‘A retainer, perhaps, but there was nothing significant in that. His Grace was deeply upset by my brother’s disappearance, as well as that of Edward Mortimer. Perhaps Sir Maurice hasn’t told you, but John of Gaunt instigated the most thorough search for the missing knights. He alerted every sheriff, bailiff, mayor and port reeve throughout the kingdom. If he could have no success, why should I? I’m not lying. Ask His Grace yourself. The letters and writs ordering such a search are still enrolled in the Chancery, I’ve seen them with my own eyes. Now,’ Malachi got to his feet, ‘Brother Athelstan, I’ve brought down my possessions, I need to store them in your house.’ Malachi nodded at Athelstan, sketched a blessing in Cranston’s direction and left.
‘Is he staying here? Why?’ Cranston mopped his face on the edge of his gown.
Athelstan told him in short sharp sentences everything that had happened since they’d parted the previous day. Cranston held his peace, then he, in turn, related all he had discovered. For a while both sat in silence.
‘Oh, by the way,’ Cranston shuffled his feet, ‘on my short but very cold journey across the Thames, I met Master Flaxwith. The Judas Man seems to have disappeared. I only wish I knew who had hired him.’
‘We keep asking the same questions,’ Athelstan replied, ‘and receive the same answers. The mystery always deepens. I have a special cask of the best Bordeaux hidden in my buttery. I can’t take you there because of Malachi. So, like Melchisedech of old, if you sit there, I will bring you gifts of bread and wine and, here, in the presence of God, we shall sit like master and scholar and dispute what we’ve found.’
Cranston readily agreed. Athelstan brought across a small jug of claret, two pewter goblets and a trancher of buttered bread smeared with honey. While Cranston ate, Athelstan prepared his writing tray, and made himself comfortable on Mugwort’s stool.
‘So, let’s list the mysteries.’
Item Sir Edward Mortimer and Sir Richard Culpepper disappear with the Lombard treasure from Oyster Wharf twenty years ago. At the same time, Guinevere the Golden is seen no more.
Item The two boatmen also disappear, but they were only supposed to bring the barge to Culpepper and later meet them at the Oyster Wharf, yet they too vanished, their barge found floating downriver near Westminster.
Item Despite a scrupulous search, by His Grace John of Gaunt, as well as Brother Malachi, no trace of the missing persons, or the Lombard treasure, has ever been found.
Item There is no doubt that Culpepper and Mortimer received monies for the secret task assigned to them. I thought this was just to pay for the boatmen and barge but there was considerable wealth. Mortimer could give gifts to his sister and buy her a narrow house in Poor Jewry.
Item The Lombard treasure was held in trust by His Grace, John of Gaunt, who hired these two knights so that the movements of this treasure could not be traced. No one, apart from Gaunt and the two knights, knew when, where and how the treasure was being transported.
Item Although Mortimer and Culpepper disappeared, Helena Mortimer receives, every quarter, five pounds sterling in a little pouch bearing the Mortimer crest. This is delivered to the goldsmith Lundy, who has no knowledge of who or why such a request is made. Again, that’s logical. There is no crime in giving a lonely spinster the means for a comfortable life. We also know that Guinevere the Golden was boasting of some unexpected wealth which would transform her life, but she too has gone into the dark.
Athelstan paused, and sipped at the claret. ‘Now, Sir John, we move forward twenty years.’ He continued his writing.
Item Who murdered those two unfortunates in the hay barn? Probably the same person who hired them. Was it Chandler, or did that dead fat knight merely stumble on the corpses? There is no proof of anyone else approaching the hay barn on that murderous occasion.
Item Who hired the Judas Man? Who is the Judas Man?
Athelstan glanced up. ‘We don’t even know his name. He was given the task of hunting down the Misericord. Why?’ He kept writing as he talked. ‘Because the Misericord was a rogue who had deceived Sir Stephen and composed a poem about him?’ He shook his head. ‘Definitely not.’
Item The Misericord was a frequenter of the tavern the Night in Jerusalem. Twenty years ago, when the great robbery occurred, he vouched that all the others concerned, apart from Malachi, stayed in that tavern carousing all night. Again that is logical. Culpepper’s companions, not to mention Master Rolles and Mother Veritable, did not even know that the Lombard treasure was being transported along the Thames. There is no evidence whatsoever that the knights, Rolles or that Witch Queen ever came into any unexpected wealth.
Item A relationship did exist between the Misericord and the two sisters, Beatrice and Clarice. They too began to hint of unexpected wealth, of transforming their lives, of knowing what had happened to their mother. The only clue they would give was a veiled allusion to something Edith, the Misericord’s sister, wore upon her person. I cannot discover that.
Item Mother Veritable had good reason, therefore, like Sir Stephen Chandler, to hate the Misericord, who may have been plotting to take away two of her favourite girls. All three of them had mocked a very valuable customer. Yet there is no evidence whatsoever that Mother Veritable, or indeed anyone else, went to Cheapside to deliver that poison pie to silence the Misericord. Of course the Judas Man has disappeared, except for his horse and harness. He may have killed the Misericord and returned to attack Malachi in the church. But why?
Item What did the Misericord mean by shouting ‘Askit, Askit’ before he died? And what were those strange etchings on the prison wall? The quotation ‘Quern quaeritis’, not to mention the numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5?
Athelstan paused in his writing and carefully scrutinised his conclusions. Cranston, who had listened as he finished off the bread and wine, came over and sat next to him. He studied the clerkly abbreviations Athelstan had made in listing all his points.
‘In the end,’ Cranston muttered, ‘we come back to the great robbery.’
‘There are two people,’ Athelstan replied, ‘we haven’t questioned. And we should, sooner or later. His Grace, John of Gaunt, and Signor Teodoro Tonnelli.’
Athelstan stared across at the glorious red rooster Huddle the painter had begun to depict on one of the pillars. It was supposed to represent the cock which crowed three times, marking Peter’s denial of Christ during the Lord’s Passion. On the other pillar an elegant pelican stabbed its own breast to feed its young, a symbol of Christ giving His Body and Blood to the world. The friar realised only now, sitting here, how he had underestimated Huddle’s consummate skill in bringing these two symbols to life, and he felt a pang of regret at not congratulating that dreamy-eyed painter more forcefully.
‘Brother?’
‘Yes, yes,’ Athelstan replied, ‘we should do it now. But Tonnelli won’t see us without John of Gaunt’s permission, he’ll act the cautious banker.’
‘I’ll send the letter myself,’ Cranston offered. ‘His Grace the Regent is at his palace in the Savoy.’
Athelstan became busy, hurrying across to his house for a sheet of better vellum, a sander of pounce and a slice of sealing wax. Sir John dictated the letter. Athelstan melted the wax and used the sander to sprinkle the very fine dust, so that the ink wouldn’t blur. The letter was sealed by Sir John, and sealed again when Athelstan folded it.
‘Benedicta’s in the house,’ Athelstan declared. ‘I think Malachi is getting under her feet. She’ll take this over to the Savoy.’
He hurried off and came back to find Cranston beating his boot on the paved floor.