The Riverwoman’s Dragon
- Автор: Робб Кэндис
- Серия: Owen Archer #13
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Severn House
- ISBN: 978-1-4483-0563-6
- Жанр: Исторические детективы
Электронная книга - «The Riverwoman’s Dragon». Краткое содержание книги:
When the wise woman Magda Digby is suspected of murder, Owen Archer sets out to prove her innocence in this intricately plotted medieval mystery.
May, 1375. Owen Archer returns from London to find York in chaos. While the citizens are living in terror of the pestilence which is spreading throughout the land, a new physician has arrived, whipping up fear and suspicion against traditional healers and midwives. With the backing of the new archbishop, he is especially hostile towards Magda Digby, the wise woman who has helped and healed the people of York for many years. At the same time, Magda is uneasy about the arrival of two long-lost kinsfolk. Though they say they are seeking her help, she senses a hidden agenda.
Magda’s troubles deepen when she discovers a body in the river near her home – and finds herself under suspicion of murder. Days later, fire rips through a warehouse in the city. Amongst the charred debris lies the body of a man – not burned, but stabbed in the back. Could there be a connection to the corpse in the river?
Determined to prove Magda’s innocence, Owen sets out to find answers – but the more he uncovers, the deeper the mystery becomes…
‘But he might be–’
‘Or I shall.’
‘Yes, Captain.’
The mayor was not likely to rise from dinner until mid-afternoon. Owen would return before then. With any luck the clerk would be out of the warehouse searching for his master, affording Owen an opportunity to look round, catch a worker eager to talk. For now, he headed home.
In the yard of the York Tavern, Bess Merchet called to him from the tavern doorway.
‘See the lass creeping round the wagon to slip into your garden gate?’ she said, nodding in that direction.
Though the day was mild, the warmest day since early autumn, the young woman wore a long cloak and a hat pulled down to cover part of her face.
‘What the–’
‘They are frightened, that is what, frightened to be seen giving their custom to a female apothecary. The monstrous clerics have terrified them.’
‘Is Lucie helping them from the workshop?’
‘She is. All morning. While Jasper sees to those bold enough to enter from the street. Quite a few of those, I must say. To their credit. But it should not be like this. At a time when all are so fearful for their health, it should not be like this. Curse the new archbishop.’
‘I will find a way to convince Lucie to take her dinner with me.’
Bess patted his arm. ‘You are a good husband.’
A man skittered off as Owen crossed to the gate, clutching a small packet to his chest. He disappeared down the back gardens.
Lucie glanced up at the sound of the gate. The young woman had removed her hat. One of Crispin Poole’s servants. Nodding to Owen, Lucie returned to her discussion with the young woman. Owen waited, smiling and bowing to the young woman as she turned to depart.
‘Captain. I pray you say nothing to my master and mistress about my cowardice in hiding my presence.’
‘If you promise not to repeat the offense, I will,’ he said, well aware he would be chided by Lucie as soon as the young woman departed. But the servant agreed, with apologies, and scurried off.
‘Owen.’ The gray-blue eyes were leveled at him.
‘Forgive me, but she was clearly instructed to come to the shop door, not hide back here. Dine with me?’
He expected an argument, but she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before poking her head into the workshop to call Jasper to join them. Following her, Owen saw that the customer he had seen standing outside was the last for now.
‘A messenger came to the shop,’ said Jasper. ‘From Magda. He is waiting in the kitchen. I told him Kate would feed him.’
‘Did he tell you what she wanted?’
‘No. He said he promised to tell you, and that is what he meant to do.’
They found a young man about Jasper’s age sitting cross-legged on the kitchen floor near where Kate worked at a table. He had just raised a spoonful of stew to his mouth, his other hand clenching a chaser of bread, but lowered them and rose with remarkable agility when Owen entered.
‘Finish your dinner,’ Owen said. ‘Surely there is no rush?’
Kate laughed. ‘If you waited until Thatch finished you would never hear his message. I have never seen such an eater! And my brothers can stuff all manner of food into their maws in little time.’
