view.”
“Why?”
“Because they went to the trouble to show it was him. They actually took two plates to prove he had taken the stuff.”
“That means nothing. They could have done that to show who had really stolen it.”
“I doubt it. But why should they have decided to go now? And where do you think they have gone?” Baldwin asked the disgruntled captain.
“As to the why, because they killed the girl and thought you were getting too close to them, I suppose,” said Sir Hector, but he did not meet Baldwin’s eye. He saw no point in letting the Keeper know how much at risk Henry and John were if they were still in Sir Hector’s company when he returned to France. The knight had a long memory for disloyalty, and the suggestion that the two had plotted against him was enough to show that they were dangerous to him. They would never have made it to the French coast, to English Gascony. A channel of water offered endless possibilities for mislaying someone.
“Their running away certainly makes it look as if they are guilty,” Baldwin mused. It was possible, he thought. They were the type of person who would very easily fit the mold of thief and general bad character. He sighed. So much had happened so quickly, he felt he was losing track of essentials: while following one line of questioning, he was being buffeted by gales of irrelevance.
“What do you plan to do?” he asked.
“They have gone. I cannot find them-I hardly know this part of the country. I will go to the coast and find a new lord in Gascony.”
“And leave your silver?” Baldwin was struck by renewed doubt. There was something in the man’s attitude that grated. He had every right to be angry, but there was a hastiness to this decision to depart which was in itself suspicious; when added to the amount of silver which had been taken, it was positively incredible. The captain could not simply go and accept his loss. No leader like him could hope to keep his men loyal if they saw comrades take his money like that and get away with it. Baldwin nodded slowly. It was apparent to him that Sir Hector was determined to hunt down the two men himself without the encumbrance of a Keeper demanding clemency.
“What could I do to find it?”
The cynical question confirmed Baldwin’s conviction. “You must wait here. In my friend Peter Clifford’s house is Walter Stapledon of Exeter, the Bishop. He will know every smith in the city, and he has the men to investigate. Within two days we will have your two back here.”
“No, I will go now.”
“Really? What could be so urgent, I wonder, that would make you leave so much money behind?”
“My silver is with those two bastards, and I want it back! There is nothing so pressing for me as getting it back again.”
“Then I ask you to remain, Sir Hector,” Baldwin said sternly. “I have no doubts as to your honor and truthfulness, but I must stress that others may suspect your reasons for taking so hurried a departure, when for only two days’ delay you will probably be able to recover your silver.”
“”Probably,“ you say! How ”probably“ will I get my silver back? What is the likelihood that they will have gone to Exeter? Or they might have gone in another direction completely. What if they are heading to Bristol? I’d never get them then.”
“Neither would you if you were to go on with your journey. Sir Hector, Exeter is a matter of miles away, some ten or so. If they have not been here before, save the once, they will not know any other direction to take. In Exeter, there are many roads and alleys with silversmiths. For you to cover them all would be difficult, and you would have to locate them first. Stapledon knows them all. He can use persuasion to make sure that if your men have been there, the silver is recovered. It has to be the best chance there is of recovering it. Do you have any reason to suppose that they might be aiming for Bristol?”
“No. It’s just the only other large city I know of.”
“It was badly devastated after the siege some years ago; I don’t know if there are any smiths there who could afford to buy the quantity of plate that Henry and John took from you. And being that much further away, they would risk being robbed themselves-do you realize how far it is to the north? If you were to wait here for two days and then leave, sending fast riders on ahead, you could easily overtake two men on horseback.”
“Their horses might be fleet.”
“They might,” Baldwin agreed. “But they have a heavy weight of silver with them. It will be a burden to them and slow them down.”
Sir Hector stared at him. He could think of no sensible excuse which would carry conviction as to why he must quit the town. From all Baldwin had said, he was right and it would be better to remain a little longer. He considered the alternatives, but he knew full well that too much suspicion must lie on his head if he were to lead his men away. Slowly, and with great reluctance, he nodded his agreement.
16
S niffing disdainfully at the mess, Hugh trod carefully along the alley. There was no idea of cleanliness here. Even when he lived with his parents they had enforced the rules of keeping to their midden and not just peeing against the doorposts of the house. Here, the people didn’t care. The sewers and middens were so far away that people used whatever was nearest. At least to a farmer, the nearest object was usually a tree, Hugh thought to himself, avoiding a pile of excrement, and not his neighbor’s house.
Hugh turned into the side-alley with a set frown of concentration. The woman’s body had been removed during the night, and there was nothing to show of the horror of the previous night. This little branchlet from the main thoroughfare faced east, and the light in the misty morning was charitable to the dirty buildings, hiding streaked and worn limewash, and dissipating the harsh light of the late summer sun so that cracks and holes could not cast such strong shadows.
He stood with his hands on his hips and squinted round the space. He had observed Baldwin often enough when the knight was investigating the site of a tragedy, but the quick eye for details that the knight possessed was not transferable to Hugh, and he knew it. Where Baldwin might have seen a dozen hints for finding the boy, Hugh only saw a mess.
Folding his arms, he leaned a shoulder against a wall and peered at the ground. His master had said that the boy had been in front of his mother, and had seen the attacker coming up behind Simon as the bailiff called the boy to him.
Casting his mind back, Hugh noted where the bodies had lain the night before. He was sure that Simon, having been unconscious for so long, all through the night, must have fallen where he had been hit. Hugh stepped to the spot where, as far as he could tell, his master’s feet had been resting. There were a pair of scuff-marks, and he thought they might have been caused by the bailiff’s feet jerking as he was coshed.
Nodding grimly to himself, Hugh crouched down and stared before him. The dirt had been flattened in some patches. All around there was a light coating of ash, from the many wood fires which had driven off the night’s chill for the townspeople. Though behind him it had all been disturbed by the passage of the men collecting the two figures, and there were clear footprints where the man appointed to stand guard over the woman had waited, Hugh thought he could see where she had lain. As he bent lower, he caught his breath.
From the corner of his eye, he had caught a glimpse of the guard’s footprints. Viewed from this low angle, he discovered he could see them more clearly. To test it, he rested his hands on the ground and held his head almost at floor-level, and found he could see the prints much more distinctly. Wriggling, he squirmed until he was staring excitedly at roughly where the woman’s head had been, and gave a short exclamation of delight. He could see a series of small barefoot prints.
The ones nearest were surprisingly clear. He could make out the individual toes as if the lad had waited there for some time, and perhaps he had, Hugh reflected. After all, Simon had appeared after hearing the boy crying. He could have been there, standing beside his dead mother for an hour or more. People from the houses all round would not leave their dwellings after dark, he was sure, not to go to the aid of a brat they might not know, not when there were the sounds of misery to hint that some danger lurked.
