‘Did you walk along the moat at all?’
‘Yes, a little way. And round by the stables and the animal pens and Dame Audrea’s flower garden, but he was nowhere to be seen. He’d completely vanished.’
‘Did you hear or see anything? Did you have any suspicion that someone else was out of doors last night?’ I queried.
Thomas Bignell chewed his lower lip. ‘I honestly don’t know. I was extremely confused by that time. I couldn’t work out what game Master Bellknapp was playing with me. If it was true that he really had gone to such lengths to keep me here at Croxcombe overnight, why had he suddenly disappeared without saying a word of what he wanted to tell me? To say truth’ — the butcher shuffled his feet awkwardly and avoided Dame Audrea’s eyes — ‘I was beginning to get nervous. It — it crossed my mind that maybe it was all a ruse to do me some harm.’
‘Why on earth would Anthony wish to do you harm?’ the dame demanded. ‘I’m not denying that he had a vicious streak in him — extremely vicious, as I’ve already told Master Chapman — but he had no grudge against you, Master Bignell.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘On the other hand, did you have any reason to quarrel with him? We only have your word for Anthony’s reason for wanting to speak privately with you. It might be that he was trying to warn you not about Master Micheldever’s conduct, but about Rose’s. I have frequently observed that she is far too familiar with other men; that she encourages their attentions. Maybe my son wished to bring this fact to your notice. Maybe you took exception to what he said and got angry. Angrier than you intended. Perhaps it was you who hit him on the back of the head and pushed him into the moat to drown.’
The butcher was aghast. ‘No, no! I assure you! Everything happened exactly as I have described it.’ He flushed a deep, dark red as the Dame’s strictures on his daughter sank in. ‘And my Rose is a good girl! A bit young and flighty as yet, but she’ll settle down and be a good wife to Ned, you’ll see. You’ve no cause to blacken her name like that.’
Dame Audrea was plainly unused to being addressed in such a forthright manner, and it was her turn to look deeply affronted. I stepped in quickly to avert a full-blown confrontation between them.
‘Lady, it’s too soon to be accusing anyone of Master Bellknapp’s murder. You’ve called me back to investigate his death, so I suggest, with your permission, that I get on with doing just that. There are many people in this house who have openly expressed a desire to see your elder son dead, but, so far as I know, Master Bignell is not one of them. However, that doesn’t necessarily make him innocent, as you have so rightly pointed out. But at present, I suspect everyone and no one.’
Dame Audrea hesitated, momentarily uncertain whether or not to take umbrage at what she undoubtedly saw as my impertinence, but in the end convinced herself that I had meant no offence and that little else could be expected from an ignorant pedlar.
‘Very well,’ she agreed. ‘You may proceed.’
‘And you haven’t forgotten our bargain?’ I reminded her.
‘I never forget bargains,’ she snapped. ‘My word is my word. But just remember that there are two sides to every bargain. Now, I have household tasks to see to. I shall leave you to your work.’
She swept out — there was no other word for it, the skirt of her gown billowing around her like a wind-filled sail — leaving Master Bignell and myself in possession of the solar.
‘I–I’ve told you the truth, Master Chapman,’ the butcher stammered. He put a hand to his forehead. ‘Do you think … I mean, is it possible that Anthony Bellknapp was being murdered while I was waiting for him in the hall?’ He turned even paler than he was already. ‘Or even while I was outside looking for him?’
There was no point in trying to spare his feelings.
‘I’m afraid so,’ I said.
He gave a gasp and his knees seemed ready to buckle. He was either genuinely distressed or a brilliant dissimulator. On the whole, I was inclined to the first opinion and to eliminate him from my list of suspects. He had not intended to stay the previous night at Croxcombe and, apparently on Anthony’s own confession, had been tricked into remaining. But before I could suggest that the family was allowed to depart and return home to Wells, I needed to speak to both Ronan Bignell and his mother.
They were waiting anxiously outside, seated on the bench beneath the hall window, and Mistress Bignell rose in some agitation as we approached. She told me, without being asked, that the three of them, her husband, her son and herself, had shared the same bed and that Thomas had confided in them from the start about his nocturnal meeting with Anthony Bellknapp, and the reason for it.
‘You didn’t advise against it?’ I asked.
‘Of course not. If Ned Micheldever is being unkind to our Rose, we ought to know about it.’
‘If it’s true, he’ll have me to reckon with,’ grunted Ronan.
His mother hushed him. ‘To be honest, Chapman, I don’t know that I believed Master Bellknapp, but Thomas had to listen to what he had to say, now didn’t he? But why it had to be said in such secrecy, I’m sure I don’t know.’
Neither did I, and it was something that bothered me more than a little.
‘When Master Bignell returned and told you what had happened, what did you think?’
The goodwife shook her head. ‘I didn’t know what to think. I suppose I thought it some kind of a joke on Master Bellknapp’s part. It never entered my head that any harm could have come to him.’
‘And your son didn’t leave the bedchamber while your husband was away?’
She shook her head. I thanked her and promised to speak to Dame Audrea about permitting the three of them to leave. Then I went back into the hall, where Anthony’s shrouded form was laid out on one of the trestle tables. George Applegarth was keeping watch beside it. As I drew near, he raised his eyes to mine and I saw from his puffy lids and the tear stains on his cheeks that he had been crying.
We stared at each other for a long moment across the body. Then, without being asked, the steward pulled back the covering sheet and turned the head to one side so that I could see for myself the bloody contusion at the base of the skull.
‘What was it done with, do you think?’
‘A very heavy weapon.’ His tone was dry, as one answering a foolish question.
‘Do you know of such a weapon?’
He shrugged. ‘A good-sized tree branch would have been sufficient. Or an iron skillet from the kitchen. Or one of those heavy-based brass pots that Dame Audrea occasionally uses for flowers that she brings into the house. There must be any number of things that could have been used.’ He gave me a wintry smile. ‘And if you’re going to ask me where I was last night and what I was doing, I can only say that I was asleep in my bed. But if you ask me to prove it, I cannot. I have no witness. Nor have had,’ he added bitterly, ‘since my Jenny died.’
He stayed a moment or two longer, staring down into the dead man’s face, before drawing the sheet over it again.
‘So’ — he raised his head with a challenging look — ‘what have you discovered so far, Master Chapman?’
I informed him of Master Bignell’s part in the night’s proceedings, and saw him frown.
‘You think it an unlikely story?’
The steward grimaced. ‘Perhaps. But I see no reason why Master Bignell should make it up, unless …’ He did not finish the sentence.
‘Not the obvious killer, surely?’ I queried. ‘There are at least four or five others in this house who have far better reasons for wanting Anthony dead than the butcher and his family.’
George Applegarth smiled faintly. ‘Very true. But murder is sometimes done on impulse.’
‘I agree. But not, I think, in this case. The Bignells were tricked into remaining at Croxcombe last night, and if Thomas Bignell is to be believed, it was Anthony’s doing.’
‘And is he to be believed, do you think?’
‘That’s easily discovered. I shall visit Hamo Gough before supper and ask him who paid him to arrange the deception. There’s no reason that I can see, not now that Master Bellknapp’s dead, why Hamo shouldn’t admit the truth.’ I paused, biting my inner lip and frowning.