Crowner's Dilemma - Part Six

[ismenin]

Hello, dear friends! I hope you had a good Christmas, as did we - quiet, but very nice.
My grandsons gave me a fat, cuddly snowman, who sings, and wobbles mightily whilst he does it. They said they had to get it because its wobbly fatness reminded them of me when I laugh. Bless - it does, too! :D I am renowned for wobbly fatness. Giggles.

It is five twenty am, and soon I will be going for another snooze, I hope. However, I thought that first I would post this week's chapter, so those in outlying parts might read it before going to bed! Hope you enjoy it.


So here it is -



Thanks, as always, to ladysunrope for beta.


Part - 6


As they rode into the courtyard, John dismounted and went to Dom. "I think your brother might benefit from a bath, my friend"

Dom had expected his brother to refuse; Matt had never been fond of immersing himself in water. However, the man nodded. "It is many weeks since I have felt wholly clean - and I am chilled. I would welcome a hot bath."

Whist Elijah was instructing Andrew regarding the provisions he had promised to the outlawed men, Astin was making sure that hot water would be available as soon as possible in the bath-house.

As Matt began to walk to the bath-house with his brother, he began to cough. John was immediately alerted to the sound - raw and deep in the man's chest. Matt was ill. It was a warm summer's day - why would he feel chilled?

He followed the two men, and sat with them whilst the first of the water was brought. In a very few minutes, Matt was sitting up to his chest in warm, soapy water, sighing with relief.

"The steam appears to be helping my chest. It has bothered me somewhat of late."

John smiled at him. "I have some very good linctus in my bag upstairs. You shall have some when you retire. It will help loosen the humours clogging your chest."

"Thank you, sir," Matt said, with real gratitude. "In truth, it troubles me very much."


Elijah had finished issuing orders, and was walking in to the Hall, when Astin came downstairs with a suit of mulberry red clothes - a tunic and matching hose, underclothes, and a pair of soft slippers Elijah had brought from the Levant.

"Andrew told me which items to bring, my lord. He said you never liked this set. May I take these to the bath-house?"

Elijah smiled thinly. "Andy is, as ever, right. The shoulders are made too wide. I think, however, it will fit our guest better. He is the same height as am I, but has a slightly broader chest."

He went to move away, but stopped. "Tell them I shall be in my office, Astin. It will be more private there. When you have delivered those, send food and wine. Our guest will be hungry."

The food had been placed on a table against the wall. It was pleasant room, lit by the afternoon sun, and containing little but Elijah's large desk, a couple of document chests, and half a dozen chairs. Although there were tapestries on the walls - for the women of the castle were tireless needlewomen - there was nothing about the room that was likely to distract. It was the place where Elijah gave orders to his household, and where he went to think. It was also a place where the duke could, if needed, chastise his staff without subjecting his strictures to the ears of all the other servants. An ideal place to conduct a private interview.

Elijah had decided not to allow his new guest to eat until he had told his story. He thought plying Matt with a judicious amount of strong wine on an empty belly might loosen his tongue, and make him tell more of his story than he might otherwise have done.

He did not have long to wait. He heard the voices outside the open door, and moved to the sideboard, and poured out four cups of a good, red burgundy, a cup of which he handed to each man as they entered, cordially inviting them to sit down in the chairs strategically placed opposite his desk.

Matt looked pale in the sunlight shining through the casement, and Elijah slightly regretted his decision not to allow the man some food. But he had a task to perform, and that task, allotted to him by his brother, the archbishop, was to find the person or persons who murdered the two young girls at the abbey.

Matt sat beside his brother, slowly sipping - and savouring - the fine wine. "What is it you wish to know, my lord duke?" Matt asked, looking Elijah straight in the eye.

Elijah glanced from Matt to Dom. "Everything - from the beginning," he said, calmly picking up his cup. "I have heard nothing of you from your brother. I would know why you are here, and why you chose the life you did."

Matt snorted into the wine. "The beginning, indeed! Very well, so it shall be."

