‘Nothing. I make the offer freely,’ Sir Hugh said, his hands outspread, palms up in sign of openness.
‘No,’ Baldwin said consideringly. ‘You wish to have something concealed about these murders. Perhaps it could be convenient for you to have me silenced.’
‘I think that things would be rather more advantageous for you, if you were to listen. It will mean you have a strong ally. Of course, if you prefer, I could be an enemy.’
Pilk smiled at that. The last few words had been spoken in that gruff voice which he and the others in the household recognised only too clearly. When he spoke like that, Sir Hugh le Despenser meant that he’d break someone’s leg if they didn’t do exactly as he wished.
Baldwin’s eyes narrowed. ‘So clearly it is something you are very worried about. I think that will make our investigation more interesting.’
‘It will,’ Sir Hugh said. He smiled. ‘Indeed, it will.’
Coroner John was unhappy. This new Keeper, Sir Baldwin, was a companion of Bishop Walter of Exeter, and that meant he was a close ally of Despenser, so his words could scarcely be trusted on any level. A friend of Despenser was an enemy of justice, in Sir John’s simple belief.
Yet the man had been instructed to find out what had happened to Mabilla, and who had killed the assassin. That should have been a weight off John’s mind, but in many ways it left him feeling that the entire investigation was to be whitewashed. Nothing of any importance would be discovered by men like that Sir Baldwin. The Bishop and Despenser had carved up the realm between them, and they were not the sort of men who would threaten their own positions. If there was skulduggery afoot, it was more than likely due to those two, so their own placemen would uncover nothing.
John didn’t like that. Which was why he was now descending into the filth of the main gaol to visit the guard from the southern wall, Arch.
It cost him a whole shilling to bribe the gaoler to open the ancient door so that he could enter the foul chamber.
‘Leave me, please leave me!’
Sir John had seen enough torture victims in his time to be unshaken, but from a professional viewpoint, he was disgusted. To have so destroyed this man was unnecessary and pointless. He had been broken in spirit, and from the look of his arms, in parts of his body too. Anything he had said at the extremity of his pain was irrelevant. Everyone knew that, who had ever questioned a man in this condition.
‘I will leave you, but I want to ask you some questions first,’ he said.
‘I know nothing more — nothing! Please, I can tell you nothing!’
‘The night — you know the night I mean. You were drunk.’
‘No! No! I had nothing!’
‘You fell asleep at your post.’
‘No! I was awake.’
‘You kept no watch. The assassin crept past you.’
‘He must have been there already.’
‘You saw him?’
‘No. I only saw the Queen’s guard on his rounds. No one else.’
John smiled. ‘And he knocked you down?’
‘No! No, he was keeping lookout. There was nervousness in the palace.’
‘You were asleep as soon as you arrived, I suppose? Everyone says you were lax in your work.’
‘No! I was awake until late. It was after the moon when I got hit.’
‘The moon?’ The Coroner was puzzled by that. ‘What of it? What do you mean?’
‘It had a halo. I haven’t seen such a one before. A halo all about it — the man must have come after that.’
And that, John told himself later, was the most perplexing aspect of it all. The man repeated those words several times — about the moon and its halo. And yet that had no bearing on anything, surely.
Simon followed Baldwin into the open. A fine rain had begun to fall, but Simon wanted to get as far away from the hall as possible. He stood in the rain with his eyes wide open, staring up at the heavens.
‘Sweet Christ, Baldwin! Did you have to antagonise him like that?’
‘Simon, he was testing us. Trust me. While we have the King’s favour and he wants us to carry on with this investigation, we are safe from Despenser.’
‘What, even down a darkened alleyway? Or near the river? It’s easy for a man like him to pay some felon to loop a rope about our necks, tie us to a rock and just throw us into the Thames. It’s easier still for him to pay a man to slip a dagger between our ribs. Sweet Christ! He threatened Jeanne, man, didn’t he? He more or less warned you off, or he’d burn the manor to the ground.’
‘And what would you have had me do, Simon?’ Baldwin asked with torment in his voice. ‘Would you prefer me to have bobbed my head and act obedient, like any number of those fools who work for him? I cannot do that, old friend. I am a knight, when all is said and done.’
‘But Baldwin …’
The knight turned to face him. He stood so close, Simon could see the fine lines at the corners of his eyes, the way that his beard curled back from the point of his chin to face towards his ears, the small tracery of thin veins that crept across his nose. And last of all, Simon saw the great misery in his eyes. The all-encompassing anxiety.
‘Simon, do you think I do not know what danger Jeanne and my children are in? Despenser is the most powerful baron in the country. He has the King’s ear. They could easily destroy me and mine in a moment. But what else could I do? Back down and agree to find nothing? What would the King say, were I to tell him that? Or I could tell Despenser that I would actively do nothing, in which case he would own me and be able to tell the King that I had lied to him. I could do nothing other than what I did, unless I wanted to be owned, body and soul, by Despenser in the future.’
‘Our families, Baldwin,’ Simon whispered.
‘I know. But what would you have me tell him? That I’d support any lie, that I’d agree to have another man declared guilty, when perhaps he was innocent? That is the sort of sport in which Despenser revels. He would toy with us, find a man who had nothing to do with the killings, and have him hanged just for pure devilment. He is a man without compassion, Simon. All he knows is the abuse of power and how to force others to his will.’
‘So what can we do?’
Baldwin sighed and looked away. ‘My fear, my great fear, is that he was directly responsible. He is the sort of man who would have a multitude of assassins at his beck and call. He can give them money, and he can protect them. If one was found out and arrested, Despenser could use bribery or coercion to have him released. Who else would know where to find a man like that dead one? And then, as you said before, the symbol of the tarse shoved in his mouth — that to me looks like a warning. To the man who is the power behind the throne.’
‘But you told me …’
‘Simon, old friend, you were talking in front of the Coroner. He is a stranger. He could be an ally of Despenser, for all we know. It was dangerous to speak frankly in his company.’
Simon privately thought it was a great deal less dangerous than talking back to Despenser as he had just done.
‘I am sorry,’ the knight said quietly. ‘I wish to God that we had never come here. I knew it would be dangerous.’
‘You never wanted to come.’
‘No, but the Bishop persuaded me. I thought, looking at him, listening to him, that it was not possible not to come. The way that the Queen was being treated was too deplorable. I felt I ought to make an effort — that was why I agreed to come to London. It is not a parliament with the representatives of all estates, it is to be a council. But that itself means that each voice will have more authority. I thought I could make a difference, Simon. And the only difference I am likely to make is to alienate my family from the King. Sweet Jesus!’ He clenched his fist. ‘I was a fool, and now I’ve upset the King’s best friend.’
There was no need for words. All knew how the Despenser was likely to treat an enemy. Simon cleared his throat. ‘Well, we’re still alive for now. Surely the best thing for us to do would be to find the blood, if we can. I don’t know — perhaps if we discover the answer to the killings, we may also find some arrows we can fire back at Sir Hugh le Despenser and protect ourselves?’