Chains of Folly (23 page)

Ella’s lovely face clouded. “I do not like to be asked questions. Everyone gets so angry no matter how hard I try to answer.”

“They won’t ask questions of you, Ella,” Bell assured her and she smiled again.

They were more careful of what they said until the meal was cleared away and Ella went off to make sure her room was fresh and clean. Free of the fear of frightening Ella, Bell said he would go and fetch some clothing from the bishop’s house because he thought it best that he stay with them.

Although he said nothing about it to the women, Bell was troubled by the idea that Linley might tell those who craved the poppy cake Nelda sold that Magdalene had taken Nelda’s possessions. While Bell had served as a man-at-arms on various merchant vessels that traded with Spain and Italy and sailed the Mediterranean, he had several times come in contact with slaves of the poppy. They could be violent, very violent.

However he did not even need the excuse he had planned to use, that Linley might return, possibly with some of the men who had been robbed, to make sure that Magdalene had told the truth. His offer to stay was welcomed with such enthusiasm that no reasons were necessary. By the time he returned with his armor and servants carrying an assortment of garments, the three women were sitting at the table, bright-eyed, with the pieces for nine-man-morris laid out.

As the hours passed, the giggles they had at first kept muffled to reduce any chance of disturbing Ella and her ‘friend’ became less and less muffled. And when Letice made a particularly clever play and swept the board, Magdalene and Bell both uttered not-at-all muffled guffaws. Diot shushed them with anxious hand wavings and they smothered their laughter. Then all sat quietly for a while to give Ella time to resettle her man if he had been disturbed.

After that they gave over playing games. The women fetched their embroidery, Bell got himself a tankard of ale, and they talked softly about whether the king would be content with what he had taken from Salisbury or seek out other sources of future trouble (and present profit) to subdue. Because near half a candlemark had passed since they had made rather too much noise, all were startled when Ella’s bedchamber door opened and she came out, wrapped in her bedrobe.

“What is wrong, love?” Magdalene whispered, jumping to her feet and opening her arms to Ella.

To her surprise, Ella did not rush into that haven. She stood, frowning and pressing her lips together. “Baby Face told me to tell you that the man you called Sir John did not come on a late ship on Thursday last. Baby Face saw Sir John here, at our gate, talking to Diot before Nones that day.” Then she took a deep breath and opened her eyes wide. “Did I say that right? Did I remember?”

“Yes, love, you said it quite right and remembered every word. But what in the world made your friend send you out to us? Did we disturb him with our laughing?”

“Oh no.” Ella looked delighted. “He loves to hear you laugh. He says it makes him feel as if he were still a boy abed in the loft and his family were all alive and enjoying themselves of an evening. He gets all warm and eager.”

“Should you go back to him?” Magdalene asked anxiously.

“He’s asleep now. That’s why I came out. He told me to tell you tomorrow, but I knew I would not remember by tomorrow, so I came now. And I will go get him some wine and cakes. When I get back into bed, he will start all over again.” Ella smiled with pure joy. “But after he will be ready for the wine and cakes.”

“What of you, Ella, sweet? Are you ready also or are you too tired?”

Ella stretched languorously, her eyes half closing. “Not
too
tired. But after we have our little bed bite, I will sleep if he does. He is
such
a nice man, always concerned that he is wearing me out. But I am very strong.”

“Yes, love. You are very strong, but if you
are
tired, do not hesitate to say so and rest until you feel better.”

“Yes, Magdalene.”

Ella trotted down the corridor to the kitchen. Magdalene resumed her seat, but she watched the corridor anxiously until Ella came back. She was walking carefully, but not as if she were sore, only not to overset the flagon of wine and the cups on the tray. And she gave them her usual sweet smile and a little wave of one hand when she paused to open the door to her room.

All heard the latch snick and then Bell said very softly, “What was
that
all about?”

“We have a new client who is…truly I can only call him a satyr, except that he is the gentlest, sweetest person. And he is…ah…terminally shy.”

“Really, it is the strangest thing,” Diot said. “He was coming along the street toward the gate one day and I smiled at him, only smiled, did not speak. Oooh, you never saw such fear in a face; I thought he was going to turn tail and run away. Luckily Ella came to the gate and fetched him in.”