John Barebone glanced from Elijah to Dom, who sat quietly, not speaking - not even drinking his wine. Whatever the story was, he was sure Dom only knew a portion of it. This would prove an interesting tale.

Matt put his cup down, and folded his arms across his chest in a gesture Elijah had come to understand from other men he had questioned. It was a defensive move. He hoped Matt would not prove a difficult subject, but he started well enough.

"I was a young man, my lord, hot-blooded, and ripe for adventure. There was Richard - not five minutes king - spending huge sums on what I saw as a pointless war against men living their peaceful lives on the other side of the world, whilst we English starved to pay his onerous taxes. Then there was the ransom, when he was captured. It was too much."

Dom shifted in his seat, as if remembering. Matt continued. "Then John came to his country seat nearby Mortain, and called together men he thought might join with his cause. We lived in England, after all, not in the desert wastes of Outremer! I was fired with zeal, my lord. I attended the meeting. He spoke well, and the upshot of it was that I came home, and told Dom and my mother I was siding with John."

Dom closed his eyes, and ran a trembling hand across his face. Elijah was hard put not to comfort him, but Matt was already speaking again.

"We had hard words with each other. My father was only six weeks in his grave, and Dom was now Lord of Mortain. He said, without equivocation, that our house would stand by the true king. I disagreed, and chose my own way. I left that night, to follow John, and left the family to Dom - I..."

He stopped, the sweat gathering on his brow, and sipped a little more wine. Elijah handed him one of his embroidered pocket cloths, and the man gratefully wiped his face with it.

"At first, working for John was easy. We recruited followers, and drew them in to our cause. Then, at the end of the first year, the money ran short. There was nothing left to buy food for such an army as he had amassed. John never thought of his men, or of their maintenance, only of his cause. He set some to thievery. I was one. I was besotted by power, and the freedom of youth. I did as he asked."

"I returned once, to Mortain, as the group I was commanding passed nearby. I saw Dom, and my mother. They were not kind - why should they be? John had stolen any wealth our family had as fines for supporting Richard, and taxed them far in excess of their holdings. My mother was reduced to breeding and selling hens and their eggs - she who had never put her hand to as much as kneading a loaf."

Dom opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it. It was Matt's tale. His own could come after.

"Dominic told me to leave. And not to return until I had seen the light of my iniquities. As I passed through the hall, I saw his hunting knife on the table, and I took it. Did you wonder where it went, brother? I stole it. I am sorry."

Dom put his hand on his brother's arm, and squeezed it, but said nothing. Elijah reached into his belt, and took the knife out and laid it on the desk. "This knife?" he asked, his voice as cool as a stream in December.

Matt stared at it. "How did you come by that, my lord? I gave it, having nothing else, to pledge..."

He slumped in the chair. "I suppose she confessed. The abbess, as I know, is a fierce old woman, and Odilla a gentle soul, no match for a tough old piece like..."

Dom's eyes were filled with pity, and it seemed to Elijah that Matt did not know what had happened to the girl.

"Matt..." his brother said, gently. "Odilla...is dead."

It was plain to Elijah that Matt had not known this. His face, if possible, grew even paler, and his hands dropped to his side, as if he had no strength to hold them up.

"Dead? No, it is not possible! They cannot be dead. You are mistaken, brother! The abbess merely keeps her from me..."

"They?" Elijah said, softly. "You said they cannot be dead. What do you mean?"

Matt dragged heavy eyes to Elijah's, as if the act was almost too much for his strength. "She and the babe. She was carrying my child. We were to be wed..."

He grasped Dom's hand. "Tell me how you got the knife, Dom. I gave it to her as a pledge the last night I met her, under the tree. Tell me, for the love of God, what has come to my girl!"

But it was Elijah who answered. "She was killed by blows to the head, and laid beside the stream outside the abbey. Did you kill her, Mortain?"

