Corbett leaned across. 'Master Reeve, you are an assassin and a bully. A man full of his own pride who acts to hide his own secrets.'

The reeve paled.

'What do you mean?' he stuttered.

Corbett smiled to himself. The reeve had forgotten the insults he had thrown at him in his alarm at being accused of harbouring a secret. The reeve's black button eyes watched Corbett anxiously.

'Secrets!' he exclaimed. 'What secrets?'

'Your newly found wealth.'

'It was a bequest. A legacy.'

'From whom?'

'A distant relative.'

'Where did this distant relative live?'

The reeve looked away.

'Master Robert,' Corbett murmured, 'I can order your arrest and send you south to be questioned before the King's Bench. Now, you do not wish that, do you? Your wife has recently given birth to a child and you are, quite rightly, an important man in this community. You could spend months in London.'

The reeve looked sullen and bit at a dirty fingernail.

'I was given the money honestly.'

'Who by?'

The reeve sighed.

'I want the truth, Robert,' Corbett persisted.

'A pedlar came to Hunstanton. He brought a message from Edward Orifab, a goldsmith in Bishop's Lynn, saying that he held certain monies for me. 1 went there and was given five silver coins and one gold piece.'

Corbett narrowed his eyes. 'And you didn't ask who would bestow such wealth on you?'

Robert shook his head. 'The goldsmith was most insistent. He would tell me nothing.'

Corbett watched the reeve carefully. You are lying, he thought.

'You are sure of that, Robert?'

'As God made little green apples, Sir Hugh.'

'And your daughter, Blanche?'

Robert smiled. 'She joined the Pastoureaux and left.' 'You seem pleased.'

'I miss her, but I have seven mouths to feed and what could Blanche do? She was too poor for the nunnery and whom could she marry? Someone like Gilbert? I am a poor man, Sir Hugh. Blanche will be happy.'