I wished I could have gone on trying to give him confidence but, faced with his collapse, my own courage seemed to be rapidly evaporating and I would need what I had left for myself. If only Hrype could have been there, I thought wildly, it would be so much better! He made me believe; or, rather, he had made me believe last night. Now, I felt like giving up and running and running till I was so far away that nobody would ever find me.
I couldn’t do that. They’d stop me and besides, I had to try to save my friend. Steeling myself, I tried to blank out the waves of shock and horror coming off Sibert and I turned my full attention to the men who held our future in their hands.
Lord Gilbert opened the proceedings, gabbling quickly and all but incomprehensibly through the formalities and then reminding us, as if we needed it, why we were here and what Sibert stood accused of. He invited Baudouin to speak first and he outlined smoothly and eloquently how, concerned for his nephew and the unspecified but dangerous mission he believed him to be engaged upon, he had gone looking for him. How men had sought him out with the terrible news that Romain had been murdered, taking him immediately to the place where the body of his nephew and heir lay. How he had come across the witness who told him how poor Romain had been so brutally struck down.
All this time, while he told this tale that he so clearly believed to be the truth and that would condemn my friend to the gibbet, Baudouin kept his eyes fixed on Lord Gilbert. It was only when he had finished that he glanced very briefly at me. The gloating look of triumph in his eyes hit me like a fist.
Then he pointed to the gingery man with the twitch and said dramatically, ‘Sagar here present is that same witness. Listen now, my lord, to what he has to say.’
Lord Gilbert looked closely at the witness. Then he said, ‘Very well. Let him speak.’
Sagar crept forward until he stood immediately before Lord Gilbert’s chair on the dais. Once or twice he glanced back at Baudouin, his eyes sliding away to shoot scared glances up at the plump and imposing figure before him. Then, with an obvious effort, he stood up straight and puffed up his meagre chest. He had the look of a man who was very apprehensive but nevertheless determined to do his duty.
I was quaking.
‘Well, man?’ Lord Gilbert prompted when we had all been waiting some moments.
‘It was just as he says,’ said Sagar, jerking his head towards Baudouin. He frowned deeply as if concentrating very hard and went on, ‘I was travelling on the track from Dunwich up to the coast road and I came to this clearing, see, and there were these two young men, one following the other, and the second one, he called out to the first, and then the first shot off into the bushes and doubled back, so that he came out behind the other man.’ Sagar paused, appearing slightly perplexed, as did quite a few of those listening to him. ‘Well, next thing I know, the first man, which is him’ — the accusing hand pointed straight at Sibert — ‘he leaps out at the other one and before he can recover — the other one, that is — that one swings this great bit of broke-off branch and catches him full on the back of the head, such a blow as you could hear the skull smash like an egg!’
An awed hush followed his dramatic words. Lord Gilbert leaned over to the man on his right and they conferred for a few moments. Lord Gilbert was looking very serious and once or twice he shot a glance at Sibert.
‘There appears to be no doubt in this matter,’ he said eventually, ‘and we have a witness who has described to us very clearly how Romain de la Flèche met his death at the hand of Sibert here before us. Sibert!’ His sudden loud cry made Sibert jump and, with obvious reluctance, he raised his head and stared at his lord.
‘Sibert, you are guilty of murder and you will hang,’ Lord Gilbert said portentously. ‘You-’
I found myself hurrying forward and somehow I seemed to have crossed the floor of the hall and elbowed Sagar quite roughly out of the way, so that now I stood alone before Lord Gilbert.
‘He didn’t do it!’ I cried.
I could hear Lord Gilbert’s sigh even from where I stood. Baudouin de la Flèche’s intense dark eyes were boring into me as if he wished they were knife points.
‘You must explain yourself,’ Lord Gilbert said wearily. I think perhaps he thought I’d be so overawed by the proceedings and the company of so many rich and important men that my nerve would fail me. It hadn’t.
‘Sibert was with me at the time Romain was killed,’ I said. My voice was shaking in time with my trembling knees. ‘I know I said at first that I didn’t go to Drakelow with Sibert and Romain but that was a lie, and I only said it because I’d gone without permission and I was afraid I’d get into trouble, which was why my aunt supported my story that I’d been with her. She was trying to help.’ The thought of Edild undermined me and I had to bite the insides of my cheeks quite hard to stop myself sobbing.
Baudouin stepped forward. ‘How are we to judge which story is the lie and which the truth?’ he cried. ‘This girl is a well-known liar and nothing she says can be trusted!’
Lord Gilbert was staring hard at me. ‘Answer the question,’ he ordered.
I was thrown into panic. What question? Mutely I shook my head.
Lord Gilbert shot a glance at Baudouin and then said to me, ‘How are we to tell when you are lying and when you are telling the truth?’
‘I’m telling the truth now!’ I cried. ‘Oh, you must believe me!’
Again Lord Gilbert turned to the man on his right and I heard them muttering. My aunt’s name was mentioned. If I could, I must save Edild from the ignominy of standing in Lord Gilbert’s hall and admitting she had lied for me. I said, ‘There is something more!’
Lord Gilbert turned his head and stared at me again. So, I am sure, did everyone else in the hall. ‘Well?’ he said coldly.
Out of all of them, I was most aware — most afraid — of Baudouin and his witness. I made myself turn slightly so that I could not see them. Then I steadied myself and said, ‘Sibert and Romain had a fight. That much is true, for Sibert and I had taken — er, Sibert and I had something that Romain badly wanted. Sibert and I left Drakelow — that’s on the coast south of Dunwich — ahead of Romain, but very soon he followed after us. He caught up with us in a clearing just south of the road that leads due west from the coast and he attacked Sibert. He had a knife and Sibert was unarmed and he’s not much of a fighter at the best of times — sorry, Sibert, but you’re not — and so I sort of sided with him — Sibert, I mean — because I thought Romain was going to kill him and I yelled, “Sibert, get your knee up,” and he did and he caught Romain between the legs and he went down and that’s how we left him, writhing in agony, but you see he was lying on his back!’ I finished triumphantly, talking a much needed breath.
There was a deadly hush. Then Lord Gilbert said, ‘So?’
‘Don’t you understand?’ How could he be so stupid! ‘Romain was lying on his back yet that man’ — it was my turn to point and I swung my arm round and aimed my forefinger at Baudouin’s witness — ‘that man claims he saw Sibert strike Romain on the back of his head! Well, he can’t have done, because the back of Romain’s head was on the ground, so if he says that’s what happened then he was too far away to see clearly and so how can he be so sure it was Sibert?’
Now I had their attention. Lord Gilbert was no longer looking at me as if I were something smelly on his shoe and the man on his right was whispering urgently in his ear, his eyes on me. Several of the other men were also murmuring amongst themselves.
Eventually Lord Gilbert held up a hand for silence. ‘You have made a valid point,’ he began, ‘and we-’