Matt stared at Elijah, as if he had never seen him before. "Kill my Odilla? Kill my love?" Then he started to cough, and the sound tore at Dom's heart, as the ragged sounds of the severity of his brother's sickness was revealed to him.

"Enough!" John said, going to the sick man, and picking him up in his arms as he would a child. "Do you have a bed I can take him to, my lord duke? In a cow byre, or a pig sty, or something equally suited to his outlawed state?"

Elijah was astonished by the acid in John's voice. He was not used to such speech from his newest friend. He went to the door, and shouted. Astin appeared, and was told to conduct the apothecary and his burden to the chamber next to Dom's. "And have Dame Wenna attend them there. She will be of use."

"I thank you, sir," John nodded in gentler tones. "I will go now. Lead on!" Dom followed the man and his burden out of the room, with not so much as a backward glance at his lover.

Elijah took his seat at the desk, and drank the rest of his wine, his hand not quite steady. It was a different thing, entirely, to interview someone like Matt - Dom's brother. Here, he was quite at sea. Normal rules seemed not to apply. He would have to think...

He heard Wenna's voice calling down from the landing. "..And make sure it's fresh, girl! And don't forget the..."

After a few minutes Dom came heavily back into the room, and closed the door. "I have been banished. It seems I am much in the way. He is in good hands. Oh, Lij!"

Elijah came swiftly around the desk, but he did not touch Dom. If Dom had hoped for comfort, there was none. "Come," Elijah said in cool tones. "Let us go to the solar, and sit in the sun, and wait whilst John works his magic on him. We can do nothing more to help."

Dom nodded, and together they ascended the stairs, and sat quietly in the sunny room, each man thinking his own inevitable thoughts.

"I am sorry, Elijah. I have been a fool," Dom said, at last, not looking at his companion, but at the red Turkey carpet beneath his feet. "I should have trusted you from the first - when I discovered that the knife was mine. I cannot think what was going through my mind. Will you forgive me?"

Elijah did not answer at once, and Dom met his lover's eyes, and saw only sorrow contained within them. "It grieves me that you did not feel you could trust me, Dom. I cannot lie. I thought we were ... had reached such an understanding in our relationship that together we would survive any difficulties that beset us. Now... I am not so sure."

Dom made a protesting sound, and would have risen from his seat, but Elijah waved him back. "No, let me speak of it. It is right this should be discussed between us."

There was a short silence whilst Elijah assembled his thoughts. Dom, now only too aware that the love he had found with this man was foundering on the shaky ground of a mistrust that he himself had engendered, sat on the edge of his chair, gazing anxiously at the furrowed brow of the man sitting opposite him.

Suddenly, Elijah spoke. "Why did you not tell me immediately that the knife was yours, Dom? That you feared your brother may be in some way involved in the business?"

Dom knew, for once, not to blunder into unwise speech. He thought about it for a moment, and answered truthfully. "I do not know. I was afraid; my mind became a heaving mass of uncertainty. It was not the behaviour of a rational man. After all, what harm could be done by sharing this problem with you? I had shared my troubled thoughts on Matt with John Barebone many years ago. Why not with you, whom I love and trust beyond any man? I cannot answer you, Elijah. I have no answer that makes any real sense. I was afraid, that is all I know."

Yes, afraid that the law and its demands would come before your love for me - that you could not look upon the case with the least degree of partiality. That you would judge Matt... But this he could not say.

He bowed his head, not daring to meet the clear blue gaze fixed upon him from across the room.

Elijah cleared his throat. "I am glad you have made no excuses for your mistrust of me, Dom. It has cut me to the heart that you feared me enough to withhold from me your innermost troubles."

The voice was cool and measured, but Dom knew that behind it lay uncertainty, pain, and a measure of coldness that had been placed there by no hand except his own. There was no-one to blame, after all, but himself, and the knowledge gave him no comfort.

