Free Unhallowed Ground by Mel Starr Page B

nail at Hocktide.”
    The vicar squinted at me from under lowered brows. He understood my meaning. “The missing length Thomas atte Bridge used to hang himself at Cow-Leys Corner? But who then returned what was unused, and why would they do so? Did Thomas require assistance to take his own life? Hempen cord is common stuff. Perhaps this is all mere happenstance.”
    “Perhaps. But I would like to tell the tale to Father Thomas and Father Ralph. They may have insight we have missed.”
    Father Simon agreed, somewhat reluctantly, and directed me to seek his vicarage at the ninth hour. He would send Robert to summon the other Bampton vicars.
    Kate had prepared a Lombard stew for our dinner. This dish is a favorite of mine. Of course, I have many favorite dishes. When came the ninth hour I was better suited for a nap in the sun of the toft than disputing stolen rope, but I had a duty and would perform it.
    I found the vicars seated before cups of Father Simon’s wine at his table. The three priests eyed the cord I had brought with me as if they expected it to strike out at them like a snake.
    “I have explained your wish to speak,” Father Simon began, then fell silent. How much he had explained I knew not, so I began by telling of my unease regarding Thomas atte Bridge’s death. I recounted the evidence, and, when I fell silent Father Thomas spoke:
    “What is it you seek of us?”
    “All know that Thomas atte Bridge was a disagreeable fellow,” I said. “I can name many he has harmed who might have wished to do him ill.”
    “Murder him?” Father Thomas asked.
    “Even that.”
    “Which of these injured folk do you suspect of having a hand in atte Bridge’s death… was he not a suicide?”
    “I have a theory,” I confessed.
    “We would hear of it,” Father Thomas encouraged.
    “John Kellet visited Bampton at St George’s Day, quietly, and departed for Exeter the morn of the day Thomas atte Bridge was found at Cow-Leys Corner. He stayed with Father Simon two nights, and might have discovered the cord hanging in the shed.”
    “But he is now in Exeter, at St Nicholas’s Priory. How could he have taken, then returned, the cord?” Father Simon scoffed.
    “Remember I told you of the mud on Thomas’s heels, and the twin gouges in the mud of the road. Two men took Thomas to Cow-Leys Corner, one at his shoulders, another at his feet. The man at his feet dropped him briefly. Perhaps Thomas struggled and the man lost his grip. Now Kellet is gone, but his partner in the crime remains among us and has chosen this time to return the unused cord, perhaps unaware that it has been missed.”
    Father Simon looked to his servant and spoke: “You said you would seek the stolen cord. Did you tell others of the theft?”
    “Aye,” Robert nodded.
    “Doesn’t mean John Kellet had aught to do with it,” Father Simon protested.
    “But the thief, whoso it was, feared discovery and restored what he took,” Father Thomas answered.
    “Perhaps he did not replace all of his theft,” I replied.
    I lifted the rope in my hand. “This is the cord from which Thomas atte Bridge dangled. Let us lay it and the returned cord out in the street, and see how long they be together.”
    We did so. When Father Simon’s belt, the fragment found on the forest floor, and the piece cut from Thomas’s neck were added to the two longer lengths, the total was twenty-one paces long.
    Father Simon peered down at the segmented cord thoughtfully, his chin resting upon his left hand. His servant stood behind him.
    “Near twenty paces long, you said,” I reminded the servant.
    “Aye; ’bout what you see here stretched out in the street.”
    I coiled the length of rope which had suspended Thomas atte Bridge and handed it to Father Simon.
    “This is yours, I think.”
    The vicar made no move to accept it. I suspect he wished no association with the dead to trouble his house.
    “I have no further need of it,” he grimaced. I shrugged and dropped