The Enchanter's Forest (34 page)

     ‘Oh – aye, my lady, but only that it’d be a relief to bring the killer of that poor young man to justice.’

     ‘Saul, there must be no heroic attempt to solve this by yourselves.’ She looked from Saul to Augustus and back again. ‘Florian was murdered by a cold-hearted and dispassionate killer who robbed him and threw his body in the brambles. Remember that.’

     Saul and Augustus exchanged a glance. Then Saul said, ‘We will, my lady.’ And, as if they could no longer contain their eagerness for the unexpected outing, as one they bowed low, turned and hurried away.

     For some moments after their hasty departure, Helewise sat staring at the door and wishing that she was going with them. She could have done; nobody would have questioned her motive in leading the little expedition. But she knew there was no need for her to go. Augustus was an astute young man who kept his eyes and ears open and who, for all his youth, seemed to know when people were trying to deceive him. And Saul – well, Saul was as solid as the very earth and as dependable as sunrise.

     With a small sigh that even someone standing right in front of her would probably have missed, Helewise drew her accounts book towards her, reached for her stylus and got down to work.

The two lay brothers returned in the early afternoon.

     ‘What did you discover?’ she demanded as soon as they had come in and closed the door behind them.

     It was Saul who spoke first.

     ‘The place is all shut up, my lady. There was a handful of people hanging around in the clearing just inside the forest, where all those trees were cut down. We stopped short and tethered the horses, then edged our way nearer so that we could hear what was going on but not be seen. There was a cross-looking man in a dirty leather jerkin—’

     ‘It was that fellow Jack, my lady, who came to relieve the gate guard when we visited,’ Augustus put in.

     She nodded. ‘Go on.’

     ‘The man in the jerkin was telling the people they couldn’t visit the tomb’ – Saul picked up the narrative – ‘and that they should go back where they came from.’

     ‘I see.’ She could visualise the scene. She hoped that none of the pilgrims would suffer too badly from having made that abortive journey. She also hoped – and she knew it was unworthy – that all the people who were being frustrated in their desire to see Merlin’s Tomb would sooner or later find their way here to Hawkenlye.

     ‘The gate in that there outer fence – that’s the post and rail one, my lady – the gate was closed and chained. Er – me and Gussie, we reckoned it wouldn’t be too hard to climb over it, so we did. In fact it was quite easy, what with two of us, one helping the other.’ He was watching her hopefully, as if keen to know they had done right.

     ‘Well done, Saul,’ she said. ‘Then what?’

     ‘Not far beyond the first fence we came to a second,’ Saul continued. ‘This one was much more of a barrier, my lady, because the spaces between the rails had been filled in with hurdles and it was that thick, we—’ Saul broke off as Augustus leaned across to whisper in his ear. With an apologetic smile, Saul said, ‘But then you know, my lady, since you’ve seen it for yourself.’

     ‘Only from a distance, Brother Saul. Please, go on.’

     ‘The gate in the second fence was also chained and to begin with me and Gussie didn’t see as how we were going to get through. Then Gussie spotted a tree quite close to the fence, just about the only one around there that hadn’t been felled, and he reckoned he could climb it and crawl out along one of the higher branches so he could see over the fence, if you follow me, my lady.’

     ‘I do, Saul. And you managed this?’ She turned to Augustus.

     ‘Aye, my lady, though I’ve bruised my— Aye. Saul gave me a leg-up and I got hold of one of the lower branches, then I shinned up till I could reach the higher ones. I crept out as far as I dared, only then I began to hear the branch creaking a bit and Saul said to come down.’

     ‘Saul was quite right,’ she said gravely. ‘If you had fallen inside the enclosure, Gus, how could Saul have come to your aid?’

     ‘Exactly what I said myself!’ Saul cried.

     ‘What did you see?’ She stared at Augustus.

     ‘I saw the tomb,’ he said simply. ‘It was a long, wide depression and, inside it, huge great bones.’

     ‘The grave was still open?’ She was surprised; would not whoever had locked up the site have at least made some attempt to cover the bones? It seemed almost . . . shocking.

     ‘Wide open, my lady,’ Augustus said.

     She could not control her curiosity. ‘What did you feel, Gus?’ she asked. Remembering what Josse had said, she added, ‘Did the bones affect you in any way?’

     Augustus pondered the question for several moments. Then he said slowly, ‘I felt I was trespassing, and that’s the honest truth. I felt I was staring at something that I had no right to see and I even felt that something was watching me and telling me to get away from there and leave the dead in peace.’

     ‘
Did
you?’ It might, she thought, have been no more than a lad who lived with monks having picked up their respect for the dead. On the other hand  . . .

     ‘Aye. I tell you, my lady, I couldn’t get down out of that tree fast enough. Then me and Saul ran back to the track and to the place where we had left our mounts.’

     ‘
Then
,’ Saul interrupted, picking up the tale, ‘we rode right up to the fellow in the jerkin, pretending we’d just arrived, and asked him if we could see the tomb. He’d seen Gussie afore, of course, that time he went with you and Sister Caliste, my lady, only we kept our hoods up and he barely gave us a glance, so I don’t reckon there’s much chance he recognised Gus.’

     ‘That was clever,’ she said admiringly. They
had
done well! ‘What did he say?’

     ‘He said Merlin’s Tomb was closed and we should go away. Gus said but we’ve come all the way from the other side of the forest – which was true even if it implied we’d travelled much further than we really had – but the man in the jerkin just snarled a bit and said he couldn’t help that and the tomb was still closed.’

