Now I saw the reason for her anger. ‘Mistress,’ I said, ‘I hardly saw the papers. I saw nothing about your fiancé.’
‘Nonsense. You do not trust Maleverer with what you know, but when you get to London you will reveal all to your master Cranmer. You must know-’
She never finished her sentence, for at that moment Giles brought his stick down on her head with all the force of his arms. There was a horrible sharp crack. Jennet gave a little moan of surprise, then toppled to the ground. The crossbow clicked, and I threw myself to the right. There was a thud as the bolt buried itself in the wood next to me. I looked ahead again: Jennet Marlin lay face down on the ground, her head hidden by the hood of her coat. Giles stood behind her, swaying slightly, eyes wide.
I ran across to where she lay, the crossbow by her side. I grasped her arm. It felt floppy, lifeless. I turned her over. She was dead, her dark curls wet with blood, her wide eyes staring up lifelessly, like those of a fish, all that frantic emotion gone. I turned aside, bent over and was violently sick.
I felt an arm on my shoulder. I stood up. Giles’s wide, staring eyes and a twitch in his cheek showed how shocked he was.
‘I have killed her?’ he asked in a whisper.
I nodded. ‘You saved my life. You heard all?’
‘Enough.’ He looked down at her body. ‘By God.’ He took a long, deep breath.
‘How did you get out?’
‘I have known Howlme church since I was a boy. When I could not open the main door I got out another way. There is a side door.’ He looked at Jennet Marlin’s body. ‘I was so afraid she would loose the bolt.’
I picked up the crossbow and took Giles’s arm. ‘Come,’ I said quietly. ‘We must go down to the camp. Maleverer has to know about this at once.’
Chapter Thirty-four
ON THE WAY BACK DOWN TO the camp I tried not to be impatient with Giles’s slow pace; the old man walked carefully with his stick, feeling his way along the path for it was dark now. I had picked up the crossbow and it hung from my hand.
‘Will Maleverer be at Howlme Manor?’ Giles asked.
‘I would think so. We should go there.’
‘It is hard to credit that a woman could do what she did.’
‘It can happen,’ I replied. At the foot of the hill we turned right and headed for the manor house. Giles looked very tired now. I put a hand on his arm.
‘Can you manage? Perhaps you should go back to the camp, find your tent and rest.’
‘No, I will come with you. Maleverer will want to see both of us.’
We reached the high wall that enclosed the grounds. The manor house was approached though a large gateway where soldiers stood guard. They would not let us through, but I persuaded one of them to fetch Maleverer. Giles sank down on a knoll beside the gate, folded his hands over the top of his cane and lowered his head.
‘Are you all right?’ I asked.
‘Yes, yes. I – I am in a little pain. Don’t fuss,’ he added with sudden asperity.
I looked at him with concern, remembering how he had collapsed at Fulford. There was a stir at the gate and Maleverer appeared. He loomed over us, frowning angrily.
‘God’s death, what is it now? The King is here.’ He looked at my face, then said sharply, ‘What’s happened?’
‘I have been attacked again, Sir William.’ I held up the crossbow. ‘With this. It was Jennet Marlin.’
‘What? That woman?’ He looked incredulous. ‘Where is she?’
‘Lying dead outside Howlme church.’
He gave me a long hard stare, then looked at Giles. ‘What’s this old fellow doing here?’
‘Master Wrenne was with me. He saved me.’
Giles looked up. ‘I had to strike her down,’ he said. ‘It was the only way.’
Maleverer held out a hand for the crossbow.
‘She stole it when that cart overturned,’ I told him.
‘Come inside,’ he snapped. ‘Both of you.’
He led the way up the path and into the Great Hall. There was no sign of the King, thank goodness. Maleverer led us through to a downstairs room that had been converted into an office, and sat behind his desk. We stood before him. In the candlelight that filled the room, Wrenne’s face looked white and pouchy.
‘Might Master Wrenne sit, Sir William?’ I asked. ‘He has had a shock.’ Maleverer looked at him and grunted assent. I pulled out a chair for the old man.
‘Thank you.’
‘Well? What happened?’
I told him what had taken place on the hilclass="underline" Jennet Marlin’s revelation that it had been her trying to kill me, her certainty I had seen papers in the casket that incriminated her fiancé. He leaned back, thinking, then turned to Giles, who had sat silently throughout my narrative. He nodded at the stick he was holding between his knees.
‘You brained her with that?’
‘Yes.’
Giles looked down. He saw smears of blood on his hands and shuddered.
‘How much of what she said did you hear, before you struck her?’ I asked.
‘Only the end. I did not mean to kill her. I have never killed another person -’
‘Well, you did tonight.’ Maleverer looked at him contemptuously. ‘What’s the matter with you? You look as though you’re about to faint away. Seems you’ve a weak stomach for a lawyer.’
‘He has – he is unwell,’ I told Maleverer. He frowned anxiously at the old man.
‘Then he should be got out of here. The King won’t have illness in any house he is staying at. Guard!’ he called. A soldier hurried in, and Maleverer gestured to Giles. ‘Assist him to his tent. Find out where it is and take him there.’
The soldier helped Giles to his feet. He looked at me. ‘I am sorry,’ he said, then allowed himself to be helped out. There was a moment’s silence. Maleverer ran his fingers along the edge of his black beard, a rapid flick, flick. Then he reached down and pulled something out of a drawer in his desk. It was the jewel casket. He set it on the desk. I looked again upon the painting of Diana the huntress, dressed in the style of a hundred years ago, aiming her bow at a stag.
‘I’ve kept this by me since St Mary’s. I’ve sat looking at it, pondering over who could be behind this.’ He gave a bark of laughter. ‘I’ve often wished it could speak, tell me what it contained.’ He shook his head. ‘I never thought of
Mistress Marlin. I’ll have them search her room. She may have those papers hidden there.’
‘I did not suspect her either. But she was desperate to get her fiancé freed, it was all that mattered to her. And a desperate person can be more dangerous than the worst villain. You never know what they might do in their desperation, while a villain is always a villain.’
‘She was clever, too. I expect she stole the keys of St Mary’s church easily enough. Someone with a name as feared as Lady Rochford’s behind her could go where she willed at King’s Manor.’
‘It was a cold cleverness. She pretended to be my friend.’ I smiled sadly. ‘It softened me towards her. I wanted her friendship.’
He looked at me interrogatively. ‘Sweet on her, were you?’
I sighed. ‘No, Sir William, I was not. I always distrusted that obsessive quality about her. I think that obsessiveness enabled her to justify to herself what she was doing. Desperate people can think up reasons to justify almost anything, be they stupid or clever.’ I took a deep breath, then added, ‘She thought you had been responsible for Master Locke being put in the Tower, said you coveted his lands and hoped to see him attainted for treason.’
I braced myself for a storm, but Maleverer only laughed. ‘Insolent mare. I merely sent him south on the Privy Council’s orders. Though if his lands are attainted, as they will be now, I might buy some of them.’ A covetous look came into his eyes, and in the midst of our talk of traitors and murderers he gave a momentary smile at the thought of more profit. Perhaps soon he would have enough land to feel he had redeemed his name enough to marry.