head with a cloth, set it back on his head. ‘A murder,’ he mumbled as if to himself.

  Owen noticed Adeline Fitzbaldric standing in the porch doorway. She nodded to him and approached, her servant May at her heels.

  ‘Godwin, Captain,’ Adeline said, joining them.

  May placed a stool near the bench, but Fitzbaldric had turned too quickly to see his wife and his face now crumpled with pain. Adeline bent to him. She was a sallow-faced woman with a shadowy down on her upper lip and dark hair that dipped into a widow’s peak above her brows. She was finely dressed, in autumn colours, gold and brown. As far as Owen knew, the couple had not yet been given access to the ruined house, yet Adeline had an elegant wardrobe. Perhaps Julia Dale had loaned her the gown. He could imagine her in it.

  ‘What upset my husband?’ Adeline demanded.

  As if all had been well for Fitzbaldric until Owen appeared. ‘I regret imposing on him when he is in pain, but my business cannot wait, Mistress Fitzbaldric.’

  ‘The body in the undercroft.’ Fitzbaldric frowned and shook his head as if searching for the right words. ‘Mistress Cisotta was not accidentally caught in the fire, Adeline. She was – she had been murdered before it began.’ His voice had grown so quiet that his wife moved towards him to hear.

  The maidservant groaned, then covered her mouth as if embarrassed to have made a sound.

  Adeline glanced from her husband to Owen. ‘In truth? You know this?’

  Owen nodded.

  She took a few steps to the side, reached out to a late rose, cupped it in her hand. Owen had noted that her movement and voice were measured, her eyes shrewd. With a sigh she let go of the rose, turned to regard Owen. Her expression was troubled. ‘We did not know her, Captain. How did a stranger come to be murdered in our house?’

  ‘Adeline,’ Fitzbaldric said softly, ‘that we did not know her does not make her any less dead.’

  ‘For the love of God, I am not simple.’ She pressed a hand to her forehead. ‘But how can we help the captain if we did not even know the woman?’

  ‘Had you been unwell, perhaps mentioned the need for a healer to someone?’ Owen asked.

  ‘I had no need for a midwife.’ Still Adeline pressed her forehead. ‘I must think.’

  ‘She did not confine herself to midwifery,’ said Fitzbaldric.

  Adeline turned to her husband. ‘We had no need of a healer before the fire, Godwin.’

  ‘Perhaps one of your servants?’ Owen suggested.

  Adeline glanced over at May. ‘My servants know to come to me, is that not so, May?’

  May stood with folded hands, her eyes averted, and nodded shyly. She was a plain woman past the blush of youth. Her breath sounded laboured, her cheeks unhealthily flushed in her pale face.

  ‘What is the condition of the bishop’s townhouse?’ Adeline asked, filling the momentary silence. ‘Will it be possible for us to return at all? At least to salvage some of our clothing, our furniture? Or is it all gone?’ Now she looked less chilly, less distracted.

  ‘I have not been in the house since the fire,’ Owen said. ‘The bishop will be seeing to that. He will certainly keep you informed.’

  ‘Of course.’ Adeline paused beside her husband, glanced at the space on the bench Owen had vacated and smoothed the back of her gown as if to sit, but did not. Instead she surveyed the garden while idly fingering the buttons that ran down the bodice of her dress. Owen had guessed her to be close to his own age, but in the daylight he thought her younger, as young as thirty. Her hands were certainly those of a younger woman than he had at first thought her. ‘I should think the bishop is concerned about the records his men were working with,’ she said.

/>   At least she had brought the conversation round to something useful, but her lack of emotion was more interesting to Owen at the moment than anything she said.

  Fitzbaldric gleaned something from Owen’s expression. ‘Have you quite understood, Adeline? The bishop had more important things on his mind than the old records in the undercroft, and so have we. A woman was murdered in the very house in which we were living.’

  ‘I have heard you, Godwin, and I thank the Lord that we are not still in a house where someone was murdered. But our lives must go on, and I am certain the bishop will also wish to retrieve what he may.’

  Owen wondered at the woman’s indifference. If it was an act meant to hide her true feelings, she was a consummate actress.

  ‘Did Bishop William’s clerks have access to the undercroft?’ Owen asked. ‘Did Guy and Alain have a key?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Fitzbaldric, ‘the bishop’s key.’

