10 - The Goldsmith's Daughter (24 page)

‘Will you listen while I talk?’ I asked.

‘Of course,’ she answered readily. ‘Tell me everything.’

So I recounted all I knew about the Babcary, Perle and Napier households, what I had gleaned from Masters Ford and Page, and all the details, insofar as I knew them, of the afternoon that Gideon Bonifant died. When I’d finished, we sat in silence for a while, watching the flames of the fire flicker and curtsey on the hearth, spurting now blue, now red and yellow.

‘That means,’ Adela murmured at last, ‘that apart from Isolda, there were at least two other people present that afternoon who would have been happy to see Gideon Bonifant dead: Mistress Perle and Gregory Napier.’

‘There may have been more than just those two,’ I pointed out. ‘If Isolda had been cuckolding her husband with her cousin, as Gideon claimed, then Christopher Babcary must be a suspect, also. Then there’s Meg Spendlove, who had been so upset after Gideon had verbally chastised her for mixing up the family goblets at Eleanor’s birthday feast. She may well have borne him a grudge that grew in her mind until it was out of all proportion to his offence. And what about Miles Babcary? I don’t say that there’s a strong case to be made against him, but it’s obvious to me that he didn’t much care for his son-in-law, and if he had entertained any inkling that Gideon disapproved of his proposed marriage to Barbara Perle and was trying to prevent it, I don’t think we could rule him out.’

Adela nodded in agreement. ‘And, from what you’ve told me of her, perhaps it might also be unsafe to discount Mistress Napier. She sounds a formidable woman. And if she were afraid that her husband was about to defy her and offer Gideon a large sum of money to hold his tongue, she might have decided to take matters into her own two hands and end the blackmailer’s life. And if I understood you correctly, Apothecary Page intimated that his monkshood liniment has been bought by both the Napiers and Mistress Perle, so the means would have been there, handy.’

I frowned. ‘But not easy to administer. After their arrival, the three guests were conducted upstairs by Miles Babcary to the parlour, where the table was already laid. But at that point only Isolda knew where each person was sitting. It was she who later directed them to their various places.’

‘Couldn’t the guilty person have worked out which was Gideon’s seat by the initials on his cup?’

I shook my head emphatically. ‘Impossible! The carving around the rims is so ornate that only a close inspection can reveal to whom each one belongs. From even a short distance, they all look the same. Moreover, there were already four people in the room when Miles Babcary and his guests entered the parlour: Christopher and Eleanor, Gideon and the apprentice, Toby Maybury. Isolda arrived a few moments later. Neither Gregory nor Ginèvre Napier nor Barbara Perle could have found the opportunity to drop poison into any of the cups.’ I sighed despondently. ‘It looks as though it
has
to be one of the Babcarys, and Isolda seems the most likely suspect.’

‘What about the other cousin, the girl, Eleanor?’ Adela asked.

‘I can’t find any reason why she should have wanted to murder Gideon Bonifant. If I’m right, she was in love with, or at least very fond, of him.’

‘But if the apothecary’s right, then she was relieved that he was dead.’

‘Mmmm . . . But did Master Page see what he thought he saw?’ I muttered doubtfully.

Adela nestled her head against my shoulder. ‘We haven’t mentioned the apprentice yet. What was it, do you think, that he was trying to tell Eleanor behind Ginèvre Napier’s back?’

I grimaced. ‘I don’t know. And Toby isn’t going to tell me. So unless I can work it out for myself . . .’ I shrugged and let the sentence go.

There was silence while my wife and I each pursued our own thoughts. Then Adela asked suddenly, ‘You don’t think that Toby could have been in league with either Mistress Perle or one of the Napiers? That
he
put the poison in Gideon’s cup, then got frightened and was trying to warn Eleanor of what he’d done?’

‘No, I don’t.’ I bent my head and kissed her. ‘My darling, I think you’re grasping at straws. I don’t want the murderer to be a member of the Babcary household, because I like them all, but I must remember that my emotions have misled me before. The fact that the Napiers and Mistress Perle had very strong reasons for wanting Gideon dead mustn’t blind me to the fact that they had no opportunity for poisoning his wine.’

‘Could Gregory Napier have managed to do it while Mistress Perle was being presented with her birthday gift?’ my wife suggested after a pause. ‘All eyes would surely have been on her and this jewelled girdle that Master Babcary had ornamented for her.’

