A Mortal Bane(87)

Brother Godwine insisted on vindication. “No one moved about…well, except Brother Patric, who went to relieve Brother Eiwin at the gate, and I used the privy just before Lauds, and Brother Aethelwold, the infirmarian—”

“They are innocent, I am sure,” Bell said hastily.

“Of course. I tell you it was the whores.”

“And I say to you that the facts I have gathered so far tell me it is most unlikely that the whores are guilty. They also tell me that whoever killed Messer Baldassare had to be inside the priory grounds or the Old Guesthouse grounds before dusk, or had to come through your gate, since the gate of the Old Priory Guesthouse was locked at dark.”

“And the whores could not have unlocked the gate and lied about it?” Brother Godwine asked angrily.

“Of course they could have, but it would be greatly to their benefit if the murderer were caught and proven guilty. There is no reason for the whores to shield anyone—they are all likely to hang for this killing if no other murderer is found.” As Bell said the words, a chill chased itself up and down his back; he did not want Magdalene to be executed for murder. He stared at Brother Godwine, his mouth hard, then curved his lips in what was not really a smile and said, “Now, since I cannot believe a monk vowed to faith and caritas could wish even a sinner who was innocent of the crime to be punished and the guilty to go free—”

[page]“They are guilty of sin!”

“Yes, indeed, but not of murder. If they burn in hell for the sin of lust, I have no objection; they are guilty. The punishment will be God’s, and just. So far, I have no reason to think them guilty of murder—and I want to know who is. Thus, I still need the names of those who came to Compline service and did not stay the night.”

“None of those at Compline service could have done murder.”

“Perhaps not, but I must know who they are.”

“Oh, very well. There were only six…ah, no, seven. The servants who keep the small guesthouses that flank the bishop’s house, old Nicholas and Martha and Bernard and Elsa. They can barely walk, let alone strike down a man in his prime. That is four. Then two clerks from the bishop’s Household, Robert and Phillipe, which makes six.”

“Robert and Phillipe?”

Bell was momentarily distracted from the murder by a naughty notion. Phillipe was a very pretty, delicate young man. Robert was Guiscard’s chief rival for principal secretary. Was Phillipe far less innocent man he seemed? Did he hope to win promotion through Robert’s support by offering him friendship…or more than friendship? The porter’s voice jerked Bell’s mind back to murder.

“Yes.” Brother Porter nodded approvingly. “They come quite often, perhaps twice a week for the last half year whenever the bishop is in residence. And the seventh…I cannot bethink me of his name, but it will come back to me. I know him well. He was a student at the priory until a year ago and used to return every week or two. I had not seen him for several months and thought he must have obtained the preferment he was seeking when….”

Brother Godwine’s voice faded and a frown creased his brow as if some unpleasant thought had occurred to him, but when Bell asked what was troubling him, he shook his head and said he was not sure. Something was niggling his mind about that student, he admitted, but he could not make a clear memory.

“It will come back to me,” he assured Bell. “When I remember the boy’s name, I will remember what else is teasing my memory, too.”

Then Bell remembered something Magdalene had told him that pushed the relationship between Robert and Phillipe—if there was one—right out of his mind. “The name, it would not be Beaumeis, Richard de Beaumeis, would it?”