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“What?” said Simon, nervously shooting him a glance.
Baldwin stared back, his shock slowly giving way to a quickening interest. “I’m not surprised he was upset! He was right when he said the throat was cut – her head’s almost off her shoulders!”
They carefully carried the figure a few yards away from the hedge and set it down on the snow-covered grass. Slowly shaking his head, Simon stood, hands on hips, while Baldwin knelt and studied the body carefully. The bailiff stared down at the sad little collection of cloth and flesh, thinking how pathetic it looked, this sorry little mass that had been a person – if only a villein. He was still staring when Baldwin rose.
“Whoever did this wanted to make sure. As Cottey said, she couldn’t have done this to herself.”
Looking down, Simon could see what he meant. The bones were still co
“Simon, come and look at this!”
His eyes snapping open, Simon turned and strode away from the body towards the hedge where the knight crouched. At his approach, Baldwin stood, and Simon was surprised to see his puzzled frown. “What is it?”
“Do you see anything strange here?”
The bailiff swallowed. His stomach was still turbulent after his shock, and he was in no mood to play games. He opened his mouth to give a sharp retort when he saw the pensive concentration in the knight’s eyes. The words were stopped in his throat and he felt his gaze drop to the area where they had found the body.
Where she had lain, her image remained on the grass and earth. Snow bounded the lines of her legs. None had fallen under her, nor had the frost touched the ground. Apart from some twigs and flattened leaves, he could see nothing. Shrugging he looked up at the knight questioningly. “She was obviously lying here before it snowed,” he hazarded.
“Maybe I’m…” Baldwin broke off, then span and stomped back to the body. Reluctantly the bailiff followed.
Although he tried to avert his eyes, Simon found that they kept returning to the hideous wound, and his belly began to feel like a cauldron of stew on a fire, bubbling and thickening, making him belch. The bile rose to sting his throat, and he winced at the rough acidic taste. The corpse seemed to hold no fears for the knight, who took the head in both hands and turned it first one way, then the other, peering into the gash and at the yellowed cartilage of the severed pipes. He stared at the blue, pinched and drawn features, into the unseeing misty eyes, before rising again and frowning down, slowly walking round the body and contemplating it with his head on one side.
“I saw this woman on Saturday,“ he said softly. ”I didn’t know her name then. She was just some old woman on the road. I’ve never even spoken to her, and now I must find out who murdered her.“ He stopped his musing and looked up at Simon. ”Sad, isn’t it?“
“Oh… yes.”
The knight gave a short grin. “That’s not the point, though, Simon. Sad it may be, but there’s something wrong here. Can’t you see? She had her throat cut. She must have bled like a stuck pig! So where’s the blood? Eh?”
For all Greencliff’s nervousness, Ta
The old constable had seen many corpses in his life, brutally wounded figures after a battle, men who had bled to death after their limbs were hacked off or who suffered slow and painful deaths from stabs to the stomach, and the sad, tortured bodies of the people that tried to cross the moors in bad weather. For him, they were the worst, their hands contorted into grasping claws as they tried to drag themselves those few extra yards to safety, their faces twisted and staring with anguish, even in death. He was understanding of people who were revolted by the sights, although he bore them with equanimity, but he was faintly surprised that Greencliff should be so calm in the face of his previous apparent fear.
It was when they reached the hedge that led to the road that he realised he was wrong. Greencliff went up the incline first, stumbling backwards. At the top he paused and Ta
From that moment, the constable kept a wary eye on him. They managed at last to heave the body down into the track, and from there it took little time to toss it unceremoniously into the back of the high wagon. Again, the constable saw that the old farmer did not move. He too seemed petrified. Even when the old woman’s corpse hit the wagon and made it lurch, Cottey stayed staring resolutely ahead, shoulders hunched as if against the cold and elbows resting on his knees.
“Come on, Sam,” Ta
Baldwin and Simon were soon back. The knight mounted his horse and watched as Simon followed suit, then glanced over at Greencliff. “We may want to see you later – when we’ve had a chance to find out more. You live there?” He pointed with his chin to the longhouse at the top of a small rise. When Greencliff nodded, he wheeled round, checked the others were ready, and started off back to Wefford. By the time they had entered the trees again, he found Simon had caught up with him and was riding alongside.
Smiling, the knight gave him a quick look. “Feeling better?”
“Not really, no.” He was quiet for a moment, then said musingly, “It’s always worst just before you see them, isn’t it? It’s not knowing what you’re going to find that makes it more revolting. Once you’ve actually seen the damage, it’s not so bad.”
“No, I suppose not,” said Baldwin, the smile fading.
“Are you sure about the blood?”
The humour was wiped away like snow from armour. “Yes. She ca
“Well, yes…”
“So too with humans. If she had died there, the leaves, the ground, everything would have her gore. No, she ca
“So where did she die?”
“Where?” His voice became lower and quieter, and he was musing as he continued, “That’s what we must try to find out.”
Yes, thought Simon. And why she was put there, too.
They clattered into Wefford at a little before lunch, and carried the wrapped figure into the i
Walking through into the dark interior, Simon strode over to the benches and sat, holding his hands out to the flames as if in a pagan ritual, feeling the numbness flee, only to leave stabs and prickles as sensation returned. Groaning, he stretched his legs towards the hearth and flexed his toes, grimacing in the exquisite pain.