I considered the idea, but it would have involved an extraordinary sleight of hand, and I reluctantly shook my head.

‘No, I don’t think so. The sad fact is that it was Isolda who laid the table, deciding where everyone should sit. It was Isolda who poured the wine into the goblets. It was Isolda who had the time and opportunity to enter her father’s bedchamber, next door, and who knew where the bottle of liniment was kept. The only thing I can’t be sure about is that she had a good reason for killing her husband. Was Gideon telling the truth when he accused her and Christopher of cuckolding him?’

‘Why would he lie?’ Adela wanted to know, echoing my own thoughts and the thoughts of so many others. ‘He may have been a far more despicable character than you realised at first, but no man is deliberately wishful of making himself look a fool without good reason.’ She added after a pause, ‘Apart from the three immediately involved, does anyone but you know of the liaison between Mistress Perle and Gregory Napier?’

‘I shouldn’t think so. If as much as a hint of it had reached Miles Babcary’s ears, I doubt he would still be so anxious to marry Dame Barbara.’

‘Why do you suppose that Ginèvre Napier confided in you?’

‘I’ve been asking myself that question, and I can only think that she suddenly felt the need to tell someone. She’s bottled up the secret for all these months and today, at last, she could bear to do so no longer.’

‘I wonder she wasn’t afraid that you’d inform the Babcarys or the Duke or the Sheriff’s men, and so implicate her and Gregory in Gideon’s murder.’

‘I don’t believe that, at that particular moment, she cared. She just wanted to share the knowledge of her friend’s and her husband’s perfidy with another person, and to do them a mischief. But I feel sure that when she’s had time to think things over, I shall hear from her again, begging for my discretion.’

‘She hasn’t yet sworn you to secrecy,’ my wife pointed out, ‘nor even extracted a promise that you’ll keep her confession to yourself. Don’t you think, therefore, that you should inform the Sheriff’s officers of what you know?’

I again shook my head. ‘Not until I’m absolutely sure that one of them is the murderer. At the moment, I cannot see how any of them could have administered the poison, and until enlightenment dawns – if it ever does – it would be wrong of me to entangle three possibly innocent people in the coils of the law. If Isolda stood in imminent peril of being arrested and tried for her husband’s murder, that would be a different matter.’ I leant back against the pillows. ‘I wish I could rid myself of this feeling that the quarrel between Gideon Bonifant and Meg Spendlove has a significance that I have somehow overlooked.’

Adela made no answer and her head was growing heavy on my shoulder. When I glanced down, I saw that her eyelids were beginning to droop and that her lower jaw was slack. I roused her gently.

‘Time to get undressed and ready for bed.’

She made a feeble attempt to resume our conversation, but it was very half-hearted and by the time I had carried our supper tray back to the kitchen – explaining to the cook why my bowlful of broth was untouched – and returned to our bedchamber, my wife was between the sheets and sound asleep. I stripped off my boots and outer clothing and thankfully rolled in beside her.

I
was dreaming.

As always, I knew that I was dreaming, but, at the same time, everything that happened seemed very vivid and very real.

I was in the Babcary house, walking upstairs from the shop, Toby Maybury hard on my heels.

‘He was just going into his room,’ Toby kept saying. ‘He was just going into his room.’

As we reached the top of the first flight of stairs and emerged on to the landing, Isolda came out of the parlour, and although she looked straight at us, she appeared to see neither myself nor the apprentice. She simply turned to her right and mounted the second flight of stairs to her bedchamber. I glanced over my shoulder to speak to Toby, but he had disappeared and when I pushed open the parlour door and went inside, he was already there, standing beside the table.

‘We mustn’t let Meg be blamed,’ he said – then was abruptly transformed into Mistress Perle’s maid.

The girl had on a clean nightgown and was holding a hard-boiled egg, one half in each hand. The yolk had been scooped out and replaced with salt and, as she began to walk backwards, away from me, I noticed that she was wearing Eleanor Babcary’s pendant around her neck.

I moved towards the table, which was ready laid for a meal, stretching out my hand for one of the gold-rimmed goblets that stood beside each place.

‘Don’t!’ a voice exclaimed behind me. ‘I’ve just poisoned the wine in that cup.’

