Brother Cadfael 13: The Rose Rent

gathered at the edge of the tenterground, between dye-works and wool warehouse: Godfrey Fuller himself, his finery shed in favour of stout working clothes, for he was by no means ashamed to soil his hands alongside his workmen, and prided himself on being able to do whatever he asked of them, and possibly as well or better than they could; the watchman, a thickset, burly fellow of fifty, with his mastiff on a leash; Hugh's oldest sergeant, Will Warden, bushy-bearded and massive; and two men from the garrison in watchful attendance at a few yards distance. At sight of Hugh dropping with long strides down the slope of the meadow, Warden swung away from the colloquy to meet him.
    "My lord, the watchman here says there was an alarm in the night, the dog gave tongue."
    The watchman spoke up freely for himself, aware of duty properly done. "My lord, some sneak thief was here in the night, well past midnight, climbing to the hatch behind Master Hynde's storehouse. Not that I knew then that he'd got so far, but the hound here gave warning, and out we went, and heard him running for the river. I made to cut him off, but he was past me too fast, all I got was one clout at him as he rushed by. I hit him, but did him precious little harm, surely, by the speed he made down to the bank and into the water. I heard the splash as he went in, and called off the dog, and went to look had he got into the store. But there was no sign, not to be seen in the night, and I took it he was well across and off by then, no call to make any more stir about him. I never knew till now it was a dead man came ashore on the other side. That I never meant."
    "It was not your doing," said Hugh. "The blow you got in did him no great damage. He drowned, trying to swim across."
    "But, my lord, there's more! When I looked round the warehouse by daylight this morning, see what I found lying in the grass under the hatch. I've just handed them over to your sergeant here." Will Warden had them in his hands, displayed in meaning silence, a long chisel and a small clawed hammer. "And the sill beam under the hatch broken from its nails at one end, and dangling. I reckon surely he was up there trying to break through the shutter and get in at the fleeces. A year ago when the clip was in there thieves got in and stole a couple of bales. Old William Hynde near went out of his wits with rage. Come and see, my lord."
    Cadfael followed slowly and thoughtfully as they set off round the bulk of the warehouse to the rear slope, where the shuttered hatch showed still securely fastened, though the stout beam under it hung vertically against the planks of the wall, the splintered gaps where it had broken free from its anchoring nails rotten and soft to the touch.
    "Gave under his weight," said the watchman, peering upward. "It was his fall the dog heard. And these tools came down with him, and he had no time to pick them up, if he'd delayed a moment we should have had him. But here's good proof he was trying to break in and steal. And the best is," said the watchman, shaking his head over the folly of the too-clever, "if he'd got in through the hatch he couldn't have got at the fleeces."
    "No?" said Hugh sharply, turning a startled glance on him. "Why? What would have prevented?"
    "There's another locked door beyond, my lord, between him and what he came for. No, belike you wouldn't know of it, why should you? William Hynde's clerk used to work in the little back room up there, it was used as a counting-house until that time thieves broke in by this back way. By then the woolman was buying here for the foreign trade, and old Hynde thought better to bid him up to his own house and make much of him. And what with their business being all transacted there, the old counting-house was out of use. He had the door locked and barred, for an extra barrier against thieves. If this rogue had got in, it would have done him no good."
    Hugh gazed and pondered, and gnawed a dubious lip. "This rogue, my friend, was in the wool trade himself, and knew this place very well. He fetched the fleeces for the Vestiers from here, he'd been in and out more than once. How comes it that he would not know of this closed counting-house? And my deputy had them open up here two days ago, and saw the upper floor full almost to the ladder with bales. If there's a door there, it was buried behind the wool."
    "So it would be, my lord. Why not? I doubt if a soul had gone through that door since it was first