[Roger the Chapman 04] - The Holy Innocents (14 page)

'I wasn't telling a lie, you know,' she remarked pertly. 'Joan and Elizabeth both admired your looks. My mother did, too, I could tell, though of course she didn't say anything. Papa would have been so hurt, for he's not the handsomest of men, as you must have noticed, but we all love him dearly.' The candid grey eyes gave me renewed appraisal. 'I think you're quite nice, as well.'

'Ursula, go upstairs. Your mother wants you.' Oliver Cozin's dry voice preceded him, as he stepped into the passage. He waited silently until his niece, dropping him a primly obedient curtsey, had disappeared from view, before letting his somewhat forbidding features relax into a smile. He gave an indulgent shake of his head, but made no comment, merely asking, 'Why did you wish to see me, Master Chapman?'
 

'I have come to say, Your Honour, that I am willing to remain in Master Colet's house for a day or two yet, if that arrangement is still to your liking. Certainly until Saturday, when you leave for Exeter, and maybe a day or so longer.'

'Ah!' He looked relieved. 'Yes, I should be pleased if you would do so. I am going, this afternoon, to visit Master Colet and he will be happy to know that his property is being cared for. The outlaws were out and about again last night, it seems, in the vicinity of Berry Pomeroy, so you have my blessing to lodge in the house for as long as you wish. The longer the better as far as I and my client are concerned.'

I gathered up my courage. 'On one condition,' I said.

The lawyer was startled. 'Condition? What condition?' he demanded stiffly, but his eyes were wary.

'That you permit me to ask you some questions,' I answered.

Chapter Nine

'Questions? What questions?'

Oliver Cozin's manner was terse. He was not a man used to being interrogated, particularly by the likes of such as me.

Normally, he did the asking and others gave the answers. I was determined, however, not to be intimidated. I had promised Grizelda to try and uncover the truth, and that was what I intended to do.

'I know why Master Colet can find no one willing to rent or buy that house,' I said. 'There is still a lingering fear that Andrew and Mary Skelton were somehow spirited away by witchcraft before they were murdered by the outlaws.'
 

There was silence, then the lawyer sniffed. 'You seem to have been very busy, chapman,' he said, echoing the gatekeeper's words. 'I didn't take you for a gossip. I'm disappointed.'

I felt the anger rise in my chest and steadied myself to speak without choler.

'You must admit,' I reproved him, but calmly, 'that the circumstances of my tenancy were unusual. Did you expect me to be lacking in curiosity? I'm as nosy as my neighbour; as nosy as you, too, would have been, I suspect, in similar circumstances.'

He looked affronted, but before he could reply to this direct attack, there came the patter of feet, and Mistress Joan, the eldest of Thomas Cozin's three daughters, rounded the bend of the stairs and descended to the parlour. She sketched a curtsey and sent me an upward glance from green-flecked hazel eyes, beneath long, sweeping lashes.

'I'm sorry to disturb you, Uncle, but Mother wishes a message delivered to Mag, in the kitchen.'

'Very well.' Oliver courteously held open the door until his niece had passed through, then shut it firmly and turned again to me.

'I suppose,' he conceded, 'it was always possible that you might discover the reason behind my request. But, having done so, I should have hoped that there the matter would have ended. What further interest in the story can there be? My client, Master Colet, was fully exonerated of any complicity in the children's disappearance, either natural or... supernatural. So why do you raise the subject?'
 

'I have promised Mistress Harbourne to find out, if I can, the truth of her charges' murder. If, that is, there is anything more to be discovered.'

The lawyer was now seriously displeased. The narrow face froze into immobility, and the chilly grey eyes grew even colder as he stared down his finely chiselled nose. But yet again, before be had time to speak, there was another diversion as Mistress Elizabeth, the second daughter, came tripping lightly down the stairs on small, scarlet-leather-shod feet, her green woollen gown hoisted in one hand to display a neatly turned ankle.

'Well, .Miss?' her uncle barked. 'And what do you want?' 'I... I have a message for Mag, in the kitchen.' 'Your mother has already sent one message by Joan, not two minutes since.'