I spun round with a great cry – only to find myself sitting up in bed, sweating profusely, and Adela shaking my arm.

‘Roger! What is it? Have you been having one of your dreams?’ She smoothed back the damp hair from my forehead.

I nodded mutely, then became aware that someone was tapping gently on our bedchamber door.

‘Master Chapman, is everything all right?’ whispered Reynold Makepeace. ‘Is Mistress Chapman well?’

I got out of bed and opened the door a crack. ‘I was riding the nightmare, that’s all, I’m sorry if I disturbed you.’

Reassured, the landlord crept away and I went back to Adela, slithering down beside her and, by now, shivering with cold. She held me in her arms and soothed me, but I had no sooner fallen asleep again than I was back in the Babcarys’ house, and this time Isolda was standing beside me, outside the closed parlour door.

‘Have you seen Gideon?’ she asked me, adding with a frown, ‘He wanders about the house at nights, you know. He says he’s unable to sleep.’

She vanished, and now I was inside the room, gripped by fear, convinced that someone who wished me dead was waiting outside on the landing; someone who would kill me, given half a chance. In a sudden access of bravado, I wrenched the door open, only to find myself face to face with Ginèvre Napier, who was convulsed with merriment.

‘There’s no one here except me,’ she laughed. ‘No one wants to harm you.’

‘But someone
ought
to want to harm me,’ I argued. ‘Someone should be trying to prevent me asking any more questions.’

She looked both knowing and amused and to the sound of her throaty chuckling, I woke to find the first grey shreds of daylight rimming the shutters of our room.

Adela was asleep beside me, her face, framed by the pillow, calm and peaceful in its repose. I sat up in bed and looked down at her, thanking God, as I did each morning, for sending her to me, and for bringing me to my senses before I let her slip through my fingers and marry another man. After a while, as though suddenly becoming conscious of my gaze, she opened her eyes and smiled.

‘You had a restless night,’ she said, wriggling into a sitting position and kissing my unshaven cheek. ‘Did your dreams bring you any enlightenment?’

‘Not yet,’ I admitted, returning her kiss, ‘But give them time and they might become clearer. What will you do today?’

‘I’ve promised to visit the Lampreys. It will be my last chance, because tomorrow, we are going to watch the tournament at Westminster, and the day after that, I, at least, must start for home.’ She tilted her head to one side and looked sidelong at me. ‘What are your plans?’

I sighed. ‘I must go back to West Cheap and talk to the Babcarys yet again. To Eleanor especially. There’s something that I haven’t yet discovered concerning her relationship with Gideon, but which I feel in my bones holds a vital key to this mystery. And tomorrow,’ I added defiantly, ‘I shall accompany you to the tourney ground. The King is hardly likely to decide Clarence’s fate on such a day, and I refuse to be parted from you during your final hours in London.’ I was suddenly racked with guilt, and took her in my arms. ‘Sweetheart, I’m afraid this visit, which you looked forward to so keenly, has been spoilt by this business of Gideon Bonifant’s death.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ she murmured consolingly. ‘As you said, if your Duke could only bring himself, like a sensible man, to appeal directly to Mistress Shore for her intervention on behalf of his brother, you need never have been involved in this murder. You mustn’t blame yourself.’

But that was just what I was determined to do. ‘I should have refused,’ I said.

‘No, no!’ On that point, Adela was adamant. ‘It never does to offend those in authority, particularly anyone so highly placed as the Duke of Gloucester. We’re poor people, Roger, of no account except unto God. And one day in the future, who knows but that we may be glad of Duke Richard’s protection? It was certainly fortunate for Isolda Bonifant that her kinswoman is leman to the King.’

But still my sense of guilt would not be assuaged.

‘I haven’t even bought you a keepsake to remind you of your visit to London,’ I moaned.

Adela clapped a hand to her mouth, the childish gesture making her look, all at once, absurdly young.

‘What is it?’ I asked, bewildered.

For answer, she freed herself from my embrace, got out of bed, shivering with the sudden cold, and padded over to our travelling chest, where it stood in a corner of the room. She opened the lid and took something from inside.

‘I forgot to tell you. I bought this from a stall in the Leadenhall market, on Monday. Jeanne Lamprey and I went there before she took me to see the animals in the Tower.’