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.
“Bless this house,” Kate said as she settled and took a sip of ale. “Come, sit with me,” she said to Marie, who hovered, asking if she wanted anything else. “This is all I need for now. Would it trouble you if I told the others what you told me?”
“Not if it might help us find Nan.” Marie settled beside Kate and leaned against her with a sigh.
Kate kissed her forehead. “Bless you.” By the time Kate was recounting her own conversation with Brigida and Agnes, the child was asleep, her head heavy in Kate’s lap. She stroked the girl’s soft curls, remembering her own relief when a worry had been handed on to her parents.
Berend was nodding. “Friar Adam might be a key to the puzzle.” Kate listened with interest as Berend shared what he’d heard at the camp about the injured man left at the friary and the disagreement among the men who had taken him there. “What did John Paris have to say for himself?”
Kate started with Beatrice Paris and the impression Magistra Matilda had given her that beguines were to be shunned. While describing the unpleasant exchange, Kate noticed Agnes Dell peering in the doorway.
“Is there room for one more?” she asked.
“Come in, Agnes, do. No need to stand out in that chilly breeze,” said Kate.
Jennet was quick to offer her chair, hoisting herself up on a corner of the table near the fire. Lille and Ghent lay on their sides in the doorway. Lifting her skirts, her expression one of mild fear, Agnes picked her way between them. The chair received her bulk with a creak. She blew up on the strands of hair escaping her cap and fanned herself. The woman certainly burned hot. Berend offered a bowl of ale, but she declined.
“I cannot stay long. I intend to keep vigil with Sister Dina tonight.”
“Keep vigil?” Kate assured her that Matt was keeping the watch.
“Not that sort of vigil. Sister Dina is doing penance for all the troubles in our households and more. She intends to spend the night lying prostrate before the altar in prayer.”
“But she did nothing,” Petra protested.
Agnes agreed. “But she sees it otherwise. I’m here to offer my help in finding those responsible.”
Kate thought she understood Dina’s sense of guilt. “We see what she did as a courageous act, but she sees it as a breach of her dedication to God.” She wondered how best she might test Agnes’s sincerity. “Have you an idea where Nan might be? A friend who might give shelter to her and Robin?”
“I fear I have paid little attention to Nan’s prattle. I know nothing about her friends or kin. I regret that.”
She seemed sincere enough. “John Paris gave me the names of the two men he caught helping Robin steal from the warehouse,” said Kate. “Bran and Carter.”
“Bran. The name Goodwife Hawise whispered,” said Jennet.
Noticing Agnes nodding her head, Kate asked if she knew Carter – she’d already denied knowing anyone named Bran.
“I do know a Carter,” said Agnes, “and that he was part of it does not surprise me. Always complaining his work was not appreciated. And he had a temper. He once threatened my husband with a knife when Leonard caught him slacking on the job and reeking of ale. He was supposed to be loading a vessel down on the staithe. I heard about it for days. Leonard would not have him near the house after that, told John Paris he was not to load his shipments either.”
“Did he have any trouble with him after that?”
Agnes shook her head. “Do you remember Leonard? How strong he was? Berend reminds me of him.” Her eyes lingered on Berend’s bare forearms.
Kate remembered Leonard Dell as a man with a temper, loud, red-faced when in his cups, which seemed to be whenever he was home. But in form, perhaps, a little like Berend, without the scars, with more hair. No, it was impossible to compare the two. She simply nodded. “What of Bran? Still no memory?”
Frowning, biting her bottom lip, Agnes shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Were there any other troublemakers working for your husband or John Paris?”
“I knew only the ones who came for the midday meal. A dozen or more, and John Paris never shared enough of the expense. When I was told Leonard had been lost at sea, I put an end to feeding all those men, told John it was not seemly for a widow to have so many men in the house. I sent off the cook – he was none too pleased with being shown the door, but, truth be told, I was not easy having that one-legged letch sleeping in my kitchen.”
“One-legged cook? Did you hear that?” Jennet asked Berend.
Kate looked from them to Agnes, who was shaking her head. “Is he here? In York?”
“Fair-haired, pale eyes?” Berend asked.
“That is him. He calls himself Thatcher. Would never give me a Christian name. Slippery, like Carter.” Agnes looked round. “But what does he have to do with Robin’s trespass? Or Hans? He surely could not be Hans’s murderer. With one leg he’s not likely to have gone down the gardens at night. And Nan surely knows not to trust him.”
“What of the boarders?” Kate asked. “Who sent them to you?”
“John Paris arranged for the boarders, all respectable men, though not wealthy enough to rent a set of rooms in the city. I had no trouble with them. Nor did Nan. They watched her, but I made certain they understood I would have no such trouble in my house.”
Jennet stretched. “Much to sleep on. Looks like I should tuck in the children.”
Agnes rose. “And I must return to Sister Dina.”
As Jennet made to follow her out, Kate caught her arm. “A moment.”
Jennet settled back on the chair.
“We have a name, Thatcher, connected to the soldiers who plucked Robin away from Kevin,” Kate noted.
Jennet nodded. “Perhaps Friar Adam hired a thief he knew to be familiar with Agnes’s house, for the purpose of stealing the Christ child, but it all went wrong, so Robin’s mates then went after Hans, to force him to help steal it?” She frowned at the silence that met her scenario. “I know, but it fits together.” A shrug.
“Why did Friar Adam want the Christ child?” asked Berend. “If he wishes to spread rumors about the sisters, he need only join Magistra Matilda’s effort.” He shook his head. “Or was it Robin’s rescuers, the soldiers who took him to the friary, who then went after Hans?”
“But why?” asked Petra, rubbing her eyes.
“And how would they know Hans had worked for Dame Eleanor?” Kate wondered.
“He talked in his cups?” Jennet suggested.
Seeing Petra’s exhaustion, Kate thought better of more discussion. “It grows late. I think we will all be the better for some sleep.”
Within moments Jennet had Marie and Petra in hand and led them out the door.
When Kate and Berend were alone, she slipped off her shoes and settled on the high-backed chair Jennet had abandoned, closing her eyes. The packed earth floor was cool on her feet, the sounds of Berend gathering ingredients to make bread dough for the morrow comforting.
Her thoughts drifted to Agnes Dell, how humbly she had offered her help. No imperious posturing, her voice soft, her tone beseeching. This night she had truly become Sister Agnes, inspired by Sister Dina’s remorse.
Amends – her mother’s homecoming with the beguines certainly seemed an act of penance. For what? She responded to any mention of Ulrich Smit by slamming the door on his memory – because she was wracked with guilt? She had embraced a work of penance – the beguines, perhaps coming home to be with Kate as well. Perhaps even her fatal interference in her son Walter’s life had been meant as amends. What had she done? And how might Kate discover it without pushing her away?