  ‘How often were they at the house?’ Owen enquired, looking at Adeline.

  She gave him a blank look. ‘I would not know.’

  Fitzbaldric shook his head.

  Owen addressed May, who now stood behind the bench before which her mistress still hovered. ‘You perhaps spent more time in the undercroft?’

  May crossed herself. ‘I did, Captain, but I did not like it down there, it was so dark and –’ She clamped her mouth shut when she glanced at her mistress and saw the frown she was throwing her. ‘That poor woman,’ she murmured.

  ‘We were speaking of the bishop’s clerks,’ Owen reminded her, though he was sorry not to hear what else she had wished to say.

  She glanced at Adeline, who nodded once. ‘Yes, they were often there in the undercroft, Captain, in the records room.’

  ‘Would they stay long?’

  ‘I was not often down there so long as they, Captain.’

  Adeline at last settled on the bench beside her husband. She smiled at Owen. ‘You will find us most co-operative.’

  ‘I am grateful, Mistress Fitzbaldric.’ It was a polite lie. He felt he had lost control of the situation the moment she joined them. He drew the belt out of his scrip. ‘Is this familiar?’

  Adeline glanced at it. ‘No. Not at all. Should it be?’

  ‘Have you ever seen this belt, May?’

  The maid leaned towards it slightly, shook her head. ‘No, Captain.’

  He glanced at Fitzbaldric, who merely shook his head.

  Owen was satisfied for the moment. He put the belt away, his thoughts elsewhere. ‘When did you tell your servants of the feast the Dales were hosting in your honour, Mistress Fitzbaldric?’

  ‘That is it?’ she said. ‘We are to be left mystified about the belt?’

  ‘For now, yes.’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘How annoying.’ She smoothed the skirt of her gown. ‘But perhaps that is your purpose.’

  ‘I asked if you could …’

  ‘Yes, you are asking when they knew the house was to be empty for the evening.’

  ‘Or spoke of it to others,’ Owen said, glancing at May, who was gazing upwards, shading her eyes with one hand, her expression unreadable.

  ‘My servants are trustworthy, Captain.’

  ‘A passing comment is all someone seeking the information might need,’ said Owen. ‘May?’

  The maidservant straightened and moved her gaze to Owen, with a reluctance, it seemed to him. ‘Sir?’

  ‘Do you recall mentioning the dinner to anyone? Perhaps proud that your master and mistress were being so honoured?’

  She was facing the windows, the sun in her eyes. She lifted a hand to shield them. ‘Oh no, no, I know no one here, nor would I boast among fellow servants.’ She took a breath. ‘I am most grateful for what you did, carrying me from the fire,’ she added softly.

  ‘Well spoken, May,’ said Adeline. ‘Is there anything more, Captain?’

  ‘For May, yes. How did you come to be trapped up in the solar?’

  ‘I was asleep. I knew Poins was in the house, so I thought I might lie down …’ Her voice trailed off as she dabbed her eyes with her apron.

  ‘You’d cut yourself that evening,’ Owen said. ‘There was blood on your face. Yet I see no evidence of it now.’

  May had moved to a better angle but still needed to shield her eyes. ‘I have many scratches on my arms and legs – the blood must have come from them.’

  ‘I remember the blood, Captain,’ Adeline said, glancing back at her maid. ‘Surely there are stains on your gown, May?’

  ‘There were many stains, most of water and ash, Mistress. I scrubbed them out as best I could that night with Bolton’s help.’

  ‘May is a good laundress,’ said Adeline, but her expression was one of puzzlement.

  Owen wondered whether it would be useful to speak with Adeline privately about the maid. Something bothered him, but it might merely be the unusual resilience of Adeline that unsettled him. ‘Did Poins have a visitor that evening?’

  May shook her head.

  ‘Had he been working in the undercroft?’

  ‘No. He was in the hall when I went above.’

  ‘Is he fond of women?’

  The maid blushed. ‘I would not know.’

  ‘Are you friends with Poins?’

  ‘I tolerate nothing improper, Captain,’ Adeline said, her voice sharp.

  ‘How is Poins today, May?’ Owen asked, trying another path.

  The maid looked down at her hands. ‘I have not seen him since that night,’ she said in a quiet voice.

  ‘What is this? When he is here at the palace? Are you not concerned for him?’

  Her head came up. ‘I am!’ Her face was flushed.

