by Mel Starr
“Sir Simon is Sir John’s youngest son,” I said. “He’ll inherit little.”
“So if there was treasure to be had, he’d be as eager as two penniless squires to grab a share,” Brother Theodore said.
“Those are my thoughts.”
“If Sir Simon is in league with those who murdered the chapman, how will you prove it?”
“I do not know. What I have so far learned might hang a man if he was but a tenant or yeoman, but no King’s Eyre would send a gentleman to the gallows on what evidence I have.”
“Perhaps it might.”
“How so?” I asked.
“M’lord abbot is not popular in Abingdon. Indeed, we brothers take care not to walk alone upon the town streets if we must leave abbey precincts. A jury of Abingdon men might be eager to convict a friend of Abbot Peter.”
“But the Eyre meets in Oxford.”
“Oh, aye, where Sir John and Sir Simon will have friends, and there will be men who have no interest in anything but a bribe.”
“Just so.”
“Well, I have told all I know. You must make of it what you can. I wish you well.”
“Much thanks for your help.”
“’Tis I who must thank you. You said that your fee for treating my fistula would be three shillings. I have no coin, no possessions. Abbot Peter must award the fee.”
“He will not do so,” I said.
“I fear not. He’ll use as excuse that I did not seek his permission for your work.”
“It may be nearing time for vigils. I should be away before the office.”
Brother Theodore stood from his bench when I rose from mine and bade me Godspeed, and when I had departed his cell closed the door softly behind me. I cautiously moved from the guest house to the entry, tossed the cowl over my head, and walked brazenly past the abbot’s kitchen toward the reredorter and infirmary. If any man saw me I wanted to appear as a man about his lawful business, not some skulking culprit trying to avoid discovery.
I had entered the orchard when from the church tower I heard the sacrist ring the bell for vigils. I hid behind the trunk of one of the larger apple trees till I was sure that the monks had assembled in the church. When I heard the sound of the office carrying over the still night air I felt safe in removing my shoes and stepping into the ditch to escape the abbey in the same manner I had entered.
I slept that night in Bruce’s stall, cold and wet, or more precisely, wet and cold, since I was cold because I was wet, not wet because I was cold. I piled clean straw in a corner of the stall, burrowed into it, and wrapped the black woolen habit about me to ward off the chill. Sometime in the night I briefly awoke, and, as if in a dream, a scheme to ensnare John Thrale’s murderers came to me.
Next morn I returned the soiled habit to the threadmaker’s wife, purchased a loaf from the baker, retrieved my sack of instruments from the New Inn, and set out for Oxford. Bruce is not a beast to be hurried, but we crossed the Thames at Southbridge and passed through the New Gate well before midday.
My destination was the castle, and a conversation with Sir Roger de Elmerugg. The Sheriff is an old friend to Lord Gilbert, and I intended to present him with the facts of John Thrale’s death and Amice Thatcher’s abduction, then propose to him a plan whereby the felons might indict themselves.
I am well acquainted with Oxford Castle, even its dungeon, having spent some days there falsely accused of stealing my own fur coat. Thoughts of the coat reminded me that I would be more comfortable this day was I wearing it, and that it was nearly the season to remove it from storage in my chest and place it again in service.
I left Bruce in the castle forecourt, found my way to the Sheriff’s anteroom, and asked the clerk if Sir Roger was in. The clerk remembered me as Lord Gilbert Talbot’s man and immediately rose from behind his desk to crack open the door behind him and announce me. The anteroom was empty of supplicants, which surprised me, as the Sheriff is generally besieged by those who seek his favor.
Sir Roger possesses the most impressive eyebrows of any man I know. He invited me into his chamber, asked my business, and as I told him the tale of John Thrale, Amice Thatcher, and Sybil Montagu he scowled till his eyebrows became a single bristling appendage.
“Those squires are surely guilty of murder,” Sir Roger said when I had completed the tale. “But Sir John will prevent their punishment, unless you find more proof against them.”
