The Wildcats of Exeter by Edward Marston

Author:Edward Marston [Marston, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, General, Bright Dart
ISBN: 9780312253554
Google: mvy2GwAACAAJ
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2001-01-17T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Tetbald the Steward was thorough. He organised a complete search of the house itself and sent men out in all directions to make a wide sweep of the property. When the lady Catherine joined him, she had recovered her composure but had an air of resignation about her.

‘Has the box been found?’ she asked.

‘No, my lady.’

‘Where have you searched?’

‘Everywhere.’

‘Including the undercroft?’

‘The undercroft, the outbuildings, even the stables. There is no sign of the box, my lady.’ He gave a reassuring smile. ‘But nothing else seems to have been taken. That is some consolation.’

‘Is it?’

‘The thief might have stolen your jewellery, my lady.’

‘He might also have murdered me in my own bed,’ she said with a quiet shudder. ‘That is what frightens me. A man was able to get into my house and enter the bedchamber next to mine in order to take that box. What if I had awakened while he was there? What if I had gone into my husband’s chamber to investigate?’

‘It is as well that you did not.’

‘I will never feel safe in that bed again.’

‘You will, my lady,’ he said firmly. ‘I give you my word on that.’

Catherine nodded and touched his arm in a gesture of affection.

They were in the parlour and the shutters were wide open. Dogs could be heard barking excitedly some distance away. Tetbald looked in the direction from which the sound came.

‘Why could they not bark like that during the night?’ he said.

‘Perhaps they did and nobody heard them.’

‘They are schooled to attack any intruders, my lady. No man could hold off four of them. The last time someone wandered on to the property at night, he was all but eaten alive.’

‘How, then, did the thief elude them?’

‘I do not know, my lady,’ he admitted. ‘Unless he fed the dogs some meat that was seasoned with a potion to make them drowsy.

Yet the animals seem alert and healthy this morning. We found nothing wrong with them. It is all very puzzling.’

‘Puzzling and disturbing.’

‘I will get to the bottom of it somehow,’ he promised.

‘I hope so, Tetbald. This has shaken me.’

‘What was in the box that would make it such a target?’

‘I do not know. My husband kept it locked.’

‘And you have no key?’

‘I have been searching for it ever since …’ Her voice faded away.

‘Ever since his death.’

‘Yes, Tetbald,’ she murmured. ‘Ever since then.’

‘It was not in his bedchamber,’ he said. ‘I looked there myself.

The lord Nicholas must have hidden it well. And that means the box must have contained items that he wanted nobody else to see.’

‘Not even his wife,’ she said dully.

‘Especially not you, my lady.’

He was about to reach out to her when the barking of the dogs grew louder. Looking through the window, he saw two men walking towards the house and carrying a wooden box between them.

The dogs were scampering at their heels.

‘They have found it!’ he said.

Saewin the Reeve made sure that Asa left the shire hall before Loretta was summoned. He was anxious

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