Brother Cadfael 05: Leper of Saint Giles

a storm of flying skirts, turned her back upon sheriff, abbot, niece and all, and clove like a fury through the startled brothers who gave way hastily before her onslaught. Not one glance at Joscelin Lucy now, she bore down on one man, and one man only, raging.
    "You ... you! Where are you, coward, murderer, come forth and face me! You, you, Simon Aguilon, you killed my lord!"
    The ranks scattered before her blazing eyes and levelled arm.
    "Stand, damned murderer, face me! Hear me!" The whole Foregate, surely, must be hearing her and crossing themselves in superstitious dread, envisaging a demon come after some prodigious sinner. As for Simon, he stood aghast, too taken aback, it seemed, even to retreat before her. He stared open-mouthed, speechless, as she halted challengingly before him, her black eyes huge and flaring redly in the torchlight. Beside him Guy turned a startled stare helplessly from one to the other, and drew back a furtive pace or two from this new and deadly battlefield.
    "You killed him! None but you could have done this. You rode off beside him to this hunt, close to him in the line - I know, I heard how it was drawn up. You, FitzJohn, say, let them all hear! Where did this man ride?"
    "He was next to Sir Godfrid," admitted Guy dazedly. "But ..."
    "Next to him, yes ... and on the way home, in those thick woods, it was easy to take him by surprise. Late and quiet you come back, Simon Aguilon, and you have made sure he will never come back!"
    Sheriff and abbot had drawn close to witness this encounter, startled and appalled like everyone else, and made as yet no attempt to interrupt it. She was past reason. Simon said so, when he could speak at all, swallowing hard, and still breathless.
    "For God's sake, what have I done to be so accused? I am altogether innocent of this death, I knew nothing of it ... I last saw Sir Godfrid Picard three hours ago, well alive, threading the woods like the rest of us. The poor lady is crazed with grief, she strikes the nearest ..."
    "I strike at you," she cried, "and would if there were a thousand in between. For you are the man! You know it as I know it. Pretense will not save you now!"
    Simon appealed wildly to the sheriff and abbot, spreading gloved hands. "Why, why should I so much as think of killing a man who was my friend? With whom I had no quarrel in the world? What possible motive could I have for such a deed? You see she has run mad."
    "Ah, but you did have a quarrel with him," shrieked Agnes vengefully, "as well you know. Why? Why? Do you dare ask me why? Because he suspected - he as good as knew - that you had killed your own lord and uncle!"
    Wilder and wilder grew the accusations, and yet this time Simon drew in breath sharply, and for an instant was still and pale. He wrenched himself out of shocked silence with a great heave, to defend himself strongly. "How can that be? Everyone knows that my uncle dismissed me, put off all company and rode out alone. I went to my bed, as I was bidden. I slept late ... they came to wake me when they found he had not returned ..."
    She swept that aside with a contemptuous motion of her hand. "You went to your bed, yes, I make no doubt ... and you left it again to steal out in the night and set your trap. Easy enough to leave unseen and return unseen when your wicked work was done. There are more ways in and out of any house than by the hall door, and who was so privileged in going and coming as you? Who else had all the keys he needed? Who stood to gain by the old man's death but you? And not only in being his heir, oh, no! Deny too these here present, if you dare, that in the evening of the day Huon was brought back dead, you came to my lord, before your uncle was cold you came, to make a bargain with us that you would step into his shoes with my niece, inherit bride, and honour, and all. Deny it, and I'll prove it! My maid was there!"
    Simon looked round the ring of watching faces wildly, and protested: "Why should I not fairly offer for Iveta? My estate would match hers, it is no disparagement. I esteem, I honour her. And Sir Godfrid did not reject me. I was willing to wait, to be patient. He agreed to my suit ..."
    Iveta's hand gripped and clung convulsively in Joscelin's clasp. Her stunned mind went back over those two meetings when Simon had seemed to her the only friend she had in the world, when he had pledged her his help, and Joscelin his loyalty. The first meeting countenanced by a smiling and gracious