A Murdered Peace

Lille and Ghent sat up on alert outside the kitchen door of the Martha House while Marie and Petra questioned Kate about Berend. She did not lie to them, but there was little she dare say until Berend and Margery were safely away, and she did not believe it her right to tell them personal tales of his past. That would be up to him, if he should return to the household. When Sister Dina came to fetch the girls for their fittings, they bid farewell with sad faces.

“We will soon cheer them,” Sister Brigida reassured Kate as she bundled them out the door. “They will forget the moment they see the dresses.”

“They know there is much you have not told them,” said Dame Eleanor when the door had closed behind the children. She’d quietly observed Sir Elric while Kate spoke to the children, her silks whispering as she shifted on her seat to turn toward him though he was not the one speaking. Matchmaking, or just curious?

“They understand much of the world,” said Kate, “but I do my best to protect them.”

“You have done well,” said Eleanor. “Petra tells me she wore clothes more suitable for a lad until you took her in, and that she was not happy about wearing a skirt at first. Look at her now, preening in the mirror.”

Although Kate might have chosen other changes to celebrate, she thanked her mother for the compliment.

“So now that the children are not with us, will you share more with me?” asked Eleanor.

“I will when it is safe to do so,” said Kate.

Eleanor made a face. “You do not trust me.”

Not a safe topic. “I do have a question for you, about Philippa Atterby. Do you recall the name of the suitor she was so desperate to avoid?”

Eleanor perked up. “Is this pertinent to the murders?”

“Perhaps.” It was best to give her mother something. “I trust you to keep this between us.”

“Of course, my dear. But I am afraid she never said, though she did mention a suitor her family had sent away in no uncertain terms.”

“Jon Horner?” asked Kate.

“Oh, you knew.” Eleanor sighed. “The very man.”

“Had she cared for him?”

“I think not. Only in that encouraging him irritated her overbearing father. Surely you do not think she poisoned him? Philippa is a gentle, pious young woman.”

“Yet not pious enough to join the sisters.”

“We did not fault her sincere devotion, only her–” Eleanor frowned down at her hands. “We all believed that she would regret her decision as soon as she knew the suitor she so disliked was safely married to another. Impetuous youth. And now she is betrothed to a man she believes will make her quite content.”

“You have spoken to her?”

“She visits often, joining us in morning or evening prayers. In fact she will be with us tomorrow in the Candlemas procession. You will meet her.”

Now that was a piece of good fortune. “She need know nothing of this conversation,” said Kate.

“Of course!” Eleanor’s eyes shone as she asked in a conspiratorial whisper, “So Jon Horner did not poison himself? Do you believe Merek’s murderer came after him as well? The girls would tell me nothing.”

Kate bristled at the picture of her mother plying the children with questions when she knew they would have been instructed to say nothing. But she was a fool to be surprised. Best to tell her mother what it was safe for her to know and prevent another attempt.

“Might I tell her what we learned today?” she asked Elric, more to warn him than because she felt she needed his permission.

“I think it advisable,” he said, bowing to Eleanor. “You and your beguines go about the city seeing to the elderly and the infirm, you might have heard something you did not know to be of importance.”

Choosing with care just how much she shared with her mother, Kate repeated Skulker’s account of the night of Merek’s murder.

Eleanor listened with interest. “And Trimlow the baker? Did this lad see him out and about that night?”

Kate explained why she thought it quite unlikely that Trimlow witnessed anything at all.

“To lie about Berend, such a good man! I hope my nephew sees that Trimlow is run out of the city when he is mayor. But how did you learn of that?”

Kate explained how Bess Merchet had helped them.

Eleanor’s eyes had widened with surprise at the name. “Bess Merchet. Now there is a woman I would not wish to cross. Well, if she has seen through Trimlow, she will make certain that he never forgets his transgression.” A satisfied sniff. “So Jon Horner murdered Merek and then went home and took poison?” She sat back, frowning. “Do you believe that, either of you? It does not seem likely to me, a man who took great care with his appearance. Would he have taken his life so that he would be discovered in such a disgusting condition, the contents of his stomach soiling his face, his clothes …”

“How did you hear such detail?” Kate asked.

“Goodwife Tibby told Sister Clara. She delivered Tibby’s sister’s baby. You see? You should make it a point to confer with me on such matters. We hear much. But why are you so keen about all this, Katherine? Now that you can clear Berend’s name, what is the purpose?”

Well might she ask. It was a sense of unease. Merek and Horner dead, Lionel so badly injured, and someone still on the loose, someone who had silenced Horner. Would he seek to silence Lionel as well? “There is a murderer at large in the city, and the sheriffs are happy to call Horner’s death self-inflicted and be done with it.”