My lazar house happened to be in their path. The priest and I were lucky, we weren’t there at the time-we tended to walk when we could-and when we got back, the place was razed to the ground. All that was left was smoke and ash.”
“So you came down here?”
“Not at first, no. I went back home, to London. There I found that Godfrey and Cecily had left. A man in the town told me they had come this way, although he thought it was Exeter.”
“And you found them here?”
“By luck, yes. While I was in Exeter I hung around the goldsmiths’ streets and overheard some men talking. They were actually discussing the loans made to Coffyn, but one of them mentioned Godfrey. When someone spoke of a retired goldsmith from London who had a beautiful daughter, and whose name was Godfrey, it wasn’t hard to guess that my search was ended.”
“And what did you intend?” Simon burst out. “Did you mean to hold your wife to her vows and force her to go with you?”
Rodde glowered at him. “Do I seem so unfeeling? You, a healthy man, can afford to be arrogant, but if you loved your own wife as I do, you’d know that to bring her down to my level would be the most bestial act! No, I didn’t mean to take her away, although if I had wanted to, I would have been within my rights. All I wanted to do was see her and reassure myself that she was all right. I never meant her to see me, for I knew that would unsettle her, but I did want to see her again, just the once, before I die. Is it wrong to love a woman so much?”
“Of course not,” said Baldwin soothingly. “But she did see you, didn’t she?”
“I was a fool. I’d hardly got here when I saw her. She didn’t recognize me-how could she when I wore all this stuff? But then one day she walked over to give me money. I tried to hide my face from her, but she recognized me somehow, gave me her whole purse. She told me to come and see her. We couldn’t talk in the street, but she promised to contrive that all the servants would be out of the house at a certain time so we could talk.”
“And Godfrey as well, of course.”
“Yes. Cecily trusted Alison, but none of the others. Any of them might have told Godfrey.”
“Including Putthe?”
Thomas Rodde grinned. “Cecily knew he’d tell Godfrey, so she decided to make sure he was busy.”
“And she was sure she could arrange for her father to be out?”
“She had to do nothing. She knew whenever Matthew Coffyn was away, her father would visit Mrs. Coffyn. All I had to do was find out when Matthew’s next journey was. Godfrey wouldn’t miss his chance of seeing Martha. I agreed to see Cecily as soon as Coffyn went on his next journey.”
“And that was the night Godfrey died?”
“Yes, sir. I stood outside the window, but Cecily was convinced we had plenty of time, and asked me inside. She’d got rid of all the servants, and there was no chance we’d be seen together. Quivil was with me, and she asked him in too. Well, we weren’t there above a few minutes, when we heard a row from Coffyn’s house. I suppose we were too busy with our own thoughts and didn’t connect the noises with Godfrey, but suddenly there he was, chortling merrily to himself. He saw me and stopped dead in his tracks. Edmund had ducked behind the door, and Godfrey didn’t see him.
“He gave a bellow, grabbed Cecily, and punched her in the face. I was furious, and was going to attack him. Godfrey held up his hand, said was I trying to ruin her as well, or something. Edmund thought he was going to attack me, so he…”
“Edmund clobbered him with his staff, just as you last night felled Jack the smith.”
“Yes. Then there were steps, and in came Putthe. He saw his master and mistress and gave a squeak of his own. Edmund didn’t know better, and he was panicking, so he knocked Putthe down as well.”
“What then?”
“Well, I made sure Cecily was all right; she was all that mattered to me. Her face was bloody, but she seemed fit enough. I was with her by the window, I never even really looked at Godfrey. Why should I, after what he did to my wife? In any case, I thought he was merely unconscious. It was Cecily who told us to flee. We nipped out through the window, because we could already hear noises from the garden as Coffyn’s men searched for Godfrey. It was only the next day we heard he was dead.
“Once outside we hurried off, but soon heard steps coming after us. We didn’t know who it could be, and after what had happened, we didn’t want to get caught in Godfrey’s grounds, so we hid, not far from John’s wall. Well, it was John himself, and he saw us, I suppose. He was as startled as us, because he ran back toward Cecily’s house. I’d heard enough about him to doubt this Irishman, and thinking of poor Cecily all alone with only her maid to protect her, I followed after him. When I went to the window, I saw him at Cecily’s side, making sure she was all right, while Alison stood near. It was obvious that John was not threatening the women in any way. It was enough for me, and I left the place. I collected Edmund and we walked up to the back of the garden-there’s a section of wall there that’s easy to climb if you know it. We got back into the street and made our way to the camp.”
“What of the silver?” asked Simon. “We know it was gone on the night Godfrey died, but it reappeared later.”
“You’ll have to speak to my wife about that,” Rodde grinned.
“So we’ve sought a murderer, when in reality it was an accident,” mused Baldwin.
“Edmund didn’t mean to kill him; the lad was no murderer. When he heard Godfrey was dead, he was as horrified as me.”
“I see. Well, I want to know what happened to the plate, so I will go and see your wife now, but I thank you for your candor.”
“There’s no point in protecting Edmund now, is there?” Rodde said sadly. “He’s already gone to a higher court than yours, Keeper.”
“Hmm. Just one quick question-how long did you say you’ve had leprosy?”
The surprised man answered him, and Baldwin nodded, but with a puzzled expression.
Cecily sat in her small solar and eyed the knight suspiciously when the two men entered. “And what do you want this time? How often must you pester me?”
“Mistress, I apologize if we are disturbing you, but we have been talking to your husband and he suggested that you could help us with one last point.”
“Thomas has told you all?” she asked, eyes round with shock.
Baldwin realized she hadn’t heard about the two deaths the night before. He explained what had happened, and told her he knew Quivil had killed her father.
In response, her eyes filled with tears, and she turned away from them. After sniffing and wiping at her face, she exclaimed: “It’s a huge relief! Oh, my God! It’s as if I have been released from a curse: unable to admit what I knew, having to hide the man who killed my father, trying to keep calm to protect my husband! Perhaps it’s odd that I should be pleased to hear that Edmund is dead-well, I am not happy at his death. But it is wonderful to know that at last I can tell the truth.”
She slumped back in her seat as if exhausted, closing her eyes a moment. When she had recovered herself a little, aided by a strong draft of wine administered by her maid, she began to speak, and her tale was identical to Rodde’s.
“It was a terrible shock to see him here after so long a separation,” she confessed. “I had almost assumed the worst, that the disease had taken its hold on him, or even that he had died. Seeing him in Crediton was like seeing a man raised from the dead.”
“You were conscious when the two left?”
“Yes. And thankfully, I could save our plate.”
“That was what I was keenest to hear about,” Baldwin smiled.
“You noticed it had gone, didn’t you? You were very quick to see that. Well, it wasn’t stolen. All that happened was, when Thomas and Edmund had gone, my maid came down and walked into the room. She screamed as soon as she saw us all lying on the ground. I called her over and told her I was all right, but while we spoke, John came in at full pelt.”
“What was he doing there?”
“Visiting my maid.”
“She was the woman John of Irelaunde was seeing! That explains a lot!”
“They had been meeting regularly for some weeks. I saw no harm in it, so I didn’t stop them. John convinced
