The Burgundian’s Tale
- Автор: Sedley Kate
- Серия: Roger the Chapman #14
- Год: 2013
- Язык: английский
- Год: Severn House Publishers Ltd.
- ISBN: 978-1-4483-0102-7
- Жанр: Исторические детективы
Электронная книга - «The Burgundian’s Tale». Краткое содержание книги:
Things aren’t going too well at home for Roger the Chapman and his wife, Adela.
Their fourth child has died only days after being born and Roger fails to conceal his feelings of relief at having one less mouth to feed. Adela naturally resents his attitude and their bitter arguments become increasingly commonplace. Roger decides that to maintain harmony at home the best thing he can do is take up his pack and cudgel and once again leave Bristol to trade his goods in the surrounding countryside.
Almost as soon as he makes this decision, he receives a message from King Edward IV’s brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, summoning him to London to assist in the investigation into the murder of Fulk Quantrell, the son of one of the ladies-in-waiting to Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, who is on a triumphant return visit to London. It seems Roger has no choice but to return to the dirty, crowded streets of London, where he soon meets a surprising number of people – royalty, servants and workers alike – who all have a motive for murder.
‘It was going cold,’ he mumbled defiantly, meeting my accusing gaze.
I maintained a reproachful silence and turned my attention back to Alcina. ‘Mistress Threadgold,’ I said, ‘I know that on the night of Fulk’s murder you followed him to the Broderer workshop in Needlers Lane. I also know from Lionel Broderer and his mother what transpired there. After Master Quantrell had spoken to you so unkindly and left, you ran out after him. What happened then? Did you catch him up?’
Alcina shook her head. ‘There was no point. He was in one of his moods. He was punishing me because I had spoken up for Brandon when he and Fulk had come to blows that morning, during the maying. Fulk was very jealous of me,’ she added, her eyes filling with tears. (She had obviously worked things out to her satisfaction. In her own mind, her lover’s reputation had been salvaged.) ‘I knew he’d be off drinking for the rest of the evening, but I guessed he wouldn’t go to the Bull, as he usually did, in case he ran into Jocelyn and Brandon. So it was of no use looking for him there. He could have been in any of the inns or ale houses in the city.’
‘So what did you do?’
‘I came back to the Strand and went next door to see my uncle. I hadn’t visited him for quite some while.’ She grimaced. ‘We … We’re not all that fond of one another’s company.’
When I asked her why that was, she shook her head, but I suspected the reason to be that Martin Threadgold had made no push to protect her from her father when she was young.
‘How long did you stay at your uncle’s?’
‘For the rest of the evening, until it was time for bed.’
‘Even though you don’t like him?’ queried Bertram, spitting an apple pip into the rushes.
She flushed. ‘I didn’t say I don’t like him. “Not fond of his company” was the expression I used. We get on well enough provided we don’t see too much of one another.’
‘What time was it when you returned home?’ I asked.
‘Not late.’ Was the answer just a little too emphatic? ‘It was dusk, but not perfectly dark.’
‘Was anyone about?’
‘Paulina was in the kitchen. I looked round the door and said goodnight to her.’
‘Was she alone?’
‘Yes. At least, I didn’t notice anyone else. I expect Betsy and Nell had gone to bed. They knew my stepmother wouldn’t be needing them again because she had one of her headaches and had taken a poppy-juice potion. I don’t know where William was. Off in some alehouse, I expect. My stepfather was in his room, reading. I heard him coughing. I called out to him as I passed his door, but he didn’t answer. Once he gets absorbed in one of his folios, he’s oblivious to everything else.’
‘How did you get into the house?’
Alcina looked surprised. ‘From the street, of course. Paulina always waits up until the watch has cried twelve; then she goes round and bolts all the doors. It’s one of my stepmother’s few rules – but the one she’s strictest about – that everyone shall be home and in bed by midnight.’
‘And does Mistress Graygoss make sure that all of you are in before she locks up?’
Alcina looked startled. ‘I shouldn’t think so. She’d have to peep into all the bedchambers, wouldn’t she? And I hope she wouldn’t do that.’
