[Roger the Chapman 06] - The Wicked Winter (22 page)

Something, some noise, was forcing me upwards again towards the light. It was penetrating my senses, making me toss from side to side in the narrow cot, forcing me to sit up, to listen. The sound was coming from above, a woman's voice, screaming with terror. My legs felt like leaden weights attached to my body, and for what seemed to be several minutes, but was probably only seconds, they refused to obey me. At last, however, I dragged myself to my feet and staggered to the dormitory door, to find on opening it that it was now almost dark. I must have slept for several hours and it was nearly evening.

The screaming had abated a little, but already other people were arriving on the scene. As I stood there still somewhat confused, Martha Grindcobb and Brother Simeon rushed out of the back door, closely followed, but at a safe distance, by the three kitchen-maids, all agog with the anticipation of some unnamed horror. Simultaneously, Mistress Lynom and Maurice Cederwell emerged from their bedchambers and appeared side-by-side on the balcony overhead. Moments later Tostig Steward and Phillipa Talke came out of the house, preceding by only a matter of seconds Sir Hugh himself, testily demanding to be told what was wrong. The noise had even penetrated as far as the stables, and distant voices raised in inquiry, coupled with the flicker of lamplight gilding the snow, heralded the advent of the grooms.

'What is it? What's going on?' Sir Hugh pushed his way through the rest of us, who were gathered together nervously at the foot of the steps, and mounted to the gallery. 'Ursula, what has happened? Are you all right?'

The lady, obviously touched by this concern for her safety, unbent a little towards him.

'The sound is coming from the women's dormitory. I think it must be your sister-in-law, Mistress Empryngham. There is no one else in there. But take care! You don't know yet the cause of her distress. There may be someone hidden inside the room. '

I saw Sir Hugh nod brusquely, then stride forward, at the same time calling on the rest of us men to support him. The friar clapped me on the shoulder, urging me ahead of him, but the Capsgrave brothers and Jasper had already overtaken us, climbing the snow-covered steps as fast as they were able without slipping and falling. There was as yet, I noted, no sign of Hamon.

On reaching the women's dormitory, all of us clustering around the open door, we could just make out the figure of Adela Empryngham seated on the side of her cot, whimpering and shivering. Mistress Lynom at once went forward to sit beside her, placing a comforting arm around her shoulders. Sir Hugh lit a candle and held it aloft, its guttering beam illuminating his sister-in-law's white, terrified features.

'There, there, my dear,' Mistress Lynom consoled her.

'Have you had a bad dream?'

The convulsive sobs lessened slightly and the bent head was raised as Adela considered this suggestion.

'I... Oh... Could it have been, do you think? I... I was sure that someone was standing in the doorway... I... I was certain.'

'You woke suddenly while you were still riding the night mare,' Mistress Lynom soothed her. 'There's no one here.

Hold the candle higher, Hugh, and let her see for herself.' The knight obliged, slowly spinning full circle on his heel to reveal that no one was hiding in any of the corners. This seemed to convince Adela that the incident had been nothing more than the figment of a dream, but she was still very frightened, and Mistress Lynom, taking charge, insisted that a truckle bed was set up immediately alongside her own in the guest chamber.

'She must share with me. After all that has happened today, we cannot leave her on her own again, and it will be a few hours yet before the other women go to their rest.' Pressing a hand to my head to stop its buzzing, I stepped forward.

'Mistress Empryngham, this person you saw standing in the doorway, was it a man or a woman?'

She looked at me, confused and bewildered. 'I couldn't see. It was just a shadow.'

Maurice Cederwell, who was standing behind his father, demanded roughly, 'Who asked you to poke your nose in, Chapman? Adela herself agrees that it was all a dream.' There was a murmur of assent from the others.

