A Mortal Bane(150)

Now Magdalene turned eagerly to Winchester. “My lord, is there any way you could keep all of us here until the goldsmith arrives? If he has before him most of those who were near when Brother Godwine died and he can pick out one as the person who ordered the copies made—”

The bishop nodded curtly.





Chapter Twenty



28 April 1139





The Bishop’s House, Southwark



Before Bell could look for a messenger to send to the goldsmith’s house, the man he had sent to St. Albans to ask about Beaumeis accosted him and reported that Beaumeis had been with his uncle from Tuesday evening until midmorning of the previous day. The man-at-arms seemed a bit disappointed when Bell merely nodded over what he had thought was startling information, but he had come across another tidbit. He thought it less important, but it got the reaction his first news had failed to produce. Bell’s lips parted and his eyes widened.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes, indeed,” the man-at-arms said, and recited what he had done.

“So.” Bell pulled a coin from his purse to reward the man for not being afraid to go further than his strict instructions, but he did not explain why he was so pleased, then dismissed his man.

He stood for a moment digesting what he had heard, now certain they would find the plate stolen from St. Mary Overy church in St. Albans. He had started to turn back to tell Winchester when another man-at-arms, one of the guards he had left to watch over the goldsmith, spoke his name. His heart sank heavily because the fact he had learned was not proof of guilt—they needed the goldsmith’s testimony—but the man relieved his fears by telling him that Master Domenic was right there in the bishop’s house.

“When ‘e slept off th’ potion th’ ‘pothecary gave ‘im ‘nd woke up this mornin’, ‘e wanted t’ know what we was doin’ in ‘is ‘ouse ‘nd who we was. Then when Michael told ‘im we was the bishop’s guards sent t’ be sure ‘e weren’t attacked again ‘nd give ‘im yer message ‘bout the craftmark, ‘e got all excited like and insisted on comin’ ‘ere.”

“Well, no harm’s done.” Bell smiled. “I was just about to send a man to you to ask if he was well enough to be carried here. I gather that wasn’t necessary.”

“No, sir.” The guard grinned back. “Fact is, we ‘ad a time keepin’ up with ‘im. Real eager to get ‘ere, ‘e were.”

That information was rendered superfluous while the guard was speaking. A short, tubby man with a large bruise on his temple, a very red nose, and marks of its dripping on his sleeves, had got to his feet as he saw the guard approach Bell and now came forward.

He sniffed richly and then said in a rather thick, hoarse voice, “So the bishop saw my copies and found my craftmark. I am very pleased, indeed I am. Master William, the clerk who ordered them, did not want me to put a craftmark on because they were copies of Master Jacob the Alderman’s work, and I agreed that it would be wrong to put my mark where he put his, as if the work were mine, but they were good copies, well done, and I thought it could do no harm to put my small mark off in a corner.”

[page]“No harm at all, Master Domenic,” Bell said, suppressing a grin. In fact the mark had done much good. And then, masking what was important to him in politeness, he said, “I hope you did not lose anything to the man who attacked you. Did you recognize him?”

The goldsmith began to laugh, then bent his head quickly to sneeze into his sleeve. “One does not recognize thieves,” he said, wiping his nose; he sniffed again, then looked thoughtful. “No, I lost nothing, although not through my own wariness. I did not suspect him. He did not look around to see what was most valuable, as a thief might, but came right up to the table where I was working and struck me. At least so says my apprentice, who ran out to see why I had fallen.”