Dead Man's Secret (7 page)

‘I saw him with Brother Delwyn earlier,' said Maurice helpfully, after ushering two scullery maids from his quarters.

‘I cannot see Delwyn being conducive company,' Geoffrey said, watching the women scurry away, all giggles and shining eyes. ‘Especially for a man with elevated opinions of himself, like Eudo.'

‘Eudo
is
a nasty fellow,' agreed Maurice. ‘Still, he is better than Delwyn. The man brought complaints from his abbot about Bishop Wilfred, and I doubt Henry enjoyed hearing them – he is not interested in the Church's squabbles, or in emissaries who smell.'

‘In Welsh,
del
means pretty and
ŵ
yn
means lamb. His parents were deluded!'

Laughing, Maurice indicated that Geoffrey was to step into his rooms and partake of a glass of wine. ‘What is Welsh for “sly”? That is the word that suits him best. Far be it from me to malign a man I barely know, but he seems devious.'

‘The King wants me to travel west with him,' said Geoffrey. ‘But I will make better time alone.'

‘You will go with Delwyn, if that is what Henry desires,' said Maurice severely. Then his expression softened. ‘Please do not defy him, Geoffrey. I do not want to see you in trouble – I count you among my friends. And I do not have many.'

‘But it is—'

‘And think about it logically,' interrupted Maurice. ‘These letters cannot be urgent, or you would have been on your way days ago.
Ergo
, it cannot matter whether you take two weeks or two months to travel to Kermerdyn. Do as Henry asks – there is nothing to be gained by flouting his wishes.'

Geoffrey knew he was right. He took the cup Maurice proffered and took a gulp.

‘I am to travel with Sear, too,' he said gloomily.

‘I have yet to gain his measure, although my instincts are to distrust him,' said Maurice. He frowned. ‘However, Sear and Delwyn are paragons of virtue compared to Eudo. It is a pity he invented those tamper-proof seals, because I would like to open the letters you are to deliver.'

‘You would read Henry's private correspondence?' Geoffrey was shocked.

The prelate winced. ‘It is not something I indulge in regularly, but I distrust Eudo. It would not be the first time he has meddled in matters without the King's consent, and he has accrued altogether too much power. I am afraid of what he might have included in these messages.'

‘Pepin said he was not permitted to see them, and that only Eudo knows their full contents.'

Maurice sighed. ‘Well, there is nothing we can do about it, I suppose. I dare not meddle with the seals, because I do not want to be exiled like Giffard – or to see you hanged. You will have to deliver them as they are, but I advise caution.'

‘I am always careful.'

‘It might be wise not to mention them to anyone else. Delwyn will know about the one to his abbot, but that is from the Archbishop, not Henry.'

‘Pepin told Sear I was delivering letters from you.'

Maurice beamed suddenly. ‘What a splendid idea! I shall write some immediately. I promised Giffard I would look after you, and this will go some way to salving my conscience.'

Geoffrey regarded him doubtfully. ‘Do you know anyone in Kermerdyn? If not, the lie may be unconvincing.'

‘I know lots of people there,' declared Maurice, sitting at a table and reaching for pen and ink. ‘First, there is Robert, the steward of Rhydygors. He is distant kin, so I can regale him with details about my cathedral in London. You will like him. He is very odd.'

Geoffrey regarded him askance. ‘What do you mean?'

‘He has a gift for seeing into the future. I have it, too, although to a lesser extent. It must run in the family.'

‘And what do you see in mine?' asked Geoffrey gloomily. ‘Death and danger?'

‘Of course, but you are a warrior, so that is hardly surprising.'

‘I will be a farmer when I have finished this errand. At Goodrich.'

Maurice reached up to pat his shoulder. ‘Good. I shall visit you there, and you can arrange for me to spend another enchanted evening with Angel Locks. But back to the business in hand. I shall write to Bishop Wilfred, too – I will send him a copy of a rather beautiful prayer that Giffard wrote.'

It sounded contrived to Geoffrey. ‘Can you not think of something else?'

