‘Perhaps you’re right,’ he said.
‘I am,’ Simon said, and then he turned to the Treasurer. His voice was harder now, like a judge preparing to command an execution. ‘And now I want your story.’
Joel woke with his face aching a little less than the day before, and he was relieved to find that his breast was not so painful. Breathing was easier, and his first impression as he was helped from his bed by a servant was that he was healing quickly.
That was a notion quickly dispelled as soon as he stood. He coughed painfully, and had to grab his servant’s arm to stop himself falling. Stifling the curses which threatened to burst forth, he tried to stay calm. Excitement caused the pain to increase, and he had no desire to enhance this in any way.
Dressed at last, he carefully went down his steps one at a time and then grabbed a staff to help himself down the passage to his hall.
Maud was already waiting for him at their table, and he forced a smile to his face at the sight of her, not sure how she would be after his gaffe of the day before. ‘Not going to church today?’
She eyed him seriously. ‘I have already been.’
He nodded, and hobbled across the floor to her, dropping into his seat with relief. ‘I thought you’d waited for me.’
She nodded to the servant, who stood hovering at the doorway, and he began to usher in the other servants and apprentices. ‘No, Husband. I felt the need to go and pray for you.’
‘Now you know I’m a murderer, you mean,’ he said bleakly.
Maud turned to eye him. ‘Don’t be even more of a fool than you already are, Joel. I married you for love, and I’d be unaccustomed to life without you after all these years. Foolish man, I love you still.’
He stared at her. Theirs was a marriage of easiness. They hadn’t been fortunate enough to have children, but neither had blamed the other for that. As the priests said, it was God’s choice whether a union would be blessed, and both had enough contentment in the company of the other for their mutual happiness. They only rarely expressed their love aloud. Somehow it seemed a little immature — and unnecessary. ‘Am I such a fool?’ he wondered aloud.
‘Yes. For you’ve managed to upset that madman William while achieving nothing for yourself.’
‘It’s not my fault he’s upset,’ Joel grumbled. ‘He assumed I must have launched an attack on him because of the way he treated me in the past. If I wasn’t so important as I am, he’d have cut my throat and left me in a ditch. As it is, he’s done enough, hasn’t he?’
‘Where is Vince?’ Maud asked, momentarily distracted.
Joel’s brows lifted and he glanced about the room. True enough, there was no sign of the fellow, and Joel felt annoyed. He disliked his apprentices behaving lazily; even if he himself were a little late for his meal, like this morning, there was no excuse for them to copy his example. Just when he was going to repeat the question, Vince walked in.
‘You are late!’ Joel called.
‘Master, my apologies. My father was unwell last night, and I had to stay with him to tend him,’ Vince said.
‘You weren’t with some whore from the Grapes, then?’
Vince held Joel’s gaze with a cold contempt. ‘I don’t know that place, Master Joel.’
Joel felt sure that in a moment Vince would ask him what it was like inside, and he waited with the rage growing inside him, only to feel a curious blend of relief and annoyance when Vince curled his lip and looked away, striding off to wash his hands in the ewer.
‘What was all that about?’ Maud asked.
‘I don’t know. The boy’s unhappy about something, though.’
‘I shall speak to him, then,’ she responded. An apprentice was much like a son, after all. If one of their fellows was unhappy or in trouble, the Master was responsible. She could ask more gently than Joel — especially today, she thought to herself, taking in her husband’s wince and stifled gasp of pain as he shifted in his seat.
‘Come along, then!’ Simon ordered.
Stephen hunched his shoulders. He had refused to discuss the matter in the open Close, and had instead invited Simon to his own hall. Now he stood near the new fire in his hearth, gazing at the flames and wondering how to begin. While he hesitated, Thomas stood near Simon, lounging with his thumbs hooked in his belt. He looked every bit the labouring mason that he was, and although Stephen knew that he himself paid Thomas’s wages, he felt unaccountably threatened by the man’s presence here in his hall. More so than the Bailiff.
‘It was before you were born, I dare say, Bailiff. I was a young novice, not yet old enough to take up responsibility for my own congregation, but with a voice that had broken. It was — it is — difficult for a fellow of that sort of age to move further up in the Church. One must be fortunate. I was lucky, I thought, because I had always had a propensity for numbers.’
Simon tried not to let his face show his revulsion at this thought. The idea of Andrew came unbidden into his mind, and he wondered fleetingly whether all clerks who liked playing with numbers were similarly prone to crime.
Stephen continued. ‘The Treasurer was an engaging man. He was interested in me, and in all that the Cathedral could do to further the rebuilding works. It was largely due to my mentor, Treasurer John, that the Cathedral was placed on a strong financial basis. So when he began to help me and prove his desire to teach me all he could, I was flattered. I wanted to help him in return.
‘He knew how to teach. If a fellow was confused about numbers and how to add or subtract, he would show infinite patience and kindness. He rarely if ever had need to resort to the strap or the birch, because we all respected him.
‘Anyway, when the Bishop arrived, we all saw the difference in him. The Bishop took an unreasonable dislike to him, and would keep on at him all the time. The Chapter itself took the matter in hand, and at the first opportunity, they elected John to be their Dean.
‘It drove the Bishop into a rage the like of which I have never seen before. The Bishop believed that men of the Church should not simply acquire riches, but should deal out such benefices as were won fairly and equitably. He felt that the Treasurer already had funds aplenty, and refused to let him take more. He insisted that Treasurer John should give up much of his wealth. The Treasurer refused, and so started the festering war that was to cause such bitterness and hatred.
‘There were letters to the Pope, letters to the Archbishop, threats, shouts, rattling of weaponry … it was an awful time. And at the end of it, it grew obvious that one or the other man must go. I was in league with most of the Chapter when I chose the side of the Treasurer. We did not like this foreign upstart telling us what to do and when we could do it. We wanted a local man, a good fellow like the kindly Treasurer John. And so, when it was decided that we should destroy the Bishop’s man, it was not a sudden decision by a small minority of people, but a firm resolution by all Treasurer John’s allies. Me included.
‘We laid an ambush after Matins, and when he came out, we killed him. That, I thought, was that. But no, now it is all coming back to haunt us.’
‘Who was there with you?’
‘Thomas there,’ the Treasurer grunted, motioning towards the mason loitering at his wall. ‘Myself, two vicars long dead, some townsfolk. I don’t know how many exactly.’
‘I know of Joel Lytell and Henry. Henry is dead and Joel has been badly beaten. Who would have done that? Were there any survivors among the Chaunter’s men other than Nicholas?’
‘There was Matthew, of course. Why?’
‘Because so far Henry is dead — he helped in the attack — and so is Nicholas. I’ve already heard that someone told the Chaunter that he need not fear the ambush because the Bishop had been informed and had gathered together a force to catch all the assailants. But there was no such force. Whoever told that tale to the Chaunter was playing a cruel trick — and it worked. I am wondering whether Nicholas was the traitor.’