“I thought as much, and have devised a plan.”
“’Tis near time for dinner. Tell me of it whilst we dine.”
Sir Roger keeps a good table. His cook presented the Sheriff and his guests with a first remove of aloes of lamb, pomme dorryce, and parsley bread with honey butter. For the second remove there was a fruit-and-salmon pie, herb fritters, and cabbage with marrow. For the third remove we enjoyed a pottage of eggs, capon farced, and a cherry pottage. I must remember, when my business requires me again to call upon Sir Roger, to do so at the dinner hour.
I told the Sheriff of my scheme while we consumed the meal, and he agreed with but a few modifications. Immediately after dinner I sought Bruce, hoisted my overfed self to the saddle, and set out over Bookbinder’s Bridge and past Osney Abbey for Bampton. I arrived at Galen House as the evening Angelus Bell rang from the Church of St. Beornwald, dismissed the grooms who watched there, and sent them to the castle with Bruce.
Whether or not my scheme to seize two murderers succeeded depended upon Amice Thatcher. After a supper of pease pottage she put her children to bed, and I drew benches near the fire to explain what was needed of her, if the squires who slew John Thrale and seized her were to be impeached for the felonies. She was at first reluctant, as would be the cheese if asked if it wished to be placed in a trap for rats, for the plot would place her in some peril. But when I assured her that her children would be safe in Bampton, and sergeants from Oxford Castle as well as grooms from Bampton Castle would see to her protection, she agreed.
This was with some hesitation, but as she considered how the villains had robbed her of a secure future, she became more agreeable to the role she must play. Snares, to be successful, must be baited.
I was a little surprised that Osbert also seemed averse to the plan. It did not concern him. So I thought.
Chapter 15
That night, as we lay abed, Kate told me that Amice had lately shown much concern for Osbert’s care, applying the ointment of pears and moneywort twice each day. I had hopes that the salve would not only help the healing of his wounds, but soften them so that he could bend without opening the scars, both now and in the future.
“She is much concerned for Osbert, and when I told her that he must soon be returned to East Hanney she was woeful.”
“The day cannot be put off much longer,” I replied. “He is a young man and is healing rapidly now.”
“And he has a skilled surgeon to treat his wounds.”
After a night in the straw of the stables behind the New Inn I slept well in my own bed. Following a loaf and ale I sought the castle, found Arthur and Uctred, and told them to make ready tomorrow to travel to Abingdon and there meet six of Sir Roger’s sergeants. Together nine men should be sufficient to capture two felons if I was successful in luring them to their ruin.
I am usually oblivious to the behavior of females about me. I speak and read two languages in addition to my own; French and Latin. But I have never been much conversant in feminine. This may be considered strange, as ’tis the speech of half the realm. I think I am not alone in this ignorance. So if Kate had not told me of it, I would likely not have noticed how solicitous Amice had become for Osbert’s recovery.
Next morn I observed her regard for Osbert. The man was healing well under her care. I would soon have to devise some plan to see him safe from Sir Philip’s wrath, but not that day. One scheme at a time.
Early Friday morn, Kate took Bessie and Amice’s two children to the castle, there to remain in my old bachelor quarters till this matter was resolv
ed. Osbert was enough recovered that he could remain alone in Galen House, although he could not defend it. If the felonious squires did not swallow my bait and instead returned to Galen House, they would have no reason to do him harm.
After Kate and the children were established in Bampton Castle, Arthur, Uctred, Amice, and I set out for Abingdon. Uctred drove John Thrale’s horse and cart, and Amice rode therein, while Arthur and I were once again mounted upon Bruce and the old grey palfrey.
It was important that Amice not be seen returning to her home in the company of three men, so she climbed down from the cart while we were yet a mile from Abingdon and entered the town alone. Uctred followed Arthur and me to the New Inn, and immediately after Arthur dismounted from the palfrey I sent him off to the bury, there to watch over Amice until Uctred, I, and six sergeants from Oxford Castle might join him.
