Heartstone

'With respect, sir,' I said, 'this is still a newly discovered murder. Sir Quintin Priddis's old verdict of accidental death was clearly wrong.'

'Ay.' Wilf spoke up boldly. 'I always said that first inquest was not done properly.'

Buttress leaned his heavy body forward, glaring into the old man's face. 'Are you accusing one of the region's leading men of incompetence? Watch your step, old nid-nod.'

'Goodman Harrydance is upset,' Seckford said placatingly.

Buttress turned his baleful look on him. 'I know you and this other old fool like a drink together, Master Curate. More than one. And I hear your services have a papist flavour. Don't provoke me into making life difficult for either of you.'

'Sir,' I said. 'I protest. You are the magistrate, it is not fitting you should bully witnesses.'

Buttress's face darkened, but he kept his control. 'I brought Goodman Harrydance to order for insulting the former coroner. And Master Seckford is no witness to anything. He did not accompany you to the foundry.'

Seckford said quietly, 'I am, though, a witness to the state of mind of Mistress Fettiplace after the foundry burned down, and to the fact she was hurried away by Master Priddis himself.'

I winced, wishing he had not drawn attention to Ellen's disappearance. I said, mildly, 'If she witnessed a murder, that could explain her state of mind.'

'And what,' Buttress asked, rounding on me, 'if the death was suicide? What if Master Fettiplace, for some reason we do not know, set the fire, killed his man, then rowed out to the middle of the pond, tied a lump of iron round his leg, and drowned himself? Such things happen; there was a silly village girl a couple of years ago got herself with child and drowned herself in a local pond.'

I suddenly thought of Michael Calfhill, swinging from that rope in his lodgings. I said, 'Then surely the empty boat would have been found floating in the pond next morning.'

'Maybe it went unnoticed; everyone was concerned with the fire.'

'Why should Master Fettiplace have killed himself?' I asked.

Buttress shrugged. 'Who knows? Well, we shall have to bring the witnesses together. Some of the men from the foundry are still alive.'

'I understand Ellen Fettiplace had spent the day with a young man who was interested in her, Philip West.'

Buttress flicked me an angry look. 'The Wests are an important local family. Self-important anyway. Master West is now an officer on the King's ships.'

'Nonetheless, he, too, will need to be questioned.' I realized that when all these people were brought together it would come out how thoroughly I had been investigating Ellen's history. But the important thing was to get them together and questioned properly. And I would be there.

'It will take time to put these wheels in motion,' Buttress said. I realized he would do everything he could to delay. But why? To keep a forged conveyance secret?

He said, 'I expect by the time the Sussex coroner has been able to get all these people together for an inquest, you will be back in London. He will write to you. Unless the French land and we are all so mired in war down here that nothing can be done about anything.'

'I shall keep in touch with matters through Master Seckford.' I gave the old man a meaningful glance, and he nodded.

'Yes, Master Shardlake,' Buttress said heavily, 'I imagine you will.'

* * *

EVENING FOUND US lodging at Rolfswood inn; Buttress, unsurprisingly, had offered us no hospitality. When we left the house Wilf 's sons were waiting for us a little way up the street. This time their manner towards me was friendly. After all, I had just lied to save their father from a possible charge of poaching.

'You should have left that body be, Father,' one brother said chidingly. 'Let someone else find it. Look at you, you're half dead.'

'I couldn't leave Master Fettiplace there,' Wilf said. 'Master Shardlake will keep me safe.'

'I promise I will see justice done,' I said. I hoped I would be able to. Buttress might not be clever, but he was cunning and ruthless.

Seckford and Wilf came with us to the inn. The woman who had first introduced me to Wilf, a widow named Mistress Bell, turned out to own it. She agreed to give us a place for the night. When we parted I grasped Seckford's flabby hand. 'Sir,' I said, 'please protect Wilf so far as you can. A letter will bring me here.' I had given him the address of Hoyland Priory, and of my chambers in London.

He looked at me with bleary eyes, then smiled sadly. 'You fear I will be too far gone in my cups to be of use. No, sir, I will control myself. God has given me a task to perform, as once he did with Ellen. I will not fail this time.'

'Thank you,' I said, hoping he could keep his resolution.

Barak and I were shown up to a room where we both collapsed, exhausted, on the bed, until an hour later hunger sent us down to eat. The inn was full; I remembered Buttress saying tomorrow was market day. As we ate, someone brought the news that the body of old Master Fettiplace had been found in the mill pond and an excited hubbub of conversation began. Barak and I retired upstairs before we could be connected with the gossip.

'Where does this leave us?' he asked.

'With the chance to bring everyone involved together to be questioned. Buttress will drag his heels, I must keep on at him.'

'From London? And Ellen? If this all comes out, will she be safe?'

'I took steps to ensure she was protected. I will take more on my return.'

'And now you'll have to keep coming back here.'

I sat up on the bed. 'I must bring some order out of this chaos, Jack. I must.' I heard the rising passion in my voice. Barak gave me a long, serious look, but said nothing.

'Buttress is hiding something,' I said at length.

'Probably. But where does finding Fettiplace's body actually leave things? An inquest might agree with Buttress, decide Fettiplace could have killed Gratwyck, then gone out on the pond and killed himself.'

'What if some third party came to the foundry, raped Ellen, then killed both her father and Gratwyck? She said at least two men attacked her, she said they were too strong for her, she could not move.'

Barak was silent again for a minute, then said, 'You place much weight on the shrieks of a madwoman.'

'She spoke the truth that day.'

'How can you be so sure?' He folded his arms and looked at me, holding my eye in a way that reminded me oddly of some judges I had known.

'You did not see her, you did not see the horror those memories brought.'

'What if West's insinuations are true, that Ellen herself killed her father and Gratwyck, then set the fire? Priddis could still have had her removed from the area to please the Wests, and done some deal with Buttress so he bought that house cheaply and they shared the profits. You know what these county officials are like, they're at it all the time.'

'I got the impression Buttress did not like the Wests. Rivals for local power, perhaps.'

'You don't want to believe she could possibly have done it, do you?'

I sat on the edge of the bed, frowning. 'I think that, whatever happened, Philip West was involved somehow. That day marks him still.'

'Just because you think so doesn't make it true.'

I said impatiently, 'I want to get West, and Priddis too, questioned at an inquest. That will bring out the truth.'

He still looked dubious, and concerned. 'What is the Sussex coroner like?'

'I know nothing about him. I will make enquiries when we return to London.'

'If we ever do.'

'We'll go back as soon as the Hampshire coroner lets us go. I made a promise and I'll keep to it.'

Barak walked to the shutters at the sound of loud voices from the street, shouting and calling. I had been conscious of growing noise but thought it was traders preparing their stalls for market day. He opened the shutters, then whistled. 'Come and see this.'