Lord Gilbert and Sir Roger should, due to their rank, have led the interrogation. But as they were unacquainted with many particulars they sat in chairs to one side and discharged the work I had hoped of them. They glared menacingly at Sir Jocelin. I watched him chew upon his lower lip in response.
The sheriff had left his chair, across the table from Hawkwode, vacant. He peered at me from under those magnificent brows and nodded toward it. I sat, and took some moments to arrange my coat. Let the scoundrel wait and worry.
"A fortnight past you were toppled into the Thames," I reminded him. "Surely your fine surcoat is much shrunken for the wet."
"Neither I nor my surcoat have been in the Thames," he protested.
"Hmmm. Perhaps another red-bearded gentleman with green surcoat haunts the road to Eynsham. Did Sir Simon pay you well to accompany him Sunday, or did you travel the Eynsham Road with him for friendship?"
"I have not traveled to Eynsham."
"I expect not. The first time I saw you on the road your journey halted at Swinford. Three days ago you traveled only so far as a swineherd's hut in the forest. So you speak true… you have not been to Eynsham. Now, answer fairly: was it for coin or friendship you aided Sir Simon Trillowe?"
Hawkwode glanced beyond me to Sir Roger and Lord Gilbert but found no solace there. "Answer!" the sheriff growled.
"For friendship," Sir Jocelin sighed in defeat. He had apparently decided to behave wisely, as men may do when they see no alternatives.
"Were you of those who came over the wall of Canterbury Hall and seized me and Lord Gilbert's groom?"
"Nay. Knew nothing of that 'til Sir Simon told of the business Sunday morn."
"And what did he tell?"
Hawkwode again looked about the chamber, as if some way of escape previously unseen might appear. I said no more, but awaited a response. When he saw there was no avoiding the question, Hawkwode muttered a reply.
"Said I was to accompany him and Sir William Folville. We were to put a fright to you, he said."
" Why?"
"Sir Simon wished you gone from Oxford. That's why we pursued you on the road to Eynsham."
"When my man dunked you in the river," Lord Gilbert chuckled.
"Aye," Sir Jocelin grimaced.
"To what purpose was I to be frightened away?"
Again Sir Jocelin was silent. So were we all, awaiting his understanding that he had no choice but to answer.
"There is a lass… Sir Simon would have."
"Kate Caxton?"
"Aye. The stationer's lass."
"And for a maid he would threaten harm to my bailiff?" Lord Gilbert scowled.
"What of Robert Salley?" I asked.
"Who?"
"A poor scholar, murdered and found floating in the Cherwell."
"I know of no Robert Salley."
"Perhaps you have forgotten. I will refresh your memory. The lad tried to sell a book, Sentences. 'Twas one stolen from Master John Wyclif. Then he was discovered dead in the river. The book he had hidden with a cordwainer, for others also sought it. When I was assailed Saturday eve the attackers said I was not to be found as Salley was. So if Sir Simon knew where I was to be found on Sunday, he knew also who it was took me there in the night and who slew Robert Salley. And whatever he told you, he told my captors I was not to be seen again."
I saw Hawkwode swallow, his adam's apple working vigorously. Perhaps he spoke true and knew not that when he accompanied Sir Simon to the swineherd's hut it was to do murder. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Mayhap his unease was due to discovery, not ignorance.
"If 'twas not you came over the wall of Canterbury Hall, who did so?" I continued.
Hawkwode rested his elbows on the table and dropped his head to his hands. He did not speak, but Sir Roger did.
"'Tis near time for dinner," he said to Lord Gilbert. "You and your man shall join me. This fellow may remain here and ponder his sins and how he may escape punishment for them."
The castle board was an improvement over the fare at Canterbury Hall. The ewerer presented water for washing hands from a brass ewer of cunning workmanship. And though it was a fast day no pottage was served.
The first remove was of eels baked in spices and pike in galantine. The second remove featured roasted halibut and salmon in syrup, a favorite of mine. For the third remove the castle cook provided roasted sea bass, perch in jelly, and fried mussels. A subtlety of spiced baked pears and apples ended the repast. After such a meal I might have preferred a nap, but Sir Jocelin awaited us in the sheriff's chamber, hungry and, I prayed, subdued.
Hawkwode's companions, watched by the warder and two sergeants — who would consume cold fish for their trouble — were seated as they were when we departed the anteroom for dinner. If they were distressed for missing their meal, their bored expressions provided no clue.
Sir Jocelin was also as we left him. I had thought we might find him at the window, but not so. Perhaps he had already visited the opening and found nothing in the castle yard worthy of his attention.
I took my place at the table and Lord Gilbert and Sir Roger again sat behind me. Sir Roger produced an appreciative belch, a response to a good meal. The implication, I think, was not lost on Hawkwode. Did he not provide satisfactory replies to my questions, his future meals might also be in the castle, but composed of stale maslin, cold pottage, and foul water.
"You have had time to consider your position," I reminded Sir Jocelin. "Before we went to our dinner I asked who it was who came over the wall and took me to the forest if it was not you."
"I knew them not," he muttered. "Lads from Eynsham were sent for."
"From Eynsham?" Lord Gilbert exclaimed.
"Sir Simon sent for the fellows?" I asked. "For the purpose?"
"Aye. He sent for them some days past, as well."
"You saw these men?"
"Aye."
"And 'twas a week past, thereabouts, you did so?"
"Aye," he agreed softly.
A thought occurred to me and it arrived with a vision of a large man, armed with a club, accompanied by a smaller companion, on the road near Swinford.
"Was one of these fellows of great size?"
"Aye."
"His name?"
"Odo Grindecobbe."
Climbing over the wall of Canterbury Hall was a thing this fellow had done twice, I thought. I remembered the thatcher's broken ladder. No wonder a thong broke, was the ladder used by a man the size of Grindecobbe.
But what had Sir Simon to do with thieves? Surely when Grindecobbe clambered over the wall twice, he did so for two different reasons, which I could not see related.
"Did Sir Simon speak of recovering a book from Robert Salley?"
"He didn't speak a name, not that I heard. An' didn't name a book. Just said the fellows from Eynsham was to seek a scholar and recover something that was given to him."
Something that was given to him? Did this mean that Salley had not stolen Master John's books, or been any part of the theft? If so, it was as I thought. And if so, who gave him one of the books, and why? Might a relative have done so? This trail led in two ways, one to Eynsham, the other to Sir Simon.
"What did Sir Simon say when you arrived Sunday at the swineherd's hut and found it empty but for the guard?"
"He was in a rage. Said they'd botched the job twice."
? "They?"
"Whoever it was he sent to Canterbury Hall… Grindecobbe and the others."
"Did he speak of the first blunder?"