Letice shook her head and sighed and snatched up her slate to write
“sad lif mizry. “

“It must be a misery to be so shy,” Diot agreed, and Letice beamed her delight at being understood.

“But he is comfortable with Ella,” Magdalene said, “and he has become a
very
good client. I believe he is a master leatherworker. You must remember the superb leather cushion on the stool Ella brought in when you read ‘Aucassin and Nicolette.’ I wonder if he has had little to spend money on before because he is so shy and so he has plenty to pay for his time with Ella.”

“Yes, yes,” Bell said impatiently. “But what he told Ella to say about Sir John… How did he know we were interested in Sir John? Did he mean the Sir John who brought the letter from Gloucester?
Did
you see this Sir John on Thursday, Diot?”

Diot blinked her gorgeous emerald eyes. “Good heaven, yes, I did! And…er…Baby Face must have seen him too. That was the day I nearly frightened him away. Just as Ella said, Sir John had rung the bell and I came to the gate. He wished to be accommodated, but I did not let him in because we had a full house that Thursday—”

“You did not tell me?” Magdalene asked sharply.

“I forgot all about him by the time I saw you again. You had gone to the mercer in the East Chepe with our embroidery and by the time you returned my man was at the gate. We all had clients coming for the late afternoon and for the night. I remember I asked Sir John if he wished to make an appointment for another day, but he said he was leaving London and did not know when he would return.”

“But if he was here on the day that Nelda was killed, surely when we began to talk about him—”

“I never heard Sir John’s name mentioned until tonight,” Diot said defensively. “You may have talked about him with Bell, but not with us. And anyway we knew nothing about Nelda’s death until the Friday morning when Bell came.”

“Hmmm, yes,” Bell put in, not liking any friction in the place he felt to be home. “And actually Magdalene,
we
knew nothing about Sir John’s possible connection with Nelda’s death until you spoke to Tayte on Monday.”

Magdalene sighed. “Sorry, Diot. All that is true. Nor do we know, even now, that it is the same Sir John.”

“It must be,” Bell said. “It is too much coincidence for two Sir Johns to be looking for a whore’s services and riding out of London that same night. So he
could
have killed Nelda—that is, he was not on a ship that arrived late at night…” Bell’s voice, which had started out firm and definite drifted away. “But why? If he did not know she had stolen his letter, why would he fight with her out on the landing of the stair? I mean, if he were going to quarrel with her, why not in her rooms?”

Letice tugged on Magdalene’s sleeve and made a sign for a man in bed and another knocking at the door.

Magdalene nodded. “Letice thinks maybe another man came and Nelda told Sir John to go.” She shrugged. “If she had drugged him and had the letter, she would be glad of the excuse to be rid of him before he checked on his possessions. And if he were half asleep from the drug, possibly he would not have come fully awake and become angry until they were out of the rooms.”

“So Sir John becomes a likely suspect again,” Bell said, then cocked his head to the side. “And how did this…er…Baby Face—really, Magdalene, can you not find more…ah…dignified names for your clients?”

“Ella named this one.”

Bell chuckled but then frowned. “Yes, but how did the man learn that we were interested in a Sir John?”

Magdalene shook her head. “Ella must have told him. He never comes anywhere near any of the rest of us and will hardly speak even a word to me to say what he desires. It took him weeks to say he wished to stay the full night with Ella. Mainard brought him originally…and do not ask me how he found the courage to tell Mainard he needed a woman, but perhaps Mainard guessed. Mainard often senses what others are feeling. And I have noticed that, although most people are afraid of Mainard’s ugliness, all dumb animals trust him.”

“Sometimes the dumb animals are cleverer than we very clever people. When my horses jib…I pay attention.”

Magdalene smiled at him and continued, “He stood behind Mainard—” she grinned “—which is not very hard to do, of course, big as Mainard is, and only came out with the two pennies in his hand as soon as Mainard and I agreed on a time for him to return. We offered Letice, because she could not speak, but he shrank away. Only Ella came from the kitchen at the moment, took one look at him, held out her hand…and he went to her.”

