There was a rattle of locks, and he turned slowly to face the door, his flesh creeping at the sound. The arrival of a manhere was invariably the precursor to pain. The keeper of the gaol was a brutal man with no sympathy, only a hatred for allthose who lived under his power. And he had an especial loathing for traitors.
In here there was almost no light, for the only pale imitation of the sun could curl and twist about many passages beforereaching these depths, but as Robert le Mareschal peered at the door he was sure that he could see a glimmering orange light. The glow appeared to grow nearer, and Robert was tortured with conflicting emotions: an urgent, sensual desire to see thattorch or candle, whatever it might be — to see it and hear it crackle, imagining that he could warm himself by its flames- that would be so good! And then there was the opposing terror that whoever it might be, he was coming here to inflict sometorture on Robert’s weakened frame.
There were steps now. Loud, confident paces that marched along the flagged corridor, until they had grown so loud, their echoeswere a torment to his ears. They must pass … they must pass … they would go to another cell …
But they stopped outside his door, and looking up at the barred hole in the door Robert saw the glittering of the sheriff’seyes. Croyser spoke.
‘All taken. John of Nottingham was first, but the others are all secure now.’
‘Thanks to God!’
Croyser looked at him with contempt in his eyes. ‘You pray to God after what you’ve done? You summoned the devil and soldyour soul to kill a man. And would have killed your own king, no doubt, if fear of your punishment hadn’t stopped you.’
‘No! I summoned no demons! And I did tell you of the plot!’
‘Yes, you did, didn’t you? And all, I suppose, because you’d rather risk being hanged than suffering the death that the kingmight plan for you.’
‘What will happen to them now?’
‘The others? They’ll all try to plead innocence and ask for sureties to help them escape from prison. They’ll only be herea short while, I expect.’
‘And my master? How is he?’
‘I thought …’
There was a sudden doubt in the sheriff’s voice. Robert le Mareschal felt a griping in his belly that was not due to the thinpottage he had eaten that morning. ‘He hasn’t escaped? If he has escaped, he can make an image of me and kill me!’
‘Well, he has escaped in a way, I suppose.’ The sheriff grinned nastily. ‘His body’s here, but his spirit’s escaped, I suppose you could say. More than you will do.’
‘All I did was make mommets and obey my master,’ Robert declared.
‘You made the figures very realistic, too, didn’t you? So realistic even I could recognise my king when I saw it. No, youonly came forward because you thought you’d make a safer pact by selling your companions to the king than by killing him. What was it, did someone else hint that they’d give you up?’
‘I’ve already told you …’
‘Yes, you’ve told me what you want me to hear. You haven’t told me everything, though. Not by a long shot. But you will, youwill. I’ll have you shrieking in agony and begging to tell me all. We are skilled in the use of our devices here, and theking is upset to hear that you helped make the imitation of him so that you could kill him by your maleficium.’
‘I wouldn’t have done anything to him! I couldn’t!’ Robert pleaded. He had surrendered himself as soon as he could when herealised that the attempt must be discovered: the thought of the punishment that would come to a man who had dared to makean attempt on the life of the king had petrified him with fear.
‘You’ll have to convince him, not me. And not only him. You know, I don’t think that the good king’s friends are happy either. From what I’ve heard, the Despensers are also distressed to think that you and your master could have taken money from thesemalcontents and traitors to kill them. I don’t know, but I rather think that Sir Hugh le Despenser will want to be involvedin your punishment personally. And God help you if he does!’
Exeter City
It took Baldwin and the coroner only a short while to walk up South Gate Street towards the area in which the watchman had seen theshadow, but it took considerably more time for Baldwin to persuade the coroner to enter the lane with him.
‘You are seriously suggesting that there could have been a man in here who had the skill to change himself into a blastedcat to escape that poor excuse for a guard?’
‘Of course not! Yet he may have seen something which was out of place, even if he did succumb to superstitious nonsense shortlyafterwards.’
‘I think we’d be better served fetching ourselves a pie for our dinner.’
‘Come, it will take little enough time,’ Baldwin said.
With a bad grace the coroner gave in, and Baldwin was grateful for his company as they walked along the busy lane towardsthe Bear Gate.
‘He did say the second alley after the main street?’ Baldwin confirmed, his nose wrinkled at the stench. ‘I can understandwhy he would be reluctant to enter this noisome little trail.’
It was a narrow gap between houses like so many others, and yet here the width was much reduced. As Baldwin took a first tentativestep in, he felt as though the houses were all leaning in towards him, their upper storeys bending down and blocking out thesky.
Oddly enough, once the two men had walked about ten paces, the whole area brightened. Here there was a curve in the alley,and now it ran straight towards the south. The sun was up in the clouds there, brightening a thinner layer of cloud, and thealley appeared less repellent than it had at first because once they were away from the entrance, it widened somewhat. However, the odours of excrement and urine wereall-pervasive. A scuttling ahead showed where a rat was scavenging, and the sounds stopped as the two drew nearer.
‘I cannot imagine why any man would want to come down here.’
‘For a fellow making good his escape, it would be as good as any,’ Baldwin considered. ‘Look at this place! No one is hereduring the day, so it must be guaranteed to be deserted at night. Say you had killed a king’s messenger, and you had to escape. The South Gate would be shut, so where else could you go? This would be the ideal route to take, I should say.’
The coroner lifted his boot with an expression of distaste and stared at the sole. ‘So long as he didn’t mind being coveredin the ordure of the centuries, damn it! Look at that!’ He began to scrape the muck from his boot on a step.
‘The rat would explain why there would be a cat up here,’ Baldwin continued, walking on a short distance and peering abouthim. ‘I dare say this would be a cheerful hunting ground for any feline. And the appearance of a man suddenly coming up thealley from the gate might startle a cat so that it decided to bolt for it, and that was how it met with the fearful watchman.’
‘Perfectly logical,’ the coroner agreed.
‘And the watchman said he thought the man looked like a sorcerer. Let us go and visit the fellow, eh?’
Lady Alice reached the house late in the afternoon, with Sarra as chaperon, only to find it encircled by a small group ofgawping men and women. There was a beadle she recognised outside, a scruffy little fellow whom her husband had once said he suspected of half the crimes in the city, excepthe’d never managed to catch him.
‘What is all this?’ she asked a woman nearby.
‘Mistress, the man here was attacked and almost killed.’
Lady Alice’s eyes widened. ‘You are sure of this?’
There was no need to respond. The only reason for a crowd this size was an attempted murder, or, better, an actual one.
‘My lady, we ought to get back,’ Sarra said nervously.