“But even the King turned us down. For experience, for training, for determination, he could not ask for better troops, but Edward did not want us.”
“Perhaps,” Baldwin remarked, “he had heard tell that you had changed sides before.”
John stared with open astonishment. “But anyone would do that when his side begins to lose! It’s only common sense.”
Baldwin said nothing, eyeing him grimly, and the man continued defensively: “When Edward’s commissioners rejected us, the complaints became near to outright rebellion. Some of the lads were suggesting that the captain should be chucked. It was his responsibility to keep the men together, his job to find us new contracts, for there is no point to our way of life if we have no one who wants us, no one to pay for us. We might just as well be villeins in another’s army. And the trouble was, we were always seen to be loyal men of Sir Hector’s. None of the others trusted us because they thought we were with him.
“It came to a head some miles from Winchester, on our way back to the coast. We approached Wat to join his side. The last thing we wanted was to be killed for being too loyal to Sir Hector. But he refused to listen-denied any scheme to oust Sir Hector. So it was obvious we no longer had any safety in the company. We thought we’d better run-and the silver would make life easier for us.
“When we got back here, and met with Adam again, the idea of getting away seemed like the best one for us. If we stayed, we would get killed; if we left, we could find another company or do something else. Try farming, make a new assart: anything.
“We saw Adam on the way into town, and later that afternoon, he came to us at the inn and suggested we should meet the next night, when all the men would be a bit quieter. We couldn’t see him that night, because Sir Hector was set for a good banquet. As you know, our captain went out next morning, told us later he’d met with his woman again-”
“Mary Butcher,” Baldwin observed.
“Yes, sir. Like you say, Mary, Adam Butcher’s wife. We were horrified.”
“And you told Adam?”
“God’s blood, no!” The exclamation was too emphatic to be false. “Don’t you know what his temper is like? If we’d done that, Adam would have been in there straight away with a cleaver. No, we didn’t mention her at all.”
“But I suppose your master was pleased to hear you would be drinking with his lover’s husband?”
John bit his lip sheepishly. “He asked us to take Adam away for a bit, said we’d be well rewarded if Adam could be made to have an accident, but we refused.”
Henry butted in. “We wouldn’t just kill a man for another’s passion.”
“No, I daresay you wouldn’t,” said Baldwin pensively. “Not when you could see a way to winning all Sir Hector’s money without risking a rope.”
“We never risked the rope,” Henry declared with passion. “Look, we went out with Adam, and we talked, but he refused to consider it at first. We rode to the old inn toward Sandford, and spent most of the night there, chatting about things, and we raised the idea of taking Sir Hector’s plate, but Adam wouldn’t hear of it. He left us, to return home early in the morning, but changed his mind, and came to meet us, and then we agreed what-”
“He changed his mind?” Baldwin interrupted.
“Yes, sir. He left the inn before us to make his way into town. By the time we were up at the cross on the Barn-staple road, he came haring back. He said he’d been thinking, and that he’d be mad not to accept. It was rare enough that a chance to get hold of so much money came along, and he couldn’t throw over the opportunity.”
“I see. Continue.”
“It was easy,” said John. “Sir Hector was out first thing, and came back in the afternoon, leaving again later on. Our only fear was Wat, because he might have enjoyed seeing us flogged, but Sir Hector had told him to collect the new dress for him. We knew we had plenty of time without interruptions-all we had to do was make sure we were out before Wat came in to fetch the salt for Hector’s meal-so we went to the captain’s rooms, pretending to want to see him. We knew he wasn’t there, but it gave us time to open the shutters to the yard. Then we left; and I kept a lookout while Henry climbed in through the window. He closed the shutters, and I walked out to the front. He started passing things to me there.”
Henry spoke up sulkily. “John was pretending to be helping Adam. The butcher had sent his apprentice inside to see to the meats there. I passed the things out to John, and he shoved them all into a sack in the back of Adam’s wagon. Adam kept a lookout on the main street and up the hill beside, and John could see up the other way.”
“Why go through the charade of entering to open the shutter, leaving again, and climbing in from the yard? You were inside already, so what was the point?” Simon asked.
Henry threw him an astonished glance. “We went in to see him-we were pretending we thought he was there. How long would it have been before one of the others came in to find out what we were doing if we’d stayed there longer? No, we went in to unlock the shutters, and then we knew we could get in through the yard and spend as long inside as we liked.”
“Weren’t the men in the hall suspicious?” Baldwin asked.
“Well, we don’t speak to them too much. No, they said nothing. Someone sniggered when we came out, sort of thought it was funny we’d been searching for the captain. Later, when the silver was all out, we did the same again. John came round to the back and tapped on the frame when it was all quiet, and I got out. Then we went back pretending to see if Sir Hector had returned yet, and locked the shutters again.”
“Didn’t you fear someone walking along the street and seeing you during this exercise?”
John Smithson smiled slyly. “We’d thought about that. Adam had gutted some calves that morning and left their innards like ropes all over the pavement. Nobody came close, not with the smell of that lot festering in the sun for five hours-even the horses went on the other side of the street.”
“So you cleared out all the plate?”
“Yes, and then Adam took the wagon round to his shed and stored the silver in his hayloft. At the same time Henry climbed out and we went back inside to shut the window again.”
“The girl,” Simon muttered. “What about the girl?”
John looked at Henry, who was pale now, with a light sheen of sweat over his features. “I swear,” he said, and his voice was a croak, “I never killed her.”
“But you knocked her out? And stuffed her into the chest?” Simon said, rising and standing beside Baldwin. “Why?”
“When I climbed inside, through the window, it was empty. Later, I heard her approaching the room. She was calling out, happy. I just had time to nip behind the door, and when she came in I clouted her with my cudgel. She went down like a squirrel shot by a slingshot from a tree. John was at the window by then; I don’t know whether she saw him before she fell. I just trussed her up and dumped her inside the nearest chest. That’s all, and I’ll take my oath on the Bible for it.”
“You may have to,” Baldwin said quietly. “And that in front of a Bishop.”
Henry squared his shoulders. “It’s the truth.”
Glancing at John, Simon saw him purse his lips. “What about you, John?”
“Me?”
“Somebody returned to the body and stabbed Sarra twice. When the lid lifted, she must have thought it was someone coming to free her but, instead, she saw that person thrust down with a knife. She couldn’t even scream, with her mouth gagged. Was it you?”
“I said: I was outside.”
“Yes, but Henry has just pointed out that you were at the window when she came in; she might have seen you.”
“I don’t think so. I-”
“Were you prepared to take the risk? If she had seen you, she could tell her master what you had done, couldn’t she? You couldn’t afford to leave her alive. She was a witness to your theft.”
John stared at Henry. “Was I there on my own for any moment?” he demanded.
“No.” The other’s voice allowed no doubt. “Neither of us were. We were together all the time we were in there.”
“How so? What about when you, Henry, were inside, and John was out? When you had finished passing the plate out and went to the back of the inn, it would have been easy for John to slip inside and murder the girl,
