Cranston studied the snub, brutish, dead features of one of London’s most feared Sheriffs and walked back to the group.

‘When did this happen, My Lord?’

Gaunt shrugged his shoulders elegantly as he wiped his hands on his blue samite gown.

‘We had Mass this morning followed by a meeting in the Council Chamber. We were all preparing for the banquet tonight. Sir Gerard was apparently taking the air and a cup of claret in his own private arbour when a guard found him like that.’ He pulled a face. ‘Those damned dogs won’t allow us anywhere near him.’

‘If they won’t allow you,’ Gaunt nodded down the garden, where a group of crossbow men wearing the livery of Lancaster were patiently waiting, ‘they will have to be killed.’

Athelstan, standing at Cranston’s elbow, stared at these powerful, rich men. They, together with Gaunt, controlled not only London but the kingdom: their silver fuelled the King’s armies, provisioned the fleet and controlled Parliament. He sensed they were shocked by Mountjoy’s death but quietly pleased to see the demise of a powerful rival, for Mountjoy, a merchant in his own right, had been as power-hungry as any of them. The Regent, however, a man of marble face and steely heart, was fighting hard to curb fury, for his attempt to control these powerful merchants had been rudely checked by Mountjoy’s death.

‘Well?’ Goodman snapped. ‘Sir John, you are the King’s Coroner in the city. Sir Gerard has been murdered and foully so. We know who did it, so get rid of those dogs!’

‘Oh?’ Sir John smiled wryly. ‘You have caught the assassin red-handed?’

‘For God’s sake, man!’ Goodman snarled. ‘Look at the arbour. On two sides is the garden fence, the far side is the wall of the Guildhall and the fourth is protected by the pentice.’

Cranston and Athelstan stared at the long narrow lean-to structure built against the buttress of the Guildhall; roofed with old shingles, this covered passageway connected the kitchens to the Guildhall proper.

‘How could anyone,’ Goodman continued slowly, as if Cranston and Athelstan were dim-witted, ‘enter that garden, stab Sir Gerard and walk quietly away without being torn to pieces by those dogs?’

‘What My Lord Mayor is saying,’ Clifford spoke up, ‘is that the two dogs were Sir Gerard’s constant companions. Mountjoy was a bachelor. They were his wife, children, family and kinsfolk. The only man who could approach the Sheriff without disturbing the dogs is his retainer and steward, Philip Boscombe.’

Cranston nodded and looked back at the arbour.

‘Sir Gerard,’ Clifford continued, ‘was always fearful of assassination. No one here — no official, no alderman, no burgess — could approach him unless the Sheriff had instructed his dogs to be friendly. Boscombe was the only exception. It must have been him. Servants didn’t even hear the dogs bark.’

Cranston walked back. Standing well out of harm’s way, he peered into that blood-soaked arbour. The two great hounds lay at their master’s feet, now and again looking up as if expecting him to waken and call them. They could sense something was wrong and the smell of blood only made them more aggressive; they turned and growled towards the gate.

‘Clifford must be right,’ Athelstan whispered, coming up beside Cranston. ‘The knife couldn’t be thrown. There’s no vantage point for that. And see how deeply it’s embedded, Sir John.’

Cranston agreed. ‘Where is Boscombe now?’ he asked.

‘Protesting his innocence,’ Goodman replied. ‘In the dungeons beneath the Guildhall. Sir John, we are waiting! Are you fearful of the dogs?’

‘Bring me two hunks of red meat!’ Cranston shouted back. He enjoyed keeping these pompous men waiting. ‘And a pannikin of water!’

Goodman went into the Guildhall and they stood waiting, listening to his shouted orders. In a short while a servant appeared, bearing a trencher with two bloody steaks and a pannikin of water. He thrust these into Cranston’s hands, looked fearfully at the arbour and ran back into the Guildhall.

‘Stay where you are!’ the Coroner commanded. ‘John Cranston fears no one. And those dogs are too noble to be killed.’ He walked to the gate and started talking quietly, greeted by the snarling of the dogs. They raised their huge paws and lifted themselves up, their great shaggy heads well above the gate. Cranston stepped back and kept talking softly to them. The dogs continued to bark raucously but then grew silent. They lay down at the gate, looking up at this soft-spoken man holding the delicious-smelling meat and pannikin of water. Athelstan drew closer. Sir John was whispering to the great beasts as if they were old friends.

‘You see, Brother,’ he muttered out of the corner of his mouth, ‘no being, except a human, can ignore kindness.’

He carefully opened the gate. The two great hounds stood still, tails wagging. Cranston whistled softly through his teeth and, taking the meat and water, led both dogs out into the garden. He put the meat down. Whilst the dogs wolfed it, they let Cranston gently stroke their huge heads and fondle their ears.

‘Good lads!’ he whispered. ‘Be good lads for old Jack!’

One of the dogs even stopped eating to nuzzle him. Cranston walked back into the arbour. The dogs stirred.

‘Sit!’

The two hounds obeyed and Cranston, followed by a smiling Athelstan, walked into the arbour.

‘Close your eyes, Brother.’

Athelstan did so and heard the unmistakable yielding sound as Cranston pulled the dagger out of the dead man’s body. Athelstan opened his eyes and stared around.

The corpse had keeled over, lying face down on the turfed seat. A wine cup nestled under the ivy growing up the Guildhall wall and, as Cranston wiped the dagger on the grass, Athelstan realized how mysterious this murder was. Directly opposite where Mountjoy had been sitting was the lean-to pentice or covered walk; the fencing was wooden planks with gaps between, though certainly not wide enough for anyone to throw a knife with such force. The Guildhall wall was an impenetrable barrier and, if the knife had been thrown from the garden, someone would have had to stand at the gate. Athelstan shook his head. Sir Gerard or his dogs would not have allowed someone to stand wielding a wicked-looking knife, and made no protest or resistance.

Athelstan looked down the pebbled path. How it crunched under his sandalled feet. No soft-footed assassin could have stolen along such a path and stood at the gate without sending the dogs into a barking frenzy. He looked up at the buttress of the Guildhall against which the pentice had been built. The only windows there were mere arrow slits and too high and narrow for anyone to throw a knife through them with any force or accuracy. He looked at Cranston who was studying the blade of the knife carefully.

‘It must have been Boscombe,’ Athelstan muttered. ‘That knife was not thrown. See.’ He pointed to the trellis against which Mountjoy had been leaning. The dagger went right through his chest and scored the fence.’

‘Perhaps someone climbed the fence behind Sir Gerard?’ Clifford approached them to suggest.

Athelstan shook his head.

‘I doubt it, My Lord. Sir Gerard was apparently sitting down when he was killed. Such an assailant would have to climb the fence, swing down with the dagger and take his victim in the chest. Can you imagine the Sheriff or his dogs allowing that?’

The Guildmasters, led by Clifford and Gaunt, gingerly entered the small arbour, looking apprehensively over their shoulders at the two great wolf hounds who now lay, sad-eyed, on the grass.

‘Are those dogs safe?’ Gaunt muttered.

‘Oh, yes,’ Cranston replied absentmindedly. ‘They know something’s wrong but they do not see us as hostile.’ He snorted with laughter. ‘Though perhaps we are. One person here definitely is.’ Cranston stared around. ‘I am Sir John Cranston, King’s Coroner in the city,’ he declared. ‘This is my verdict: I find Sir Gerard Mountjoy murdered by person or persons unknown.’