'Ah... !' Mistress Elizabeth thought swiftly. 'Mother forgot something she particularly wished to say concerning the eel pie for supper. I am charged with the additional message.'
 

'Oh, very well!' For the second time, Oliver Cozin held wide the door until his niece had departed, which she did with a provocative swing of the hips. Fortunately, I was the only one to notice it. Much put out, the lawyer resumed his seat beside the table, while I stood awkwardly, twisting my hat between my hands.

'And how, may I ask, did you come to make the acquaintance of Grizelda Harbourne?'

I had barely had time to explain when the child, Ursula, followed her sisters downstairs, a strand of chestnut-brown hair escaping from beneath the white lawn hood. The bodice of her blue wool gown was partially undone, the result of careless lacing in the first place.

'Joan and Bess, did they pass this way, Uncle?' And sensing that, if she tarried, she would bear the whole brunt of Oliver's annoyance at being so constantly interrupted, she gave me a wink, mouthed, 'I told you they liked you', and whipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

'Really!' The lawyer's irritation boiled over. 'I do not know what is going on in this household today! You seem to have a very unsettling effect on my brother's family, chapman. Now; what were you saying? Yes, yes, I remember. You were telling me how you came to meet Grizelda Harbourne. So, you have promised to discover the truth for her, have you? But everyone knows the truth, and I cannot see what Mistress Harbourne hopes to gain by once more muddying the waters. There was a full inquiry, by the Sheriff at the time. The testimony of Bridget Praule and Agatha Tenter, and indeed of my own brother, was sufficient to clear Master Colet of any blame.'

'Yet there seems no doubt,' I persisted doggedly, 'that he, and he alone, benefited from the children's deaths because of Sir Henry Skelton's will, which you helped draw up at the instigation of Sir Jasper.'

The thin face suffused with blood. 'Are you accusing me of some impropriety? This passes all bounds! I suppose you are indebted to Grizelda Harbourne for this knowledge, also. I cannot possibly discuss my client's private affairs, and would not, even if I could. Please leave this house immediately.'
 

'No, wait, brother.' There was a fourth interruption, as Thomas Cozin himself descended to the parlour and drew a second chair close to the table. He motioned me to sit on the bench running along the facing wall. 'I could not help overhearing the latter part of your conversation, and Grizelda Harbourne is right, Oliver, to be mistrustful of Eudo Colet. I realize that he is your client and that you are chary of saying anything against him, but you like him no more than the rest of us. The man's an adventurer, that much was obvious from the moment Rosamund brought him home. His antecedents are shrouded in mystery, and we have never managed to find out who or what he really is, nor where he comes from. The girl made a foolish marriage, and we all thought it, even if we did not say-so. What did you want to know, chapman?'
 

I spread my hands. 'I am a babe when it comes to legal matters. I wished to confirm that Mistress Harbourne was correct when she told me that Eudo Colet was the rightful inheritor of the money left to Mary and Andrew Ske!ton by their father.'

Thomas glanced at his brother, but Oliver folded his lips together and made no reply. Thomas shrugged and turned back to me.

'He was Rosamund's husband,' he answered simply. 'Everything she had was his. She would have inherited the money, a considerable sum, mark you, had she outlived her children, so, by default, it was bound to be Eudo's. No provision was made in the will - I know, for Jasper showed me his copy of the document - for the money to revert to the Skelton family. Indeed, quite the reverse. In the event of the children's deaths, it went to Rosamund or her heir! It was all wrapped up in lawyer's parlance, but its intention was abundantly plain.' Thomas cleared his throat and glanced sideways at his brother. 'I recall thinking at the time that, in certain circumstances, it could prove to be a most dangerous clause, but Jasper seemed mighty pleased with it.'

