A Plague of Poison

by Maureen Ash

  Her dark eyes narrowed in disgust. “She told us afterwards that when she begged him to stop it seemed to inflame him further, and he held his hand over her mouth so she couldn’t cry out to the stewe-keeper for help. That’s the reason I remember him. I’ll never forget the bruises that were on her body. He wasn’t a man, he was a beast.”

  Twenty

  THE RETURN Of THE SHERIFF HAD CAUSED THE atmosphere in the town to change yet again. By the next day, and for the first time that any could remember, Gerard Camville’s presence was welcomed by the people of Lincoln, and they contrarily lauded his reputation for dealing out summary justice without regard for clemency. Instead of the self-righteous outrage that had dominated their attitude when they had heard news of the potter’s arrest, the mood was now one of suppressed excitement. As news of the sheriff’s intention to hold his court spread, all of the town’s citizens looked forward with a macabre pleasure to seeing the potter sentenced to dangle from the end of a rope.

  Bascot looked at Gianni. They were sitting in their sleeping chamber at the top of the old keep, and the boy was practicing his letters on one of the pieces of parchment Bascot had bought for him a few weeks before, copying out some basic phrases of Latin grammar that the Templar had penned for him. Bascot noticed that he was doing it in a desultory fashion far removed from the eager industry he had shown throughout the dreary months of winter.

  It had only been since they had visited the apiary that Gianni had been subdued, and the Templar knew that the plight of the beekeeper’s family had struck a chord of pity in Gianni’s heart. He suspected that the sympathy the boy felt was laced with a resurgence of his own fears and a remembrance of the time before Bascot had found him homeless and starving on a wharf in Palermo. The Templar was well aware that his young servant feared the loss of his master’s patronage; that had been made plain last year when Gianni had taken great risks with his own safety to make his services valuable to Nicolaa de la Haye in the hope that she would find him a place in her retinue. Bascot was tempted to tell the boy of his plans to leave the Order to give him reassurance, but until he had been to London and discussed the matter with Master Berard, he was reluctant to do so. The oath that he had taken when he joined the Order had included the avowal that if he should ever decide to leave the brotherhood, he would enter a monastic order that held to a stricter regime than its own. He hoped that the influence of King John and Nicolaa de la Haye would help to alleviate the severity of such a penance, but it was still entirely possible that another act of contrition would be levied, and that could include a pilgrimage that would be of some months’ duration or a long period of solitary reflection in a hermit’s cell. His own conscience dictated that he would have to undergo whatever expiation was required, and he would ensure that Gianni was taken care of during the time he fulfilled it, but he did not want to raise the boy’s hopes only to have him discover that, in order to realise them, it might be necessary to forego the protection of his master for a considerable length of time.

  As he watched the boy, it occurred to Bascot that Gianni’s melancholy might be eased if Preceptor d’Arderon were asked to give aid to the beekeeper’s family. The Templar was sure Adam and his daughter were blameless of any complicity in the murders, but the destitution they would face once Wilkin was hanged was real. Not only would they be deprived of the income the sale of his pots brought in, it was doubtful if anyone in Lincoln would ever again buy Adam’s honey. The recollection that it had once contained a substance that had brought about the deaths of so many people would taint it forever. Adam and Margot would then be without any means of income to sustain them. Bascot was sure that d’Arderon would be willing to grant such a request. The Order commanded all of its members to sustain the poor and hungry whenever they were able, and the preceptor was scrupulous in his observance of the Templar Rule.

  But, even if that was done, there was still the worry that Gianni would feel deserted if his master left him alone. If he could find a worthwhile occupation to engage the boy’s interest while he was absent, it might allay his apprehension.

  As the cathedral bells rang out the hour of Sext and signalled that it was almost time for the midday meal to be served, Bascot spoke to the lad. “I have been thinking, Gianni, that perhaps it is time for you to undergo some further instruction in the art of scribing. There are some good scholas in Lincoln. I shall ask Master Blund if he can recommend one for you to attend, or perhaps a tutor to give you lessons privately.”

  Bascot fully intended to observe for the rest of his life the vows of poverty and chastity that he had sworn on the day he had been initiated into the Templar ranks, even when he was no longer a member of the brotherhood, and would take for his own use none of the income that would come to him from his father’s fief or his salary from Nicolaa de la Haye. But for Gianni, he did not feel the same constraint. There would be ample funds to pay for the boy to have a good education.

  Gianni’s face lit up when he heard his master’s words. The boy knew that even though the Templar had taught him to read and write, there were many other lessons to be learned if one was to be fully educated. First would come instruction in the trivium of grammar, rhetoric and logic and then, if he proved an apt pupil, he would be taught the quadrivium, formal training in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. How self-sufficient he would be if he did his lessons well; he could even aspire to one day hold a position such as Master Blund’s, secretarius to a lord or lady. He had never dreamed he would have such an opportunity and had, as the Templar so rightly surmised, been fearful that his master would return to the Order and leave him to fend for himself. This anxiety had been heightened by the Templar’s recent visits to the preceptory. Although Gianni knew that his master had been going there to have discussions with Preceptor d’Arderon about the evil man who was poisoning people, the boy had still been concerned that the Templar would once again feel a pull to return to their ranks, and it had alarmed him. The preceptory was the one place that Gianni never accompanied his master; unlike other monastic orders, children were not allowed either to join the Order or to come within the places where they lived and worshipped. While the lad, like most other boys his age, held the Templars in awe, he had come to dread the times when his master left him to go to the enclave, fearful that he would never see his protector again. Now such times would no longer make his stomach churn with foreboding.