Sir Roger had promised that his sergeants would arrive at the New Inn this day by noon, and he was true to his word. I found the six dining upon a barley pottage, with the crumbs of numerous maslin loaves beneath their elbows.
Their officer, a man of commanding girth and a livid scar across one cheek from some earlier episode of law enforcement, recognized me from Sir Roger’s description and stood as I approached his table. He could surely hold his own in any scrap with miscreant squires, but if the culprits took to their heels some other man would need to chase them down. I noted two youthful sergeants at the table who seemed likely to show a good turn of speed, should pursuit be required.
The sergeants were appareled incognito, as I had requested, with no badge or tunic showing that they served Sir Roger de Elmerugg. I told the fellows to follow, and with Uctred beside me, I walked the short distance to Amice’s house in the bury. I had given her six pence of Lord Gilbert’s coin to purchase barley and pretend to set about her occupation, and when we passed her house I saw smoke rising from beneath a cauldron in the toft. The day was too cool for barley to malt properly unless the water it soaked in was warmed. Arthur leaned against Amabel Maunder’s empty dwelling across the street, and joined our group as we continued down the lane to the road from the direction of Marcham and Hanney.
There I assigned two men to begin the watch for Sir John Trillowe’s squires. I thought it unlikely that word of Amice’s return would reach East Hanney this day, but was not willing to take a chance of being wrong. A sergeant would prowl each end of the lane, occasionally exchanging positions during the day. Four others, and Arthur and Uctred, would conceal themselves in Amabel Maunder’s empty house, which they might enter from a narrow alley behind the row of houses that included the neighboring threadmaker’s dwelling. Two would watch while the others slept. I would remain in Amabel’s house catching what sleep I could while watching Amice’s house with the others.
There was the matter of food for nine men. I approached the threadmaker, told him as much as he needed to know of what was happening upon his street, and offered him three pence each day to feed us. This bid he gladly accepted.
There was but one more thing to do. I did not wish to be seen at Amice’s door, for I could not know who might be watching. I circled behind houses and came upon her as she poured barley into the cauldron of warm water. My approach startled her, even though she knew to expect my appearance.
I told her where guards were stationed, advised her that I would be in Amabel Maunder’s house with the watchers, and bid her continue her work so her actions would be unremarkable to any who observed her closely. I left her with a last admonition: if somehow her abductors should elude our watch and enter her house in the night, she should tell them what they wished to know — that John Thrale found his cache of coins and jewelry in a forest near to an ancient chapel east of Bampton.
Amice looked at me with wide eyes. “Did he so?”
“So I believe.”
“You have not found it?”
“Nay, but I believe the treasure to be somewhere there.”
Arthur, Uctred, the sergeants and I spent the next three days watching over Amice Thatcher. The sergeants thought this good sport, for watching Amice was a rewarding experience for any man. Each day that passed increased my expectation that felons would soon seek her and the knowledge they assumed she possessed.
I was confident that the men who had slain John Thrale, threatened Kate and Bessie, and held Amice captive would learn of her return. Somehow these squires of East Hanney had learned of her friendship with the chapman, and knew also when she was driven from the abbey guest hall. Whoso had told them of these things would not hesitate to inform the felons of her reappearance. I wished this talebearer would make haste. Days grew shorter and colder, but we dared not light a fire on Amabel’s hearthstone, for to do so might give away the ambush.
The third night we watched, one of the sergeants, peering through the ragged edge of the skin which covered one of Amabel’s windows, called for me to come to the window.
“There’s somethin’ movin’.”
All through the previous nights we had seen no man upon this lane, not even the beadle, who kept to more traveled streets.
I hastened to the window and watched for some sign of the movement the sergeant had seen. For several minutes I saw nothing, then, emerging from the shadows, a pale form came into view.
“’Tis a dog,” I told the sergeant.
While I watched a mongrel hound of chaotic ancestry followed its nose from one side of the lane to another, searching for something edible.
