Elias scowled. ‘I saw him over there, leaning on that great stick of his, as I came out of the field. He was up beyond Mary’s body.’
‘So you came out into the road, saw her, sent Ben to fetch help, and sat down patiently to wait?’ Baldwin said.
‘There’s no need for sarcasm. I saw her and shielded Ben from the sight, yes, and then, once he’d gone, I dipped back into the hedge to puke up. It was so like my own little girl’s death. I thought Mary had been raped at the time, but now… well, I reckon she just lost her child.’
‘And then someone broke her neck for her,’ Baldwin added sharply.
‘Yes. But not me.’
When they arrived at the hermit’s hut, he was sitting outside, staring at the bridge.
‘You have spoken to Elias?’ he said.
Baldwin nodded. ‘And I believe him.’
‘No one believes a hermit, do they?’
‘Not always, no. You were the man who killed Mary, weren’t you?’
‘Why do you think so?’
‘Because you were there. We spent so much time thinking that others must be involved, but you were there, and you had the same motive as any others. You wanted to halt her pain, didn’t you? Not because you’d seen your daughter die, but because you’d seen your own woman miscarry and bleed to death after you lost control and beat her up. You couldn’t bear to see another girl die like that.’
Surval nodded. ‘Yes. It’s true. But I only killed her to save her pain. That was all. Only to save her pain.’
Simon could see that Baldwin was inclined to believe the old hermit – and yet there was something that tugged at his mind. He remembered hearing something before – something about this hermit.
‘What will you do with me?’ Surval asked serenely.
Baldwin’s voice was tired. ‘There have been too many deaths. I do not honestly care what happens to you. I think you meant to do her a service, and for that, perhaps, you should be congratulated.’
‘I am grateful, Sir Knight. Not that I can disagree with you, of course.’ Surval smiled and leaned back. ‘It is a grand day, friends. A beautiful day.’
‘It must feel like you’re reprieved from a terrible fate,’ Simon said without thinking.
‘Hmm? Aye, I suppose so.’
‘It was a shame that you did not feel it necessary to defend Mark, though.’
‘True. But how could I reject other men’s accusations against him without betraying my own role?’
‘Poor Mark. And he was related to you, we find.’
‘Yes. He was my nephew. So many are my nephews or nieces!’
‘You once told me you have a child,’ Baldwin said.
‘You know him – Osbert. He is a good fellow. He doesn’t know he is my boy, though. His mother told everyone it was Ralph. I didn’t want to get into trouble with the Bishop, and it was all too easy to believe stories about my late, unlamented brother!’
Seeing him sitting back in the sun, absorbing the warmth, Simon suddenly remembered what he had heard and when, and he felt a cold premonition. It was during the ride here from Lydford. They had got lost and had to cross over the bridge, and Osbert, after they met Surval, had mentioned that Sir Richard had disliked the hermit. ‘How did you like Sir Richard?’ he asked now.
‘He was a good enough man.’
‘Did he support you and your bridge?’
‘Of course. Why shouldn’t he?’
Baldwin was watching the Bailiff as though wondering whether he might have been clubbed on the head during the fighting yesterday, but Simon felt like a harrier which sees its fox starting to flag. ‘I heard he was trying to throw you off here because he thought you were no more than a felon escaping justice.’
‘He had heard of me, I think, from my brother or nephew. They couldn’t keep their mouths shut.’
‘He died quickly.’
‘Fairly, yes.’
‘How did he die?’
‘He had a seizure. Horrible.’
‘You saw him?’
‘I was there for much of the time, yes. I wasn’t there when he actually expired.’
‘No. There was no need, was there?’ Simon said. ‘Baldwin, we have been very stupid. There was only ever one murderer. The same man killed Sir Richard and the girl. Sir Richard because he threatened Surval’s home…’
‘He wanted to report me to the Bishop and have me removed. It wasn’t anything to do with me, though. He simply wished to get back at my brother!’ Surval looked from one man to the other, and saw incomprehension in their eyes. ‘Very well, masters, you don’t understand. I’ll try to explain. I have a home here, a pleasing house, and I have my own altar, at which I abase myself. It is a part of me, this home. It is all I have now. In some ways, it is me! It defines me. My life, my soul, all that I am, is here. And Sir Richard wanted to throw me from the place. He intended sending me back to the Bishop. Not because of anything I had done, but because he thought any man related to my brother must be my brother’s ally. Well, I wasn’t.’
Baldwin asked, ‘How did he know you were brother to Sir Ralph? It was seemingly well enough hidden to others about here?’
Surval gazed at him with surprise. ‘We grew up here, and so did Sir Richard; even if he was younger than us, he knew us as close peers as well as neighbours. Our families hunted and dined together. But that meant nothing last year when that damned moneylender died in Exeter.’
He chewed his lip. ‘You remember what things were like. The whole country on tenterhooks, armies massing to fight the enemies of the King, the Despensers called back from their exile and pardoned… and the Despensers – damn them! – came back and once more had the ear of the King to the detriment of the realm. Well, my brother had thrown in his lot with the Despensers some little while before. But Sir Richard hadn’t.
‘Sir Richard had borrowed a sum from a moneylender, and when that man was murdered, Sir Richard found people demanding repayment. The debt was taken by the King, and because of Sir Ralph’s friendship with the Despensers, they persuaded the King to let my brother take over the castle. Sir Richard fought back in the only way he knew. He employed clerks to argue, he sought another moneylender, and then he tried to slander my brother through me.’
Surval grunted to himself. ‘It wasn’t the act of a kind or generous soul. He sought to ruin my brother’s reputation by first ruining mine. Perhaps once he had removed me, he thought he could slander Ralph and thereby gain a little time to find more money and keep his castle. That it would have destroyed my reputation meant nothing to him.
‘I have rebuilt my life here. The thought of leaving – especially in order to satisfy another man’s spite against a brother I detest – seemed terribly unfair. So I sought to protect myself.’
‘By killing again.’ Baldwin’s face was set like moorstone.
‘Yes. He was going to destroy me, so I sought to destroy him first,’ Surval said with a fierce defiance. ‘When Sir Richard was forced to take to his bed with his gout, I went to visit the castle. I offered him peace, and tried to reason with him, but he wouldn’t listen, and while I was there, I saw Wylkyn mix medicine for his master. When I asked what it was, he told me it was henbane. I knew where Wylkyn kept his stock of herbs, and I looked in there. I confess, I hadn’t realised henbane could be used to ease the gout, but when I heard Wylkyn say that, I added more and mixed it with Sir Richard’s wine. Within a day he was complaining about his sight and some giddiness. Soon he fell to lethargy, and within a day or two, he was in a delirium, and then he died.’ The hermit gave a long sigh.
‘You poisoned him over several days?’
‘The priest from the church only saw him on the first day or two. After that, the monk from the chapel and I remained with him. We prayed together for his soul.’