  ‘Captain’ – Adeline rose abruptly – ‘that is enough.’

  ‘Patience, Adeline,’ Fitzbaldric urged, reaching for her elbow.

  Adeline bristled. ‘May has been busy helping me settle here. I thought it best that she not upset herself with Poins’s condition.’

  ‘And you, have you sat with him, Mistress Fitzbaldric?’ Owen asked. She was already angry, so he saw no benefit in mincing.

  Gracefully resuming her seat beside her husband, Adeline shook her head, dropped her eyes to her folded hands. ‘God help me, but I cannot bear to see his suffering.’

  ‘Nor should you need to,’ Fitzbaldric said, putting a protective hand over hers.

  Adeline smiled up at her husband, tears shimmering in her eyes.

  Owen doubted that the woman required the protection Fitzbaldric seemed so anxious to give her.

  Despite Eudo’s frequent rebellion against his guild’s rules, his fellow tawyers had arranged for the mourners to dine in the hall of an alewife, with guild dues paying for the small feast. Cisotta’s sister, Eudo’s cousin, and their spouses, the master of the tawyers’ guild and several members, as well as some of Eudo’s neighbours accompanied the family to the house on Girdlergate. Lucie offered to take the children home, but at their looks of disappointment their aunt insisted they partake in the feast. ‘They deserve a reward for tolerating Father John’s unpleasant voice,’ she said, ‘and what they have been eating for the past few days I do not care to think about.’

  ‘A neighbour has been seeing to such things,’ Lucie said.

  ‘It is not for neighbours but for family to see to such things,’ the cousin said.

  Lucie had hoped to resume her conversation with Anna about the gloves Cisotta had hidden in the dresser. The information might be of use to Owen. She considered departing and returning later, but in the end she remained, honouring Cisotta’s memory. Anna stayed close to her, but it was not the place in which to talk of such matters, with too many curious ears.

  At first the girl seemed reluctant to partake in the feast, but her brothers’ cries of delight soon stimulated her appetite. Lucie imagined the children had never had eel, pigeon, and venison in a single week much less a single sitting. By the end of the meal Henry and Ned had fallen asleep with their heads on their aunt’s la
p and Anna with her head on Lucie’s.

  It was not until the family returned home that Lucie was able to talk to Anna. Eudo settled into a chair near the fire circle, with little Will on his lap, and picked up a tankard of ale to resume the drinking he’d begun at the meal.

  Lucie and Anna sat well away from him, talking about the relatives and their promises of help. Anna expressed concern that help would translate to interfering, but Lucie reminded the already exhausted child that it was difficult even for an adult to run a household. Gradually Lucie led the conversation back to the gloves and the hides.

  ‘I told you all I knew of it, Mistress Wilton. Ma didn’t say any more.’

  ‘After your mother spoke with the stranger in the kitchen yard, how did she behave?’

  Anna shrugged. ‘She was glad I had put away the things we’d brought from the market.’

  ‘Did she seem excited? Upset?’

  ‘She just went on with chores.’

  ‘When she went out the evening of the fire, what did she take with her?’

  ‘Her basket.’

  ‘Did you see what she put into it?’

  Anna shook her head. ‘Little Will was crying and Pa was shouting from the shop to keep him quiet because he had a customer.’ She took a deep breath, blotted her eyes with her apron. ‘It would help if I could remember what she put in the basket, wouldn’t it?’

  She was a remarkable child, both clever and courageous.

  ‘It might.’

  Anna faced the dresser, ran her hands slowly along the row of jars and bottles. ‘I remember her picking up some cloths, then putting them back.’ She lingered over a jar, moved on, backtracked, then at last dropped her hand to her side. ‘I was too busy with little Will.’ Her voice broke.

  Lucie crouched down and gathered Anna in her arms. ‘Forgive me for making you try to remember.’

  The girl clung to Lucie, her reserve gone.

  Eudo put down his tankard and carried Will, now sleeping, to the corner bed, then came over to them. ‘What is this? Why did you make her cry?’

  ‘It is good for her, Eudo. She has had to be strong for the boys. Just for now, she can be a child, weep for her mother.’

  He held Lucie’s eyes for a moment, then turned away as his face began to dissolve in his own grief. ‘Aye, well, don’t you leave her like that. See that she’s calmed before you go.’