A Twisted Vengeance
- Автор: Робб Кэндис
- Серия: A Kate Clifford Mystery #2
- Год: 2017
- Язык: английский
- Год: Pegasus Books
- ISBN: 9781681774756
- Жанр: Исторические детективы
Электронная книга - «A Twisted Vengeance». Краткое содержание книги:
As the fourteenth century comes to a close, York seethes on the brink of civil war – and young widow Kate Clifford, struggling to keep her businesses afloat, realizes that her mother is harboring a dangerous secret…
1399. York is preparing for civil war, teeming with knights and their armed retainers summoned for the city’s defense. Henry of Lancaster is rumored to have landed on the northeast coast of England, not so far from York, intent on reclaiming his inheritance – an inheritance which his cousin, King Richard, has declared forfeit.
With the city unsettled and rife with rumors, Eleanor Clifford’s abrupt return to York upon the mysterious death of her husband in Strasbourg is met with suspicion in the city. Her daughter Kate is determined to keep her distance, but it will not be easy – Eleanor has settled next door with the intention of establishing a house of beguines, or poor sisters. When one of the beguines is set upon in the night by an intruder, Kate knows that for the sake of her own reputation and the safety of her young wards she must investigate.
From the first, Eleanor is clearly frightened yet maintains a stubborn silence. The brutal murder of one of Eleanor’s servants leads Kate to suspect that her mother’s troubles have followed her from Strasbourg. Is she secretly involved in the political upheaval? When one of her wards is frightened by a too-curious stranger, Kate is desperate to draw her mother out of her silence before tragedy strikes her own household.
Kate took her firmly by the arm and guided her out through the starlit garden to the kitchen. For Griffin’s benefit. He should hear what Nan had to say for herself. She indicated a bench near the door. “Sit down. Now. You thought what? Was it this Robin who frightened Sister Dina? Were you expecting him to return tonight? To finish what he’d begun?”
“No. No, I …” Nan began to cry. “I fear something terrible has happened to him.”
Griffin stepped out from the small bedchamber, shielding his eyes from the sudden light. “Who is Robin?”
“Tell us all, Nan. All of it,” said Kate. “Who is he? Where does he lodge?”
Nan drew her scarf round her. “I don’t know. I’ve no idea where he lives. He comes to Mother’s house. Always there. So that I can keep watch while my brothers and sisters sleep up above.” Kate glanced up at the doorway, where her mother now stood. “He is gentle with me.”
“Oh, no doubt,” Eleanor muttered.
“Peace, Mother,” said Kate. The brash young maidservant from the Martha House had crumpled before her eyes – the yearning in her voice, the trembling hand clutching the scarf. “Where did you meet him?” she asked.
“At market. He said he noticed me. Couldn’t stop thinking about me.” Tears welled up. “He said I was a bright bauble of a woman and I inspired him to mend his ways.”
“Was it he who came last night?”
Nan shook her head. “I don’t know. He did not come to me last night. I waited at home – my mother’s house. Waited and waited.”
Kate found a pitcher of water and filled a wooden bowl for Nan, handing it to her as she settled beside her. “Drink. Calm yourself.”
Sniffs.
“You betrayed us,” said Dame Eleanor.
“No!”
Griffin offered Eleanor a chair, but she shook her head.
Sitting beside Nan, Kate asked gently, “You said ‘mend his ways.’ What are his sins?”
“Naught but that he wants me. I cannot think what an honest, hardworking man would want with me.” She plucked at her colorful skirt, touched the comb in her hair. “He has the coin for these pretty things, but where he earns it, and how, he will never say. ‘What you don’t know cannot harm you, eh, my Nan?’ he says.”
So he is a thief, thought Kate. What might he think worth stealing in the kitchen of a Martha House? “What did you tell him about the Martha House, Nan? Why would he be in the kitchen?”
A hurt expression. “Do you think I sent him here? Why would I do such a thing?”
“I mean no such thing, Nan. I merely wonder whether you might have mentioned something of value in the house, and he might have bragged of the fine establishment in which his lady worked, eh?”
Nan shook her head. But she would not look at Kate. Was that significant?
“He might be hurt,” Nan whimpered. “Sister Dina was bloody, they say. And her dagger is missing.”
