Field of Blood

blamed? Certainly Mistress Vestler would not escape scrutiny but then she implicated herself, didn't she? Darkness falls and Margot doesn't return. Did Bartholomew and Margot often come here? Anyway, when Mistress Vestler came looking she discovered two corpses lying beneath an oak tree in her own meadow. Did she suspect? Did she wonder? She could not hide the corpses away so she hurried back for mattock and hoe and hastily buried them here.
    'The next day, to cover the disturbance, she hired a tree-cutter to come and cut the branches, cover the ground in leaves and twigs so no one would notice.'
    Athelstan watched Hengan. The lawyer was leaning forward, clutching the chancery bag tightly. Sir John, too, was nervous, hand on the hilt of his dagger.
    'Mistress Vestler's thoughts are her own,' Athelstan continued. 'But she was in a fair panic. She searched the Paradise Tree and did something rather stupid. She collected Margot's possessions and promptly burned them. Why, I don't yet know. Later, when Bartholomew's absence becomes noted, a search is made but nothing can be found. Other enquirers are turned away, forced to accept the unlikely story that Bartholomew and the tavern wench had eloped.'
    'And Alice Brokestreet?' Hengan asked. 'She was the one who laid allegations against Mistress Vestler, not myself.'
    'Brokestreet was a harlot at heart, with no real love for Mistress Vestler. You knew that. Anyway, master lawyer, you were committed. You'd killed two people for Gundulf's treasure. But, what if someone else took Bartholomew's place? There was only one thing to do. Mistress Vestler also had to be removed, as quickly as possible.'
    'Why should I do that?' Hengan asked abruptly. 'Mistress Vestler was sweet and kind to me.'
    'For two reasons,' Athelstan snapped. 'First, like all gold hunters, Hengan, you couldn't share with anyone.'
    'And secondly?' Hengan asked quietly. 'There is a further reason, friar?'
    'Yes there is, lawyer. On your return from Canterbury you must have been surprised to see nothing had changed. Mistress Vestler still managed the Paradise Tree. Bartholomew and Margot had disappeared into thin air; I wager you suspected what had happened. Of course, you must have reflected on the possibility that Mistress Vestler may have entertained suspicions about you. In other words, Hengan, she had to be silenced. You couldn't poison her like you had Bartholomew and Margot. After all, you were one of the closest persons to her. So you'd sit and wait. News arrives that Alice Brokestreet was taken for killing a man in the Merry Pig. Did she know you, Master Hengan?'
    'Mistress Brokestreet never had the pleasure of meeting me,' came the sardonic reply.
    'No, I'm sure she didn't. The great lawyer would make sure of that. I suppose in the condemned cell at Newgate, dressed like a friar with the cowl pulled over, you could have been anyone.'
    'You went there dressed like that?' Sir John asked abruptly.
    'Sir Jack, do you really expect me to answer that?'
    'Yes, he did,' Athelstan said. 'You've seen the condemned cell at Newgate, my lord coroner, black as pitch. Our good lawyer would be disguised, the same is true of his voice. Not that Alice Brokestreet would care. All she could see was the hangman's noose waiting for her and, abruptly, salvation is at hand. Our good lawyer tells her what to do: she will accuse Mistress Vestler, say no more than that and she will be a free woman. I doubt if Brokestreet cared if her visitor was Satan from hell.' Athelstan sighed.
    'So the game began. Mistress Vestler was accused and sentenced to the gallows.'
    'But the Crown would then seize the Paradise Tree?' Hengan spoke softly like a schoolmaster correcting a pupil.
    'Oh come, Master Hengan: you are Mistress Vestler's executor with the right to poke and pry into her affairs; in reality, search around, looking for the treasure. Heaven knows even, when the time was right, buy the Paradise Tree, like Bartholomew Menster wanted to. He probably raised the matter with you, didn't he? You must have learned about that and become very alarmed.'
    'As a lawyer,' Hengan protested, 'I maintain the evidence still points to Mistress Vestler.'
    'All the evidence,' Athelstan pointed out, 'came from her own household books, and that made me curious. As Mistress Vestler's lawyer and good friend, why didn't you seize them, hide or burn them? It might be illegal, but something you'd expect a good friend to do in such circumstances. As it was,