Dom met Elijah's eyes at last. They were bright with sorrow and distress. He longed to take the man in his arms, and kiss away the coldness, but he knew he did not dare. Elijah had placed himself in a position - long time used, but abandoned when love came to him - where no thing could touch him. He had retreated behind the cold and formal barrier he had stood within when Dom had first met him.

Dom began to talk - anything to fill the void that had suddenly opened at his feet. He told Elijah of his home, his mother, his childhood with Matt and his friends. How betrayed he had felt at Matt's defection - knowing that the cool man opposite him felt the same sense of betrayal, did not stop him from telling all. But was it too late? Had his terror of Matt hanging for a murderer - or at least a thief and outlaw - come between his love and himself for ever?

His voiced dragged to a halt, and Elijah reached for the bell at his side and rang it. When Astin came, he ordered wine and food to be brought. "When Master Barebone has finished with his patient, send him here. We would hear how he progresses," the Duke of Stanford said, formal and cold. Of Elijah de Woode, Dom's lover and friend, there was no sign.

Dom felt a shard of icy fear run through his belly. He loved Elijah above all mortal things. Had he, by his own folly, lost him forever?

John Barebone entered on that thought, and Elijah courteously asked after his newest guest's welfare, signalling for John to be seated with a smile. But the smile was no warmer than his tone, and Dom shrank back into his seat as he saw it, frightened and concerned.

"Is he very bad?" Dom managed to ask, when John had seated himself, and accepted a cup of the wine Astin had just brought in.

"I will not pretend to you that he is better than he is, Dominic," John stretched tired limbs, and drained the cup thirstily. "He has been far from well for some little time. He has not been eating well, despite his men's depredations on the fauna of the duke's lands, from what he says, and he is very weak, as well as congested in his lungs."

He accepted another cup of wine, and, as the servants placed a dish of fowl before him, picked up a leg and bit into it with relish. "I have left him to rest for a time. He has taken some warm broth from Dame Rowenna, and some physic from me. Rest and comfortable ease will do him more good than fussing."

Dom sighed with relief. "You have hopes he will recover, then?"

John picked up another piece of chicken. "If he may stay here, under my care, I trust so. May he stay, your Grace?"

John had noticed the change in Elijah's demeanour, and was not about to chance his patient's welfare by acting in a peremptory manner before this Elijah. He had not before been faced with him, but he had heard from Dom how cold the crowner could be. Matt needed the best care - he would not imperil that by his behaviour, even if he felt like telling Elijah to come down from the ceiling.

Elijah smiled at John, and the apothecary noticed there was more warmth in it. He took heart.

"He may, indeed, stay, until he is well again - and we have heard all he has to tell us."

Elijah glanced at Dom. "I think his men should be informed of this development, Dom. If Andy is back from delivering the foodstuffs, ask him to return to them and tell Matthew's men that their leader is to remain here, to be tended, until he is well."

Dom rose. "I will go myself, Elijah. I recall the way. It will be better if I deliver the news."

Elijah nodded. "Very well.” He carefully chose a morsel of chicken from the dish before him, and gave it his attention until Dom had left the room. Then he looked up, catching John gaze intent upon him.

"I do not know you well enough to confide my innermost feelings to you, John," Elijah murmured in a voice so low that John had to strain to hear it. "But I think you are a perceptive man, and may have divined how I feel at this present, without me voicing it."

He placed the chicken, untasted, on the plate, and wiped his fingers on the cloth next to it.

John sighed. "I have already told Dominic of my feelings upon this matter. I think he was both foolish and unwise not to confide in you; whatever he thought would come to his brother, it was not your fault."

"No," Elijah breathed. His eyes were fixed on the floor, but John could not help but see the pain in the man's face. He tried to salvage something for Dom out of the wreck of emotions before him. "He was afraid, and because of that fear, acted unwisely. I hope you can see that it was this that caused him to act as he did, rather than any lack of care for you."

Elijah looked up, his eyes flashing fire. "Did he really think that I would rush to hang his brother from the nearest tree if I discovered what I now know? Does he trust my judgement so little?"

