Brother Cadfael 02: One Corpse Too Many

intended was to send him back to be taken and slaughtered with the rest, to make sure he should not live to tell the tale. For listen, Cadfael, to what I got out of one of the Flemings who was in that day's murderous labour from first to last. He said that after Arnulf of Hesdin was hanged, Ten Heyt pointed out to the executioners a young man who was to be the next to go, and said the order came from above. And it was done. They found it a huge jest that he was dragged to his death incredulous, thinking at first, no doubt, they were putting up a pretence to remove him from the ranks, and then he saw it was black reality, and he screamed that they were mistaken, that he was not to die with the rest, that he had been promised his life, that they should send and ask -'
    'Send and ask,' said Brother Cadfael, 'of Adam Courcelle.'
    'No - I learned no name ... my man heard none. What makes you hit on that name in particular? He was not by but once, according to this man's account, he came but once to look at the bodies they had already cut down, and it was early, they would be but few. Then he went away to his work in the town, and was seen no more. Weak-stomached, they thought.'
    'And the dagger? Was Giles wearing it when they strung him up?'
    'He was, for my man had an eye to the thing himself, but when he was relieved for a while, and came back to get it, it was already gone.'
    'Even to one with a great prize in view,' said Cadfael sadly, 'a small extra gain by the way may not come amiss.'
    They looked at each other mutely for a long moment. 'But why do you say so certainly, Courcelle?'
    'I am thinking,' said Cadfael, 'of the horror that fell upon him when Aline came to collect her dead, and he knew what he had done. If I had known, he said, if I had known, I would have saved him for you! No matter at what cost! God forgive me! he said, but he meant: Aline, forgive me! With all his heart he meant it then, though I would not call that repentance. And he gave back, you'll remember, the cloak. I think, truly I do think, he would then have given back also the dagger, if he had dared. But he could not, it was already broken and incomplete. I wonder,' said Cadfael, pondering, 'I wonder what he has done with it now? A man who would take it from the dead in the first place would not part with it too easily, even for a girl's sake, and yet he never dare let her set eyes on it, and he is in earnest in courting her. Would he keep it, in hiding? Or get rid of it?'
    'If you are right,' said Beringar, still doubtful, 'we need it, it is our proof. And yet, Cadfael, for God's sake, how are we to deal now? God knows I can find no good to say for one who tried to purchase his own safety so, when his fellows were at their last gasp. But neither you nor I can strip this matter bare, and do so wicked an injury to so innocent and honourable a lady. It's enough that she mourns for him. Let her at least go on thinking that he held by his mistaken choice faithfully to the end, and gave his life for it - not that he died craven, bleating that he was promised grace in return for so base a betrayal. She must not know, now or ever.'
    Brother Cadfael could not but agree. 'But if we accuse him, and this comes to trial, surely everything will come out. That we cannot allow, and there lies our weakness.'
    'And our strength,' said Beringar fiercely, 'for neither can he allow it. He wants his advancement with the king, he wants offices, but he wants Aline - do you think I did not know it? Where would he stand with her if ever a breath of this reached her? No, he will be at least as anxious as we to keep the story for ever buried. Give him but a fair chance to settle the quarrel out of hand, and he'll jump at it.'
    'Your preoccupation,' said Cadfael gently, 'I understand, and sympathise with it. But you must also acknowledge mine. I have here another responsibility. Nicholas Faintree must not lie uneasy for want of justice.'
    'Trust me, and stand ready to back me in whatever I shall do this night at the king's table,' said Hugh Beringar. 'Justice he shall have, and vengeance, too, but let it be as I shall devise.'
    Cadfael went to his duty behind the abbot's chair in doubt and bewilderment, with no clear idea in his mind of what Beringar intended, and no conviction that without the broken dagger any secure case could be made against Courcelle. The Fleming had not seen him take it, what he had cried out to Aline over her brother's body, in manifest pain,