The Sheriff's Riddle by Maureen Ash

Author:Maureen Ash [Ash, Maureen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2022-04-13T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Estrid was in her workshop mulling over her conversation with Maud and Helewysia when there was a knock at the door and Cuthbert called up to tell her that the constable had sent a man-at-arms with a message for her. When she went down, the soldier said that fitzTurston had received a response to the query he had sent to Sheriff Haimo and was waiting for her outside the cathedral with the answer.

Donning her cloak, she followed the man-at-arms down the street to the entrance into the grounds of the church. A blustery wind was blowing and, as they walked, it tossed the ends of Estrid’s head-rail about her shoulders and sent up small dust whirls from between the cobblestones at their feet. There were not many people about but the shops along the main street were open with customers gathered around the goods on display.

When she and the man-at-arms went through the gate, she saw the constable waiting at the bottom of the steps that led to the church entrance in the company of another Norman she knew—the sheriff’s son, Robert fitzHaimo. She had met him just over a year before, in Maidstone, when she had, at the king’s request, investigated the murder of a young Englishwoman who had been killed at the wedding feast held to celebrate her marriage to one of Rufus` liegemen. FitzHaimo was a familiare—a close companion—of the king and, on that occasion, had been sent by Rufus to give her any assistance she might need while she delved into the death. She had found him pleasant and capable and, although a little restrained in manner, intelligent.

She walked up to the pair and greeted them. FitzHaimo remained as she remembered him—of middling height, dark-complected, and still wearing the serious mien that seemed to be his habitual demeanour.

“I asked you to come here so the message from the sheriff can be given to Bishop Gundulf as well as yourself,” the constable said to her as they mounted the steps and went through the huge doors into the church. Once inside a monk came forward and led them to the chamber where she had previously met fitzTurston and in which the bishop was awaiting their arrival. After thanking them for coming, he bid them all take seats on the stools that had been placed on the other side of the table he used as a desk.

Having been apprised of the progress of Estrid’s investigation thus far, Gundulf was as anxious as Estrid to hear what the sheriff had said, hoping that if someone in Normandy had been involved in the killing of the charcoal burner and the attack on Henry Gouet, then none of the villagers in Burham—a church property under his administration—was responsible.

The sheriff’s son opened the conversation, telling them he had just come from London and that he and his wife were travelling to their manor house in Tonbridge and, as their journey took them close to Rochester, his father had asked him to come in person to relay the information that had been gathered about Henry Gouet.

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