The Treason of the Ghosts

the door at the top of the crypt opened and shut with a crash,
followed by the sound of running footsteps.
    ‘In God’s name!’
    Ranulf
stepped hurriedly aside as a tall, white-haired knight, swathed in a dark blue
cloak, flung himself into the crypt. His face was cut and bleeding, clothes
mud-stained.
    ‘I
have been attacked!’
    ‘Sir
Louis!’ Parson Grimstone sprang to his feet.
    The
newcomer took off his remaining glove and threw it on the ground.
    ‘I
was attacked!’ he repeated.
    ‘Outlaws?’ Corbett asked.
    ‘I
don’t know.’ Tressilyian sat down on a chair, mopping his face with the hem of
his gown. ‘Thank God Chapeleys isn’t here.’
    ‘Why’s
that?’ Corbett asked.
    ‘I’d
swear it was his father’s ghost!’



Chapter 4
     
     
    The
justice took some time to calm down. Parson Grimstone went up to his house and
brought back a jug of ale as well as a bowl and cloth. Tressilyian quaffed the
ale in a few gulps, then wiped his face. He had a cut
high on his cheek, small scars on the backs of his hands.
    ‘What
happened?’ Corbett asked.
    ‘I
was coming down Falmer Lane ,’
the justice replied. He paused. ‘You must be Corbett?’
    There
was more confusion as Corbett made the introductions.
    Tressilyian
studied him from head to toe. ‘I suppose you’ve already been asked,’ he smiled,
‘why you are here? The King could have asked me to investigate.’
    ‘Aye,
sir, but you were the principal justice who tried Sir Roger. Today’s events
prove that this is a matter for royal concern. After all, you, the King’s justice,
were attacked on his highway. You were telling us what happened.’
    ‘I
was riding down Falmer Lane ,’
Tressilyian explained. ‘There was a fallen tree across the lane, just a
sapling. You know how such things frighten horses? Bare
branches, dry leaves? I thought nothing of it. I climbed down, took off
my gauntlets to grasp it, that’s where some of these cuts came from. Suddenly
an arrow came flying through the air.’ Sir Louis
tapped the cut high on his cheek. ‘It missed, just skimming my face. I
sheltered in the sapling; its twigs and branches cut me. I had no bow. My horse
had become frightened and was skittering away. Two more arrows were loosed. I
decided that I wasn’t going to wait. I gauged where the mysterious bowman must
be, drew my sword and charged as if I was on the battlefield.’
    ‘But
your assailant escaped?’
    ‘I
never even saw him, just a crackle of bracken and then the voice.’ Tressilyian
paused, staring across at the coffin. ‘God’s teeth, Corbett, this is a sombre
place.’ He flung his hand out. ‘And that poor woman!’
    ‘What
did your voice say?’ Corbett insisted.
    ‘ “ Remember.“ That’s what it said. A
man’s voice. “Remember, royal justice, how you hanged an innocent man!
You and the others will pay for it .“ ‘ Tressilyian shrugged. ‘Then there was silence. There was
nothing more I could do. I returned to my horse and rode here. I saw young
Chapeleys going across God’s acre. He’s visiting his father’s grave?’
    ‘Yes,’
Grimstone replied.
    ‘Why
did you think it was a ghost?’ Corbett asked.
    Tressilyian
looked at him blankly.
    ‘When
you came in here,’ Corbett insisted, ‘you said you thought you’d been attacked
by a ghost.’
    ‘Well,
it’s obvious,’ Tressilyian retorted, his light blue eyes dark with anger. ‘A
young woman lies dead, another has been murdered. Members of the jury who found
Sir Roger guilty have also paid with their lives.’
    ‘Yes,
but Sir Roger was hanged?’ Ranulf asked. ‘You were present at the execution?’
    ‘Yes
I was. However, after I had passed sentence, before the cart was taken away,’
Tressilyian wiped the sweat from his broad brow and sunken cheeks, ‘Sir Roger
protested his innocence. He claimed his name would be vindicated. He would make
a settlement with God and return to settle with us.’
    Sir
Louis’s eerie words in such sombre surroundings created a tense silence.
Grimstone and Burghesh looked at each other. Bailiff Blidscote opened and
closed his mouth, smacking his lips as if wishing he
could drink, forget what was happening.
    Corbett
glanced around. Including the justice, these were all nervous men. Sir Roger
Chapeleys had been a manor lord, a knight, a warrior, a man who had done good
service in the King’s armies both at home and abroad. True, a lecher and a
drinker but what if he had been wrongly