Nevertheless, I would have pursued my inquiries had it not been apparent that Mistress Empryngham was in no fit state to give any sensible answers to my questions. But as we all began to go our separate ways - Phillipa Talke to arrange for the setting up of the truckle bed in the guest bedchamber, Martha, Ethelwynne, Edith and Jenny Tonge to the kitchen to finish preparing supper, Tostig to oversee the laying of the table in the great hall and Sir Hugh to help his sister-inlaw into the room next door- I touched Nicholas Capsgrave on the shoulder, just as he, his brother and Jasper were about to return to the stables.

'You were one of the first people up here with Sir Hugh.' He nodded. 'Was this closed or open?' And I indicated the dormitory door.

Nicholas hesitated, but Jude cut in, 'It was open.' 'You're sure of that?'

'I'm positive.'

'Thank you,' I said, but when I offered no explanation for my question, they shrugged and descended the steps.

'What was that about?' the friar wanted to know.

'Don't you see?' I whispered as we stood aside to allow Sir Hugh and Mistress Lynom, supporting Adela between them, to pass along the gal!ery to the neighbouring room.

'No one in her right mind would sleep with the door wide open in this weather.'

'So?' Simeon frowned.

'So if Mistress Empryngham had simply had a bad dream, the door would have been fast shut.' I was growing impatient at his paucity of understanding. 'Surely even you can see that!'

My companion bridled. 'There's no need for that tone of voice. You can't expect everyone to think of these things. We're not all interested in solving crimes.'

'Not if it means bringing the criminal to justice?'
 

'"Vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord",' was his only answer.

I was about to remind him of his declared intention to do Sir Hugh a disservice if ever he got the chance, when my attention was distracted. Just ahead of us, Maurice Cederwell had reached his own bedchamber door and pushed it open.

As he stepped across the threshold, from within the room I heard someone ask, 'Is everything quiet now?' It was a man's voice, a voice I recognised. The speaker, unless I was very much mistaken, was Fulk Disney.

I refused, in spite of Martha Grindcobb's chidings, to retum to my cot in the men's dormitory. I was wide awake now, even if my body was aching all over, and in no mood for lying alone in the dark and the cold. I needed warmth and light, although I could have wished for more peace and quiet than was to be had in the kitchen in which to pursue my thoughts. Above all, however, I was ravenously hungry, for very little in those days ever impaired my appetite, and I was able to persuade Martha to find me some black bread and goat's milk cheese which I ate together with a handful of small spring leeks which had been dried and stored. (I subsequently noticed, throughout the evening, people kept their distance from me, or if by chance they got too close, they did not inhale too deeply.)

The friar, who had disappeared upstairs to the chapel to celebrate Vespers, chided me on his return for not going with him.

'You are not as strict in your religious observance, Roger, as I could wish to see you. I trust you're not a prey to any of the heretical views which prevail in so many quarters nowadays. I have heard it said that even the Duke of Gloucester possesses a Lollard Bible.'

'He also has the Imitatio Christi of Thomas â Kempis,' I answered without thinking, and saw Simeon's eyebrows shoot up in surprise at my unguarded comment. Fortunately, at that precise moment, raised voices, one angry, the other tearful and protesting, were to be heard in the passageway outside. Moments later, Phillipa Talke appeared dragging Lady Cederwell's little maid by the arm, while over one of her own hung a cloak of thick, russet-dyed wool.

'What's the matter?' Martha Grindcobb snapped, annoyed by this rowdy intrusion into her domain.

'I've just caught Audrey coming out of the mistress's room carrying this!' the housekeeper said venomously, and held the cloak aloft. 'The little thief!' she added.

'I'm not a thief!' the girl denied fearfully, her eyes brimming with tears which trickled slowly down her face.

'The mistress promised it to me only three days ago. She said she'd never liked it. She said she had no need of it and that it was more blessed to give it to someone who had.' Phillipa Talke brayed with laughter. 'Oh, did she indeed? A likely story! Where's your proof, eh? Did she write her wishes down? Or make them known to anybody else?' Audrey Lambspringe wiped her face with the back of her hand, and then blew her nose in her fingers.

'She might've done.' Her tone was defiant. 'I don't know. But I do know that's what she told me.'

'Liar!' Mistress Talke accompanied the word with a vicious slap which sent the poor girl reeling.