John realised with a pang that his words, instead of helping his friends, had made matters worse.

"That, I believe, is at the centre of Dom's behaviour, my lord. He did not think it out carefully in his mind."

Elijah cast a rare smile at his friend. "If I have sunk to being my lord, again, Master Barebone, you must be displeased in me, indeed!"

John shook his head. "Not a whit. I see why you are distempered. It does not take a necromancer to divine your mood. Dom is hot-headed as you know, and bitterly regrets his behaviour. He..."

Astin returned to the room and the subject was dropped. The steward bowed. "My lord, there is someone come to see you on a visit of ceremony. If I may be so bold as to say it, he is mightily angered over something. His brow is black with it."

Elijah shrugged his shoulders. He cared little for the moods of other men at this present. "Who is it, Astin?"

"His name is Jefroi St Aubin, my lord, and he is the Sheriff of Canterbury, so I was given to understand. He has two deputies with him, and a troop of ten or so soldiers waiting in the outer bailey."

"Where have you put them, man? I will come down to him. My solar has ever been a place of comfort and rest. I will not have this man disturb it."

"He is in the Great Hall, my lord. I shall tell him you are coming."

Elijah turned to John as Astin left. "Will you go down and greet the man, whilst I change my raiment, my friend? I have found that visitors of ceremony like their dukes to be fittingly attired to receive them, or they feel slighted. I will go and put on something splendid."

John laughed, happy to see his friend diverted from his troubles, if even for a short time. "Indeed, my lord duke. I shall endeavour not to grin when I clap eyes upon your magnificence."

Andrew was waiting in Elijah's chamber. "I offered to go with the Sheriff, my lord, but he would have none of it." Elijah made no reply to this, and Andrew sighed, applying himself to the task in hand. "Will you wear the red and gold tunic, or the blue and silver?" He held up both for his lordship's inspection.

"What do you think, Andy? Have you had a glimpse of this personage?"

Elijah stepped out of his hose, as Andrew held out a new pair - cream, embroidered at the sides with gold.

"He's a dark haired, tall, well-made handsome man, my lord, but quivering with temper like an aspen in a breeze. The red, I think, with all the trimmings."

Fifteen minutes later, Elijah walked slowly down the broad staircase, a vision in crimson velvet and gold. The tunic was slashed with gold silk, and had dozens of pearls the size of marrowfat peas sewn on to its luxuriously embroidered surfaces.

The belt encircling the slender waist was formed of thick gold links studded with rubies and diamonds, the clasp two intricately formed interlocking letters - E and R - a gift to his dear cousin, as everyone who had attended court knew, from Richard, the king.

The silk-shod feet landed firmly upon each step, and the golden rod of office, grasped in his Grace of Stanford's shapely hand, was held in a light and confident grasp.

A cap, equally loaded with gems and pearls, sat happily on the burnished dark hair, its tassels hung heavy with bullion and jewels, framing either side of the handsome face beneath them.

Only Andrew, of those present, following behind his grand ducal lordship, holding up the heavy ermine-trimmed cloak falling from his master's shoulders, would have recognised in his lordship's face - could he have seen it - a carefully concealed desire to laugh.

The Sheriff of Canterbury's eyes opened wide with surprise, and he bowed, and bowed and bowed again, giving to the man before him the triple obeisance due to royalty. "Your Grace!" he said, in awed and reverential tones, his voice quite free from any trace of anger.

John Barebone, his eyes lit up, wiped his nose carefully in his black gown's voluminous linen sleeve, and took a deep breath, thus averting his eyes for a moment from the spectacle, so that he would not succumb to the hilarity bubbling up within him.

"You are very welcome to Beauvallet, my lord Sheriff. In what way may I serve you?" Elijah said in a cordial tone, directing his guest to a chair.