Oliver was goaded into speech. 'As things stood when the will was drawn up,' he said huffily, 'there was nothing to fear, and our concern was to ensure that the money stayed in the Crouchback family in perpetuity. It was a skilful piece of negotiation on my part; even Sir Henry and his lawyers admitted it. And may I remind you, Tom, that no one anticipated Sir Henry's death. The rebellions of Robin of Redesdale and Robin of Holderness seemed very unimportant affairs in the beginning. No one could possibly have foreseen what would happen.'

Thomas Cozin gave an ironic little smile. 'What you don't say, but I will, is that Jasper, dear friend though he was, was undoubtedly a greedy man. He enjoyed getting the better of other people, and in this case, he saw an opportunity to acquire part of his son-in-law's fortune to add to that of his own family. It was never to be allowed to return to Skelton hands. And, as is so often the case with grasping people, he was too shortsighted to see beyond his immediate objective; to guess at any chain of events which might endanger the lives of his grandchildren.'

Oliver rose abruptly from the table.

'I warn you, Tom, to guard your tongue. No crime has been proved against Eudo Colet, and in my estimation, never will be, because there is nothing to prove. Andrew Skelton and his sister wandered out of the house, lost their way and were murdered by the outlaws. Now, let us leave it at that. And so will you, chapman, if you have any sense, or you may find yourseff under arrest for spreading malicious rumours about my client. You may stay in his house for as long as you wish, but confine yourself to caretaking and tell Mistress Harbourne that you have thought better of your promise to meddle. She's a sensible woman and will understand, much as she abhors Master Colet - and that without good reason from what little I could see on my infrequent visits to the house, for he always treated her civilly enough when I was about. And now, God be with you. I shall be here until Saturday, should you need me, but I will not undergo any more inquisitions nor listen to unfounded rumours.' And he mounted the stairs with a slow, self-conscious gait.

Thomas rose from the table, and I with him. He leaned towards me, lowering his voice.

'You mustn't mind Oliver,' he said. 'He has a crusty way with him, but he has a good heart. We're twins, as you can see, and I know him as well as I know myself. The death of those two children preys on his mind more than he'll admit to, being as how he was the one who negotiated that clause in the will. At Jasper's behest, it's true, but it was a tricky business and wouldn't have been accomplished without Oliver's legal brilliance. He feels responsible, and that annoys him.'

'Did he never suspect Master Colet of being implicated in their disappearance?' I inquired.

Thomas shook his head. 'Oliver was at home, in Exeter, when the children vanished, and by the time he had been sent for, and reached here four days later, it had been well established that Eudo Colet, short of sorcery, could have had nothing to do with Andrew and Mary leaving the house that morning. The man was here, in this very room, with me when it happened. Nevertheless, the rumours which persist about Eudo Colet, among the lower orders of townspeople, keep the gossip alive, and that, as I said, imbues Oliver with a false sense of guilt, which, in turn, makes him angry.'
 

'Why did Master Colet come to see you?' I asked. 'If Mistress Harbourne is to be believed, you were no longer linked to him in business. You did not even like him.'
 

'True, on both counts. But you cannot turn a man from your door simply because of personal prejudice. And I had no reason to believe that he had been a bad husband to Rosamund. On the contrary, she doted on him. It was those two poor, innocent children she neglected, but he could not be saddled with the blame for that. She left them to Grizelda's care from the moment they were born, long before she met him. Much as it grieves me to speak ill of my old friend's daughter, Rosamund was spiteful and selfish, never mindful of anyone's comfort but her own.'

'So,' I prompted, 'why did Master Colet come to see you?'
 

'What? Oh! Yes. He came to ask me to reconsider that very decision of mine to sever business links with his late wife's family. He wanted to become my partner, as Jasper had been. He would be willing, he said, to put a substantial part of the Crouchbaek fortune into the making of straights. The market in Brittany, he understood, was greater than it had ever been.'

'You refused him?'

'I'm afraid I did.'

'May I ask why?'

Thomas stroked his chin, submitting, somewhat surprisingly, to this protracted catechism, but still keeping his voice low.

'Well, for one thing, I should have found it difficult to work with a man I dislike so much. For another, I did not gain the impression that his heart was in the request. Don't ask me why. It was simply a feeling.'