‘Nothing comes to mind,' said Maurice after a few moments of serious thought. ‘I do not like Wilfred very much. But I met a Kermerdyn butter-maker called Cornald in Westminster last year; he seemed a nice fellow. I shall write to him, too, and send him a recipe for a lovely cheese I sampled in Winchester.'

Geoffrey groaned. No one was going to believe such matters required the services of a knight. It would be worse than folk thinking he carried missives from the King.

‘These will be sealed, Geoffrey,' said Maurice, seeing what he was thinking. ‘No one will know their contents are trivial until they are opened. And by that time, you will be in Kermerdyn. This ruse
will
serve to keep you safe.'

‘Very well,' said Geoffrey. ‘Although it still does not explain why the King ordered me to join Sear, Edward and Delwyn. If I am
your
messenger, my plans are none of his concern.'

Maurice chewed the end of his pen. ‘Then we shall turn it about and say His Majesty is eager to ensure his constables arrive in one piece – that you are elected to protect Edward and Sear.'

Geoffrey regarded him in horror. ‘I doubt Sear will appreciate that!'

Maurice waved a dismissive hand. ‘Leave him to me. I think I shall pen a line to Isabella, your sister-in-law, too.'

Geoffrey's jaw dropped. ‘You have not seduced . . .'

‘No!' said Maurice hastily. Then he looked wistful. ‘Although I would not have minded her help with my health. However, I tend to stay away from ladies with jealous husbands, and my message will give her the name of a London merchant who sells excellent raisins. I may even include a sample. You will not eat them, will you?'

‘I will not,' said Geoffrey firmly.

Maurice set the pen on the table and regarded him thoughtfully. ‘There is something else I should probably tell you, although I am not sure what it means. Before I do, will you promise not to leap to unfounded conclusions?'

‘What?' Geoffrey had the distinct impression he was about to hear something he would not like. He saw the Bishop's pursed lips. ‘Yes, I promise.'

Wordlessly, Maurice stood and unlocked a stout chest that stood near the window. He rummaged for a moment, then passed Geoffrey a piece of parchment. It was partially burned, but Geoffrey would have recognized the distinctive scrawl of Tancred's scribe anywhere. It was in Italian, his liege lord's mother tongue.

Geoffrey stared at it. It had been penned just five months earlier, and was dated
after
the one he had received threatening him with death if he ever returned. What did it mean?

Three

‘I found it during the summer,' explained Maurice, as Geoffrey stared at the parchment in his hand. ‘I was looking for Eudo one day in Westminster and saw documents burning in his hearth. The room was empty, so, out of simple curiosity, I poked one, to see what it said.'

‘There were others?' asked Geoffrey, his mind whirling.

‘A bundle, although they were too singed to allow me to say whether they were all in the same hand. Eudo is in the habit of destroying incriminating documents, and piles of ashes are commonplace in his lair, so they may have had nothing to do with you.'

‘But you cannot say for certain,' pressed Geoffrey.

‘No,' agreed Maurice. He looked down at his plump hands. ‘The thing has plagued my mind ever since. Clearly, it is a letter to you from Tancred. Yet I suspect, from the expression on your face, that it was not one you received. You have never seen that letter before, have you?'

‘No,' said Geoffrey. ‘And the ones I did receive certainly did not call me “dear brother”. They did when I first left the Holy Land, but the later ones addressed me as “treacherous serpent” or “disloyal vermin”.'

‘I have given it a good deal of thought,' said Maurice. ‘And it seems to me that someone intercepted them, replacing ones of affectionate concern – Prince Tancred seems to think you are ill – with unpleasant ones that he never wrote. It would not be the first time an allegiance was destroyed by a clerk with a talent for forgery, and Eudo is rather good at it.'

‘But why in God's name would he do that?' asked Geoffrey, bewildered. ‘I had never met him before a few days ago. And do not say he did it for Henry, because I doubt even
he
would stoop that low.'

‘No, he would not,' agreed Maurice. ‘But someone has, and your friendship has been shattered. If Tancred thinks you were afflicted by a brain fever, then clearly someone sent him messages purporting to be from you that were uncharacteristically abusive or insolent.'

