A Murdered Peace
- Автор: Робб Кэндис
- Серия: A Kate Clifford Mystery #3
- Год: 2018
- Язык: английский
- Год: Pegasus Books
- ISBN: 9781681779270
- Жанр: Исторические детективы
Электронная книга - «A Murdered Peace». Краткое содержание книги:
England still in tumult at the start of the fifteenth century, as Kate Clifford finds herself working to prove the innocence of her longtime confidante.
It is deep winter in York, 1400, the ground frozen, the short days dimmed with the smoke from countless fires, the sun, when it shines, low in the sky. It is rumored that the Epiphany Uprising, meant to relieve the realm of the Henry the usurper and return King Richard to the throne has, instead, spelled his doom. As long as Richard lives, he is a threat to Henry. So, too, the nobles behind the plot. The ringleaders have been caught, some slaughtered as they fled west by folk loyal to Henry, and the king's men now search the towns for survivors.
A perilous time, made worse for Kate Clifford by the disappearance of Berend, her cook and confidante, shortly after Christmas. Her niece saw his departure in a dream – he said he was honor bound to leave. Honor bound – to a former lord? One of the nobles who led the uprising? Is he alive? She is hardly consoled when Berend reappears, wounded, secretive, denying any connection to the uprising, but refusing to explain himself. When he is accused of brutally murdering a spice seller in the city, Kate discovers a chest of jewels in his possession. Some of the jewels belong to her old friend Lady Margery, wanted by the king for her husband’s part in the uprising. For the sake of their long friendship, and the love she and her wards bear for him, Kate wants to believe his innocence. So, too, does Sir Elric. And he has the powerful backing of the Earl of Westmoreland. All she need do is confide in him. If only she trusted her heart.
Someone clattered down the stairs. Leif burst into the room.
Kate did feel for him as his eyes widened in horror.
“What is happening? Cecily, I am so sorry.”
“You. You set this up so that they might search my house, you–” She slapped him. Hard.
Holding his cheek, he protested that he knew nothing.
“Sit down and be quiet, Leif,” the sheriff commanded.
Kate motioned to him to sit down beside her.
“What have you done?” Leif hissed.
“Saved you, and your family. Now hush.”
Sir Elric had risen, and approached Cecily. “What sort of person stands by and allows an innocent man to be imprisoned for a murder she knows he did not commit? The sort of person who would then poison the murderer? So that no suspicion would fall on her? The sort of person who would steal money from her own husband? Perhaps hasten his death?”
Cecily had gone quite still. She stood with hands at sides, staring at Elric. But Kate could imagine how her mind was working to come up with an explanation.
Wrawby cleared his throat, said, “Dame Cecily, do you care to respond?”
“The gown– I thought the laundress had ruined it. I’ve not seen it for months. Why in heaven’s name would I know who murdered Merek Lacy? I presume that is the murder of which you speak.” She glanced at Kate, her eyes burning. “You are so desperate to clear the name of your lover. Open your eyes, woman, he is an assassin. To think you welcomed him into your home, with those innocent children.”
“And these accounts that tell the tale of your deception?” Elric asked, lifting a parchment roll from the box. “How do you explain them?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about. I trusted Jon Horner. I saw no need to inspect his work. I am but a woman, sir. I have no head for numbers.”
“So it was all Jon Horner?”
“He– He loved me, you see. He gave me that brooch as a token.”
“A stolen token, did you know?” asked Kate.
“Is that what this is about? I wondered why he asked me not to show it to anyone. He said he wanted to wait until the bans. Poor fool. He thought I would marry the likes of him?”
“You spent much time with him. You were with him the night he murdered Merek Lacy,” Kate said as she tossed the glove onto the table. “I found its mate on the floor of his room that morning.”
“That is proof I was with him? Hah! You think yourself so clever. Had I been wearing those gloves that night they would be soaked …” Cecily stopped.
Kate felt weak with relief. The moment she had challenged Cecily she had wished she might take it back. Berend, Elric, Margery, perhaps even Lionel depended on her keeping her head. Yet she had lashed out in anger. Her heedlessness might have made Cecily more cautious. God be thanked it had not. But only a fool depended on God’s help to correct her missteps.
