12 - Nine Men Dancing (6 page)

‘
Nathaniel
Rawbone?’ I asked. ‘Excuse me, but you must understand that I’ve already heard something of the story—’

‘From Rosamund Bush, I’ll be bound!’ the older woman exclaimed. ‘That one’s going to play the part of the Wronged Woman for the rest of her life. What has she told you?’

‘That she and
Tom
Rawbone – a member of the same family, I take it – were betrothed, but that he jilted her in favour of your granddaughter. It came out quite naturally in conversation. She didn’t go out of her way to tell me.’ I found myself springing to the Fair Rosamund’s defence.

Theresa Lilywhite snorted disbelievingly, but made no comment.

‘It’s quite true,’ her daughter-in-law put in, evidently deciding that, as I knew so much, I might as well know the rest. ‘A year ago this month, Eris went to work at Dragonswick Farm – that’s the building you can see higher up the hill – for the Rawbone family. They needed extra help in the house, there being seven of them in all, and their housekeeper, Elvina Merryman having recently been sick.’ She added, looking defiantly at Theresa, ‘It wasn’t Eris’s fault if Tom Rawbone fell in love with her and out of love with Rosamund Bush.’

‘Maybe not,’ Theresa retorted grimly, ‘but having stolen another woman’s betrothed, Eris should have been content with having done sufficient mischief. She should never have permitted the attentions of a man old enough to be her grandfather, and also the father of the man she had promised to marry. But, of course, she was never in love with Tom. He was just a way of worming herself into the Rawbone family.’ Theresa sniffed disparagingly. ‘She’d not long turned sixteen, and as crafty as the serpent in Eden. Well, I’ll tell you this, chapman! She didn’t get her mercenary, philandering ways from
my
side of the family. I wasn’t born a Lilywhite, but my husband’s folk were as honest and God-fearing as any you’ll find in England. There wasn’t a woman in Gloucester who would have turned down an offer of marriage from my Gilbert.’

I said hurriedly, not wishing to be drawn into any quarrel between mother- and daughter-in-law, ‘Are you telling me that Eris – that your granddaughter – jilted Tom Rawbone in her turn, and for the young man’s father?’

It was Maud who answered, refusing to rise to Theresa’s bait.

‘Yes, I’m afraid so. No one knew how long the pair of them had been secretly carrying on a courtship. Nathaniel, for all he’s nearly sixty, still has an eye for the women. We all know that. He’s been a womanizer all his life. But no one expected him to look at a girl of Eris’s youth. Nor did anyone know that Tom Rawbone was courting her as well, and secretly plotting to break his betrothal to Rosamund Bush. How in the Virgin’s Name,’ Maud finished on an anguished note, ‘Eris managed to keep everything a secret in this village, whose very walls have ears, I shall never understand. Even I had no inkling of what was going on.’

‘What Eris wanted, Eris was going to get, come Hell or high water,’ her grandmother declared uncompromisingly. Theresa lowered her voice almost to a whisper and her face was suddenly grey with fear. ‘Sometimes, I think Eris might have been a witch.’

Maud was on her feet immediately, shaking with anger or maybe fright, perhaps both. I couldn’t decide. But in the end, anger got the upper hand.

‘You’re a fool, mother-in-law, to say such a thing about your own granddaughter, and in front of a stranger, too! You could do untold harm. Not just to Eris but to us.’

Theresa had already realized the error of her ways and was looking at me, pleadingly.

‘I didn’t mean it, chapman. It was thoughtless of me. We all say stupid things when we lose our tempers.’

‘No one will hear it repeated by me,’ I promised and attempted a feeble joke. ‘Of course, I can’t answer for Hercules.’

They both smiled wanly, but were in some measure reassured.

‘I knew you were a trustworthy young fellow the moment I saw you,’ Theresa told me.

I laughed. ‘Not so young any more. Last October, I was twenty-six. I’ve been married twice and have three children, two of my own and a stepson. So … Tell me about the night Eris disappeared. I’ve gathered it was stormy.’

Theresa glanced across at her daughter-in-law. ‘You’ll have to tell him. I wasn’t here. Perhaps if I had been, things might have turned out differently. But I’d gone home to Gloucester the week before in answer to a summons from my sister, who was sick. When I returned here a month later, it was to find that Eris had vanished and the whole village was buzzing with gossip about her and the Rawbones.’ She glared at Maud. ‘No one had seen fit to send to Gloucester and advise me what had happened.’

Maud Lilywhite sighed wearily, as one who had grown accustomed to the accusation.

