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…
‘Is it possible she and Bernard are lovers?’
‘What? No! She is much older than he is.’ But he did not look so certain.
‘You are reconsidering?’
‘Thinking of the names she’s called him, how angry she was when she thought he was here with a wife and child.’
‘Janet and Cilla Fuller?’
‘She was soon set straight. Folk know Jack Fuller.’
‘But her anger …’
‘Did seem to arise from more than a healer questioning the skill of another. So yes, perhaps.’
‘What do you know of him?’
‘I think I’ve told you all I know, other than what the gossips said.’ Owen noticed how Einar avoided his gaze. ‘There were whispers about him in Lincoln, on the run from some troubles with men’s wives. I thought that might be why he left. He does not seem a man who can defend himself. Nor does he seem to want attention.’
Owen laughed. ‘He has certainly made himself known here.’ But he thought of the exchange with Gavin Wolcott at the butts, and his reaction to Owen the previous evening. Perhaps being infamous was not his choice. ‘How did you come to be with Asa?’
Keeping his head down, suddenly fussing with the kitten, Einar mumbled something about happy chance.
‘Did you live long in Lincoln? Is that where you are from?’
‘No.’ The kitten gave a little cry at a sound outside. ‘She hears Dame Magda.’
Owen had heard her as well, coming through the shallow water. He stepped out into a soft rain to greet her. ‘Your kitten alerted us to your return.’ He lifted the baskets from her arms as she passed.
‘Have a care with that one,’ she said about the heaviest. ‘It will be dinner for Magda and Einar.’
‘Smells enticing.’
‘Thou art fortunate to have Bird-eye to attend thee,’ she said to her great-grandson. ‘He has much experience with arrows.’
‘How did you know about the arrow?’ Einar asked.
‘Magda will answer thy questions. But first she has much to tell Bird-eye. Wouldst thou step without?’
‘You do not yet trust me?’
‘Hast thou given Magda reason to do so?’
Owen tensed at the flash of anger in the young man’s eyes, but Einar did as he was told. Awkward in his haste to escape into the rain, he barely avoided stepping on the kitten. When he had closed the door behind him, Magda poured warm water from the pot Owen had kept simmering, added a pinch of herbs, and settled by the fire on a low stool. Asking a few questions about the events of the previous night, she listened with closed eyes to Owen’s account, and his thoughts regarding Einar, Asa, and Bernard. And the mention of an Alan.
‘Alan, Bernard.’ She nodded to herself and went quiet for a while, testing her drink, sipping it, still with eyes closed.
Owen rarely noticed the intricate web of lines on her face that mapped her long, rich life. Usually the power of her gaze distracted one from anything else. She had high cheek bones, a long, narrow, delicately arched nose, full lips, much fuller than in most elders, all textured with wrinkles, some deep, most shallow, covering every inch, even her eyelids. A strong face, and beautiful despite being so marked by time. Lost in his own thoughts he started when she spoke.
‘Dost thou trust Einar?’ Her blue eyes watched him.
He considered. ‘Only so far as believing what he has chosen to tell me. The harm is in the omissions. He knows, or perhaps merely guesses, far more about all the troubles of late than he admits, which is why his confusing the names seems important.’
‘Magda’s sense as well. What Magda is about to tell thee must be shared only with those thou most trusts.’ She proceeded to weave a dark tale involving the Wolcott household, Gavin Wolcott’s treatment of Matthew, and Graa’s possible part in it, Lettice’s belief that the fire was meant to kill her for her knowledge of Beatrice’s pregnancy, her fear that Matthew was murdered not only for what they might have tried to hide from him at the warehouse but also what Lettice might have confided.
An illegitimate child. ‘Might they have kept you away so that you would not see her condition?’ Two murders, Sam and Matthew. Both might know too much, Matthew from his wife. Were Guthlac and Lettice meant to die as well? ‘Could they have used Bernard to hasten Guthlac’s death?’
‘Who fathered the child?’ asked Magda.
‘Might it be Sam?’
‘He cared for her, but there was no shame in him regarding her,’ said Magda. ‘Though his wife disliked Beatrice. He was married. Would it not be more likely to be someone who hoped to claim the widow and child?’
‘Gavin?’ asked Owen. ‘But he seeks the respect of the merchants in York. They would not accept his marrying his father’s widow.’
‘A difficulty.’
‘But who else might be the father? Lettice had no suggestion?’
‘That is not her concern. She fears returning to the city. There is no need as yet, and thou art now armed with information that might help thee in finding answers.’
‘Might I speak with Lettice?’
Magda slowly shook her head. ‘Nor wouldst thou learn more.’
‘Is there anything else I should know? What of Asa’s beating?’
‘Beating?’ Magda looked surprised. ‘Again?’
Owen told her what little he knew.
‘Magda had not heard. Have a care with Asa. She would find satisfaction in ruining thee.’
He knew that, yet to have Magda warn him gave him pause. ‘Do you have any sense of what Bernard might be to her?’
‘He is said to use bleeding for most complaints. It might be all he knows. Perhaps he sought Asa’s advice. She does have a way of turning friends to enemies. But she has said little to Magda, and nothing of him.’ She glanced toward the door. ‘Twig should be here by now.’ When Owen told her why he was not, she agreed that he should be with his mother. ‘Einar will be here today.’
‘And tomorrow?’
‘Unless he tells Magda all that he knows she will send him back to Old Shep’s.’ She rose. ‘Thou hast much to do. It was good of thee to see to the wound and sit with him through the night. But the city needs thee.’
‘The troublemakers might return. Would you accept one of my men to guard you?’
‘There is no need. Magda will not be harmed.’ She smiled. ‘Her dragon protects her.’
He remembered how it had seemed the dragon had reached down to Einar. ‘Does he protect Einar as well?’
‘She,’ Magda corrected him. ‘Why dost thou ask?’
He described what he thought he had seen, and her warmth today.
‘That is good,’ she said, softly, as if to herself.
‘I did see that?’
‘If so, it was through thy third eye.’ She touched the middle of his forehead. ‘Not this one.’ She tapped above his good eye. ‘Now it is time for thee to go.’ She led him to the door, calling to Einar as Owen stepped out into the rain.
Einar came round from beneath the eaves and thanked Owen for all he had done. ‘If you see Brother Michaelo, will you tell him I will return to assist him tomorrow?’
Owen glanced at Magda. Had Einar overheard her ultimatum? But she did not seem bothered. ‘I will.’
In the shop, Lucie and Jasper dispensed a dizzying assortment of plague remedies beyond anything they recommended, from pig’s intestines and toads to powdered gems to noxious combinations of herbs and roots. The morning had revealed more red crosses on doors. Owen waited in the apothecary workshop, gauging when Lucie would have a moment to speak to him. Damp from the rain, he was eager to settle for a moment by the kitchen fire and share what he had learned while it was all fresh in his mind. But his hopes were dashed when he heard a man describing the wounds his wife had suffered in early morning as she left a birthing and was beaten in the street.