The handsome brow darkened as he sat opposite Elijah by the huge hearth. "I understand, from his Grace of Canterbury, that murder has been committed in the abbey nearby, and I was not informed of it. I further understand that you, and Sheriff Mortain, of whom I have heard, are investigating these crimes. Well, my lord duke, I am sorry to inform you that it will not do! I am Sheriff here, not Mortain, and it is my duties you are usurping, and no-one else's. I beg you will please resign your interest in this matter, and turn the investigation over to me."

Dom, entering the side door as St Aubin uttered his peremptory request, froze with fear as he heard the Sheriff’s uncompromising demands. Unseen by the group in the Hall, he grabbed the arm of his companion, and melted into the shadows of the corridor outside the door.

Oh, God aid me! Matthew!

Comments

[mole-caz.livejournal.com]

Saved to enjoy later ;-) xx

[http://users.livejournal.com/saura_/]

awwwwwwww. That's so sweet of your grandsons!!! You are blessed with an amazing family, Ru!

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Oh, my gosh, poor Matthew. But I really doubt the Sheriff is going to be able to intimidate "My lord". The description of Elijah's clothing was truly brilliant. I could see him.

Ah, bless your grandsons. I gave my son in law a Santa in a bathtub of bubbles, who wobbles and kicks to "Splish Splash".

[janejanejane.livejournal.com]

Another great chapter, dear Issi! Thanks very much for posting. Dom realises his foolishness in not cofiding in Elijah, but it may be too late... Not if I know you, however :-)

Now Dom has far more to worry about 0_0

What a cute gift you had from your grandsons ;0)

Looking foward to the next chapter.

*huggles you*
XXXX

[poplij.livejournal.com]

Oh, you write the most brilliant cliffhangers :)
He carefully chose a morsel of chicken from the dish before him, and gave it his attention until Dom had left the room.
This is such a powerful image. Poor Lijah, poor Dom, they have so much to worry about, they could really do without the Sheriff of Canterbury sticking his nose into it !
*hiheee* the present from your grandsons is way cool ;)
((hugs))

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

Hope you do enjoy, my love! ;D xxx

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

I certainly am, sweetie! Hugs. :D xxx

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

No-one can intimidate Elijah these days. The only one who can get under his skin is Dom. Bless.
I saw him in that outfit, too. You would think he'd look slightly ridiculous in it - but he didn't - he looked fabulous.

Hope your s-i-l enjoys de bubbles! ;D xxx

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Janie! Hugs. Dom has indeed just amassed more problems. Poor lad.

The penguin is uber kyoot! Huggles you back tight! :D xxx

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

I do feel sorry for the boys - I'm always getting them into trouble, aren't I?? Giggles

Way cool, indeed! Hugses. ;) xxx

[primula-baggins.livejournal.com]

Oh, how I love the description of how Elijah is dressed! Now we need fear the new Sheriff. An excellent chapter, dear Issi.

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

Thank you! He does look rather gorgeous in his full dress robes I must say. I particularly like the tassels on his cap! ;D xxx

[frolijah-fan-54.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you had a good Christmas - and what a great gift from your grandsons!!

Sorry I haven't commented before - I'm just now able to catch up with this fic - another classic by Issi!! I wanted to slap Dom when he kept his secret from Elijah - and now to have Elijah go back to the cold tone he had at the beginning is so sad. I'm glad they are helping Matt but it seems like his troubles are far from over.

I hope Elijah can forgive Dom - and Dom can make amends - but of course I know they will!! It's a matter of how long it will take and what will happen to bring them back together. You weave such a wonderful story and a great mystery - such a treat to look forward to every week!!

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

Thank you, my dear! I'm happy you found a momenmt to read! I have had such fun writing these two in all their incarnations. The just make me happyhappyhappy! As do my lovely readers! Hugs. ;D xxx

[pattilovesviggo.livejournal.com]

I can`t believe that I missed this part, until now anyway, perhaps another tomorrow?
Elijah sounded magnificent in his lovely robes, I`ll believe you had seen him too, and hope it was a great dream ;D

[msilverstar]

a new mystery, always good :-)

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I enjoy writing them very much. ;D xxx