A Mortal Bane(39)

“Baldassare?” Bell echoed. “You do not mean to tell me that he was the one who was killed?”

“I am afraid so, but I am not sure,” Magdalene said.

“What do you mean, you are not sure?”

“No, no,” the bishop put in. “Do not begin in the middle as you did with me. Remember, the whole story.”

The warning. Bell thought, was not only for the woman. He colored faintly—the curse of his fair complexion—knowing that the bishop had seen how hard her beauty had struck him. And her displeasure, Bell thought further and felt his color deepen, was not because of what the bishop had said but because she, too, had seen his admiration, and did not welcome it. Well, beauty or not, she was safe. He was not going to meddle with William of Ypres’s woman.

“Very well,” Magdalene said.

“Not here, though,” the bishop remarked. “I will need this chamber for business. Take him back to the guesthouse with you. Perhaps he can think of things he wishes to ask your women. One of them might have noticed something you did not. And, oh, I just remembered some other business I need to discuss with him. Wait outside.”

“Yes, my lord,” Magdalene said with a cold look at Bell.

I hope what you tell him is to keep his hands off, she thought as she closed the door behind her. Because Guiscard called me “whore,” doubtless that self-satisfied churl will think I will yield my body to ensure a favorable report from him to the bishop.

Within, much the same ideas, only from the opposite point of view, were being voiced. “Have a care,” the bishop was saying. “I know she is a woman of almost transcendent beauty and it is hard, even for me, to question what she says. You must. You must discover who killed Baldassare and discover what he was carrying and who has it now. You must get the pope’s messages back for me or, if they have been destroyed, discover that fact so that I can send to Innocent, tell him what happened, and ask him to send duplicates.”

“Can you tell me what you think was in the messages?”

“What I think he had was the result of the challenge Matilda made to the king’s right to the throne. It is almost impossible that Innocent could deny Stephen’s right since his legate already approved it, but the letter will quiet doubts. I can see that Matilda’s party might not want the pope’s final approval of Stephen to become public if they plan another rebellion. Still, it is hard to believe that would be worth killing over.”

“It might be,” Bell said slowly. “It might make the difference between a large number of men swearing to Matilda because they once promised the old king to support her. The pope’s decision would ease their consciences and keep them faithful to King Stephen.”

Winchester sighed and shrugged. “Perhaps. The only other thing he might have been carrying is the answer to Stephen’s request that I be made papal legate, and I cannot see how that could be important to anyone but me.”

“You think not, my lord? I am not sure the new archbishop would want a legate to overshadow him, nor that Waleran de Meulan would want you to hold the church in your hand while he tries to name his cousins to earldoms and bishoprics.”

“Theobald of Bec is no murderer,” Winchester said shortly. “Perhaps Waleran would not stop at murder…. Oh, Lord be my help. That was what she meant when she said William of Ypres would be glad to see my enemies discomfited.”

[page]“She? Magdalene?” Bell asked. “Is she close enough to Ypres to know his mind?”

“He has been her friend and protector for a long time. He was the one who urged me to rent her the Old Priory Guesthouse, and I know he uses her house more for political meetings and other purposes he holds private than he does for satisfaction of his lust. I know it seems an odd place to go to keep secrets, but William is no fool and I have never heard he was disappointed.”