‘Has anyone ever been locked out?’ I queried.
Alcina shook her head. ‘Not that I know of. Certainly not Josh or me. I told you: we respect my stepmother’s few rules because she’s generally very tolerant of the liberties we take.’
‘What about William Morgan?’
‘Oh, him!’ Alcina was dismissive. ‘I wouldn’t know. That man’s a law unto himself. But if he ever has spent a night out of doors, it’s never been mentioned.’
‘There’s the so-called secret stair,’ I reminded her. ‘The one that leads from Mistress St Clair’s bedchamber to the passageway outside the kitchen. Where, of course, there’s a door that opens into the garden.’
‘But to use that, even if it was left unbolted, you’d either have to climb the wall from the lane that runs between this property and my uncle’s … Mind you, it’s not impossible,’ she admitted after a moment’s hesitation. ‘There are plenty of footholds on both sides. I’ve climbed it myself when I was a child and didn’t mind hoisting my skirt above my waist. But I wouldn’t attempt it now.’ She smiled primly and cast down her eyes. I had no faith in this sudden modesty.
‘Or?’ I prompted
‘Or you’d have to take a boat to the landing stage and walk up through the garden.’
‘No postern gate or door?’
‘No, nothing. I’ve told you.’
I switched to more personal matters. ‘You were in love with Fulk Quantrell. But – forgive me – before he arrived from Burgundy, I understand you were contemplating marriage with Brandon Jolliffe.’
‘I’m fond of Brandon, yes,’ she admitted. ‘I always have been; but I’ve never loved him the way I loved Fulk. I knew the very first moment I saw Fulk that he was the man I had dreamed about since I was a girl. He was so handsome!’
‘Looks aren’t everything,’ Bertram announced truculently, evidently deciding that it was time to speak up for the plainer members of our sex.
Alcina regarded him with scorn. ‘Fulk had a nature to match his looks,’ she declared. ‘He was kind, generous and loving. He fell in love with me, too, right from the start. He told me so.’
Until he realized he didn’t need you, I thought to myself; until he discovered he could wind his aunt around his little finger and make himself heir to her entire fortune without having to marry you to get your share. Then you became just another source of entertainment to him, my girl, if you did but know it; another proof of his ability to take a woman away from any man he chose …
But I held my tongue. It was not my place to disabuse her mind or wreck her dreams; and anyway, I guessed that Alcina was unhappy enough already without being brought face to face with the truth.
‘Was Brandon Jolliffe very jealous of Master Quantrell?’
‘He was upset, naturally. But he had always been more in love with me than I was with him. There was a time when he was even jealous of Josh, because he thought I favoured my stepbrother.’
‘And did you?’
The large brown eyes opened wide and she laughed. ‘Not in the way you mean. I’m fond of Josh, but I regard him as a member of the family.’
I struggled to recall all the various bits of information I’d been given. Finally, I said, ‘Yet surely I’m correct in thinking that he hasn’t been a member of this family for very long?’
Alcina grimaced. ‘No, he hasn’t,’ she agreed wryly. ‘It’s barely two years since my stepmother married Godfrey St Clair and he and Jocelyn came to live with us. But from the beginning I’ve thought of Josh as my brother. Oh, I’m perfectly well aware that my stepfather would like the pair of us to marry, and of course, looking at it from his point of view, I can see the reason why. It would keep most of the Broderer fortune intact, except for what would go to Lionel, and Josh and I wouldn’t have to share it between us when Judith and Godfrey are dead. But I’m not in love with Josh nor he with me. We’re friends, that’s all.’
I shifted my ground again. ‘Are you fond of your stepmother?’
Alcina glanced at my face, then away again. ‘I suspect that Paulina’s been gossiping, so you already know the answer to that. I’m deeply in my stepmother’s debt.’ She drew a painful breath. ‘My father, as you’ve no doubt been told, was a very violent man. I think … I’m almost sure that Judith only married him for my sake. She must have known what he was like, how he treated my mother, because she’d already been living in this house a year when I was born next door. And, of course, her first husband, Edmund Broderer, had lived here all his life.’