“That is all very interesting,” Bell said, “but
how
did Ella know what to tell him? We have been very careful not to talk about Nelda’s death in front of her. Have we ever mentioned Sir John to her?”

Magdalene shrugged. “I have no idea. Odd things stick in Ella’s mind. If we were talking about something we did not think would frighten her we could have mentioned Sir John’s name, or she heard Diot speak his name at the gate as she came to meet Baby Face.”

“But why should she repeat that to…ah…her client?”

“If she heard Diot turn Sir John away, she might have mentioned that to Baby Face. She definitely favors him as he is nearly as insatiable as she. She might have warned him to be sure to make his appointments in time or urged him to arrange a permanent appointment.” She glanced around at the other women. “We will have to be more careful. It seems to me Ella is remembering more than she used to.”

They all nodded and suddenly Letice yawned and folded up the cloth on which she had been working. She rose, dropped a kiss on the top of Bell’s head, took her sewing basket back to set it beside her stool near the hearth, and went off to her room.

“Me too,” Diot said. “I will be glad of a full night’s sleep. I have clients all the rest of the week.” She did not kiss Bell but gave him a friendly pat as she, too, picked up her work and left.

When her door closed, Bell lifted his tankard for a last drink and sighed. “Oh, how I regret my temper. Now I must find Sir John and the only way I know is to go to Mandeville’s captain in the Tower and ask where Mandeville is. You can imagine how willing he will be to tell me anything. Perhaps Winchester will write the request and say he wishes to speak to Sir John.”

“You need not bother to try to follow Sir John to Mandeville,” Magdalene said, her eyes on a tricky stitch in a new piece of embroidery. “I will be much surprised if he is not here in London, very likely at this house, either tomorrow or the next day. Half the knights in England seem to be named Sir John. How was I to know the man Tayte spoke of was a client? We are very lucky he did not arrive sooner, before we had worked out his connection with Nelda. We would have welcomed him. He could have done us a mischief if we were unprepared.”

Bell stared at her. “What the devil are you talking about?” And then angrily suspicious, “Are you trying to trick me into staying here to protect you?”

Magdalene dropped her work to the table and looked up, a startled and indignant “no” on her lips. She had not been thinking of Bell at all, but almost instantly she realized that Sir John could serve her purpose of providing a threat so that she could offer Bell her favors to pay for his protection.

“Yes,” she said, and laughed. “But not for the reason you think, you vain man. Consider this. Say Sir John did push Nelda down the stair by mistake. He would have been badly shaken. Say he calmed himself to the best of his ability and went to Baynard’s Castle. He gave the news of Gloucester’s letter to make himself welcome, but I doubt he was in any mood for idle talk. In any case, even if he is one of those who babbles when distraught, he must soon have gone to bed, so he could leave for Oxford or Devizes early the next day.”

“So?”

“So he did not check on the letter he carried because his mind was full of Nelda’s death. When he arrived at Oxford he was told that Mandeville had gone on to Devizes, and when he arrived at Devizes that his master had gone on again to Salisbury. I do not know why he did not look at the letter when he arrived at Oxford, but either when he set out for Salisbury or perhaps when he arrived there, he
must
have checked it—and discovered it was gone.”

“Oh!”

“Yes, oh. What do you think the kind of man who spilled his master’s news in Hugh Beaufort’s keep for a lodging would do when he found the letter had been replaced with a useless piece of parchment?”

Bell pursed his lips. “He would never go near Mandeville but head back to London at once. If he could retrieve the letter, he could escape any blame for losing it. No one could know when he would succeed in obtaining the letter from Gloucester. No one could know what ship he took or when it arrived so his coming to Mandeville a few days later would not matter.”

“Of course. He would just say he came on a later ship, or whatever other excuse for delay he wished to give. Now I do not think he would dare accuse anyone in Baynard’s Castle of stealing the letter—and why should they? It is another thing to discredit Winchester. What worries me is that Sir John might go to Linley to demand the letter, thinking that Linley would have collected all of Nelda’s valuables and Linley will tell him at once that Diot and I had taken them. Then likely Sir John will come here.”