He tapped Robin's shoulder where the dirk was hidden.
'Remain alert. Don't draw your weapon unless you have to. If you do ... only use it in defence.'
They reached the barn and secured their horses to the rail. Roger Knowles was inside, sitting at a makeshift table. He had six retainers. Two looked like clerks and the others were in military uniforms. Robin took comfort from their big bellies and flabby jowls. Roger looked up in mock surprise.
'Harald Gascoigne. What are you doing here?'
The mole glared back at him.
'Roger Knowles. I am here to inform you that you are trespassing on my land and attempting to hold an illegal assembly in breach of the King's Peace. I have with me these three gentlemen who will act as my witnesses.'
Roger raised his head disdainfully.
'Master Baret is known to me. Perhaps you would introduce the others so that I might make their acquaintance.'
'Henry Winchcombe is chaplain to John Fauntleroy.' The Mole indicated one of the men. 'Sir John d'Alton is reeve to Sir Humphrey Stafford, Lord of Hooke.'
At the mention of Sir Humphrey's name, the smirk on Roger's face changed to alarm. Robin formed a new opinion of the mole. Guy's older brother might look weak with his stooped shoulders and screwed up eyes but he knew how to take on people like the Knowles.
Robin surveyed the gathering. Apart from Roger and his men, only five people had turned up. He recognised them as tenants who had switched their loyalties from the Gascoignes to the Knowles. The mole peered at them through his eyeglasses.
'I must warn you that you are here in breach of the King's Peace and liable to prosecution and confiscation of property.'
One man left but the others remained. The mole called out their names and Henry Winchcombe wrote them in his book. After that it was a shouting match. Roger Knowles tried to get the court started and the mole tried to drown him out. The clerk at the table reached for his pen ready to record the proceedings. That was the signal for Robin to get started. He sauntered across to the clerk and played the village idiot.
'Those are words those are.'
He leant over and smudged the page with his sleeve.
'Oh. Words gone.'
The clerk tried again and his inkpot was overturned. Roger Knowles jumped to his feet.
'Gascoigne. Order your man off.'
'Why should I? He's committing no offence.'
'He is behaving in a violent manner.'
'I saw no violence.'