     ‘Did he not guess by your habits that you came from Hawkenlye?’

     ‘He didn’t seem to, my lady,’ Augustus said. ‘Truth to tell, he seemed preoccupied and even a bit scared-like and I reckon we could have worn crowns and carried sceptres and he still wouldn’t have noticed.’

     Smiling at the exaggeration, she said, ‘What could he have been scared of?’

     ‘Of being found out, if he had something to do with his master’s death,’ Saul said shrewdly.

     ‘Hmm.’ She considered that, recalling her own suspicions regarding the guards. Was it really so simple and merely a question of a ruffian guard becoming greedy and attacking and robbing his master? But if so, then the last place the man in the leather jerkin would be now was at the entrance to the tomb site; if he had killed Florian, in addition to the bags of silver coins he would also have a fast horse. He would be several counties away by now if he had any wits at all.

     No. Common sense said that it was not he who had killed Florian. He might, however, have some idea who did.

     And of course he had not been the only guard at Merlin’s Tomb.

     ‘Did you ask him any more questions?’ She looked at Saul, eyebrows raised.

     ‘Gussie did.’ Saul grinned. ‘Said he’d heard that the man who ran Merlin’s Tomb had been robbed and murdered and was it true and did the guard know who was behind it?’

     ‘Ah, the direct approach,’ Helewise murmured. ‘Brave of you, Gus. What was the answer?’

     Augustus smiled ruefully. ‘Told me to mind my own business, only he used an extra word that I won’t repeat, my lady.’

     ‘He knew it was true all right,’ Saul put in. ‘When he’d finished telling us to bugg— um, that is, to go away, he said we’d find out soon enough whether it was true and in his view it was just as well because he’d never felt happy about the tomb, he’d had more than enough of the place, he didn’t even want to talk about it and he was leaving the district as soon as he’d seen off the last of the visitors.’

     ‘So Merlin’s Tomb is truly to close,’ she said thoughtfully. Somewhere deep inside her, there was a profound relief. They will return to us, she thought, those people in need, and once again old Brother Firmin will dole out holy water and gentle kindness, and the monks and nuns will all do whatever they are best at to heal hurts of minds, bodies and souls.

     She gave herself a shake: relief was all very well but it didn’t solve the problem of who had killed Florian.

     ‘Did you see any of the other guards?’ she asked. ‘Perhaps the one we spoke to, Gus, when we visited?’

     Gus shook his head. ‘No, my lady. Seems the man in the jerkin was left to do the job by himself.’

     Was left . . . Something that had been nagging at her now came to the front of her mind. ‘Who left him?’ she wondered aloud.

     ‘My lady?’ Saul looked puzzled.

     ‘Gussie just said he was left to do the job. Left by whom?’

     Saul’s frown deepened. ‘Well, left on his own by the other guards who’d legged it, my lady.’

     She smiled. ‘I’m sorry, Brother Saul, I’m not explaining myself clearly. I meant with Florian dead, who is issuing the orders?’

     Gus was nodding his understanding. ‘
Someone
must have told the guards to secure the place and chain up the two gates, and ordered one of them to stay to turn away visitors,’ he said eagerly. ‘Oh, Saul, why didn’t
we
think of that? We could have asked him!’

     ‘Don’t worry about it, Gus,’ Helewise said. ‘Even if you did he’d only have told you to
go away
again.’

     Gus picked up the emphasis and grinned. ‘Aye, that’s likely true. All the same  . . .’

     She got to her feet. ‘No use in regrets, Gus,’ she said briskly. ‘The two of you have done well and I am most grateful to you. Now, off you go. Return to your duties and leave me to torment my brains wondering what to do next.’

     They bowed and backed out through the door. As they left, she added, ‘If you do come up with any bright ideas, please don’t hesitate to share them with me.’

     And, with murmurs of assent, they were gone.

She sat quite still, staring into space, not seeing any of the familiar objects, few in number, that furnished her simple little room. Her mind was racing as she tried to think what she ought to do next.

     She could not control the insistent thought that kept saying, Merlin’s Tomb is to close and Hawkenlye is safe! Soon they will begin to come back!

     That is not all there is to this business, she reprimanded herself sternly. Florian of Southfrith has been robbed and murdered. Is his death to be written off with a shrug as the work of some vicious itinerant felon who has long fled the district?

     She recalled her unspoken objection to Saul’s suggestion that the guard in the leather jerkin might have been involved in the crime: that, if he had been, he’d have fled the district long since. Surely the same applied to whoever it was who had really done the deed? There was that fast bay horse of Florian’s to keep in mind, after all. Why would the murderer stay when he had the means to escape?

     Suddenly she thought, but I am forgetting that Gervase de Gifford will soon be home! As relief flooded her, she wondered if it would be wrong of her to hand the whole sorry matter of the murder in the forest over to him.

     I shall not abandon the business entirely, she decided. I shall carry out the action upon which I had already decided; in a day or so, I shall send for one of my nursing nuns and go to visit that poor young woman, Primevère. She will be calmer by then and more prepared to speak to someone other than her mother.

     Having thus made up her mind on what she should do next, with considerable relief she went back to her work.

Two days later she had returned to her room after Nones and was wondering if now would be a good time to fetch either Sister Euphemia or Sister Caliste and ride over to Hadfeld when there was an abrupt knock on her door. It opened in response to her ‘Come in!’ and Josse stood before her.