said Hubert in disgust. ‘I will make mention of this to the lord sheriff.’
‘Then you would be the biggest fool of all, Canon Hubert.’
‘Do you dare to mock me?’
‘I am only giving you fair warning,’ said the other, skipping to the door and divesting himself of his cowl at the same time. ‘My master is hot with rage. Only a simpleton would go near him when he is in such a state. Ask the lord Ralph. He is feeling the sharp edge of the lord sheriff’s fury.’
‘You were expressly told to keep yourself out of it!’ roared Baldwin.
‘Do you not recognise an order when you hear one?’
‘My orders come from the King himself,’ said Ralph.
‘Devon is under my aegis and you would do well to remember it.’
‘A sheriff is still answerable to a higher authority.’
Baldwin turned puce. ‘Do you defy me, my lord?’
‘I simply wished to view the last remains of Nicholas Picard.’
‘Against my wishes.’
‘It was too early to seek your permission, my lord sheriff,’ said Ralph with a sly wink at Gervase. ‘Or we would surely have done so.’
‘My permission would have been refused.’
‘Then it is as well we did not wait for it.’
‘You sneaked into that mortuary like thieves in the night,’
yelled their host. ‘This is my castle and I expect my guests to respect my authority within these walls. What you did was unforgivable.’
‘But within my rights.’
‘No, my lord!’
‘Yes,’ insisted Ralph. ‘The lord Nicholas figures so largely in our investigations that we have a keen interest in what happened to him.’
‘He was murdered. That is all you need to know.’
‘Why are you keeping the truth from us?’
‘Do you dare to accuse me of lies?’ howled Baldwin as his anger reached a new pitch. ‘Take care, my lord. Men have been thrown into my dungeons for less than that.’
‘I did not say that you told lies,’ countered Ralph. ‘Merely, that you have held back the full truth and tried to prevent us from finding it out. I would respect your authority more if I felt that you were worthy of it.’
Baldwin de Moeles was so incensed that he reached for his sword. Ralph did not flinch but Gervase Bret moved swiftly.
Stepping in between the two men, he acted as a peacemaker.
‘There is no call for argument here.’ He turned to the sheriff.
‘We were wrong to disobey your orders, my lord sheriff, and owe you a profound apology. Curiosity got the better of us. We were in the chapel at first light, praying for the success of our work here, when we remembered that the lord Nicholas lay in the mortuary. The temptation to inspect the body was too great to resist, but it was a mistake.’
‘No, it was not, Gervase,’ argued Ralph vehemently.
‘Let me handle this, my lord.’
‘We had to see the lord Nicholas.’
‘Subject to my lord sheriff’s approval.’ Gervase shot Ralph such a look of reproof that the latter was silenced at once. When his young friend was in such an assertive mood, it was as well to heed his advice. It was time to let him take over the negotiations.
All that Ralph had done was to trade bold words and insults with their host. They had almost come to blows and a brawl would advantage nobody, least of all a commissioner who relied on the sheriff both for accommodation and for help with his office.
Gervase’s diplomacy would achieve far more than Ralph’s plain speaking. Voices which had reverberated around the hall at the castle needed to be deprived of their passion and volume. Gervase shrugged his shoulder and gave a conciliatory smile. ‘We were too curious and too arrogant, my lord sheriff,’ he said.
‘I know it well,’ grumbled the other but he sheathed his sword as he did so. ‘Too curious, too arrogant and too rash.’
‘We had the audacity to believe that we could discover something which your own more experienced eyes had missed. We are royal commissioners who sit in musty halls with our noses in wrinkled documents and ancient charters. What do we know about the pursuit of a killer?’ He saw Ralph bite back an interruption and hurried on. ‘It was a monstrous folly on our part to imagine that we could do your job in your stead.’
‘I am glad that you appreciate it.’
‘Appreciate it and acknowledge our fault.’
‘I heard no such acknowledgement from the lord Ralph.’
‘Nor will you!’ Ralph said under his breath, then he felt a sobering kick on the ankle from Gervase. ‘He is right, my lord sheriff,’ he added aloud. ‘I do see the error of our ways now.
Gervase speaks for both of us.’
‘Would that he had done so earlier!’ snapped the other.
‘My remarks were intemperate. I take them back.’
‘I am glad to hear it.’
‘So am I,’ said Gervase with feeling. ‘Nothing can be achieved by our bickering. We are all on the same side here. Fall out among ourselves and disharmony follows. Pool our resources and work together — under your direction, lord sheriff — and we form an irresistible team.’
‘That is so,’ said Baldwin, slightly mollified. ‘We can join forces but I must be in command.’
‘Without question.’ Gervase looked meaningfully at Ralph.
‘Well?’
‘Yes, yes,’ came the lacklustre endorsement. ‘Without question.’
‘Then let us put this aberration behind us,’ decided Baldwin, strutting around the room. ‘I will forget what has happened if you give me your word not to interfere any more in this murder investigation.’
‘We give it unconditionally, my lord sheriff,’ said Gervase.
‘Do we?’ murmured Ralph in dismay.
‘It is the only way to proceed.’
‘Then let us leave the matter there,’ said Baldwin.
‘Not until we have given you our opinion,’ said Gervase persuasively. ‘It was wrong of us to visit the mortuary, but we did reach certain conclusions about the murder victim. They may well confirm your own observations, my lord sheriff, and should be heard for that reason alone.’
Their host pondered. ‘As you wish,’ he said at length.
‘Our feeling was this …’
Ralph watched with admiration as Gervase adopted new tactics.
Instead of increasing their host’s anger with naked defiance, Gervase was subtly flattering him in order to draw information from him. He deliberately altered the deductions they had made about the dead man so that the sheriff would be provoked into correcting him. Ralph and Gervase were learning valuable new details about the case.
‘What, then, was your final conclusion?’ asked Baldwin at length.
‘That the lord Nicholas was killed by someone in order to prevent him from appearing before us to affirm his right to the disputed holdings. One man probably carried out the murder,’ said Gervase.
‘Someone well known to the lord Nicholas who unwittingly let him get close enough to make a surprise attack.’
‘Then you are mistaken on every point, my young friend.’
‘How can that be?’
‘Nicholas Picard was ambushed by robbers in the wood. His purse was empty when he was found and valuable rings had been taken from his fingers.’
‘Could not that have been a ruse on the part of the murderer?’
said Ralph, unable to keep silent any longer. ‘A cunning villain would do his best to make it look like the work of robbers in order to deflect suspicion away from himself.’
‘We know that robbers were involved, my lord. Two of them.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Because my men trailed them to an inn near Credition,’ said Baldwin. ‘A messenger rode through the night to bring me word.
The robbers had moved on but the innkeeper remembered them well. They spent far too much money for men as poorly attired as they were. He told my officers which way his guests went.’ He gave a harsh smile. ‘It is only a matter of time before those men are apprehended and brought back here to stand trial for the murder of Nicholas Picard.’