Read Online Masques of Gold by Roberta Gellis - Free Book Online

‘poor child’—”
    â€œI left her fast asleep,” Justin interrupted, “but I am sure it would do her good if you would visit her later in the day.”
    Adela nodded and murmured that Justin would be a most welcome guest. He doubted he would be, but with a glance at Goscelin, she left the room. Justin began to protest the invitation to stay, mentioning his need to discover if any carts had been stopped at the gates. Goscelin waved the protest away, saying he would send a messenger to make a round of the gates, whereupon Justin confessed that he had little hope of finding young Peter and Edmond there.
    â€œYou think them still in the city?” Goscelin asked.
    â€œThat is possible,” Justin allowed, “and if they are we will find them sooner or later, but I think they might have made off by boat, in which case they could have escaped us for good, and I was too stupid to think of that.”
    Goscelin shook his head. “It would have done you no good, even if the first thing you did was send a man-at-arms down to the dock. Unfortunately the boy Madame Lissa sent did not tell my servant that Flael was dead. Perhaps he was afraid or perhaps she told him to speak only to me. In any case, my servant did not tell me the boy was waiting until I had finished breaking my fast. I will admit at once, before you can think of it yourself, that by the time I sent for you, it would have been too late to catch them.”
    â€œPerhaps so,” Justin said wryly, “but perhaps not. It is not so easy to get a horse and cart through those streets, and no boat would take them aboard before the catch of fish was unloaded. If I had arrived at the house with all my wits working—”
    â€œIn any case, I am sure the sons are not guilty,” Goscelin insisted. “Young Peter and Edmond would not have harmed their father. In the name of God, why should you suspect them?”
    â€œI suppose because they ran,” Justin said, moving to the chair at which Goscelin gestured, and when the alderman had seated himself too, he began to tell Goscelin about Peter de Flael’s death.
    â€œHe was tortured after he was dead!” Goscelin exclaimed. “And none of the wounds could have killed him?”
    Justin shrugged and nodded. “So I believe. I hope the brothers from Bartholomew’s Hospital will find some answer to how he died when they prepare the body for burial.”
    â€œFlael was an old man and not a brave one,” the alderman remarked thoughtfully. “Could it be that he was not murdered at all, but died of fright?”
    â€œThat is murder to me,” Justin stated, and after a moment, Goscelin sighed and nodded, and Justin gave him a summary of what Lissa had said and the servants’ evidence.
    â€œDo not let yourself be led astray by the boy Witta’s feelings,” Goscelin said. “Flael was a good father, and his sons truly loved him. He was not ungenerous to them. I do not know why they ran away, but I would guess—”
    â€œYou do not think they fled with the strongboxes because they feared the new wife had supplanted them in their father’s affections and seduced the old man into making a will that excluded them?”
    â€œNo,” Goscelin said, his shrewd eyes hard. “I did some business with Flael just before his marriage and spoke to him after he and his wife returned from Canterbury. I do not know why he married Heloise Bowles, but it was not for love. I am certain it was some business arrangement.”
    â€œA business arrangement with William Bowles?” Justin asked with raised brows.
    â€œNo,” Goscelin replied, frowning, “although Bowles is rich, richer than he allows to show, and I think he has FitzWalter’s ear. Still, Flael was, I am sure, too clever to want any permanent connection with Bowles himself. But the girl has uncles in the Hanse—”
    Before Goscelin could finish the