*True, my lord.'

*Have you taken any steps to retrieve your gold elephants?'

*We've prayed day and night,' explained the abbot, *and we've made a few inquiries of our own but without success. When the crime was first reported, I wanted to go in search of the malefactor myself but my bones are too brittle. It's thirty years since I left this abbey and I'll not step outside its walls again.'

*Somebody ought to,' said Ralph. *When property is stolen, it's your duty to alert the sheriff so that he can apprehend the thief.'

*But we've no idea who that thief is.'

*I thought you told us that you had your suspicions.'

*We do, my lord. Or, to be more exact, Brother Joseph does.'

*Brother Joseph?'

*The sacristan.'

*A sacristan looks after the contents of the abbey church,' said Daniel, helpfully. *The vestments, linen, robes, banners, gold and silver plate, and the vessels of the altar.'

*Did he keep those elephants under lock and key?'

*Some of the time,' replied the abbot, wheezing slightly. *On other occasions, all our treasures are on display so that the holy brothers can draw strength from them. Brother Joseph had arranged them in the church when the traveller came to stay.'

*Traveller?'

*He was exhausted from a long ride, he said, and begged a night's rest in the guest lodging. The hospitaller naturally took him. Next morning, the man left early. It was only after he'd gone that Brother Joseph discovered that the elephants were missing.'

*Why didn't you give chase at once?' said Ralph.

*We had no notion which road he'd taken, my lord. Besides, it might just have been a coincidence. The traveller may have been innocent. The thief could have been someone else altogether. Even a" though I dread to think it a" one of our own.'

*Did this mysterious traveller give a name, Father Abbot?'

*Oh, yes. One that we all grieve to remember.'

*What was he called?'

*Starculf,' said the old. *Starculf the Falconer.'

Their friendly manner slowly helped to weaken her reserve. When he had recounted the details of the murder, Gervase was invited into Olova's hut with Eustace Coureton. It was a large, rectangular building, its thatched roof supported by wooden pillars sunk into the ground and its walls made up of overlapping timbers, cut to size and trimmed to uniform smoothness. The interior was divided by vestigial screens into three bays, two of which contained beds. Some rough benches provided seating in the central bay. Cooking implements stood beside the slow fire over which a pot was suspended. Steam curled up lazily into the air. Competing smells of fish, smoke, animal skin and general mustiness filled their nostrils. Squatting on the one chair in the room, Olova indicated a bench. She watched her visitors shrewdly as they sat down. Her tears had been wiped away now and bitterness had returned.

*Hermer the Steward was a monster,' she said. *We'll not mourn him.'

*Why do you despise him so much?' asked Gervase.

*He drove me off land that I inherited from my husband.'

*Only because he was ordered to do so by the lord Richard. Hermer was simply his agent. He obeyed orders.'

*No,' corrected Olova, vehemently. *He enjoyed making us suffer, Master Bret. He did more than obey orders. He humiliated me. And it didn't end there.'

*What do you mean?'

She looked away. *Nothing,' she said, quietly. *It's a private matter.'

*He slighted you in person?'

*It was far worse than that.'

*Go on.'

*There's no point,' she said, shaking her head vigorously. *Hermer is dead and there's an end to it. These are glad tidings and I'm grateful to you for bringing them.'

*Ask her about Starculf,' suggested Coureton.

Mention of the name made the old woman withdraw into herself. Folding her arms, she sat back in her chair with an expression of quiet defiance on her face. Gervase noted the change in her.

*Well?' he said. *Do you know a man called Starculf?'

*I might have done,' she replied after a long pause.

*Did you ever meet him?'

*No.'

*Are you quite certain of that?'

*Yes,' she said, sourly.

*Yet you confess that you might have known him.'

*I heard his name, Master Bret. That's all. Hermer the Steward spoke of him.'

*Starculf was his a.s.sistant.'

*So I gathered.'

*What else did you gather?'

*Nothing.'

*Come, now,' he reasoned. *You're an intelligent woman.'