“That is true,” said Kate. “And we must find him so that he can receive proper care. What might he have been after here in the kitchen?”
“The key,” Nan whispered.
“To what?”
“The main house. Dame Agnes hid it here. I might have said … I might have said so many things. I love him. I wanted him to know what fine, holy women employ me. I am trusted. I can be trusted. Only that’s not true. Not true!” She covered her face with her hands and sobbed.
Eleanor stepped forward with a hand up. Kate knew that look, that posture. She meant to slap Nan to stop her crying.
“Mother, if you touch her, you will have no more help from me,” Kate said.
The hand hovered. Then Eleanor dropped it to her side. “It still stinks of blood in here.”
Nan’s sobs grew louder.
“God have mercy,” Eleanor whispered. “It is best I leave you to your work.” She withdrew.
Kate watched her mother cross the garden and step into the hall, closing the door behind her. The set of her shoulders, her bowed head, bespoke defeat.
With a sigh, she looked up at Griffin, who leaned against the wall. “What now?”
“Go to the hall, get some rest,” he said. “Nan can sleep out here in my bed, where I can guard her. I’ll sleep beneath the stars. I’ve done it often enough. Helps me think.”
He was right. There was nothing more to do in the middle of the night. Kate helped Nan to the small chamber, then dragged herself back to the hall.
7
A Violent End
An angry challenge, a man’s frightened cry. Kate sat up in the dark, confused for a moment, the hall so dark, the bed so hard. Had it been a dream? Someone softly snored up above. Her mother. She had forgotten her mother’s snore.
“Halt!” a man shouted out on the street.
This was no dream. She thought she heard the pounding rhythm of people running. Not so near as Hertergate. Castlegate, more likely. Was it the night watch? Or Griffin?
Rising and slipping on her shoes, Kate felt her way across the hall to the garden door. Opening it, she paused a moment, listening. Men’s voices, quieter now. She stepped out into the garden. The blankets near the kitchen door had been tossed aside, as if Griffin had risen in a hurry. She went round the side of the house, moving with caution down the alleyway as she drew her knife from her skirt. Out on Hertergate she spied Griffin coming toward her, assisting someone who limped badly, a lantern dangling from his hand. In the distance, muffled voices again, then silence. The injured one tried to pull away at the sound of the voices, his lantern swinging wildly, lighting up shrubbery, the warehouse on the corner, himself. It was Severen, one of the night watchmen. Griffin said something to him and shook his head. They continued on toward her.
“Bloody-minded bas–” Severen cut off his curse as he noticed Kate standing in front of the Martha House. “Beg pardon for waking you, Mistress Clifford.”
She shielded her eyes from the light now aimed at her, inspiring Severen to mutter another apology as she relieved him of the lantern and turned to guide the two men back down the alleyway to the kitchen. Once inside, Griffin settled the injured man in a chair.
Nan stumbled out of her chamber, wrapped in a blanket, rubbing her eyes. “What is it? What has happened?”
“Severen was wounded in a scuffle with a group of drunk soldiers,” said Griffin.
“Soldiers, pah,” growled the watchman. “Cutthroat villains, more like. No livery that I could see. Here to cause trouble, they are. I say if they have no captain here to watch over them, let them camp outside the gates. They want access to the city for drinking and whoring and thieving, naught more.”
While Severen talked, Nan gently removed his hat and brushed the hair from his high forehead, revealing a long gash that bled profusely. She fetched water and a cloth and began to clean it as Griffin asked about the men.
“One of them was far drunker than the rest. They dragged him along.” Severen winced and waved Nan away. But she stood her ground, giving him the eye. He surrendered, sitting back and closing his eyes. “When I called out, they dropped him,” he said. “He lay there as they came at me. Three men, reeking of ale, such cursing as to please the devil himself. Before I had a chance to draw my dagger I was slashed, punched in the belly and kicked in the–” He winced again, this time from the memory, Kate guessed. But he smiled wanly and patted Nan’s hand as she wrapped a cloth round his head. Not so badly injured. “I finally dropped my lantern to draw my dagger, but they were gone on down Castlegate. Disappeared down the gardens, I think, going down along the bank of the Foss, trying to stay clear of the other watchmen, I’d wager.”