For the Love of Old Bones - and other stories (Templar Series) Read Online Free Page B

that you accept your bigamy.’ He turned to Edward again. ‘You have done well to bring all this to my attention, yet I would like to hear why you are so convinced that he killed her as well.’
    The tranter took a deep breath. ‘After I spoke to her, she was devastated. She said she would speak to the Coroner. I said to her it would be foolish, but she begged me to intervene on her behalf, to speak to one of the Coroner’s servants and demand a meeting between them. Well, I sat back and thought about it long and hard, but finally did as she asked. I got into a game of dice with some of the Coroner’s men, and explained what had happened. The fellow gave me to believe it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, and agreed to ask the Coroner to meet her near the alley where she was found.’
    ‘That’s true enough,’ I said, trying to demonstrate my innocence by assisting, but all I got was a chilly stare from Sir Baldwin, and I subsided.
    ‘He promised that the Coroner would be there late in the afternoon, and I saw her as she left the inn and told her where to go. She thanked me, and went down to the alehouse, fearful of meeting someone she might know, if she stayed at the inn, and she concealed her purse when I suggested it. An alehouse is not the place to take lots of coin. She laughed then, sort of bitter. Said it wasn’t hers now anyway. I . . . I also decided to go to the alley and see if she was all right. I was worried. I thought he might harm her.’
    ‘What did you see?’ Sir Baldwin asked quietly, his eyes on me.
    ‘Sir, I found them right where her body was later. She accused him, and he confessed, sneering . . .’ I felt the priest’s cold, angry eyes fix upon me ‘. . . and said he would pay her to go away. Said she should go back to her father and not waste the King’s Coroner’s time. She dropped to her knees in the dirt and begged him to help her, but he laughed. Said he’d already paid her a small fortune, more than he’d paid a whore before! She said she’d thought the purse of money was so that she could go and set up home for them both, and he laughed again, saying it was just the price of her virginity. That was when she stood and started throwing things at him, calling him every name under the sun. He looked touched by her rage and misery, and apologised. I heard him promise her more money if she’d stop her crying. They were walking towards me now, so I ducked into a dark corner until they’d passed, then left. I needed a drink to wash away his deceit.’
    I must confess to a vague sense of disinterest in the matter now. Maybe it was the wine, but it was as if all rationality had left me, and I was merely the shell of a man observing the destruction of another. I found myself biting my nails, bleakly watching the knight and priest with bland unawareness. It was as though all my reasoning abilities had flown.  
    Sir Baldwin nodded, drumming his fingers on the table before him. Shielding his eyes, he said, ‘You went back to the inn, I suppose?’
    ‘No, the alehouse owned by John and his wife.’
    ‘And you did not see her again until you saw her body?’
    ‘That’s right.’
    Now Sir Baldwin frowned at the table top before him. ‘Is there anything you want to add, Sir Eustace?’
    ‘It’s a lie,’ I spat. ‘The man’s jealous of me because she wanted me, and he’s prepared to lie to have me hanged! He hates authority! Look at him, you can see it in his eyes, for Christ’s sake! I met her, it’s true, but she had her purse on her, and she held it to me and told me to take it back because she couldn’t keep it, not now, and that was when I left her. Her tears were painful to witness, so I left her and came back here to the church for the feast. I wouldn’t have killed her! Why should I? What would have been the bloody point?’
    There was plenty more I could have said, damning him, the miserable tranter, even the Dean, but I held my tongue and