two. “What are you doing here?” he demanded, but then he saw the knife. Snapping his mouth shut, he turned and fled.
Smiling at his captive, Adam tied her hands tightly, then motioned vaguely with the knife toward the men below. “Do you know who they are?” he enquired. “They know who I am, but I have only met a couple of them before now. Curious, how lives can become intertwined. Theirs and mine, and all because of a man who was prepared to steal my wife. There was no reason for him to do that; he just took her because he could. Why did she want him? She didn’t fight, you know, she just accepted him into her bed-my bed!-when she thought I was out. But I surprised them.” He gave a chuckle. “Oh, yes. I surprised them.”
Margaret stared at him. “Did you…kill them?” she managed.
“Kill them? No, that would have been foolish. I would have had my revenge, but where would the justice have been? No, I wanted him to suffer for what he had done. I could have stabbed him there, while he lay in my bed, but he wouldn’t have had the expectation of his agony; it would have been a quick and easy death, and I didn’t want that for him, not for the man who ruined me and my Mary. Poor Mary.” He broke off and frowned at his long knife, and when he continued it was with a contemplative quietness. “She was my life, my whole life. All I ever wanted. I would have done anything to make her happy, yet she betrayed me; I gave her presents and toys, but she went to another man. She never hinted that I had failed her, there was not an angry word between us, but she preferred this mercenary. ”
Below, Margaret could see the small knot of men swelling as others joined, all pointing up at her and chattering. She could just make out her husband, and imagined his stark horror, almost convinced she could see the expression on his face. He would be terrified in case he lost her too. Peterkin was bad enough, but to lose her as well, she thought, would be likely to unbalance his mind. She wanted to kiss him, to smile once more into his serious gray eyes and hug him, and wondered whether she would be able to ever again.
“Down there, they all think I simply went mad. They think I killed the women for no reason. What do they know of love, of loss?” he sneered, gesticulating, then shouted, waving his blade derisively. “What are you all staring at? Come up here, if you wish to talk, you cowards. I’m not corrupt. I’m not false or devious. I’m not a lying official lining my own pocket at the expense of justice!”
Margaret remained silent, staring down at her husband with a strange sense of serenity. Her hands were bound, and she could not try to run from this odd little man with his terrifying prattle, inconsequential yet deadly. There was no point in trying to escape, since if she were to keep from his clutches, she would surely fall in the attempt. The planks up here on the highest level were thin boards of split timber, roughly cracked away from boughs in lengths by wedges hammered in with the grain of the wood, and they had all warped and twisted in the sunlight as they dried. Some had been lashed to the scaffolding, but much of it was loose, the workers relying on their own skill and sure-footedness for their safety.
She let herself slide down until she was crouched on a plank, hands gripping a vertical scaffold pole before her, and began praying. Her only regret was, if she were to die here this afternoon, that she had not been given a last chance to tell her husband how much she loved him.
Baldwin put a hand on Simon’s shoulder. “My friend, come away. There’s nothing else for you to do here. Why not-”
“Leave me be, Baldwin. You would not have me desert my wife while there’s still a chance I might be able to do something.”
“It would be better if you were to go.”
“Why?” Simon shrugged the hand from his shoulder, but when he turned, his face was not angry, only sad and anxious. “So that if she were to die, I would be spared the sight? Come now, what about her? Do you think she would be happier to see me leave her all alone, or would she be better pleased to know that I am here, and will do all in my power to save her? She may not want me to see her die, but she’d be devastated if I was to disappear. It would be the last indignity, to see me run when I might be able to help her.”
Baldwin felt the unfamiliar sting of dampness at his eyes, and he wordlessly rested a fist on his friend’s shoulder and nodded.
“In the meantime,” Simon muttered, “tell someone to get all the workers away from the place. The last thing we want is the bloody fool to become scared by them and kill Meg and himself.”
“Master?” Hugh came and stood beside them, squinting up at the figures high above. His voice was calm and quiet. “There’s a second set of ladders on the other side of the church. I think I could get up there.”
“Are you sure?” Simon’s face showed his desperate hope, and Hugh nodded.
Ever since Simon had rescued him from the tedium of life as a sheep farmer on the northeastern limits of the moors, out at Drewsteignton, Hugh had been devoted to Simon. When he married, Hugh had quickly grown to adore Margaret, and his feelings for Edith and Peterkin had bordered on adulation. It was impossible for him to stand by and watch the woman die and then, as must inevitably happen, the ruination of his master: the idea was unimaginable. “I can do it,” he said confidently.
“It’s a long way up,” Baldwin said uncertainly. He knew only too well that Hugh was terrified of heights, and had only recently overcome his fear of being as high as on horseback.
“I can do it,” Hugh repeated stubbornly.
“Very well,” Simon said. “Show me where it is. I’ll-”
“Simon, no!” Baldwin interrupted. “You mustn’t! You must remain here and talk to Adam, try to distract him so he doesn’t see us approaching.”
“I must do something. Hugh here can show me how to get up there, then I can try to save her.”
“Master, Sir Baldwin is right,” Hugh said urgently. “You have to be here where she can see you. Like you said, how will she feel if she sees you going?”
“And how will I live with myself if I do not try?” Simon asked, but he was cut short by the butcher, who began waving his arms and bellowing. Simon watched, hardly heeding as his wife slipped down to sit, exhausted from exertion and fear.
“Bailiff? You can hear, can’t you? How do you feel about your wife being killed, eh? How would you like to see her down there with you right now? Shall I push her, make her fall? Or should I stab her first, so she’s dead before she lands? Which would you prefer?”
“Baldwin,” Simon muttered, “I have to go up there.”
“You cannot. I shall go in your place. No, Simon, no arguing. You must remain here: the man clearly knows you and is trying to get at you for some reason. Listen to him-he is mad, but not stupid. If you disappear even for a moment, he will notice, and what then for Margaret’s chances? This is not a matter of honor, any more than disputing a path with a rabid wolf is honorable. Both are situations which call for serious actions. With a wolf one must kill it or die; here we must kill Butcher before he can harm Margaret…
“Simon, you must stay here! Occupy him-keep him talking. Hugh, you come with me,” Baldwin commanded. He made his way back toward the road, Hugh and Edgar following. Once in the street, they went a short way west, until they were hidden by a tall hedge. “Now, Hugh, lead on. But remember, be quick!”
24
S he shivered. It was not because of any inclemency in the weather, for she could feel the warmth of the late-afternoon sun on her right shoulder. Ahead of her was a high hill, for Crediton and the church lay in a valley, and all she could see was the tips of the trees rising up the hillside and over its summit. This late in the year, their leaves were yellow, brown or red, and the gold of the dying sun’s light tinted them with a roseate hue. Each individual plant seemed to glow with an inner glory, and she found herself wondering in awe at such beauty. It was as if she had gone through her life without noticing such things before, and seeing these colors for the first time made her appreciate how precious such simple sights were. The rich gorgeousness of the picture pulled at the strings of her heart, and a quick sob surprised her, as unexpected as a sudden sneeze.
Squaring her shoulders, she looked away. She refused to allow the butcher to think her scared.
But Adam was paying her no heed. Leaning over the low railing, he leered down. “You thought you’d fooled me, didn’t you, Bailiff? Thought the wool was pulled over my eyes. But I’m not a cretin, I can see things when they face me, and I could see you’d taken the mercenary’s money to prevent him being arrested.”
