‘Aye. It seems certain that his purpose in sneaking into the Old Manor was to hunt for something.’
‘And that Arthur Fitzurse gave the order to search and told him what to look for,’ she added.
‘We cannot be certain,’ he protested. ‘Walter Bell might have been a thief who, once Leofgar and the servants had all gone out, spotted an opportunity and took it.’
‘No.’ She shook her head firmly. ‘If that were true, why should Arthur Fitzurse have made up this story of the Bell brothers’ dispute with Leofgar? No, Sir Josse. Fitzurse has a purpose at which, as yet, we may only guess. He sent Walter Bell to search in the Old Manor and, when he did not return, guessed that something had happened to him, quite possibly while he was carrying out his search. We know that this is what he thought because of the pressure that he has been putting upon Gervase de Gifford to search the Old Manor; he is quite certain that Walter Bell went there and probably believes he died there too.’
A memory stirred in Josse’s mind. ‘My lady, when I was at the Old Manor with Gervase and Fitzurse, I noticed that Fitzurse seemed preoccupied with searching the hall. He raked through the ashes in the hearth — maybe he was looking for evidence that Walter’s clothes had been burned there, as indeed they were — and then he started peering closely at the furnishings in the hall. Gervase demanded to know what he was doing and he said something about looking for evidence of this imaginary quarrel between Leofgar and the Bells. But’ — eagerly he leaned towards her, hands on her table and face close to hers — ‘what if in truth he was searching for whatever it was he had sent Walter Bell to seek out?’
She nodded slowly. ‘It seems highly likely,’ she agreed. ‘So, Fitzurse and Teb Bell discuss what might have happened at the Old Manor and Teb, believing that Leofgar must surely know something about Walter’s disappearance, is all for racing up to the Abbey to confront him.’
‘How did Teb know that Leofgar had left the Old Manor to come here?’ Josse asked. ‘Could someone have told him?’ It was something that had been puzzling him on his walk back to the Abbey.
He watched her face. Her frown gradually clearing, she said eventually, ‘I don’t know how he knew when Leofgar left,’ she said, ‘unless somehow he heard it from Wilfrid, but I can guess how he knew Leofgar had come here.’ Her eyes on Josse’s, she said quietly, ‘Because Teb knew that Leofgar is my son.’
‘More likely Fitzurse knew,’ Josse suggested. ‘I do not think, my lady, that the wide gap between your son and the likes of the Bell brothers would allow them to have any knowledge of your son’s lineage.’
‘Very well,’ she agreed, ‘let us say instead that Fitzurse, on finding that Leofgar had left his home, said, ah, I bet I know where he’s gone, he’ll have taken his family to Hawkenlye Abbey where his mother is Abbess!’
Josse accepted that. ‘Aye, it’s possible,’ he said. ‘Teb Bell sets out for the Abbey, perhaps with murder in his heart because he thinks Leofgar killed his brother. But he never gets here because someone apprehends him and hangs him.’ Before she could speak, he said, ‘My lady, please be assured that I do not believe your son murdered Teb Bell. I am convinced that he is as ignorant as he claims to be of these two men and whatever business they said they had with him.’
She studied him for a moment and then said, ‘I am glad of that, Sir Josse. I have never thought of my son as a murderer although, in all truth, I think that under certain circumstances he could and indeed would kill.’
‘Which of us would not say the same?’ Josse countered.
She inclined her head. ‘Indeed,’ she murmured. Then, as if deliberately turning her thoughts from that unwelcome concept, she said briskly, ‘Arthur Fitzurse, then, knows of my son. He knows who his mother is, presumably also the identity of his father.’ She broke off suddenly, eyes wide as if at some extraordinary thought. But, whatever it was, she appeared to dismiss it for, when she resumed, it was in the same tone: ‘Fitzurse is interested in something that he believes to be in my son’s possession. Not something valuable such as Leofgar’s modest amount of silver, for Walter Bell found that and ignored it. No. Something of quite a different nature. He wants to look for it within my son’s home and he employs a local ruffian to break into the Old Manor and hunt around.’
‘Why not go himself?’ Josse put in.
‘Because if he were to be discovered there, apprehended and arrested, then whatever purpose is driving him would come to an abrupt end,’ she said. ‘The Bell brothers, on the other hand, are not only expendable, as far as Arthur Fitzurse is concerned, but also, according to Gervase de Gifford, experienced thieves. Perhaps Fitzurse thought it better to employ a professional. By using another to do his dirty work, Fitzurse could distance himself from whatever might happen.’
‘Then why come forward now that the attempted theft went wrong and Walter Bell ended up dead?’
She thought for some time. Then she said triumphantly, ‘Because Walter Bell ended up dead! Oh, don’t you see, Bell failed in his task and didn’t find what Fitzurse sent him to find! And it is as you just said — Arthur Fitzurse is desperate to get his hands on this thing, whatever it is, and so he goes along to Gervase de Gifford, spins a tale about Walter Bell having set off to the Old Manor to resolve a fictitious quarrel with Leofgar and not coming back. He knows it’s quite safe to make up this tale of a quarrel because both Bells are dead now and neither can deny it; the only one who can is Leofgar, but presumably Fitzurse reckons that it will be a case of Leofgar’s word against his. He uses Walter Bell’s disappearance as an excuse to demand that de Gifford make a search of the house and grounds. But Josse, Fitzurse didn’t care about Walter Bell! You were right; what he wanted was an opportunity to hunt through the Old Manor himself!’
Josse saw again Fitzurse’s face as he strode about the Old Manor’s hall; saw the eager, darting hands, the intent expression in the cold eyes. Aye, he thought, I was right.
‘Employing the Bell brothers did not turn out to be such a bright idea after all,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Walter did not find what he was sent to find and got himself killed for his troubles. Teb took up the role of avenger and came storming up here to Hawkenlye to demand the truth from Leofgar. Now as I said I do not think for a moment that Leofgar killed Teb — apart from anything else, he had no idea of the man’s existence and certainly did not know that Teb was on his way to find him.’ He watched her face, wondering if she were thinking the same thing. ‘No. My candidate for the role of Teb Bell’s killer is someone who knew both Teb and what he intended to do when he reached Hawkenlye and found Leofgar.’
‘Arthur Fitzurse.’
‘Aye.’
‘But why would he kill Teb Bell?’
‘Because he did not want him to confront Leofgar. Just imagine, my lady, a furious Teb bursting into the Abbey demanding to speak to your son and accusing him of having killed Walter! Questions would be asked, and if Teb’s fury got the better of him and, God forbid, he had attacked or even killed Leofgar, then it would have been very difficult to cover up such an occurrence and there would have been a full investigation. And Fitzurse is not ready for that. He does not welcome anyone looking too closely into his affairs, certainly not before he has found whatever he is looking for.’
‘Yes.’ She was nodding her agreement. ‘And I would judge also that he prefers others to dance to his rhythm,’ she said. ‘He needs to be in control.’
‘Aye, and the danger that Teb Bell might make very loud and public trouble by accosting Leofgar here at Hawkenlye was a risk he could not take.’
‘So he followed him, jumped him and murdered him,’ she finished. ‘Sir Josse, it is possible, is it not?’