He shrugged. ‘It was worth a try.’
There was a brief silence. Then, as an alarming thought occurred to her, she said, ‘You do not — oh, can it be that our dead man is the man you seek?’
His eyes met hers, and she saw the same suspicion in his anxious frown. ‘I fear it may be so, aye. There is no logical reason for it — as you have just said, Hawkenlye receives many visitors, and Galbertius may not even have been one of them. And, even if he was, why should he be the one poor soul whose pilgrimage ended with a knife through the heart?’
‘And yet?’ She sensed there was something else.
‘And yet I keep seeing that little circle of fine cloth,’ he said. ‘And I say to myself, this man was a man of quality, not a poor peasant. Which sort of man would be more likely to arouse the interest of a prince of England?’
‘I see what you mean.’ She chewed at her lip, thinking. ‘All we know, other than that he wore a fine undershirt, is that the dead man was quite young. If you were to go to the Prince and ask what age is his Galbertius Sidonius and he replied that he is a middle-aged or an elderly man, then you would at the least know he does not now lie buried with the Hawkenkye dead.’
Josse grinned at her. ‘That, dear Abbess Helewise, is exactly what I propose to do.’
When Josse was preparing to ride off in the morning, the Abbess came out to speak to him.
She stood at his stirrup, gazing earnestly up at him. Her eyelids were still a little swollen, he noticed, but she no longer looked as woebegone as she had done the previous day. He was glad; it had wrenched his heart to see her suffer so.
‘Sir Josse, I have been thinking,’ she said. ‘I believe you are right to see a connection between yourself and this Galbertius Sidonius. For, unless the Pr-’ She glanced around, noticed that both Sister Ursel and Sister Martha were in earshot and went on, ‘Unless the visitor of whom you spoke expected to run his quarry to earth at New Winnowlands, would he not have come here searching for him? Like you, he would surely have reasoned that the Abbey was the largest target for visitors in this region, yet, instead of coming here, he went to seek you.’
Josse nodded slowly. Aye, she was right. And, in addition, New Winnowlands was hardly a renowned manor; few people seemed even to have heard of it. Prince John might have known of its existence right enough, but even he must have had to go to some trouble to find it.
To find Josse.
He bent down and said softly to the Abbess, ‘My lady, as ever you think wisely.’ He grinned at her and added, ‘I wish you were coming with me. I could do with a clever brain.’
The Abbess returned his grin and said, equally quietly, ‘Sir Josse, you already have one.’ Then, as he wheeled Horace and prepared to put spurs to him and be off, she called, ‘God speed. Come back to us soon.’
Which, he decided, meant: be sure and tell me what you find out, as soon as you possibly can.
‘I will!’ he called back. Then Horace, well fed and well rested, responded to his heels and, breaking into a smooth canter, hurried him away.
Josse knew the town of Newenden, having put up there some three years ago, before King Richard had given him New Winnowlands. Having ascertained the location of Sir Henry of Newenden’s manor, he rode out to see if the Prince and his party still lodged there.
The manor house was grand, with moat, walled courtyard, generous accommodation for the family and, all around, well-tended fields. One or two reasonably prosperous-looking peasants touched their caps to Josse as he rode by, and a shepherd tending a large flock of sheep wished him good day.
Josse could see from a distance that the Prince’s company were no longer with Sir Henry; as he rode towards the courtyard, the air of peace and calm was not suggestive of the presence of a royal visitor.
Turning Horace’s head in through the gates — fortunately, standing open — he saw a groom working on the silvery coat of a grey mare. He called out, ‘Halloa! Is the master at home?’
The groom turned, gave Josse an enquiring look and said, ‘Who wants to know?’
‘I am Sir Josse d’Acquin,’ Josse said. ‘I am from New Winnowlands, where, a few days ago, the Prince John and his company visited me. They were staying, so they told me, with Sir Henry of Newenden. I have business with the Prince’ — how grand it sounded — ‘and have come to seek him. But-’ He waved a hand around the deserted courtyard. ‘It seems I am too late.’
The groom, still looking slightly suspicious, said, ‘Aye, they’ve been gone these two days since. My master Sir Henry rode with them.’
‘Where have they gone?’
The groom gave him a pitying look, as if to say, do you reckon they’d have told me? But then, relenting, he said, ‘Word is they were heading for London. Business with the Knights Templar, they do say.’ He made a gesture with his right thumb, forefinger and middle finger, rubbing the digits together, and Josse decided that this meant the business in question was in all likelihood of a financial nature.
‘London?’ he repeated. It was an imprecise answer; did it mean Prince John now lodged at Westminster? Or with the Templars in their enclave on the north bank of the river? Or even out at Windsor?
The groom shrugged. ‘London. It’s all I know.’ He went as if to return to the grey mare but, turning back, said, ‘The old geezer’s still here, if he’s any use to you.’ The contemptuous tone suggested that the old geezer, whoever he was, was not, nor ever could be, of any conceivable use to the young groom himself.
‘Old geezer?’
‘Aye. The one they all call Magister.’
The Magister! Josse remembered the man with the milk-white beard. ‘Aye, I would speak with him,’ he said firmly. Dismounting, he held out Horace’s reins to the groom, who grudgingly took them. ‘Direct me, if you will, to the Magister’s presence.’
Inside the manor house, the standards of housekeeping and the luxurious nature of the furnishings were as Josse had expected from its prosperous, well-kept exterior. The groom had hailed a serving man, who led Josse across the great hall with considerably more civility than the groom had shown. Then, as they came to a stair concealed behind a tapestry — to prevent draughts? What a comfortable home this must be! — the serving man called up to a woman who was working above. She in turn showed Josse up the stair and into a sunny room where a figure sat up in a high bed, a velvet cap on his white hair and a blanket tucked up under his chin, his milky beard neatly combed and spread out on the soft wool.
It was the Magister, and he was clearly suffering from a very heavy cold.
‘What a pleasant distraction,’ he said in a voice thick with rheum, ‘to have a visitor! Give the fire a poke, Sir Josse d’Acquin, and throw on a handful of those herbs in the basket’ — Josse did as he was bade and a sharp, clean smell filled the air — ‘then pull up a stool and tell me why you have come.’
‘I came seeking the Prince,’ Josse said, settling himself on a wooden stool with a padded top, ‘but I am told he has gone to London.’
‘He has,’ the Magister agreed. ‘And why did you wish to see him?’ The penetrating dark eyes were fixed on Josse’s and he thought suddenly that it would be difficult to tell this man a lie. Fortunately, he wasn’t about to.
‘When you came to New Winnowlands, you sought news of a man, Galbertius Sidonius.’
Josse wasn’t sure, but he thought a swift light shone in the depths of the Magister’s dark eyes. ‘Yes?’ the older man said coolly. ‘And do you bring such news?’
‘I do not,’ Josse admitted. ‘But I visited the Abbey at Hawkenlye to see if this man had been there, it being such an attraction of the area.’
‘And?’
‘The nuns and monks of the Abbey were in the midst of a tragedy. A man’s body had been discovered, victim of a brutal murder.’
‘This man’s identity?’ The voice came sharply.
‘Not known.’