Blood Moon (11 page)

This altered matters
completely. Raoul himself was in danger. Even Herbert must see now that someone was trying to harm him. I had to act quickly before they succeeded and warn him to be on his guard. But any advantage this might have given the boy was about to be thrown away by what he did next.

Chapter
12

ESCAPE

Fo
r
more than fifty years the abbey gaol has been located at the top of Abbot Anselm’s tower which is also the bell tower to Saint James’s church as well as one of the main abbey gates. It is thus a highly useful and versatile structure as well as being a rather fine building - a fact that I am sure would have delighted the good Anselm. Personally I have mixed feelings about the place having once been a reluctant guest there myself – a circumstance that was also, coincidentally, at the instigation of the dread Geoffrey de Saye. I owed my freedom then to the intervention of Abbot Samson who overruled de Saye and had me released. Unfortunately no such champion was going to ride to the rescue of Raoul de Gray - certainly not Prior Herbert - and Abbot-elect Hugh was still far away in France. Being thirty feet above the ground, the gaol is ideally suited to its purpose. Isolated, sheer and built of good solid Barnack stone, it is virtually impossible to escape from or to gain access to - unless, of course, you have the wherewithal to bribe the gaoler. Unfortunately I was running short of suitable currency with which to barter, the beadle having had my stock of apple wine and Netta my spare coin. As it turned out I needed neither for when he made his bid for freedom Raoul needed no assistance from me.

It was shortly after vespers when the light was beginning to fade that I began my ascent of the stone flight up the outside of Anselm’s monument. I was barely half way up when I heard a commotion at the top. It was not much more than a muffled cry but loud enough to be heard in the gatekeeper’s lodge below. I glanced down expecting to see the man emerge in response - but he didn’t. And when I thought of it, he hadn’t stirred when I approached either which was unusual. Only later did I find out that like the gaoler he, too, had been knocked unconscious. And that looked like being my fate next as before I got any higher a figure suddenly darted out of the gaol-room and flew down the steps past me nearly knocking me from my narrow perch in the process. My immediate thought was that it must be Raoul and had I been quicker-witted I might have made a grab for him. What stopped me was the realisation that the figure clearly wasn’t Raoul - or any other male for that matter, but
female
. There was no doubt in my mind the figure was Adelle de Gray - I recognised her long blonde hair. But by the time I’d registered the fact and got over the shock she had already made it to the ground below and was out of the gate and into the town where she disappeared, robe and flying hair notwithstanding. There was then further disturbance from above and as I looked up I saw that this time it really was Raoul who emerged through the gaol door. When he saw me barring his way he hesitated.

‘Don’t try to stop me, brother. I don’t want to hurt you but I will if I have to.’

‘Raoul - stop,’ I said quickly. ‘Don’t be a fool. Come with me to Prior Herbert. We can make him understand.’

He shook his head. ‘
It’s you who doesn’t understand. They’ll hang me anyway.’ He took a step nearer but I barred his way with my hand.

‘No they won’t,’ I implored him. ‘Think about it. At the moment you are merely accused but if you run you will be as good as admitting guilt.
I can prove you didn’t kill Effie.’

Behind him I could hear the gaoler coming back to life. At any moment he would raise the hue and cry and all would be lost. I could tell Raoul was not going to wait for that.

‘It’s too late, brother. Stand aside,’ he barked in desperation. ‘Please!’

I stood my ground but h
e was thirty years my junior and far stronger than I as he demonstrated on the bedchamber floor. I had no hope of stopping him. He ran at me and I braced myself for the blow. But instead of pushing me off he steps as I feared he somehow leapt over and past me down the stairs and in a moment was away across the square in the same direction as Adelle had gone. All I could do was close my eyes and pray to a merciful God that neither of them should come to any harm.

*

‘Aow! Careful brother, that stuff stings.’

The gaoler was making the most of his injury as I dabbed at the wound on the side of his head.

‘It’s only a graze,’ I told him. ‘You’ll have a proud lump to show your children in the morning.’

‘What about me?’ said the gatekeeper. ‘My bump is on the top of my head. Will the prior recompense me, too?’
             

‘You’ll both stink of vinegar by the time I’ve finished,’ I reassured the pair of them. ‘Don’t worry. No-one will doubt your heroism.’

The three of us were down in the gatekeeper’s lodge. The shouts of men, hallooing of horns and bark of dogs in the distance told me that the hue and cry was already well underway. Fortunately it was a cloudy night and so, God willing, Raoul and Adelle should be able to evade capture – at least for tonight.

As soon as Raoul had gone I’d run up the remaining steps to check on the gaoler. Raoul needn’t have panicked. The man was still sitting on the floor holding his head and wondering what had happened to him. There was plenty of blood but then even a superficial head wound can bleed profusely. It looked worse than it was. Having satisfied myself that the gaoler’s injury was more to his pride than to his body, I led him downstairs to be with his friend the gatekeeper who was suffering in a similar vein - after all, no man likes to think he has been outwitted by a woman.

‘It was the boy who hit me,’ insisted the gatekeeper.

‘And I’m the King of Scots!’ said the gaoler. ‘Sorry brother, but the boy was still in his cage when he got thumped.’

‘Well who else did it, then?’ the gatekeeper retorted. ‘No girl can knock out a grown man in his prime.’

‘You haven’t met his wife,’ muttered the gaoler behind his hand. ‘You just don’t want to admit you was caught with your pants down, that’s all.’

‘And you weren’t, I suppose?’

‘I was just being polite, treating a lady with respect.’

