‘Or,’ added Bradecote, grimly, ‘he obtained the knowledge by force.’
‘You are thinking he might have learnt it from Mother Winflaed, my lord?’ Catchpoll looked dubious.
‘Is it not possible?’
‘Aye, but he would need to have been thinking of it before that, or else why ask “What do you know of the lady and Fulk the Steward?”, and we have seen as he does not take a thought beyond its first awakening, and just acts. He would have acted upon that first thought, not seeking proofs from anyone else.’
‘That is true, Catchpoll. I think my head must be like Walkelin’s. Yet it is firm in one thought, but that does not give enough to bring the man before the lord Sheriff, and then the justices.’
‘You’re right about the lord Parler, my lord, if you is thinking as I am sure you are. I’ve been sitting here looking at it every which way, and there is only one end it all comes to. If he got to the hilltop a mite early and thought to come across the lord Osbern on his way up, it was easy enough for him to have met him, killed him, cast the clothing aside, but kept the hat and the cloak, and lead the grey to the top, so that he might appear as the man everyone would expect to see. At that distance, and if he sat none so tall in the saddle, he would be the lord Osbern. If he then loosed the horse to amble home, and it knew the way after all these years, all he had to do was ride back down the other slope to join the Evesham road a little north of the village, cast hat and cloak away, and then, very pleased with himself, take his usual path to miss the village and head into Evesham and all its delights. That way the lord Baldwin, coming from Evesham, passed the track from the hill when his father lay dead upon it, and the false Osbern was near the top to be seen. Which is all wonderful, except for—’
‘And, my lord, I was thinking too, and if the lord Parler killed the lord Osbern, when did he bury the dagger?’ interrupted Walkelin, eager to show he too had pondered the matter, but earned a frown from Catchpoll.
‘That is not all, either.’ Bradecote grimaced. ‘Come on, Catchpoll. I want you to make my day end well and give me the answer that makes it all work, but you were going to tell me it all falls to ruin if we have Parler as the killer, which is a shame, because the world would be the better without him.’
‘As you say, my lord. While the lord Parler could have done the killing, and as we was coming away from the bastard it did seem a very good answer, we have the problem, one the size of the barn out yonder.’
‘Which is, why would he bother with the deception at all?’ Bradecote sighed. ‘Why go to all the trouble to pretend to be Osbern when all he need do was kill him and carry on to Evesham? By that measure Parler must have been telling true, because of the hat and cloak north of Lench. Pox on it all. So Parler did not do it, I would swear oath Hamo did not do it, Fulk looks as if he did not do it because the lady sounded honest when she said he did not leave, which means that Baldwin de Lench must have killed his own sire. That is what happened, I am now fairly sure, but there is simply no reason.’
‘Then let us see if it fits, my lord, and await a reason. If he came from Evesham and met his father coming down the hill after the lord Osbern’s happy gazing upon his lands, then there is a mite of a problem in the grey getting back to the hall, and him arriving back to the harvest. It was close, but the horse had not far to come. If tethered it meant a risk. So we looks the other way round and as when we thought Parler might have done it. It would mean the lord Baldwin was not coming from Evesham, but from Tredington, and had cut up off the Alcester road on the same path Parler took, but earlier. He met his father as the man was on his way up the hill, not coming down, killed him, and to deceive all, kept the hat and cloak. Thing is, if he took but those things, it would lead us to think of that deceiving, so he also removed tunic and boots, as for a robbing, and trotted a short way so they would be not seen with the body, and threw them away. I am guessing he was urgent in this, for he did not stay to see where it all landed, with one boot a little in view, which it why Alnoth the Handless saw it. Then he cantered the grey up to the top of the hill, leading his own mount, to pose as the old lord.’ He then left the grey and came down the northern way to discard the hat and cloak, hoping the horse would not come home swift like.’
‘Do you not recall the groom spoke of the grey mare having bruised a foot the week before?’ Bradecote was trying to make things fit smoothly. ‘It might have been after Baldwin was sent to Tredington, but equally might have been something he knew of, and hoped it was still a little sore. Besides, the animal knew the track up and down the hill, took it every day, so would as likely just amble back at its usual pace.’
‘That would make him more confident, yes, my lord.’
‘The dagger and badge he could have kept, to supposedly find later, for he could have hidden them in his trappings from his stay in Tredington. It would also
