Dame Copley gave a sniff and ostentatiously wiped her nose (although I noted that she was still dry-eyed). ‘It was that girl, Amphillis Hill.’ She gave a significant nod in Piers’s direction, as much as to say he would know who was meant. For my benefit, she added, ‘Amphillis Hill is one of the castle seamstresses. A pretty young thing. Or, at least, she thinks she is.’
Piers gave a chuckle. ‘Now, be fair, Rosina, you know very well she is.’ He grinned at me and made curves in the air with his hands. ‘She has a shape like that as well as the most beautiful blue eyes and dimples. You’ll love her, Roger. All the men do.’
I ignored this and pressed Dame Copley for further information. ‘Where and when did this Mistress Hill see Gideon?’
‘On the Friday evening after supper, in company with Gregory Machin. It was in the corridor outside, at the other end where there’s a flight of steps that lead to a landing and a number of rooms similar to this one. Tutor Machin had been allotted one of them for the night.’
‘Had the boy been to see you?’ I asked.
She nodded miserably. ‘He came to say goodnight.’
‘Did he sleep with Tutor Machin?’
Dame Copley shook her head vigorously. ‘Oh, no! Gideon was sharing a chamber with his uncle, Godfrey. And the following day, he was going to the Tower to become part of King Edward’s household.’
I nodded. ‘So I’ve been given to understand. So Tutor Machin was taking him to find his uncle, was he?’
‘Not immediately. Although I suppose he would have done, eventually. Gregory was fussing unnecessarily, as usual. He said that in all this upheaval, Gideon was missing too many lessons; that his mathematics and philosophy were falling behind and that his reading ability was abysmal. And if he was going to serve the king, who is noted for his learning, he must not appear an ignoramus.’ The nurse tossed her head. ‘Of course, Gregory was really only concerned with his own reputation.’
‘And Master Machin was intent on giving the lad some extra tuition, was that the idea?’
‘Oh dear me, yes! I told him to let the child run out of doors before he went to sleep. It would do him far more good than poring over musty old school books. Besides, Gideon was overtired, I could see that. He’s always been delicate, a fact no one has ever seemed to understand, except his mother and myself. All this excitement, all this junketing about, has been bad for him. He needs a quiet life.’
‘Now, Rosina, admit you mollycoddle him,’ said Piers with a smile, and for the second time I felt a slight sense of surprise that the lad should use Dame Copley’s Christian name so freely. I would have expected the nurse to be shown some deference from an obvious inferior in the domestic hierarchy. But as the dame herself took no offence, who was I to cavil? Some households are laxer than others.
I returned, as the French say, to our sheep. ‘So Master Gideon, after bidding you goodnight, left this room in company with Tutor Machin. Did you watch them to the end of the passageway?’
Dame Copley shook her head. ‘No. I was tired and wanted to doze. Gideon promised to come to see me again in the morning before he left for the Tower, and I told Gregory to shut the door behind him. And that — ’ she pressed the handkerchief to her lips with shaking fingers — ‘was the last time I saw my precious boy. And the last time I saw Gregory Machin alive,’
Piers rose from his knees and, seating himself on the bed, leant over and put an arm around the nurse’s shoulders.
‘Don’t worry, my dear. I’ve told you, Master Chapman is here to find him. Master Gideon, I mean. There’s nothing he can do for Tutor Machin.’
‘Except find his killer,’ Dame Copley pointed out.
There was a short and somewhat pregnant pause while I contemplated the task ahead of me. Then I took a deep breath and gathered my forces together.
‘You say that this Amphillis Hill, this seamstress, saw both Gideon and his tutor at the far end of the passageway outside. Do you know how she came to see them? What she was doing there? Why she was there?’
It was Piers who answered. ‘I believe she’d been out, across the river, and had just landed back at the water stairs. She entered the castle by the door you must have noted as we came in.’ He paused, shrugging. ‘I may be wrong. I had precious little time to gather much information in all the panic and flurry after the discovery of poor Master Machin’s body.’
‘No, you’re quite right,’ Dame Copley confirmed. ‘It seems Amphillis saw them from the door as they were mounting the stairs at the other end. They disappeared round the bend, going up to Tutor Machin’s room, but by the time the girl herself reached the top of the stairs, there was no sign of them. Not surprising, of course, as Gregory’s chamber — if,’ she snorted, ‘one can dignify it with that name — was only the second one along. Not that the girl knew that, or cared. They were nothing to her. She didn’t even know their names — at least not then — or what they were doing in Baynard’s Castle. She just happened to be the last person to see them both.’ Once again, the handkerchief came into play.
I got thankfully to my feet and stretched my legs. ‘The best thing I can do is to see this Amphillis Hill for myself,’ I said. I looked at Piers. ‘Do you know where I can find her?’
SEVEN
Dame Copley sniffed loudly.
‘If she’s at her work, where she ought to be,’ she said waspishly, ‘and not gadding around the castle or taking trips across the river, as these young girls seem prone to do, she’ll be with the other seamstresses in the sewing room. Piers knows where that is. He’ll take you.’
Piers rose from his seat on the bed.
I shook my head. ‘Don’t bother, lad. I can find it. I’ve a tongue in my head. You’d be better employed seeking out Sir Francis and informing him of Mistress Blancheflower’s death. And that of his dog.’
At my words, the nurse gave a piercing scream and staggered to her feet. ‘What do you mean? What’s he talking about, Perry?’ She laid a trembling hand on Piers’s arm. ‘Nell? Dead? There-there must be some mistake. Tell me! Tell me!’
Piers threw me a reproachful glance. ‘She doesn’t know yet. I was going to break it to her gently, later. Dame Copley and Mistress Blancheflower were particular friends, you see. They took to each other straight away after we arrived at Minster Lovell from up north.’
‘It can’t be Nell!’ Rosina Copley had seized the young man by the shoulders and was shaking him violently. ‘You mean it was William.’ She drew a ragged, gasping breath and then seemed to take herself in hand. ‘What did Master Chapman mean about the dog? Is he talking about that brute, Beelzebub? But Nell had nothing to do with the dogs.’
‘It-it was an accident,’ Piers said, obviously upset by the nurse’s distress. ‘She. . Well, no one knows quite how it happened. Mistress Blancheflower went out of the main courtyard the night before last or sometime during the early hours of yesterday morning. The dog savaged her. T-tore her throat out.’
I stepped forward quickly, afraid that Dame Copley was about to faint. But she was made of sterner stuff than that, and although she was ashen-white, her lips bloodless, she managed a faint, rueful smile at her own weakness.
‘Tell me all about it,’ she whispered to Piers, who nodded and sat down on the bed again, inviting her to sit alongside him.
‘I’ll go and seek out this Amphillis Hill,’ I said, not merely because I wished to avoid a painful scene, but also because my own secret guilt was making me deeply uncomfortable. Piers volunteered no answer, being busy consoling Dame Copley like the good and caring lad he seemed to be, so I slipped out thankfully into the passage, closing the door quietly behind me.