‘How likely is it, I wonder,“ Dame Frevisse murmured, seemingly to no one in particular, ”that they’d both be so careless to leave belt and hood there with a man they’d killed?“
The crowner broke off his pleased smiling. “Dame, I said I didn’t want to hear from you!”
‘But it’s a good point,“ Gilbey said sharply.
‘And whatever are Lord Lovell and Abbot Gilberd going to say if all this ends up hindering the harvest?“ Dame Frevisse murmured, still seemingly more to herself than anyone.
‘I told you, Dame…“
‘Oh, aye,“ Simon said quickly. ”There’s that, isn’t there? Lord Lovell and Abbot Gilbert, they’ll neither of them like having the harvest messed the way it will be if Gilbey and I be arrested, that’s sure.“
With a harried edge that had not been there before, Master Montfort snapped, “There’s been no talk of arresting anyone!” The surprise on the jurors’ faces said that was not what they had thought. “I’m making inquiries, assessing facts. That’s what I’m supposed to do, you dolts. I’ve begun with you, that’s all. There are plenty of others I’ll question before I’m done.”
With a mildness that Simon was more wary of all the time, Dame Frevisse murmured, “Since it’s certain Tom Hulcote was killed somewhere else and his body was only a little while where it was found, it must have been moved in the night before?”
The clerk laid down his pen and began sifting among the bits of paper scattered in front of him, apparently looking for the one that recorded what had been said, while Master Montfort blustered, “Yes. Well. Yes. That seems to have been the way of it. Yes.”
The clerk left off shuffling the papers and took up his pen again, writing down that, Simon supposed, while Dame Frevisse asked, slightly raising her head toward him and Gilbey, “Where were you that night?”
‘The night the body was moved?“ Simon thought back rapidly. ”In the church. All night. So Anne could sleep some. There’ll be witnesses enough to it and to say I never went out at all.“
‘And I was at home with my wife and servants,“ Gilbey said, ”and they’ll all say so.“
‘For what that’s worth,“ Master Montfort returned. ”Their word in the matter is no good at all and you know it.“
‘But he was gone from the village when Tom Hulcote was killed,“ Dame Frevisse said.
‘How do you know when he was killed, Dame?“ Montfort pounced.
Seeming to see no possible threat to herself in that, Dame Frevisse answered gently, “Everyone knows he was last seen alive on Saturday, near to sundown. He wasn’t seen again, that anyone admits to, until his body was found Tuesday dawn. From how far gone it was then, he must have died closer to Saturday night than Tuesday morning. But you know that,” she added softly to the floor. “You’ve viewed the body.”
‘Of course I have,“ Master Montfort said ungraciously. View of the body was the first thing a crowner was supposed to do at any murder inquest. View it, study it for cause of death, then give the order that it could now be buried. In Tom Hulcote’s case, with the days of hot weather since he had died, the order to bury him was come none too soon, and Simon guessed Master Montfort had taken none too close a look before ordering the burial.
‘So where were you,“ Dame Frevisse asked Gilbey Dunn, ”between Saturday afternoon and Tuesday morning?“
‘Midday Saturday I left for Banbury, to fetch a doctor for my sons.“ Gilbey’s voice had a hard, self-satisfied edge. ”I brought him back with me on Sunday, and he was in my house until Monday morning and can say I was there the while.“
‘Who saw to your livestock then?“ Master Montfort demanded.
‘My man,“ Gilbey returned as sharply.
‘I thought this Tom Hulcote was your man.“
‘He wasn’t my only one, and God help me if he had been. He was worthless most of this past quarter year, gone as much as he was here half the spring and all this summer and besides I’d let him go as useless more than a week before he was killed. It’s Jack Fleccher still works for me, and it doesn’t matter anyway because I wasn’t here to kill Hulcote.“
‘And I couldn’t have moved the body,“ Simon said. ”That means we’re both clear, and belt and hood be damned.“
‘All it means is that you worked together at his death!“ Master Montfort snarled. He pointed at Gilbey. ”The reeve killed him while you were gone, kept the body hidden until you came back, and then you moved it while he was safe in the church, all to confuse that you were together in it all along. But you’ve been caught out at it and may as well confess!“
‘That’s daft!“ Simon burst out as Gilbey exclaimed, ”You’re mad!“
‘You watch your tongues, or there’ll be fines on you both!“ Master Montfort shot back.
‘But if that was the way of it,“ Dame Frevisse asked softly of no one in particular, ”if only one of them could have been there when the body was moved, how did the belt of one of them and the hood of the other come to be left there together?“
‘Come to that,“ Gilbey said, ”why would I be so idiot as to be moving a body about while wearing my best belt, eh?“
Master Montfort slammed a fist onto the table, jarring it, making his clerk’s pen skitter on the paper. “That’s enough from you! From both of you. From all of you! You’ve my leave to go. All of you. You, too, Dame. Out!”
Chapter 12
Hoping her bowed head and hidden hands concealed her fine shuddering of anger, Frevisse followed Perryn and Gilbey out of the house and across the foreyard to the street. Montfort had always brought her to anger and, at his worst, fear, because he was an arrogant and dangerous fool, disliking anyone and anything that came between him and whatever his present purpose was, and what she saw of his present purpose here frightened her.
Ahead of her, at the green’s edge, Gilbey turned on Perryn and said angrily, “He wants us guilty.”
They were well away from any of Montfort’s men but not out of their sight and maybe not out of their hearing, and Perryn said back, “Not here.”
‘My house then,“ Gilbey said, and Perryn nodded terse agreement.
They must needs talk somewhere and quickly, Frevisse thought, because she doubted they would have much time. All Montfort need do was bring the jurors around. When once he had their agreement-and she had seen no sign they would make much trouble over it-it would be small matter to put together a full jury to have an indictment and Gilbey and Perryn arrested.
Gilbey’s messuage was not far. Most of Prior Byfield stretched out down both sides of the long green, but at its churchward end a short lane pushed out and Gilbey’s was there, the farthest and nearly the only house along it, Frevisse saw as she followed the two men that way. Of the other two on the lane, one was no more than a poor toft- a small house set in a small garden and no more-while the other had some time been lived in but was now turned into a cattleyard, its house into a byre.