‘I mean,’ Corbett continued, ‘they can wander in and out when they like and not pay the market toll.’
‘They can try,’ Blidscote slurred. ‘But who’ll buy from them? They’ll only get reported, put in the stocks and banned for a year and a day. They are only too willing to come into the market square and pay the tax.’
‘And you are responsible for that?’ Corbett asked.
He studied the chief bailiff’s fat, sweaty face, weak chin, slobbery mouth and bleary eyes. Corbett recalled his conversation at the mill. Blidscote was a dangerous man: weak, boastful but, if threatened, dangerous in a sly, furtive way.
‘I’m chief bailiff,’ Blidscote replied. ‘I do my job well.’
Corbett sipped from his tankard. ‘And you were one of the first to see Widow Walmer’s corpse?’
‘Aye.’ The bailiff shook his head. ‘I’ll never forget that evening. I was here in the taproom, wasn’t I, Burghesh, with you and Repton the reeve?’
‘Tell me exactly,’ Corbett demanded.
‘I’ll do it,’ Burghesh offered. ‘Do you remember, Blidscote, we gathered here early? There was you, me, Matthew the taverner and Repton.’
‘Who’s this Repton?’ Corbett asked.
‘He’s over there.’
Corbett followed his direction.
‘The fellow with the lank hair, thin as a beanpole. A widower, he had lustful thoughts about Widow Walmer — wanted to marry her, he did.’
Repton was tall, thin, angular; a sallow, bitter face, lank brown hair down to his shoulders. He was dressed in a dark green cote-hardie. A choleric man, he was deep in heated discussion with his fellows.
‘Anyway,’ Blidscote continued, ‘Repton was talking about visiting Widow Walmer. “Ah,” says Matthew the taverner, “Sir Roger Chapeleys is fishing in that pond tonight.”
‘And how did Matthew know that?’ Corbett demanded, though he suspected the answer.
‘Why, Sir Roger had been here earlier in the day and said as much in his cups!’ Burghesh took up the story again. ‘Anyway, Repton was all a-sulk, muttering to himself for some time. He wanted to go and see her. The reeve had been acting strangely all evening. He went out and then came back.’
‘How late was this?’
Burghesh pulled a face. ‘Oh, it must have been between ten, eleven o’clock at night. I remember looking at the hour candle.’ He pointed to where it burnt fiercely under its bronze cap near the kitchen door. ‘Repton was in his cups. He asked me to go with him.’ Burghesh sipped from his tankard. ‘So I agreed. It was a pleasant enough evening. We went down Gully Lane. I realised something was wrong as we approached the cottage: the front door was off its latch, one of the shutters was still open. Inside, Goodwoman Walmer was lying on the kitchen floor, a dreadful sight! Dress and petticoats all askew, legs stuck out, head strangely twisted, her dress had been torn, dark blue marks round her throat. In Scotland I’d seen men who had been garrotted with bow-strings. She was the same — face a bluish-black, eyes popping, mouth all twisted. I told Repton to stay there and came back for Blidscote.’
‘Master bailiff?’ Corbett interjected.
‘I’d drunk a good bit,’ the man confessed. ‘I took some of the men from the tavern and went down. It was, as Burghesh described: hideous and ghastly. I was sick outside. We searched the house. Nothing was stolen but, under the kitchen table, we found Sir Roger’s knife, a small stabbing dirk with his arms emblazoned on the ivory handle and sheath.’
‘And what did Sir Roger say when this evidence was offered?’
‘He said he’d given it as a gift to Widow Walmer.’
Corbett hid his disquiet. Any theory that this corrupt bailiff, or anyone else, had deliberately left incriminating evidence was to be rejected, though anyone knowing she’d received such a love token could have used it to incriminate Sir Roger.
‘You are sure of that?’
‘As the Good Lord lives, yes.’
‘And then what happened?’ Corbett insisted.
‘The next morning,’ Blidscote replied, ‘I travelled to see Justice Tressilyian. At first he wouldn’t believe what we told him, then he swore out warrants. I went to Thockton Hall. Sir Roger, of course, denied everything but I showed him the warrants. The armed posse I’d brought searched his chambers. They found a bracelet and a brooch in his private coffer: these had been taken from two of the dead wenches.’
‘And Sir Roger denied having these?’
Blidscote smiled craftily and tapped the side of his nose. ‘What are you implying, Sir Hugh? That someone in my comitatus, my posse, placed those trinkets there? No, no, Sir Roger confessed they’d been sent to him in a small leather sack as a present. He’d put them in his coffer and hadn’t given them a second thought.’
‘You mean as some sort of love token?’
‘That’s right, master clerk, some sort of love token! We asked him about the knife. He made the response as I have described. Then we asked him about the three young women who had been killed. Again, Sir Roger confessed that one of them had worked at Thockton Hall and he had tumbled the wench.’ Blidscote blew out his cheeks. ‘He claimed he was innocent of the murders. I told him that was a matter for a jury. Justice Tressilyian came down to the Guildhall, two others with him, but he was the principal judge. A court was held and depositions taken.’
‘And there were plenty of hostile witnesses. Sir Roger was not liked?’
‘No, he wasn’t.’ Burghesh took up the story. ‘Melford is a prosperous town, Sir Hugh. The old ways are dying. People resent a manor lord, a knight, winking at their women, acting the great lord of the soil. Sir Roger had a temper, and when angered he told people what he thought. Now people had a chance to reply.’
‘But that’s not evidence?’
‘No, Sir Hugh, it isn’t. I admit there was a lot of chatter and gossip, then Deverell the carpenter came before the justice. He took an oath: how he had seen Sir Roger fleeing up Gully Lane, all dishevelled and troubled.’
‘And what was Sir Roger’s response to that?’
‘He dismissed Deverell as a liar, the son of a whore.’
‘But what was Deverell doing in Gully Lane at night?’
‘Oh, he was returning to Melford with a supply of wood.’
‘So.’ Corbett cradled his tankard. ‘We have the knife, the brooch and the bracelet. We have Sir Roger Chapeleys certainly visiting Widow Walmer as well as confessing to a relationship with one of the murdered women.’
‘There was other evidence,’ Blidscote offered. ‘Sir Roger could not produce any proof of where he was when those three women were killed. Time and again he was asked. His reply was simple and stark: he couldn’t recall.’
‘And the parchments he burnt?’ Burghesh added.
‘What?’ Corbett queried.
‘Ah yes.’ Blidscote leant forward, waving a finger. ‘When I arrived at Thockton Hall with my warrants, Sir Roger’s retainers raised the alarm. There was a bit of a struggle; we had to push by them. Sir Roger was found in his bedchamber, his hands and fingers black from soot. He had burnt some papers. I examined the fragments. They were love letters, some record of his conquests.’
‘And Sir Roger’s response?’
‘He said he could do what he liked with his own property. Justice Tressilyian was very fair. “Tell us, Sir Roger, what you burnt,” he said. “Private papers,” was the reply.’
Corbett turned and shouted across to the slattern to bring fresh ale.
What if I had been Tressilyian, he thought, and this evidence had been laid before me? It certainly looked bleak. Sir Roger had had a case to answer and had failed to do so. He had denied none of the evidence except Deverell’s, but he had had one friend. .
‘Sir Hugh?’
Corbett glanced across at Burghesh.
‘What are you thinking?’