“If you would come with me.” Sheriff Wrawby touched Cecily’s arm.
She backed away from him, pointing at Kate. “You, of all people, you should stand with me. For years I tolerated that old man’s hands on my body, for years he refused me money of my own, doling out every penny with those palsied hands. I earned the money Horner set aside for me. I earned it. And just when I was free at last, Merek intended to ruin me. I rejected his advances and then he meant to ruin me. What happens when your late husband’s family discovers you poisoned him? he crooned in my ear. The man stank of spices. And who fueled his suspicions? Ross, the old wretch, arranging for his own tomb. Merek thought I had planned that. As if I would waste the money on such a memorial to that hateful old man.”
Leif made a little noise.
Cecily glanced at him. “I might have made you rich. But you proved a craven coward.”
“And when you tired of me?” Leif asked.
“Are you confessing to the murder of Merek the spice seller, Dame Cecily?” asked Wrawby.
“I dragged Jon to the Shambles to finish what he had begun. But he could not do it. Sniveling coward. Merek accused me. He lunged for me. I finished him. You are all so weak. So weak. I am finished with you. With all of you.” She pulled something from her scrip.
At Kate’s signal Lille and Ghent knocked Cecily into the table. A small metal vial fell to the floor and Elric retrieved it.
“Come now, Dame Cecily.” Wrawby helped her up, but did not release her once she was standing.
Leif jerked to his feet as Douglas grasped Cecily’s free arm and the two led her toward the door. “Don’t hurt her!” he cried.
Cecily turned and spat at him. “Craven coward.”
17
A Vigil, a Hanging, and Too Many Questions
Elric insisted on escorting Kate home. Drained of all emotion, she did not argue, though heaven knew he still looked at her as if she were anathema. They walked in silence. Cuddy met them on the pathway to the kitchen, his arms loaded with wood.
“Dame Eleanor and Sister Brigida came for Marie and Petra,” he said. “The mayor – his daughter asked for them.”
Kate crossed herself. “Thank you, Cuddy. How were they when they left?”
“Brave, they were, doing their best not to cry.”
Elric touched her arm. “You will want to be there.” For the first time in what felt a long while he spoke gently, in kindness.
She left Lille and Ghent in Jennet’s care.
“What should I do about Henna?” Jennet asked.
Kate had forgotten her appointment with the cook. She asked that Jennet observe how the woman comported herself, think how she might fit into the household, and keep the food warm for the household to sample when they all returned.
As she and Elric made their way along the frozen ruts on the streets, they said little, nodding to those who greeted them. Much later Kate realized why so many smiled at them, she leaning on his arm – another kindness. Did people not know the mayor’s only child was dying? How could they smile so? But of course few knew about the family’s sorrow. What they saw was a knight and his lady proving the gossips right. No matter. His presence was a comfort, how he respected her need to be quiet with her memories of Hazel, prepare herself for a sorrowful vigil.
In the weeks after Hazel Frost’s death, Phillip worked on the angel statue, guided by master mason Hugh Grantham. Sister Brigida came each day to teach Marie and Petra at home, seeing them through their sorrow.
The Earl of Westmoreland summoned Elric to Raby to answer for his actions, but allowed him to delay the journey until the child’s funeral, deeming it important for his relationship with the mayor of York.
Kate arranged for the beguines to take meals to Cecily at the castle, and she herself went to see her. Now the widow was eager to talk about Merek, how he had threatened to expose her if she did not pay him hefty sums, including his passage on a ship that would take him across the North Sea. Cecily had guessed why Merek insisted she deliver the payment. Lionel Neville would start asking questions – he is a sly one, that Neville, always poking his long nose in others’ affairs – and she would be ruined anyway. Merek had to die. I convinced Jon of that. Pity he proved such a weakling.
Thomas Holme praised Kate’s solution to the problem of Cecily Wheeldon. “You saved my nephew from ruination. What if he had wed her and then she had been hanged for three murders?”
For hanged she was, a week after Hazel’s burial.
“I owe Leif an apology, but what can I say to defend myself? I used him.” Kate was not proud of it.