‘You will be wanting to pursue your enquiries elsewhere,’ she said, waving a gracious hand as an indication that I could go. ‘You may continue using Anthony’s bed while you remain with us, but you will have to continue sharing the chamber with his manservant. Master Attleborough is keen to leave us, but I thought it safer to refuse him permission for the time being. God alone knows what deep resentment he might possibly have been harbouring against my son.’
‘I assure you, Dame Audrea,’ I smiled, ‘that such an idea had already occurred to me.’
The dame inclined her head in approval. It was obvious that she would much prefer the killer to be an outsider, a stranger like Humphrey, whom she had never set eyes on until four days ago, than any member of her household.
‘What will you do next?’ she asked as I turned towards the door of the solar.
‘I must speak to everyone in turn, although whether any of them will be as honest with me as you have been …’ I let the rest of the sentence hang.
If Dame Audrea suspected me of irony, she disguised it very well. Her strong-featured face was expressionless as she wished me good luck. ‘And I haven’t forgotten our bargain,’ she added.
Whether or not she would honour it, remained to be seen.
With my hand on the door latch, I was thrown violently backwards as someone forced his way into the room. One of my feet became hopelessly entangled with the other and I went sprawling amongst the rushes. From this undignified position, I looked up expecting to see Simon Bellknapp, and was astonished to find myself instead staring into the face of Thomas Bignell.
‘Master Bignell, please explain this untoward conduct immediately,’ hissed Dame Audrea. ‘This is my private solar. I didn’t even hear you knock, let alone receive permission to enter.’
It said much for the perturbation of the butcher’s mind that he paid no attention to her. Indeed, I doubted that he had even noted the reprimand. He leaned down and helped me to my feet.
‘Chapman, Humphrey Attleborough has just this minute told me of your return, and why. You are to investigate the murder of Master Bellknapp, is that not so?’
I was still tenderly feeling my person for damage and answered shortly, ‘Yes.’ Then, finding myself more or less intact, except for a couple of bruised elbows, which had suffered the brunt of my fall, I added, ‘At Dame Audrea’s request.’
Thomas Bignell suddenly seemed to take in his surroundings and the presence of his hostess.
‘Madam! M-my apologies,’ he gasped. ‘I–I didn’t realize that this is your personal chamber. Master Steward told me the chapman was here. He didn’t say.’
Dame Audrea frowned. ‘Well, now that you are here and have found Master Chapman, what is it you wish to tell him with such urgency?’
The butcher was trapped. He would plainly have preferred to speak to me in private, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had no option but to tell us both.
‘It … it’s about Master Bellknapp,’ he said uncomfortably, shifting from one foot to the other like a flea hopping amongst the rushes.
‘What of Master Bellknapp?’ I prodded, when he hesitated.
‘Last night … he … he asked me to meet him. After everyone had gone to bed.’
‘Why?’ demanded Dame Audrea.
‘Where?’ I asked, almost in chorus.
‘In the hall,’ he replied, choosing to answer me.
Which left me with no alternative but to echo the dame’s question, ‘Why?’
‘He … he wanted to speak to me.’ This was followed by another silence.
‘What about?’ I almost yelled. ‘For God’s sake, man! This is like squeezing blood from a stone.’
Master Bignell’s discomfort increased. He scratched his head and continued to shuffle his feet until I was ready to do him bodily harm. But at last he managed to blurt out, ‘About Rose and … and Edward. He told me earlier in the evening that he thought Rose was unhappy in her marriage, and that maybe Ned was unkind to her. He said I should speak to Ned, or, if I didn’t wish to, he offered to do it for me.’
Dame Audrea snorted in derision. ‘He wanted her for himself, you foolish man! He intended to make mischief between you and your son-in-law so that when he eventually managed to lure her away from Master Micheldever, you wouldn’t cut her out of your will. You’re known to be a very wealthy man.’
‘But why, if he’d already said all that to you,’ I asked, ‘did Master Bellknapp want to meet you again after the rest of us were out of the way?’
‘He … he said there were things he needed to tell me that no one else must overhear.’ The butcher coloured faintly. ‘Intimate things concerning my daughter’s marriage.’
‘And you believed him?’ I asked scathingly. ‘Good God, man! Had your wits gone wool-gathering? He’d only known Rose three days! What could he possibly have discovered in that time that nobody else would know?’
Thomas Bignell raised his chin. He resented my tone.
‘Rose might well have confided in Master Bellknapp. There’s no doubt he had a way with the women. Any fool could tell that. And,’ he added even more belligerently, ‘people, men and women, often do confide in strangers secrets that it might embarrass them to tell anyone close to them.’
‘He has you there, Chapman,’ Dame Audrea observed, as I struggled to find an answer to refute this statement. She turned to look at the butcher. ‘And did you meet my son in the hall as you had arranged, Master Butcher?’
He nodded. ‘I thought I should listen to what he had to say. If Ned is mistreating my Rose, I ought to know about it. So, when the house was quiet and it seemed that everyone was asleep, I got up, put on my bed-robe over my night shirt and went downstairs into the hall.’
‘Was Master Bellknapp there?’ I asked.
‘He arrived a few minutes later.’
‘And?’ I was growing more and more frustrated. Thomas Bignell thought and spoke at the snail’s pace of the true countryman. It made me realize again how long it was since I had lived there.
‘Well, first, he admitted that he was the person who’d arranged to keep me at Croxcombe overnight. Then he said he thought there was someone still up and about. He felt sure he had heard someone moving, so it was better if we went outside where no one could overhear us. It was a warm night, so we’d take no harm. He said he’d just go out and look around to make certain there was no one there, and when he was satisfied he’d come back and fetch me.’
‘And did he? Come back and fetch you?’ I wanted to know, suspecting what his answer would be.
The butcher shook his head. ‘No, he never returned.’
It was Dame Audrea who eventually broke the silence. ‘Did you not wonder what had happened to him?’
‘Of course I did. At first, I waited, thinking that perhaps someone had been outside and that Master Bellknapp had been forced to hide until whoever it was went back to bed …’
‘No one came in through the hall?’ I asked, but the butcher shook his head.
‘No one. Nor did I see anyone about when I went to look for Master Bellknapp.’
‘When you failed to find my son, what did you think had happened to him?’ the dame asked.
I frowned at her, displeased. I felt I was losing control of this enquiry, and I didn’t like it.
Thomas Bignell scratched his stomach and looked unhappy. ‘I didn’t know. I … I just supposed he’d either changed his mind or had been playing a joke on me. After a while, I went back to bed.’
‘You didn’t search for Master Bellknapp?’ This time, I made certain I was first with the question.
‘Oh, I looked around a bit,’ the butcher asserted. ‘Of course I did. What do you take me for? I wandered about for some time, but I couldn’t see him anywhere and it was getting chilly. So, like I said, I returned to bed. I thought Master Bellknapp would explain matters in the morning.’