“I will need the key,” Bell said, sliding his sword fully back into its sheath and placing both empty hands on the table. “And do you want any other valuables? The candlesticks? The golden pyx?”
“They are not in the chest. I am not such a fool as to keep them….” Guiscard’s voice faded and his hand tensed so that a small bead of red blossomed on the bishop’s neck where the knife pricked him. “Oh, you think you are so clever, that you have tricked me into admitting that I stole those things.” He laughed. “Why should I deny it? I will either be safe and far out of your reach…or dead…very soon. Neither way will lying be of any benefit to me.” He laughed, but not hard enough to move the knife from its position. “Half the pleasure of taking the things was doing it under all your noses. And all of you cared so little for me that you did not bother to discover that my mother had died, so I had a perfect place to dispose of my gleanings.”
“It must have been…amusing.” Bell’s eyes flicked to Magdalene, but not for long enough for Guiscard, whose attention was mostly on Winchester, to notice. “I suppose the whore let you in and out through her gates so you could enter the priory in secret anytime you liked.”
Magdalene bit her lip in mingled hurt and fury, but she had sense enough to be silent. She was entirely too close to Guiscard to want to attract his attention. One thing she was sure of, he would be as happy to kill her as to leave her standing. Then she realized he had discovered he enjoyed killing, and even if he escaped safely, he would not let Winchester live. Her hands tightened on the scarf she held and she twisted it, tears misting her eyes.
“I would not trust a whore!” Guiscard had spat. “Not that one, who will cheat an agent out of his just fee and whine to the bishop about it. She would have run to Winchester the moment I asked.” He laughed again, a little more heartily. “You are all such fools, even the so-wise, so-powerful Bishop of Winchester. I had copies made of all the keys to the Old Priory Guesthouse when I showed her the place.”
The bishop twitched, and Guiscard gripped his head tighter.
“Of course,” Bell said, very quickly. “I forgot you held the keys to that place. But it could not have been so easy to get the key to the priory safe box.”
“But it was.” Guiscard raised his brows superciliously. “It only took a little planning. Brother Knud was a priest, but he has a little secret; he is a bit too fond of little boys. When he was sent to the bishop for punishment, I received the charges against him and offered him the alternative punishment of being the sacristan’s lay brother in St. Mary Overy. Naturally, I came now and again to make sure he was doing well. We talked about his duties, so I knew the days and times when he cleaned the plate. Once I came when he had just begun to clean. The key was on the table. I said I saw he was busy and went away—with the key. When I returned, he was almost finished with his work and I had a copy. If he suspected” —Guiscard smiled across the room at Knud, who had fallen to his knees with his hands over his face— “I knew he would never mention it to anyone.”
“I thought Knud knew more than he was saying,” Bell said. “I intended to question him again, but….”
He leaned farther forward over the table, as if totally absorbed in what Guiscard was saying. He seemed to be putting all his weight on his hands, which should immobilize him, but Magdalene saw how the table cut into his thighs and she realized he was balancing himself against it so that his hands were really free. Unfortunately, Guiscard was no more deceived than she.
“Stand back,” he snarled, and the red bead marking the point of his knife against the bishop’s throat enlarged into a thin trickle of blood.
Bell straightened up. “Sorry,” he said. “I was—”
“You thought you were distracting me by letting me talk and were about to leap on me. You are a fool. I am not. You were misled because I was willing to talk, but I have time, until the bells ring for Tierce. There are several ships in the river that will sail on the tide. I thought it would be safer to wait here, but you are getting too cocky.”
“Ships?” Bell echoed, eager to distract him.
Guiscard laughed once more. “How surprised you look. I have kept myself informed of every sailing on every day we were in London for near a year. Safe is better than sorry, but I am afraid you will make a mistake and I will have to kill Winchester before—” He cut his words off and added quickly, “I would rather get away than kill him. You had better go and order his litter now, and do not warn those in the outer room, either, or call your men. You may succeed in stopping me, but the bishop will be dead before I am.”