*Don't try to flatter me. I'm too old for that nonsense.'

*It's not nonsense. I spoke to one of the commissioners who visited this county earlier on. He remembered how well you marshalled your case when you appeared before them in the shire hall.'

*I was only fighting to reclaim what was mine.'

*Fighting against the lord Richard. Except that he was absent from the fray so had to be represented by his steward. You and Hermer created sparks when you clashed.'

*So?'

*Legal battles are not only won by clever advocacy,' he said. *A wise disputant finds out as much as he can about the person who'll challenge him before the judges. It's a case of knowing your enemy. I suspect that you knew everything that could be known about Hermer the Steward.'

*I did!' she said, scowling darkly. *I knew him for the villain he was.'

*What of Starculf?'

*He's not important here.'

*But he is,' insisted Gervase, seeing that she was holding something back. *If he was Hermer's a.s.sistant, Starculf would have travelled with him. You might not have met him in person but I dare say you picked up what information you could about him. It would've been in your interests to do so.'

Olova went off into a rueful silence. Gervase turned to Eustace Coureton.

*She won't help us,' he said, speaking in French. *She claims that she never met Starculf. I'm not sure that I believe her.'

*Press her a little harder, Gervase.'

*That's not the way to get her on our side.'

*No,' sighed Coureton. *I suppose not. She's a fiery character, isn't she?'

*Fiery and determined.' He looked back at Olova and slipped back into her language. *My colleague was just saying that he has great sympathy for you.'

*You're lying,' she said, crisply. *I've picked up enough French to guess at what he told you. Know your enemy. As you suspected, it's advice that I took long ago. One way to know your enemy is to learn something of his language.'

*I didn't come here as an enemy.'

*You're a Norman.'

*My mother was a Saxon like you, my father was a Breton.'

*That makes no difference.'

*I'm not your enemy.'

*You're in the pay of King William. What else can you be?'

*Tell me about Starculf.'

*Why should I?'

*Because it might stand you in good stead when you come before us,' he said, appealing to her self-interest. *Starculf was Hermer's a.s.sistant but the two of them had an argument and Starculf was dismissed. Do you know what that argument was over?'

*Ask the lord Richard.'

*I have a feeling that you might know.'

Olova pondered. *All I can say is this,' she volunteered at length. *Starculf was trained as a falconer but he had higher ambitions than that. He wanted to be the estate reeve like Hermer. Starculf worked himself into the lord Richard's favour and was taken on as Hermer's a.s.sistant. He was good at his job until the two fell out.'

*Over what?'

*I don't know but I could hazard a guess.'

*Money?'

*No, Master Bret.'

*Then what?'

*Women. That was what interested Hermer most, as we discovered to our cost.'

*In what way?'

*That's not important,' she said, abruptly.

*Why should Starculf argue with him over women?'

*It's just a guess, Master Bret.'

*Based on your knowledge of Hermer. Do you know where Starculf is now?'

*If he had any sense, he'd have fled the county.'

*Why?'

*Because the lord Richard doesn't like people who let him down,' she said with rancour. *He wouldn't merely have dismissed Starculf. He'd have hounded him. Beaten him, probably.' Her eyelids narrowed. *What's your interest in the man?'

*We'd like to talk to him about Hermer's death.'

She went silent again and glowered at her two visitors. After collecting another meaningful look from Coureton, Gervase smiled at Olova and changed the subject. *I'm sorry if I said anything to offend you,' he began. *A few more questions then we'll be on our way again.'

*You won't be detained,' she muttered.

*Do you know the abbey of St Benet at Holme?'

*Everyone in Norfolk knows it, Master Bret.'

*Something was stolen from there recently. Something very valuable.'

She bridled instantly. *Are you accusing me?'

*Of course not. I just wondered if you'd heard what was taken?'

*Abbot Alfwold would hardly tell me.'

*He might,' said Gervase, remembering some details he had seen when going through the returns for the county. *Your late husband was a generous man. He endowed the abbey with land. You must have had dealings with the monks.'