Thatch laughed along with her. ‘Oh, aye, Rob is a one.’
‘They lived below us until his father found work in Easingwold,’ Kate explained.
Owen motioned Thatch over to sit on a bench beside him. ‘I’m of an age when I do not trust myself to rise so easily as you from so low a place,’ he said. ‘Now. Magda has a message for me?’
‘She said the woman you seek told her much that you must hear. Come to her on the morrow, early in the morning. Tonight she will be at a birthing. Einar will sleep on the rock.’ Thatch screwed up his face afterward, as if testing whether he had spoken all he had tucked away.
‘If you see her, tell her I will come.’ Owen held out a penny, but Thatch refused it.
‘I should pay you for filling my belly, Captain. And the chance to see Kate.’
‘You are always welcome, Thatch,’ said Owen.
Telling Kate he would eat with Lucie in the hall, Owen gave them peace.
He found Lucie pacing the length of the long table. She had doffed the white coif she wore in the workshop and shaken out her hair so that it softly curled on her shoulders. Christ, she was as beautiful as the day he’d first set eyes on her a decade past. Turning, she caught sight of him and stopped, folding her arms against her. He had expected anger, but her expression pulled him back to a dark time several years ago after she lost a child in a fall. Sorrowful, haunted.
‘What troubles you?’ As if there were nothing awry. Yet he could not guess.
‘I see their fear. The archbishop has stirred up something ugly, menacing. In such a time, the smallest spark and all might go up in flames. He has lit more than a spark.’ She waved it away. ‘What was Magda’s message?’ A frown when he told her. ‘No hint of the matter?’
Jasper hurried in, sliding onto a bench.
‘I have enough to worry over.’ He was telling her about the clerk in Graa’s warehouse when Kate entered with food, Thatch assisting.
The three fell to the food, hungry after their frustrating mornings. A comfortable quiet settled over them.
‘I shall return to the shop now,’ said Lucie when she had eaten her fill. ‘If folk are too fearful to enter by the shop door, let them see how well they fare with another apothecary.’
That did not sound like Lucie. ‘Are you certain you wish to shut out the frightened?’
‘In this instance, yes. I will not be bullied by the likes of that bloated weasel.’
‘You speak of the archbishop?’
They both turned to the kitchen door, where Michaelo stood, almost smiling. ‘I have come to offer my services in the apothecary for the afternoon.’
As Owen retraced his steps to the warehouse he questioned his distrust of Michaelo’s comments regarding Einar. Or his lack of comment. He had applied himself and done his best to help. He found nothing of note about the young man. Had something humbled Einar? For he had not seemed so bland when Owen first encountered him with Alisoun. Had he simply been judging a young man setting his sights on attracting a young woman who intrigued him?
‘You walk as if you are heading into a storm.’
The comment snapped Owen out of his reverie to find Hempe jogging along beside him. He slowed his pace. ‘Thinking.’
‘I thought you should know that Dame Asa, Magda’s daughter, was assaulted this morning near the minster yard. Early this morning. She went to minister to the poor and was assaulted by a young cleric who accused her of being a heretic like her mother.’
‘Is she badly injured?’ Owen asked.
‘When my man got there the folk who had helped her said she was pushed to the ground and lay there awhile, stunned. The cur who beat her was lying on the ground whimpering. She had managed a few good strikes with her cane while her rescuers held him. I escorted the mewling coward to the dean’s house. No man of God does such a deed, I said. He whined that he heard folk in the crowd whispering about who she was. “Born of the Devil,” the fool told me. I boxed his ears before I delivered him. And glad I did. Dean John sent me away, benefit of clergy. Pah.’
‘Do you know where she’s lodging?’
‘Not yet. And if she chooses to hide I do not know how I will discover it. I think it was her first time to the minster yard. By the Rood, I wanted to beat that holy beggar into the ground.’
As hoped, the clerk had not yet returned with Graa’s response. Indeed, Owen found only a few workers within, none of them the ones he had spoken to earlier. Stepping over to the section that had collapsed, he studied the work, admiring how much had already been cleared away. He said as much to the worker who joined him.