‘I’ve told you this many times, Theresa, but I’ll say it again. There seemed no point in worrying you. All that could be done to find Eris had been done. Ned Rawbone and other men from the village had spent days searching the woods and surrounding countryside. Some of them had been to Tetbury and Cirencester and as far afield as Dursley. Ned Rawbone had even climbed down the Brothers’ Well – that’s what we call it in these parts, Master Chapman – but found nothing. There was no trace of Eris, either alive … or dead.’ On the last word, her breath caught in her throat but she forced herself to remain calm.

I repeated my earlier question. ‘What happened on the night your daughter vanished, Mistress Lilywhite?’

She seemed reluctant to answer, but with some prompting from myself and a scolding from Theresa, she eventually told me what I wanted to know.

‘I wasn’t present, of course, either at the Roman Sandal or at Dragonswick Farm on the evening of September the first, which was Nathaniel Rawbone’s fifty-ninth birthday.’

I interrupted. ‘The Rawbones seem a large family. Seven in number, I think you said. Will you name them for me?’

‘Oh, I’ll do that,’ Theresa said, glad of an excuse to put herself forward again. ‘Nathaniel, he’s the head of the household. Fifty-nine now, as Maud just informed you, and a widower these many years, ever since Tom was born – or so I’ve been told – when Nathaniel and his wife were both well past thirty. The older son, Edward, must have been about fifteen at the time. Over forty, now, and the old man’s right hand. Runs everything at Dragonswick Farm, does Ned Rawbone. His father’d be lost without him. Not that Nathaniel would ever admit as much. Ned and his wife, Petronelle, their twin sons Christopher and Jocelyn – fourteen, fifteen, are they? – Tom, of course, who isn’t married, and Jacquetta Rawbone, Nathaniel’s elder spinster sister, all live under the one roof. There’s also Elvina Merryman –
Dame
Elvina, as she likes to be called – their housekeeper.’ Theresa gave a dry laugh. ‘Housekeeper, my foot! She’s been the old man’s mistress these many years, as everyone in Lower Brockhurst will tell you. So you needn’t scowl at me like that, Maud.’

I thanked the older woman for her contribution – like many outsiders she was more willing to talk about her adopted community than were the locals – and turned back to the younger.

‘So on the first of September, Nathaniel Rawbone’s birthday, I suppose everyone would have been present at the farm for such an important occasion. And your daughter was helping out because the housekeeper, Dame Merryman, had been ill?’

‘Oh, that was a year ago,’ Maud corrected me. ‘By the time of Nathaniel’s birthday, Elvina was perfectly recovered. It was the old man who was sick by then. Not seriously, but he’d had one of those rheums that always seem worse in summer, with a persistent cough that took him a while to shake off. I went up to see him during the day to pay my respects, and I remember he was sitting huddled over the fire, one of his sister’s old shawls wrapped round his shoulders. He was angry because he hates illness, in himself and everyone else. He’s always been such a virile, forceful man.’

‘A bully!’ Theresa cut in. ‘But a handsome one. Always been a devil with the women, I understand.’ She added with a half-smile, ‘He frightens a lot of people, but he’s all right if you know how to handle him.’

The inference was obvious, but I didn’t pursue it. Instead, I enquired of Maud, ‘The birthday celebration hadn’t been cancelled, then?’

‘Certainly not, but it had been confined to members of the household: the family, Dame Elvina and … Eris.’ Maud took a deep breath. ‘You must realize, chapman, that what I’m telling you now is, of course, only hearsay on my part. I stayed at home that evening because of the weather. The wind had been rising all afternoon, blowing up for an autumn gale, the clouds marching in across the hills and heavy rain threatening. Mid-evening, just as dusk fell, the heavens opened. I’d brought the dogs inside, as much for company as anything. But if I’d gone to the alehouse, as I’d intended to do earlier in the day, I’d have witnessed the terrible scene when Tom Rawbone announced that he was breaking off his betrothal to Rosamund Bush in order to marry my daughter.’ Maud’s hand stole up to her mouth. ‘It seems he just came out with it, in front of everyone. It was such a humiliation for the poor girl, it’s no wonder she became hysterical and attacked him with a knife.’

‘I thought Rob Pomphrey said that that was William,’ Theresa objected. ‘Or was it
Winifred
Bush? She’s every bit as volatile as Rosamund.’

Maud made a little dismissive movement with her hands, as though brushing away some irritation.

‘Well, whoever attacked Tom Rawbone, there was a terrible to-do, but for the truth of the matter, you’d have to ask the people who were present.’

‘Go on,’ I urged her.

