Columbanus brightened. ‘After the banquet, then?’
‘Yes. Does that make a difference to you?’
‘No, no, Gervase. Not in the slightest.’
He let out another chuckle, patted his companion on the arm, then walked jauntily out through the gates. Gervase was both amused and puzzled by his behaviour. Columbanus was a jovial Christian who freely owned up to human fallibility but his joviality was edged with contrition. Gervase wondered why.
He stood aside as six riders trotted across the bailey and clattered out through the gates. The soldiers were patently in a hurry. Arnulf the Chaplain provided the explanation.
‘They are on their way to Woodstock,’ he said, walking over to meet Gervase. ‘To begin the hunt all over again. My lord sheriff was not pleased to release Ebbi. He truly believed that he had the killer of Walter Payne locked up in a cell.’
‘The assassin is still at liberty.’
‘And so is Ebbi now. Thanks to you and my lord Ralph.’
‘We could not let an innocent man die.’
‘He suffered great indignities while he was here,’ said Arnulf. ‘By rights, he is owed some compensation.’
‘What hope is there of that?’
‘None, I fear.’
‘My lord sheriff will never be accused of compassion.’
‘He gave you a fair hearing, Gervase,’ countered the other, keen to defend his master. ‘My lord sheriff had the grace to admit that he was misled. When you presented your evidence and let Leofrun bear witness, he accepted that Ebbi had been wrongfully imprisoned and ordered his release at once.’
‘That is not quite what happened,’ said Gervase, recalling the sheriff’s intense reluctance, ‘but the result is what counts. Ebbi was set free.
Leofrun will medicine his wounds.’ He pursed his lips as he gazed up at the keep. ‘What alarms me is the speed with which the legal process moved. Is the law always administered with such celerity in Oxford? A man is killed, a suspect is arrested, a trial is ordered. I have never known such summary justice. Why did my lord sheriff feel the need to act so swiftly?’
‘He abhors delay of any kind.’
‘Delay can mean the difference between life and death. Had we not been here, Ebbi would have been tried, convicted and executed for a murder that he did not commit.’
‘Nobody regrets that possibility more than I.’
‘It is almost as if Robert d’Oilly had a private reason to rush this trial. Do you know of such a reason?’
Arnulf shook his head and Gervase let the matter drop.
‘I heard the choir practice earlier on,’ he said.
‘We saw you at the rear of the nave.’
‘A small congregation but an appreciative one.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Bristeva was in fine voice.’
‘Yes,’ sighed Arnulf, ‘but whether that fine voice will be heard at the banquet on Saturday is open to question. Her father gave me disturbing news.’
‘I spoke with Ordgar myself.’
‘Then you will know the problem we face. Bristeva is eager to sing for us but Amalric, her brother, is just as eager to stop her. I offered to talk to the boy myself but Ordgar felt that it was his duty to do that.
He did, however, agree with my other suggestion.’
‘What was that, Arnulf?’
On the eve of the banquet, Bristeva will sleep here at the castle. It will give us more time to rehearse together, and if she is away from home she will not be subject to Amalric’s sneers. It grieves me that I have to protect a girl from her own brother but there is no other way.’
He gave a wry smile. ‘My choir is afflicted by unhelpful siblings.’
‘So it seems.’
‘First Helene. And now Bristeva.’
‘Both have met with opposition from their brothers.’
‘My lord Wymarc was a more formidable proposition. He took Helene away from me. That is not going to happen to Bristeva,’ Arnulf vowed.
‘I will fight to keep her. She is my Helene now.’
Hours of pleading had left Wymarc’s voice hoarse. Ignoring the pain in his throat, he summoned up all of his remaining energy for a final assault on Baldwin the Doctor.
‘I beg you, man! Please help me!’
‘I wish that I could, my lord, believe me.’
‘Save me from certain scandal and disgrace.’
‘The law must take its course,’ said Baldwin.
‘Only if the true facts of the case are disclosed.’
‘As they must be.’
‘No, Baldwin!’ hissed the other. ‘You are Helene’s doctor. Give out that she was taken ill and died before you could reach her. We will say that she has been sickening for days, which, in a sense, is true.
Nobody will question your word and the hideous truth will be kept within these four walls.’
‘That is not possible, my lord.’
‘Why not?’
‘Honesty compels me to reveal all. It is my duty.’
‘Do you not have a duty to me? As your friend?’ Wymarc clutched at his purse. ‘I would not expect you to do this service for nothing.
Name your price. It will be paid.’
‘No amount of money can make me do what you ask.’
‘Please!’
‘It is wrong, my lord.’
Wymarc let out a gasp of despair and turned away to sink down on a stool. Baldwin crossed to stand beside him, fighting off his own fatigue and reminding himself of the solemn obligations laid upon his profession. Though he had some sympathy for Wymarc, he could not even consider what the latter was trying to persuade him to do.
‘Understand my position,’ he said reasonably. ‘I am a doctor. I have a code of ethics. If I suppress the truth, I am committing a terrible crime. The consequences would be quite horrendous.’
‘Only if the crime came to light.’
‘It is bound to, my lord.’
‘Is it? Who else knows besides you and me?’
‘Your wife knows that Helene is dead. So do your servants.’
‘We will tell them she died of natural causes.’
‘Is it natural to barricade yourself into a bedchamber? Is that the action of someone who is desperately ill?’ Baldwin shook his head.
‘No, my lord. Nobody would believe that story. A healthy young woman will not expire so suddenly. Your wife and servants know that full well.’
‘I’ll force them to keep their mouths shut!’
‘How long would such enforcement last?’
‘Indefinitely!’
‘You would not be able to stand guard over them twenty-four hours a day,’ argued Baldwin. ‘It would only need one person to let slip an inadvertent remark and the whole fraud would be exposed. In any case,’
he added, ‘there are two people whom even you are not able to gag.’
‘Who are they?’
‘One of them stands before you, my lord. I simply will not countenance such a gross deception. And then there is Helene’s chosen accomplice.’
‘Accomplice?’
‘Your sister did not concoct that poison herself. It was supplied to her by someone with skill enough to make such a lethal preparation.
When that person hears of Helene’s death, the cause will be self-evident.’
‘Such a person would not dare to come forth.’
‘Do not be so sure, my lord.’
‘In providing a fatal poison, he will have assisted in the crime of suicide and be liable to arrest. It is in his interests to remain silent about his role.’
‘But think of the power they would wield.’
‘Power?’
‘Over you, my lord,’ said Baldwin. ‘The cunning apothecary who sold Helene that bottle of death will wish to make even more profit from the transaction. He would be in a position to lay information against you that would bring the sheriff and his men galloping out here to investigate. An unsigned letter is all that it would take.’ He covered a yawn with his hand. ‘In brief, you would be open to blackmail.’
‘I’d part with every penny I have to keep this secret buried!’ howled Wymarc, jumping to his feet and punching a fist into the palm of his other hand. ‘I’d give anything, Baldwin.’