  He clapped his hands together to signify his pleasure, and even though the chamber was a small one, he managed to turn a somersault within the confines of the tiny room to show his joy. When Bascot told him that he would also see if he could obtain some assistance for the beekeeper’s family from the Order, he thought the smile on Gianni’s face could grow no wider. Both master and servant went to partake of the midday meal feeling that a little ray of happiness had lightened the gloom that had, up until now, intruded on their hearts and minds.

  AS BASCOT And GIANNI WERE ENTERING THE HALL, one of the men-at-arms was taking food to the prisoner in the holding cell. It was only a crust of stale bread and a small bowl of pottage, but Wilkin was frightened to eat it. All of the soldiers who stood guard over him had not hesitated to show their contempt, and he feared that the food had been tainted in some way. That morning, he had been told gleefully by one of them that Gerard Camville had returned and would hold a sheriff’s court the following day, and had added the assurance that Wilkin would soon find his neck being stretched.

  The potter was desolate. The prospect of losing his life was fearful enough, but what would happen to his family once he was gone? Tears came to his eyes as he thought of his wife, Margot, their son, Young Adam, and poor, mazed Rosamunde and her babe. How would they all survive without him there to protect them? The worry that had engulfed him when he had been told he would be losing the custom of the castle and priory seemed small by comparison to the future that faced them if he was dead. He knew that the beekeeper would do his best to provide for them, but without the pennies Wilkin e
arned from the produce of his kiln there would be precious little money to buy flour for bread or other necessities of life. And it would not take long, without him there to tend to their maintenance, for the buildings on the property to fall into disrepair. Once that happened, the Templar preceptor might remove his family from the apiary and give it to more suitable tenants.

  Wilkin cursed himself for not being able to resist the temptation to denounce the bailiff for raping his daughter. Despite both Margot and Adam insisting that Rosamunde’s baby had been fathered by Drue Rivelar, the potter was convinced that Ivor Severtsson had, nonetheless, taken her by force on the day that Wilkin had found her out of her senses in the woods near Nettleham village. It had been only moments before that he had seen the bailiff riding by the place where she was lying. She had been upset before that, it was true, and Wilkin allowed there might be some credence in the tale that she had taken the brigand as her lover and was distraught over his death, but she had, until that morning, been in her right senses. It was only after he had found her in such a dreadful state that she had become mazed. He knew with a father’s instinct that Severtsson was the cause, and he had been frustrated by his inability to mete out justice to the arrogant bailiff. Every time Severtsson had come to the apiary after that day, the knowledge of his perfidy had burned in Wilkin’s breast like the flames in the heart of his kiln. Finally, when the villagers had looked askance at his daughter’s swelling belly, he had no longer been able to contain his anger, and the accusation of rape had burst from his lips. Adam had been right; Wilkin’s unruly tongue had been his undoing, and now not only was he going to pay for his sin, but so were his family.

  The potter fell to his knees in the small, cramped cell and, clasping his hands together as tightly as he could, once again sent a desperate prayer heavenward for mercy, beseeching God to look with kindly eyes on the plight of himself and his family.

  IT WAS LATE In THE EVENING BEFORE ROGET HAD A chance to go to the castle and tell Bascot what he had learned about Ivor Severtsson. When he finished repeating the tale the harlot had recounted, he hawked and spat as though Severtsson’s name had fouled his mouth. “I reckon that whoreson of a bailiff could easily be guilty of raping the potter’s girl,” he said to Bascot. “If I ever find him abroad in Lincoln on a dark night, his features won’t be so well-favoured when he wakes up in the morning.”

  Bascot nodded grimly. “You may get the opportunity sooner than you think. Once I tell the preceptor what you have discovered, I doubt whether he will be allowed to retain his post at Wragby. There is no other place for him to go but back to his uncle’s home in Hungate.”

  Roget’s face split into a grin, the old scar that ran down the side of his face crinkling as a result. “I look forward with pleasure to the day he is within my reach. I will make the bâtard wish he had been born a eunuch.”

  Twenty-one

  THE NEXT MORNING WAS THE DAY OF WILKIN’S trial, and the hour of Terce had barely finished ringing before a group of townspeople were at the eastern gate of the bail seeking admittance. Not only the leading citizens of the town but also many of lower station were agog to witness Wilkin receive his just reward in the sheriff’s court.

  Bascot and Gianni stood outside the door of the barracks watching as Ernulf directed his men to take up positions along the perimeter of the ward, warning them all to be vigilant for any sign of trouble amongst the crowd. Roget was there, too, with a half dozen of the men that belonged to the town guard. They would be on duty in the hall, to serve the same purpose as the men-at-arms outside.