Brother Simeon and I both got to our feet ready to intervene, but Martha Grindcobb was before us. She pushed between the two women, standing with arms akimbo.

'That'll do,' she warned the housekeeper. 'I'll have no brawling in my kitchen. And I won't have you taking your disappointment and bad temper out on the child, either.' She turned to Audrey. 'All the same, you shouldn't have removed the cloak from the mistress's room like that, especially not with her still lying there, cold. Mistress Talke'll have to report the matter to Sir Hugh, so you can tell him then what you've just told us. Depends whether or not he'll believe you.'
 

'Lady Cederwell did say I was to have the cloak, she did!' Audrey declared, the tears starting to flow once more. 'Mine's all worn and threadbare. She said it would keep me warm in the winter.'

'She wouldn't give a beautiful thing like this to you!' Mistress Talke was scathing. 'The master bought it for my lady from a rich merchant in Campden, or so she told me. Before they were married it was, and it must have cost him a pretty penny.' She fingered the rich wool covetously, then glanced at me. 'What do you think, Chapman? You must know the value of such material.'

'It certainly wouldn't have been cheap,' I replied, reluctant to be drawn into the argument. 'It's made of the best Cotswold wool by the look of it.'

Brother Simeon nodded, drawing down the comers of his mouth in an expression of deepest disapproval.

'Wool of that sort would be worth twelve or thirteen marks the sack. Think what could be done for the glory of God and all His works with money like that. Lady Cederwell was quite right to despise the vanities of this world, but wrong in promising it to you, my child. She should have sold the cloak and given the money to the Church.'

Behind his back, Martha Grindcobb grimaced at me, rolling her eyes heavenwards and wrinkling up her nose. To Phillipa Talke and Audrey Lambspringe she said, 'You'd best go to the master at once and get this thing settled. We've enough troubles hanging over our heads as it is, without accusations of theft into the bargain.'

The housekeeper was only too ready. 'I intend to! I don't need your advice on what's right and proper, Mistress Grindcobb! Follow me, girl!'

She and Audrey left the kitchen as abruptly as they had entered it, the younger woman trailing behind the older. I watched them go, my gaze fixed on the russet cloak draped across Phillipa Talke's left arm. And a thought began to stir uneasily at the back of my mind.

Chapter Fifteen

It snowed again that evening, but I was unaware of it until I awoke the following day, having curled up after supper near the remains of the kitchen fire and slept without stirring until cock-crow. This long, deep, dreamless slumber was all that was needed in those far-off days to cure any ills from which I might be suffering; and in spite of a multitude of bruises and the swelling over one eye, I had lost both my headache and the feeling of lassitude which had bedevilled me after my fall. I was able to throw off my bandage and get to my feet with so few twinges of pain that what there were could easily be disregarded.

Simeon lay close to me, supine, one arm outflung among yesterday's rushes, and his black habit had wriggled its way up as far as his knees to reveal a pair of spindly legs. As usual he was snoring, his lower jaw slack as he breathed in the chilly air. Taking care not to disturb him, I repeated the ritual of the previous morning, blowing the fire into life with the bellows and setting water to heat. By the time I had finished shaving, Martha Grindcobb and the girls had descended from the dormitory and were able to inform me that although it had snowed during the early part of the night, it must have ceased some hours ago. The rising sun gave promise of a beautiful day.

While they started to prepare breakfast, I went to the back door to see for myself. It was a morning of heavy frost and everywhere there was brilliance and light, from the sparkle of timed branches and roof-tops to the glitter of the ice-bound earth. The hill which rose behind the house was nothing but a shadow, lost in a veil of amber mist, and the sky was a bright, uninterrupted blue as far as the eye could see. I suspected it would not be long before the weather improved sufficiently to make it necessary for myself and Sir Hugh's other uninvited guests to leave. If we had more frost tonight, the snow would be compact enough by tomorrow to make travelling possible, if taken at a careful pace and with a decent quantity of rags wrapped about the feet.