Prince of Darkness

dicing!'
    Laughing and joking, they pushed their way into the tavern's huge taproom, choosing a table near the great roaring fire. Corbett shouted for jacks of ale, demanding they be served the landlord's best
    'None of your watered stuff!' he shouted. 'Or I'd have the ale-masters down here!'
    The landlord, a thin ashpole of a man, completely bald except for a stray lock of hair which constantly drooped over his eyes, wiped his greasy hands on a dirty apron, served them and scurried off. Corbett tasted the thick heady ale, pronounced himself satisfied and leaned forward.
    'Thank God we are free of Godstowe,' he murmured.
    'Do you know what happened, Master?' Ranulf asked anxiously. 'Which one of those well-fed bitches is the murderess?'
    'It's more complex than that, Ranulf.' Corbett sipped from his blackjack. 'On Sunday the eighth of September, Lady Eleanor Belmont was murdered in her chamber. Her neck was broken without any sign of a struggle and there are no reports of any intruders. The good sisters,' he looked sardonically at Ranulf, 'whom you just referred to, were all in church. Lady Eleanor was seen alive when the Nuns of Syon were all in public view of each other, just before Compline.' Corbett paused. 'This includes all those who knew her well: the Lady Prioress, the two Sub-prioresses, and our comely Dame Agatha. They all sang their psalms and went to the refectory. Afterwards, the Prioress, anxious about Lady Eleanor, went to her chamber but found the woman murdered.' He threw a quizzical look at Ranulf. 'The corpse was then moved to the foot of the stairs to make it look like an accident.'
    Ranulf swilled the beer around in his tankard.
    'So, the murderer or murderess must have been an outsider?'
    'Yes,' Corbett answered. 'Father Reynard was a suspect but I now know he was busy riding to Woodstock. Anyway, the poor man's dead and beyond suspicion.'
    'Gaveston could have sent assassins.'
    'True. But as I have said, any outsiders would have been noticed. The porter, drunk as he always is, would have raised the alarm. Anyway, why should Gaveston or the Prince do that? I have just discovered that Gaveston was probably poisoning the Lady Eleanor with a slow but subtle potion.' Corbett rubbed his chin against the palm of his hand. 'Yet that too, raises problems. If Gaveston was sending these powders, killing the Lady Eleanor by degrees, surely the poison should eventually have worked? So if Gaveston was already trying to murder Lady Eleanor, why would he abruptly change his methods?'
    'But,' Ranulf interrupted, 'if the Lady Eleanor was not murdered by any of the good sisters… if she was not murdered by Gaveston, if no one stole across the priory walls, what did happen?'
    Corbett shook his head.
    I don't know. Riders were seen in the forest the day Eleanor Belmont died.' He shrugged. 'But I can see no connection between their presence and the lady's death.' He grinned at Maltote, who was staring at him open-mouthed. 'There are other mysteries,' he continued. 'What were the identities of the young man and woman killed near Godstowe some eighteen months ago?'
    Ranulf smacked his lips and placed his tankard on the table.
    I can help you there,' he said. 'The tavern wench at The Bull told me how the landlord glimpsed the young lady and her companion riding through Godstowe.'
    Corbett nodded.
    'Yes, you told me that. Did he see anything else?'
    'One further tiring I have learnt from the wench. The landlord claimed a well-dressed young man also passed through the village about the same time. He walked his horse outside the tavern but left Godstowe just before the young woman and man were seen.
    'Didn't you learn anything more?' Corbett snapped. 'A description, further details?'
    'Master, I went back time and again.' Ranulf shrugged. 'It was the same story, glimpses, nothing else.'
    He looked at Corbett's troubled face.
    'Master, let's go back to Lady Eleanor's death. If the murderer was not from Godstowe, and any normal outsider would have been noticed, perhaps there's a third possibility?'
    'Such as?'
    'A professional assassin who climbed the walls and murdered the woman without anyone catching sight of him.'
    Corbett leaned back on the bench and stared up at the smoke-blackened beams. Ranulf was right If all the nuns were in Compline, if no one was spotted stealing over the convent walls, then the only logical conclusion was a professional assassin. Was this the de Montfort murderer, killing Lady Eleanor to