‘By the time Bridget returned with Jack and his wagon, however, all was quiet. Mary and Andrew had cried themselves out and, in the callous way that children have, shrugging off their own troubles as well as those of their elders, had started to play quite happily together. Jack Carter carried my box downstairs and placed it on his cart, I climbed up beside him, having said my farewells to Agatha and Bridget, and he brought me… here.’ She smiled wryly. ‘I was going to say home, but after so many years, it was no longer that to me, just a roof and four walls to provide me with shelter.’
‘And that was the last time you saw the two children?’ I asked as gently as possible. I could sense her distress and had no wish to add to it beyond what was necessary.
She nodded mutely, and it was some moments before she could trust her voice. But, finally, she went on, ‘It was the following day before news reached me that Mary and Andrew had vanished within hours of my departure. Agatha Tenter sent me word by Jack Carter, who was making another journey in this direction, and I begged a lift back to Totnes with him, when he returned, in order to find out for myself the truth of what had happened.’
‘And what did you discover?’ I picked up and bit into the last apple, without even being aware of what i was doing.
‘The house was in uproar, as you would expect, Agatha pale and haggard, Bridget crying hysterically. There was turmoil, also, in the town, with half the population out searching for the children and the other half either crowded into the downstairs parlour or gathered around the doorstep, giving advice and asking questions. Or so it seemed. Robert Broughton, the Mayor, was there, along with Master Thomas Cozin, and presently a Sergeant came down from the castle to add to the inquiries.’
‘And what was the result of all this inquisition? Your friend Jacinta told me that Master Colet was away from the house when the children vanished, visiting Thomas Cozin, who, presumably was able to vouch for him?’
Grizelda nodded with extreme reluctance.
‘That is so. He apparently went out immediately after breakfast, and both Bridget and Agatha swore that the children were still upstairs at the time. They also swore that neither Andrew nor Mary could have gone out without being seen by one or the other of them. Bridget was dusting and polishing in the downstairs parlour, and Agatha was in the kitchen, preparing the vegetables and meat for dinner. She had left the door standing wide, in spite of the coldness of the morning, to clear the steam caused by the various pots of boiling water. She had the inner courtyard within her sight for nearly the whole of the time until Bridget came running to say that Mary and Andrew were nowhere to be found. The master had returned and sent for the children, but they had completely disappeared. The two of them then searched the storerooms and bedrooms above the kitchen, and also the outer courtyard, the stables and anywhere else they could think of but to no avail.
‘At first, of course, they all assumed there must be a simple explanation, that the children had found a hiding place which no one had as yet thought of, and were intent on giving their stepfather a fright, in order to teach him a lesson for his anger of earlier in the morning. But as the day wore on without their reappearance, everyone grew worried and raised the hue and cry. Parties of neighbours scoured the streets and buildings within the town, and, until darkness fell, the surrounding countryside. By the time I arrived with Jack Carter, the children had been missing all night, and everyone was beginning to fear that some evil had befallen them. The outlaws had been scourging the neighbourhood for several weeks past, and had already carried off a child during one of their forays. It’s not unusual, as you must know. They use their captives as slaves, taking them with them when they move on to other parts of the country. Nothing is too vile for those men.’
‘But in this case, they murdered their victims. Or so it would appear.’
Grizelda glanced at me sharply. As she turned her head, the sun caught the tight side of her face, and I saw again the thin white scar, running from eyebrow to cheek.
‘You speak as though you had doubts about the children’s fate,’ she accused me.
‘Haven’t you?’ I countered. ‘Haven’t other people?’ She bit her lip and looked away again, stating across the clearing to where the beech bark shone in the sunlight, as though laced with silver.
‘I cannot deny,’ she answered, speaking so low that I had to bend my head to hear her properly, ‘that it was more than fortunate for Eudo Colet, the children being killed as they were, so soon after their mother died, for, with their death, he inherited the money bequeathed them by Sir Henry. And I was not the only one whose suspicions were aroused. There were many who probed long and deep in the expectation of finding him guilty. But, to their great disappointment, I fancy, they were unable to shake the witness of Agatha and Bridget. Not one of Sir Jasper’s old friends had ever liked him, nor was he generally popular in the town. Indeed, I don’t think I should be doing him an injustice if I said that I never heard a good word concerning him. But’ – Grizelda spread her hands in a hopeless gesture – ‘nothing could be proved against him. Agatha and Bridget both staunchly maintained that he could have had nothing to do with the children’s disappearance. They were upstairs when he left the house to visit Master Cozin, and had vanished by the time he returned. The Sheriff, who came from Exeter to conduct an inquiry, was forced to exonerate him for want of proof to the contrary.’
‘But did no one suspect collusion with either the cook or the maid?’
Grizelda considered this. ‘They may have done,’ she said at last, ‘but again, there was no evidence to support such a theory. No whisper had ever linked his name with that of either woman. And to be truthful, Roger, I cannot believe that he would find either Agatha or Bridget to his liking. The girls who caught his eye were young and pretty. Bridget may be young, but she is certainly not pretty, while Agatha is three years older than I am. Besides, once the children’s bodies were discovered on the banks of the Harbourne, six weeks later, there was little doubt in anyone’s mind that they had been murdered by the outlaws. Certainly, that was the verdict of the Coroner.’
I stroked my chin thoughtfully. ‘So,’ I said, ‘in spite of the cook’s and the maid’s protestations that the children could not possibly have left the house without their knowledge, somehow or other they must have done so.’
‘Yes. But alive, and without the assistance of Eudo Colet. Loath as most people were to accept that he had nothing to do with their disappearance, in the end, it was generally agreed that, following the quarrel with their stepfather, Andrew and Mary decided to run away, managed to escape unseen and took to the forest, where they got lost and were captured by the outlaws.’
‘But why should the outlaws kill them?’ I wondered.
‘Perhaps, after a few weeks, they saw a chance to make a bid for freedom, and took it.’ Grizelda’s eyes filled with tears. ‘They would not be easy to control, those two. They had courage and spirit, especially Andrew.’
I frowned. ‘If the truth be told, you are satisfied in your own mind, are you not, that Eudo Colet had nothing to do with your young cousins’ deaths?’
The silence stretched between us. After a long time, she nodded.
‘I suppose so. I must be satisfied, mustn’t I? There is no other conclusion I can come to.’