The Burgundian's tale

‘What do you want to know?’ Lionel Broderer asked, settling himself in the parlour’s second armchair, opposite mine. (Good furniture, I noted admiringly, comparing it with my own somewhat ramshackle possessions. Whatever faults Judith St Clair might have, she had not stinted on her foreman’s wages.)

I recited as briefly as I could what I had learned from Timothy Plummer: the circumstances that had shaped the present household in the Strand, and also those which had brought Fulk Quantrell from Burgundy some months ahead of his royal mistress. ‘I was told that Mistress St Clair grew very fond of him.’

Lionel’s mouth had thinned to an almost invisible line. His face was bleak. ‘I’ve never seen anyone become so completely enslaved in so short a time. Oh, he was a handsome devil, all right. And it wasn’t just Judith who was a victim of his charm. All the women seemed to go down before him like ninepins. Alcina — that’s Alcina Threadgold, Judith’s stepdaughter from her second marriage — was as good as betrothed to Brandon Jolliffe, but once she’d clapped eyes on Fulk, poor old Brandon thought himself lucky if she so much as gave him the time of day.’ Lionel spoke with a bitterness that made me eye him suspiciously. Did he harbour secret feelings for Alcina?

‘Who’s Brandon Jolliffe?’ I asked.

‘The son — the only child — of Lydia and Roland Jolliffe. They’re friends of Godfrey St Clair and live in the Strand, next door to him and Judith.’

‘They weren’t happy then with Fulk’s arrival?’

Lionel looked even grimmer. ‘Well, Roland Jolliffe certainly wasn’t. But if you ask me, it wasn’t simply on account of his son being jilted.’ I raised my eyebrows and he went on, ‘I’ve always suspected — although I’ve no proof, you understand — that there was more than common friendship between Fulk and Mistress Jolliffe.’

‘You mean she was his mistress?’

‘I’m not saying that. But I’m very sure she would have been willing enough had he asked her. I’ve seen the way she looked at him when she thought her husband wasn’t watching.’

‘And you think Roland Jolliffe suspected his wife’s feelings for this Fulk Quantrell?’

‘I can’t be certain, but I shouldn’t be at all surprised. He’s not nearly such a blockhead as people take him for. Not nearly so complaisant, either.’

‘A jealous husband then, you reckon?’

Lionel nodded. ‘Roland Jolliffe’s one of those big, quiet men who doesn’t say much about anything. Doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, as the old saw goes; but he’s devoted to Lydia. And he’s the sort who’d never blame her if she ever did play him false. In his eyes she’d have been seduced, led astray, by the man.’

I smiled. ‘You seem to know a lot about someone who, according to you, doesn’t say much or show his emotions.’

‘I keep my eyes and ears open,’ Lionel retorted briskly. ‘I know, for instance, that there were quarrels between the two women, Alcina and Lydia Jolliffe.’

‘About Fulk?’

‘That would seem the obvious answer. They were quite friendly before he arrived — well, as friendly as a girl of eighteen and a woman of forty are likely to be. But after a few weeks of his company, whenever they were in a room together it was worse than a couple of cats tied up in a sack.’

‘What about Mistress St Clair? Did she notice nothing of all this?’

Lionel paused to scratch himself in various intimate places. The warmth of the afternoon was making his fleas active. Mine began hopping about in sympathy.

‘Judith was so besotted by her nephew that even if she did notice, she didn’t care. He could do no wrong in her eyes.’

‘And her husband and stepson? What were their feelings, do you know?’

My companion gave a short bark of laughter. ‘They didn’t like it. Of course they didn’t! Especially Jocelyn. When Judith married his father, she more or less adopted him, just as she had Alcina. They were her co-heirs and she treated them as if they were her own. Mind you,’ he added reflectively, ‘Alcina may have had her nose put out of joint. She was sixteen when Judith married Godfrey two years ago, and she’d been the only heir since she was eight. But if she resented Judith’s adoption of Jocelyn, she never showed it. In fact, the pair of them seem to be the greatest of friends — more like brother and sister than many true siblings.’ Lionel pursed his lips. ‘Although I fancy that doesn’t please Godfrey. I feel sure he’d like them to marry, then they and their children would inherit all Judith’s money when she dies. He was always complaining that Alcina is far too good to throw herself away on Brandon Jolliffe.’

‘So Fulk Quantrell proved a stumbling block to his plans, as well?’

Lionel shrugged. ‘Possibly, if I’m right about what he wants. And I think I am. Alcina made no secret of her passion for Fulk.’

There was a moment or two’s silence. Then I asked abruptly, ‘And you? What grudge did you bear him? Surely you expected to inherit something if your father’s cousin should die?’