‘You spoke to her?’ I said, rinsing out the cloth in my bowl. ‘The Lady Adelle?’

‘Prrf! That was no lady,’ snorted the gaoler. ‘She was a right little prick-tease – begging your pardon, brother.’

‘And you’d know all about one of them, wouldn’t you?’ mocked his friend. ‘Pretty girl smiles at you and you just hand over the keys like a puppy.’

‘I didn’t just
hand
them over, pea-brain. She
took
them - after she whacked me over the head with her hammer.’

‘
Ha! Whacked you with her perfume, more like - eh brother?’ The gatekeeper laughed at his own quip.

This didn’t sound at all like the Lady Adelle I knew. A flirt
- and no lady? But I suppose any wife who fears for her husband’s life might stoop to such depths to secure his freedom, even one of such noble birth as the Lady Adelle’s. Or maybe these two were simply embellishing the tale in order to cover for their own negligence.

Whatever the truth of it, I wasn’t going to find out more as the door was suddenly thrown open and both men instantly leapt to attention. I turned in dismay to see Geoffrey de Saye standing on the threshold.

He snapped his fingers at the two men. ‘You two – out!’

They didn’t need telling twice. My two brave warriors darted out with amazing
ly renewed agility, all thoughts of injury now gone.

De Saye quietly closed the door after them and for the first time in fifteen years we were alone together. Suddenly the room seemed very small indeed.

‘Well well bone-breaker, here you are again.
I can call you that, can I? Bone-breaker?’ He cupped his ear facetiously. ‘I hear no-one laughing now.’

‘I merely go where I am needed, my lord,’ I said holding up the vinegar bowl with its bloodied rags for him to see. I was annoyed to see that the hand that was holding the bowl was shaking very slightly.

He glanced briefly at the bowl and then back at me. ‘Except that this time you were here before your skills were called for - before the boy escaped.’

‘If your spies told you that, my lord, they will also have told you that I tried to persuade him
not
to run.’

He cupped his chin in his hand and nodded thoughtfully. ‘You still think he’s innocent?’

‘I’m sure of it.’

I debated whether to tell him about the poison - but was there any point? His next utterance convinced me there was not.

‘The evidence says otherwise.’

‘No court in
England will convict him on it.’

He smiled wryly. ‘
No court in Suffolk, maybe.’

He was right, of course. If he managed to get Raoul out of Bury and back to
Norfolk he could pack a court with his own men and get whatever verdict he wanted - assuming he’d even bother getting him that far and not have him killed en route. Raoul wouldn’t be the first prisoner to be shot while trying to escape.

‘In any event it’s all academic at the moment, wouldn’t you say? The bird has flown.’

De Saye shook his head. ‘He won’t remain so for long.’

‘Well, he seems to have successfully eluded your lordship so far.’

‘Meaning?’

There was only the two of us. Why not tell him what I really thought?

‘I know about the meeting in Stamford,’ I said. ‘I’m guessing Raoul de Gray is the real reason you are here.’

At that his smile evaporated confirming at the very least that Onethumb’s theory about the two
London merchants had been correct.

‘Why would I be interested in the fate of a bishop’s nephew?’

‘I don’t know, my lord, but you seem very keen to have him convicted for this murder.’

‘That’s because he did it.’

I smiled crookedly. ‘We will have to disagree on that.’

He took a step closer to me - too close
for comfort. The memory of the last time we were alone together still haunted me. Fifteen years older he may be, but I still found his presence intimidating.

‘Whether you agree or not, bone-breaker, is of little consequence.’

‘It’s curious though isn’t it, my lord, that you should arrive in Bury now just as there has been another murder in the town? Just like last time.’

He stepped even closer so that now I could feel his breath on my face. It was all I could do not to
cringe.

‘What are you suggesting?’

‘It was merely an observation.’

‘You think I killed the girl?’

‘I don’t know who killed her.’

‘But you have a theory.’ He
nodded. ‘Very well. We’re alone, there’s no-one to hear. Tell me what you think happened.’

I took a deep breath. ‘I think we both know Raoul de Gray didn’t kill his wife’s maid. I think you know who did and the reason why. I think she knew something, or discovered something that so terrified her that she needed to tell someone about it. She
did try to tell me but failed and then she was killed before she could tell anyone else. I think you want Raoul de Gray blamed for the murder so that you can take him into custody and have him convicted though for what reason I don’t know. There are a great many other things I don’t yet know. But I will and when I do…’

I
got no further before he had his hand on my throat and me pressed up against the wall. I cried out mostly in shock but also in some pain as his fingers dug into my neck so I could hardly breathe.

‘Now you listen to me,’ he growled. ‘You’ve been warned once
by the prior. Now I’m warning you. Stop this meddling in matters that don’t concern you and go back to being a monk or by Christ and all His saints the de Gray boy won’t be the only one to feel the hangman’s noose.’

As he said it he tightened his grip on my neck until I could hardly breathe at all.
I was starting to panic from lack of air.

‘Is this wise, my lord?’ I choked trying to prise his hand from my neck and failing. ‘There are witnesses. Those two men are abbey men. They will attest that they left us alone together. If my body is found here even you will find it difficult to explain away. We are not in the forest now.’

My words seemed to strike some kind of a chord with him. I don’t think he realised quite how close he was to throttling me. His eyes seemed to have a mist behind them that took a minute to clear. It was that reference to the last time he attacked me that did it, I think. He momentarily increased his grip before relaxing his hold and letting me go. I gasped holding my throat. I cannot describe the relief it was to be able to breathe again.