‘You see?’ Andrew said smugly. ‘Was with her all night.’ His expression changed swiftly, and he licked his lips as he gazed from one to the other. ‘But there’s no need to talk about this, is there? I don’t want my wife to find out, or–’
‘Or your brother-in-law?’ Simon asked sharply. ‘You mean to tell me you spent your time with your maid when your wife’s brother was here?’
‘He wasn’t about last night.’ He stopped, a hand flying to his mouth as he realised the implication of his words.
‘Really?’ said Baldwin smoothly. ‘And I wonder where he would have been, then?’
‘I don’t know. Up at the castle, probably. He delivers much of the wine to my Lord Hugh.’
‘When did he get back?’
‘Not until late.’
‘Where did your wife think you were?’ Simon asked.
‘My wife and I were married because it was convenient. It was useful for me and useful for Nicholas. That doesn’t mean I have to enjoy sleeping with her.’
‘She knows you sleep with her maids?’
‘I have not slept in the same room as her for years. She likes her bed in the front of the house, where she can look out over the road. Her chamber is above the hall here. I like mine at the back, where it’s a bit quieter. Nicholas sleeps here in the hall like any guest.’
‘And the servants?’
‘Most are at the back. There’s a small hall for them all out there.’
‘And each night you call Rose to your room?’
‘She is paid well for her services,’ Andrew stated, and there was a small smile on his round face again as he realised what Simon and Baldwin were thinking: they were jealous of him! Well, and so might they be. With girls like Rose in his household Andrew was jealous of no man. ‘She is very experienced, you know,’ he began confidentially. ‘She…’
‘I have no wish to listen to your vulgar bragging about how you have raped your servants,’ Baldwin interrupted sharply. ‘Suffice it to say that I think it a disgrace that a man should so forget his common humanity as to take a girl of that age to his bed.’
Andrew sank back in his chair with a sneer.
‘But,’ Baldwin continued, ‘I do want to hear about your brother-in-law. You say he returned late. How do you know, if your room is at the back of the house? If he slept here in the hall, he’d have come in through the front door, wouldn’t he?’
‘No, he came in through a door at the back, in the alley that runs behind the house. I heard the man who guards the gate asking who was there and opening it.’
‘Would that have been towards the middle of the night or later?’
‘About the middle of the night. It was black as pitch outside.’
‘When you executed Dyne, were you together with Nicholas all the time?’
‘No. We separated to find the man.’
‘Who found him?’
‘Me.’
‘Why did you beat him so harshly?’
‘He had a knife. I had to beat him to make him surrender. Nick arrived later. Why?’
‘Yet you told the Coroner that you knocked his dagger away with ease,’ Baldwin reminded him. ‘The night before you found the felon and killed him, were you with your brother then?’
Andrew frowned with the effort of recollection. ‘No, I don’t think so… No, I was here. That’s right. I’d been with him for much of the day, and we had food prepared, but he sent a ragamuffin brat to us to say that he had been detained at the castle and would feed himself there or at a tavern.’
‘What time was he back?’
‘Again, it was after I had gone to my chamber,’ Andrew said dismissively. ‘And Rose was competent to remove any interest I might have had in affairs outside.’
‘But it was late?’
‘Oh, I suppose. Yes, he would have been quite late home.’
‘There is one more thing. We heard at the inquest that there was a woman dressed in green at the scene. Do you know who that was?’
‘No. I’ve no idea,’ he said coldly.
‘Husband, there is no need to lie for me.’
In the doorway stood Matilda. Baldwin thought her suffering was almost tangible. She was as pale as a corpse, with bright eyes that spoke of plentiful weeping.
Andrew stood. ‘My dear, you shouldn’t be up. Why not return to your bed and rest?’
To Simon he sounded unnecessarily solicitous, but then the bailiff remembered the tenor of their conversation and realised that Andrew was terrified that his wife might have overheard his confession of adultery with his maids.
Matilda waved aside his concerns. ‘You wanted to know who it was in the woods, Keeper? Well, it was me. I was there to try to kill that hideous man Dyne. I wanted revenge.’ She crossed the floor and took her husband’s arm, a cool, elegant woman with the pallor of mourning lying heavily upon her.
Baldwin studied her with interest. ‘You must have been furious when you heard that Dyne was to be exiled.’
‘Why should he live when he killed my daughter? The evil wretch deserved his end.’
‘My wife had nothing to do with his death,’ Andrew said heavily. ‘She didn’t see what happened. We sent her home first.’
‘You went?’ Baldwin asked her, ignoring Andrew.
She met his gaze. ‘No, of course not! I waited in the woods out of sight. I saw it all.’
Simon noticed Andrew’s face at this point. The man had gone quite pale.
Matilda continued, ‘He received a fitting death; I was satisfied. It was the least I could do for Joan and for her father.’
Baldwin glanced at her, then her husband. ‘She wasn’t your daughter, Carter?’
‘No.’
Matilda smiled faintly. ‘Joan was the daughter of my first husband. I was widowed. That was why Nicholas and I came here. And here I met Andrew.’
‘I am surprised your brother could bring his whole business down here. Why did you not remain with him at your old home?’
‘At Witham?’ The name seemed to make her realise she had said too much. She appeared suddenly flustered, making a short angry gesture with a hand. ‘Nicholas was living with my husband and I. When my husband died we both chose to leave. That is all.’
‘Please, go on.’ Baldwin nodded encouragingly. Simon, having noticed the woman’s apparent slip and swift recovery, glanced at his friend but could see only eager interest in Baldwin’s eyes. It was the name she had mentioned, he was sure.
Matilda looked up at her husband’s face with pride. ‘I went off after Dyne with every intention of killing him, but then I saw my man here. Dyne was in the road at the time. When Andrew rode off without killing the wretch I realised that he and my brother were going to lay in ambush farther along the road. I decided to follow Dyne myself, both to make sure that he didn’t escape back to Tiverton, but also in order that I could see his death.’
She paused but Baldwin motioned to her to continue.
‘It was a while before it became dark and then I saw the evil creature stop dead in the road. Ahead of him there was smoke rising from a bowl in the ground near the river.’
‘That would be where Sir Gilbert had camped,’ Simon noted.
‘Perhaps. I thought – and I reckon Dyne thought – that it was an ambush. He darted into the trees. Fearing he might escape, I turned my horse in as well, meaning to track him, but with the noise my horse made, I couldn’t hear a thing. Not until I heard an awful row: a man riding full tilt through the undergrowth. I’m afraid I screamed with fear. One hears such horrible stories about outlaws.’
‘Who was it?’
‘I know it sounds silly, but it was Sir Peregrine. He was making off back towards the northern road, back towards Tiverton.’
‘Ah yes. That would be the road to Withleigh,’ Baldwin confirmed. The same road which Harlewin and Cecily Sherman would have taken, he reminded himself.
‘Then Nicholas my brother heard me. He suddenly appeared on my right, horrified to find me there. He told me to return home.’
‘But you didn’t?’ Baldwin pressed.
She shook her head. ‘I knew my husband and brother were going to make Dyne pay for his crime but I had to witness it.’