The animal’s search amused me, so I lingered at the window, watching as the scrawny beast ambled past my place. The dog had gone perhaps five or six paces beyond Amabel’s house, then, as I was about to turn away, the hound stiffened and turned to look behind. Some sound, perhaps, had alerted it to danger. I followed its gaze and studied the curving lane in the direction from which the beast had come.
I saw nothing, but the dog saw or heard something which caused it unease. It loped away, no longer interested in discovering a meal. I turned to study the lane and saw what had caused the dog to flee.
A lone figure slipped from one shadow to another, hurrying in careful fashion, toward me. Not two? Where was the second squire? Perhaps one remained where the lane joined the main street, as sentinel. I whispered loudly for Arthur, Uctred, and the sergeants to be alert; a man approached.
When the stealthy shape drew near, it hid for a moment in the shadow of the house beside Amice’s dwelling, then dashed across the lane and through the door of Amabel Maunder’s house. ’Twas the sergeant assigned to watch where the lane joined the main street.
“Three men,” he said, “just now halted their horses down there.” He pointed in the direction from which he had come. “One has remained with the horses, the others follow after me. I don’t think I was seen. They will be here anon.”
I told the sergeants to have their daggers ready and kept watch through the tattered skin of the window for a glimpse of the approaching squires. They did not appear.
All we who waited were tense and eager for the capture we expected. When no men appeared slinking about the lane, our taut alertness began to fade.
“You sure you seen ’em?” one of the sergeants whispered to his cohort.
“They was followin’ close behind me… moon is risin’, so I could see ’em plain.”
“Perhaps they are being cautious,” I said softly. “But we are ready for them.”
We were not, not totally. I watched and waited and grew increasingly uneasy. Arthur, Uctred, and the sergeants shared the emotion. I heard them shuffling feet upon the rushes and breathing heavily, anticipating a fracas and puzzled that it did not come.
I believed the sentry when he claimed to have seen two men enter the bury. Could it be they were about some other, lawful business? If so, why leave a third man with the horses? Such conduct spoke of a desire to make a hasty departure. Men who did no felony would have no need to violate curfew, nor would they be prepared for flight when they concluded their business. Sir John Trill
owe’s squires were in the bury, of that I was certain, but where, and what did they intend?
I knew their intent: to seize Amice Thatcher again, or force from her the location of John Thrale’s treasure. I did not know how they intended to do this, and as time passed I became more and more fretful that somehow the squires had devised a way to approach Amice Thatcher’s house unseen.
The alley! Behind Amabel Maunder’s house was a narrow passage, weed-grown and rarely used, which gave access to the tofts behind each house. There was a similar alley behind Amice Thatcher’s house. My approach through the alley had startled her three days past.
The waning moon was now high enough that the pale tower of St. Nicholas’s Church was visible to the south above Abingdon’s rooftops. The added light meant that we could see our quarry, but they also could see us. I had no choice. Because of me, Amice’s safety was at risk. If the hidden felons saw us and fled, and my snare snapped shut empty, so be it.
I told the others to follow and ran from Amabel’s house across the lane to Amice Thatcher’s dwelling. I stopped in the shadow of the house, raised a hand to halt the others, and was about to divide them and send half to the front and the other half to the rear of the house when I heard a muffled gasp. The throat which made such a sound was surely feminine. Arthur and the others heard also, the night being still.
We were too late. The squires were in the house. They had come by way of the alley, for I had watched the lane. We might trap them in the house, but they held Amice and would threaten her if we menaced their escape.
I whispered for the sergeants to guard the rear of the house, told Arthur and Uctred to follow me, and ran to the front door.
I had told Amice to bar her doors, and when I grasped the latch the door did not open. But it did move enough to rattle the hinges and thus speak a warning to those inside that someone wished to enter.
I told Arthur and Uctred to remain at the front door and ran to the toft. The sergeants stood at the rear door, hands upon their daggers and ready for a brawl. I tested this door also, and found it barred as well. How had two men gained entrance to the house? Or did my ears deceive me and no suspicious gasp come from the place?