‘Well … Tom stormed out of the alehouse and went home, where everyone was waiting for him. Nathaniel was none too pleased, according to Elvina, at having been kept waiting, and was just about to go for his son, tooth and nail, when Tom cut him short by announcing that he had something to say, and proceeded to tell them all that he was no longer betrothed to Rosamund Bush, but was going to marry Eris instead.’

‘And?’ I asked eagerly as Maud Lilywhite paused, suddenly disinclined to go on.

‘And then,’ Theresa put in, as her daughter-in-law still remained dumb, ‘Elvina tells us that the old man laughed. Nothing of the kind, he says;
he’s
going to marry Eris, who’s promised to be his wife only that very day.
Well!
’ Theresa spread her hands wide in a gesture that was half despair and half something that might have been admiration. ‘You can imagine the consequent uproar. No one approved of the match, but Tom Rawbone was beside himself with rage. It was the biter bit with a vengeance. Of course, at first, he refused to believe it. Thought it was a bad joke of the old man’s. But when Eris confirmed that she was indeed going to marry Nathaniel, it seems Tom went wild. Tried to choke the life out of his father, and after Ned had dragged him off, he turned on Eris and attempted to throttle her instead. Everyone was shouting and yelling at once. Then, Tom flung out of the house, cursing Nathaniel and my granddaughter in equal measure, Ned went out after his brother, but couldn’t find him and came back. Petronelle and Jacquetta rounded on Eris, calling her all the names they could lay their tongues to, while the old man swore at everybody and told them that if they didn’t approve of his choice of bride, they could all leave his house on the instant.’

Theresa paused to draw breath, and Maud took her chance to say repressively, ‘I’ve no doubt that Elvina Merryman did her share of abusing Eris, as well as the other two women. I’m sure she always hoped that Nathaniel, if he ever wed again, would marry her. She’s never scrupled to belittle Eris to my face, whenever we’ve met during the past six months.’ She buried her face in her hands and began to sob, rocking herself to and fro.

‘Pull yourself together, Maud,’ her mother-in-law advised sternly. ‘There’s nothing to be gained by making a spectacle of yourself in front of a stranger. Crying won’t bring Eris back or help us to find her.’ She looked at me. ‘Would you be willing, chapman, to see what you can do in this matter?’

I hesitated. I had promised Adela to be home before the Feast of Saint Patrick, but February was not yet out. A day or two’s delay would surely do no harm. I could make a few enquiries.

‘Master Chapman has better things to do with his time, Theresa,’ Maud said, raising her tear-stained face and wiping her nose on the sleeve of her gown. She gave me a tremulous smile. ‘We’ve no wish to detain you.’

‘Well, if you don’t want to know what’s become of Eris, then I do,’ the older woman retorted fiercely. ‘Chapman, what do you say? Will you see what you can make of this business?’

‘If it doesn’t take too long,’ I agreed cautiously. ‘I must be in Bristol by the middle of March … You haven’t yet told me how it was that your granddaughter disappeared. What did she do when the Rawbones turned on her?’

‘It seems she said she was going home and ran out into the storm. Nathaniel was going after her, but Ned told him not to be a fool; he’d go. It was half an hour or more before he reappeared, soaked to the skin, to say he hadn’t found her.’

‘Did he call here?’

Maud nodded. ‘Yes. He warned me what had happened. I was shocked, as you can imagine. I had no idea of what must have been going on, right under my nose, for the past weeks, or perhaps months, between Eris and Tom Rawbone – let alone her and Nathaniel. He stayed with me a while, but … but Eris hadn’t returned by the time he left.’

‘You must have been worried.’

‘Yes. But we both thought she’d turn up eventually. You know how it is when you’re young and distressed. You don’t notice things like bad weather.’

Theresa snorted. ‘That wasn’t bad weather,’ she scoffed. ‘That was one of the worst storms of the autumn. In Gloucester, it took the thatch off several houses and blew over George Thomas’s hen coops.’

I leaned forward, my hands dangling between my knees. Hercules got up and licked them, just to reassure himself that I was still there, then settled down again with a sigh of contentment.

‘But Eris didn’t come home?’ I asked softly.

Once more, Maud covered her face with her hands. But her mother-in-law, who plainly had no patience with such displays of emotion, said sharply, ‘No, she didn’t. And she hasn’t been seen since. She
might
have run away, but I don’t think that’s likely. Eris was a strong-minded girl. If she’d made up her mind to become mistress of Dragonswick Farm, that’s what she’d have done. She may have been a bit upset at the time, but she’d have gone back next day and faced down the lot of them, especially with Nathaniel to back her.’