De Gifford was still watching him, waiting for a reply.
Josse had made up his mind. Taking a deep breath, praying he was doing the right thing, eventually he said, ‘Let us go on with our pretence a while.’
‘Very well.’ De Gifford sounded cautious. ‘But this is still just a story, Josse. Be in no doubt whatsoever about that, and also remember that whatever is said here is just for our ears.’ He grinned briefly. ‘We are two men puzzled by a mystery and we pass a chilly morning in idle conjecture.’ He paused. ‘It is on that basis and that basis only that I will hear you out.’
‘Aye, of course.’ Josse spoke with false cheerfulness. ‘Then let me make one or two suggestions of my own. I find your version of events plausible and I’m going to suggest what might have happened next. We know that Leofgar took his wife off to Hawkenlye Abbey because he was worried about her state of mind — this is fact, not conjecture. But let’s pretend that he had an ulterior motive; not only did he want the nuns to help him make Rohaise better, he also wanted to distance himself from the body he had just — er, he’d just buried in the woods. Then while he’s there with the nuns and the monks watching Rohaise slowly begin to improve, the inconceivable happens and a man who looks just like Walter Bell is found hanging in the forest not two miles from the Abbey. Somebody announces that the dead man is Walter’s brother Teb and Leofgar instantly fears that Teb had somehow found out that Walter lies dead close to the Old Manor. Leofgar leaps to the conclusion that Teb was on his way to kill him in revenge because Teb thinks Leofgar murdered Walter.’
‘But if that’s so then who killed Teb?’ de Gifford exclaimed. ‘In this story of ours, that is,’ he added quickly. ‘I accept that it makes sense for events to have developed as you suggest, Josse, but there is something else: how would a rat such as Walter Bell have known of the situation at the Old Manor? He might, I suppose, have happened upon the place whilst out riding and remarked to himself that it was the sort of household that looked as if it would contain valuables to steal and a pretty woman to assault. But it is extremely unlikely because for one thing Walter Bell does not own a horse and it’s quite a walk from Tonbridge to the Old Manor. Also both the Bells habitually restricted their villainy to their immediate neighbourhood, only venturing further afield at another’s behest.’ With a grim smile he added, ‘And probably riding that someone else’s horse.’
He paused, staring eagerly at Josse as if in confident expectation of the right response. Which, after a moment, Josse made. ‘You think someone sent him to the Old Manor?’ he said, trying to sound as if he had only just thought of this possibility. ‘Someone said, go and break in while the master and the servants are out and steal the silver?’ He made it into a question.
‘Yes,’ de Gifford said. ‘And I’ll tell you who it was: Arthur Fitzurse.’
Rapidly thinking it through to see if he would be giving away anything that he should keep to himself, Josse said cautiously, ‘Yet the Warin family treasures remain at the Old Manor. Either Walter Bell was prevented from taking them …’ Deliberately he stopped.
‘Or family treasures were not what Bell was after!’ de Gifford finished for him. Smacking his first into his open palm, he said, ‘We must find out what it was that Fitzurse really sent him to find, Josse, for therein lies the secret that lies so well hidden at the heart of all this!’
And Josse, triumph singing silently through him, said wonderingly, ‘Great God, Gervase, I believe you are right!’
He reflected, as the sheriff began to pace to and fro, muttering to himself as he laid his plans for the next move, on his promise to Leofgar. ‘Find out what Walter Bell was after,’ the young man had begged, and Josse had said he would do his best. Well, now finding the solution to the mystery — and thereby fulfilling the promise — all of a sudden seemed a very great deal more likely; Gervase de Gifford was hunting for the same thing. Watching him, Josse could detect de Gifford’s impatience to be moving; it was evident in his brisk step. Closing his eyes for an instant, Josse sent up a prayer of thanks for the gift of such a capable man by his side.
Chapter 17
Two things pressed on Josse’s mind. First, he must get back to Hawkenlye and tell the Abbess what had happened; he would be able to reassure her that, although Arthur Fitzurse had brought what he claimed was evidence to prove that Walter Bell lay dead in the woods above the Old Manor, not only had Gervase de Gifford rightly dismissed this evidence out of hand, he also seemed more than ready to believe that even if Walter Bell had indeed died there, then it was as a result of Rohaise exercising her legal right to defend herself against a violent attack.
The second thing he must do — or at least try to do — was to speak again to Leofgar. Something kept niggling at him, one small detail of the story that Leofgar had told him, and he could not quite bring it into focus. It was something that Walter Bell had done, something that Josse knew was important and that he must remember, but he was damned if he could think what it was … Reasoning that Leofgar must want to speak to Josse almost as urgently as Josse wanted to consult him — wouldn’t he be desperate to know what was happening? — and that when the two of them had previously met, it was in that dell in the forest where Leofgar had been lying in wait for him, Josse decided to ride back to the Abbey via the woodland paths.
Soon after he entered in under the trees he dismounted and, leading Horace, made his tortuous way to the place where the beech tree hung over the dell. It was too much to expect Leofgar to be there waiting for him but after a short while the young man appeared, as silently and unexpectedly as before.
‘I have been watching for you,’ he said, grasping Josse’s hand and holding it tightly. He looked drawn and his words fell out in a rush. ‘I thought you would come back. Have there been developments? Have you discovered anything?’
‘Steady there,’ Josse said, trying to calm him. ‘One good thing has happened: Gervase de Gifford believes in your innocence.’ Leofgar made to speak — Josse guessed he was about to demand if Josse had repeated his story to the sheriff — but Josse held up his hand. ‘I have not told him the full tale that you told me,’ he said gently, ‘for in truth it is not my secret to tell. But de Gifford is an intelligent man and, knowing the foul reputation of the Bell brothers as well as he does, he has worked out for himself a possible course of events that is as near the truth as makes no difference.’ Wanting to make certain that Leofgar realised what he was being told, Josse added, ‘De Gifford does not see any crime in a woman defending herself from an attacker wielding a knife who bursts into her house with the aim of stealing her goods and raping her.’
As Leofgar sagged with relief, Josse suddenly remembered what it was he needed to ask. Giving the young man a few moments to recover, he then said, ‘Leofgar, when we talked before about that terrible day, we concluded that whatever Walter Bell was sent to find — and de Gifford also suggests that Arthur Fitzurse was the man who sent him — it was not your family valuables.’
‘Yes, I remember,’ Leofgar said. Then, impatiently, ‘That’s what we have to find out! What it is he’s really after!’
‘Aye, I know,’ Josse said soothingly. ‘What I’m asking you is with that end in mind. You told me, Leofgar, that when Rohaise was watching Walter Bell — before he knew she was there — she saw him searching somewhere within the hall. Where was it?’
Leofgar frowned as he tried to recall exactly what his wife had said. ‘She was hiding behind the hangings, clutching Timus to her and trying to keep him quiet …’ Then, as if the remembered scene had suddenly clarified, he said de cisively, ‘Walter Bell went straight over to the table. That was where he searched first.’
‘The table.’ Josse was nodding. ‘Aye, it always did sound an unlikely place for a thief to begin, unless, that is, someone had told him to look there first.’ A smile spreading across his face, he thumped Leofgar on the shoulder and said, ‘Thank you. Now I know what to do next.’