Geoffrey aimed for the door. ‘Then I am going to the Holy Land. It is not—'

‘You cannot,' said Maurice, jumping up and grabbing his shoulder with a hand that was surprisingly strong. ‘First, you swore a vow to God. Second, you cannot neglect the King's business – not without serious consequences for your loved ones. And, third, this is all supposition. I may be wrong. Perhaps
this
is the forgery – someone hoped to make you think you were forgiven, so you would run directly into Tancred's noose. And yet . . .'

‘Yet what?' asked Geoffrey heavily, knowing Maurice was right – not about Henry, whom he would defy in an instant, but about his promise to God.

‘And yet oaths can be retracted under certain conditions. I, for example, can absolve you of it.'

‘You can?' Geoffrey felt the stirrings of hope. He
wanted
to believe Maurice was right, that someone had tampered with the correspondence. ‘And will you?'

‘No.' Maurice raised his hand to quell the immediate objections. ‘Because it is not in your best interests at the moment. Talk to Eudo – ask for an explanation – and then do Henry's bidding. After that, we shall discuss what might be done about your oath without imperilling your immortal soul.'

Geoffrey was silent, thinking about Maurice's advice – and about his own promise not to jump to conclusions. The Bishop was right: Geoffrey could not leave for the Holy Land now, any more than he could have done when Roger encouraged him to break his vow.

‘Will you come with me to challenge Eudo?' he asked after a while. ‘I am afraid that if he does admit to doing this, I will end his miserable existence. And then my soul really will be in peril.'

‘Then how can I refuse?' asked Maurice with a smile. ‘Besides, I dislike Eudo and would like to see him squirm. Then I shall report to the King, who will not be pleased to learn that his clerks dabble with his subjects' personal correspondence. No monarch likes to be tainted with scandal.'

They began a search of the abbey grounds, but Eudo remained annoyingly elusive. Maurice was on the verge of giving up in order to take more of his medicine when there was a shout.

‘Murder!' screeched Delwyn, racing towards the church from the direction of the fishponds, his filthy habit flying. ‘Someone has murdered Eudo.'

‘Well, at least you know it was not me,' said Geoffrey to the horrified Maurice.

Whoever had killed Eudo had chosen a lonely spot for his crime. To the south of the abbey, down a slope, was a boggy area that contained several fishponds. A line of trees effectively curtained it from the rest of the precinct. Geoffrey thought that if someone could not resist committing a murder in La Batailge, then these marshes were the best place for it. The abbey buildings and church were too crowded with members of Henry's court, and the grounds to the north were populated by Benedictines who had been ousted from their usual haunts.

Eudo lay face down in one of the ponds, a short distance from the bank, and there was a knife in the middle of his back. It was a cheap metal weapon – Geoffrey had seen dozens of them lying around in the kitchens. The killer was not going to be identified from it.

‘Lord!' muttered Maurice, crossing himself fervently. ‘Eudo is dead, and I have spent the last hour saying terrible things about him. God will not appreciate such behaviour!'

‘Eudo was arrogant and devious,' said Geoffrey. ‘Being dead does not change that.'

‘You are a hard man, Geoffrey,' said Maurice, sketching a blessing at him. ‘God forgive you.'

A number of people had responded to Delwyn's shrieks of alarm. They included Sear and Alberic, who stood together with impassive faces. Edward was near them, fanning his face with his hand to indicate the run down from the abbey had been strenuous for him; Geoffrey wondered how he managed to control a garrison when he was so patently unfit. Meanwhile, Delwyn was leading a large party towards the scene of the crime, skinny arms flapping wildly.

As no one seemed inclined to do more than stare, Geoffrey waded into the water and hauled the body out. By the time he had the clerk on the bank, a sizeable audience had gathered. It included a large number of scribes and courtiers, plus several monks, although most Benedictines were at their mid-morning prayers. There were also servants, both Henry's and lay-brothers from the abbey. They clustered around the King when he arrived, and several began to gabble at him.

‘Eudo asked me if I knew of a quiet place, so I told him it is always peaceful here,' said Brother Ralph, the abbey's sacristan. His face was ashen. ‘But I would never have suggested it, had I known . . .'