  De Laubrec came across the bail and walked up to Bascot. “The sheriff has instructed that discrimination should be used regarding those who are allowed into the hall,” the knight informed him. “First, the witnesses must be accommodated, then those of the townspeople who are members of the town council, and other citizens of standing.” The marshal looked towards the throng that was coming through the gate. “Once the hall is filled, the rest will have to wait in the bail. I have given Ernulf instructions to wait at the gate and sort the wheat from the chaff, and Eudo has allotted a few servants to assist the serjeant and guide those who are to be admitted to their places.”

  The marshal ran a hand through his shock of tawny hair, its bright colour striking in contrast with the darkness of his brows and beard. His long face was lugubrious as he said, “I will be glad when this day is over, de Marins. If the verdict is guilty, we will be hard-pressed to get the prisoner safely back into his cell, and if he is, by some rare chance, deemed innocent, there will be outrage that he has escaped justice. Either way, our task will not be an easy one.”

  The next hour passed swiftly, with more and more people coming through the gate. Bascot knew he would be required to give evidence against the potter, but he decided to wait until it was nearly time for the proceedings to start before he went into the hall.

  The sheriff had decreed that the court would commence an hour after Terce, and as the time drew nearer, Bascot saw the arrival of those who would give witness. Alaric the physician was among the first, closely followed by Reinbald and his wife, with Harald escorting the old nurse, Nantie. Brother Andrew and another monk, whom Bascot assumed was the novice who had inadvertently fed the ailing lay brother the poison, walked together through the gate just afterwards. Everard d’Arderon was among the last to arrive, clad in the white surcoat of a knight of the Order, his face downcast as he strode through the gate and up the steps into the hall.

  Just as Bascot turned to follow the preceptor, he saw a two-wheeled dray approach the gate. Driving it was Adam, the beekeeper, his daughter Margot beside him, clutching her grandson to her breast. Sitting in the back were Young Adam and Rosamunde. The girl was staring blankly ahead, not paying any attention to her surroundings.

  Hurrying over to the gate, Bascot welcomed the old man and helped Margot down from her seat. “Are you sure it was wise for you to come here today?” Bascot asked. “There will be some amongst the crowd who will not look kindly on the kin of a man suspected of murder.”

  “I know, lord, and I thank you for your concern,” Adam replied. “But if we didn’t come, then I reckoned as how people would think we believed Wilkin was guilty.” The old man lifted his head proudly and looked around him. “I’ve never deserted my family in times of need afore, and I’ll not do so now.”

  Bascot admired the old man’s courage, but thought it foolhardy, and watched with misgiving as Adam went around to the back of the cart and gently guided his granddaughter down. His grandson went protectively to her side and took his sister’s hand as she stood uncomprehendingly beside him.

  As the crowd began to notice the beekeeper’s arrival, their faces became indignant and one or two called out to the beekeeper in anger, deriding him for his presence amongst them. “I think it would be best if Mistress Margot and the others waited outside in the bail,” Bascot said to Adam. “They will be safer there than in the hall.”

  The beekeeper nodded, and Bascot told Gianni to take them to the bench outside the barracks door. “I will send one of the men-at-arms to keep guard until I return.”

  As Gianni shepherded the little group across the bail in the direction of the barracks, Bascot went over to Ernulf. “I would ask you to provide protection for Wilkin’s family,” he said and, seeing the serjeant look askance at the small group, added, “They are innocents in all of this, Ernulf. I am sure they had no knowledge of the potter’s intent and will be left destitute by his actions. They are victims of his crimes just as surely as those who died.”

  Bascot waited for Ernulf’s reply. He knew the serjeant, for all his crusty manner, had a softness for any defenceless creature, especially women and children. It took only a moment’s observation of Margot holding her little grandson fearfully to her breast and of the apprehension etched on Young Adam’s face for him to accede to the Templar’s request. He called to one of his men and told him to keep watch over the little group.

  “We’ll see ’e
m safe, de Marins,” Ernulf said reassuringly as he glared menacingly at the sneering faces in the crowd around them. “If anyone so much as spits in their direction, I’ll have ’em clapped in gaol alongside the prisoner.” He spoke loudly, so that his words carried out over the heads of the throng, and those who had been openly expressing their revulsion immediately turned their attention elsewhere.

  Bascot motioned for Adam to follow, and they crossed the ward and went into the hall. It was packed, and the Templar had to push his way through the press of people to reach the space where those who would give witness were congregated. Keeping the beekeeper close behind him, he took a place beside Brother Andrew and the novice monk and looked up towards the dais.

  Above him, near one end of the raised table, John Blund sat, parchment, ink and quill pens laid out before him in preparation for recording the details of the trial. His assistant, Lambert, a thin, dolorous man of about thirty years of age with a heavy lantern jaw, was seated by his side. At the other end was the knight who held the office of coroner for Lincoln, a man named Alan of Pinchbeck, who was attending the court in his official capacity. Preceptor d’Arderon sat beside him. Roget and three of his men flanked the dais, two on either side.