Paul Doherty - The House of Shadows

Eve of the Feast of St Matthew, 1360

The courtesan known as Guinevere the Golden crouched amongst the headstones of St Erconwald’s cemetery. She had concealed her lustrous golden hair beneath a tight-fitting hood, and put on a dark cloak to cover her finery. She had taken off her ring and placed it in the small casket beside her. The autumn night was bright with a full moon, which bathed the cemetery in a silver glow and illuminated the dark mass of the church. Guinevere was fearful. That sombre pile of masonry was God’s house. The preachers claimed angels trod there, and wouldn’t the good Lord see into the very recesses of her soul? Guinevere just wished her comrades would come. She wanted an end to this fear, to give way to the excitement which made her heart skip and her blood tingle. She settled herself more comfortably. The night sky was beautiful; she watched a faint cloud drift, as if following the moon across the night sky. She started as an owl, silent as a ghost, swept above her, feathery wings beating the air as it plunged on its victim, scurrying through the high grass of the cemetery. The door to the death house creaked. A chilling sound in the darkness.

Nevertheless, Guinevere felt safe. The old church had no priest, and very few people would come to the cemetery at night. Guinevere recalled the old story of how each cemetery, each portion of God’s Acre, possessed a watcher, the ghost of the last person buried there. He, or she, had to stay on guard in the cemetery until replaced by the spirit of the next person buried. Guinevere swallowed hard; she mustn’t frighten herself. She closed her eyes and tried to think of the cheery tap room at the Night in Jerusalem. All her friends and acquaintances would be there. A fiddler would stand by the log fire; perhaps a travelling songsman would chant a lay. The tambour and the rebec would strike up, a pulsating sound which marked the beginning of the dance. Guinevere so loved to dance; that was how she had met him, the man who had promised her wealth beyond all reckoning.

‘A chest full of treasure!’ he had whispered.

At first, Guinevere had been reluctant. She’d blinked her eyes prettily and claimed she had given her heart to another, but those words, ‘a chest full of treasure’, had so enticed her. She would be rich, a princess, a great lady, like those who swaggered through Cheapside with their gauze veils and fur-lined cloaks, jewellery glittering at their throats, soft bodies smelling of sweet perfumes. She would wash her hands in golden bowls and sit before a piece of polished silver to examine her beautiful face.

The wind moaned amongst the headstones, the breeze was strengthening; soon the fleet would sail. Guinevere clenched her fists in excitement. She had done her part. She opened the casket and took out the gold ring, turning it over in her fingers, examining it carefully. What did it matter? She slipped the ring on her finger and leaned back against the headstone. What would be happening now? Surely the alarm would have been raised, yet she had just come slipping through the streets of Southwark and seen no excitement. Nothing wrong, no torchlight flickering against the night or mailed men tramping through the streets to the clash of armour.

‘Guinevere!’

She raised herself up and stared across the cemetery. She saw the signal, a shuttered lantern being opened and closed like a beacon flashed from a clifftop. Guinevere stood and moved across the cemetery. A dark shape detached itself from the death house and came towards her. The lantern was raised, the shutter slightly open. Guinevere sighed in relief. Lifting the hem of her gown, she ran towards him. The lantern was lowered. Guinevere the Golden was so excited she didn’t even hear the hiss of steel. So eager to hear the news, she almost ran on to the dagger point. She felt the fiery stab of pain, but it was too late. She was trapped, drawn close, pressed further and further on to the blade thrusting deep inside her.

Guinevere groaned and slipped, the life light fading from her beautiful eyes.

The hideous murders began on the Night of the Great Ratting, the eve of the Feast of the holy martyr St Wulfnoth, who had been boiled alive by the heathen Frisians. The inhabitants of Southwark, their tattered purses full of crocards and pollards, those battered and clipped coins rejected by worthy tradesmen, these denizens of the slums, hoods pulled up against the freezing cold, made their way to the spacious tavern, the Night in Jerusalem, which stood on the broad thoroughfare which swept down to London Bridge. The night was bitterly cold; the season of Advent was only a month away. The seers had prophesied snow, but the night sky was cloud-free and the stars brilliant. A full moon bathed the reeking alleyways and lanes in its ghostly light. The day’s business was done, windows were shuttered, doors locked and barred. The cats slunk away whilst the rats, as if they sensed what was going to happen, kept well clear of the frozen rubbish heaps.

Everyone knew about the Great Ratting. Those who liked to gamble or play hazard had already laid their wagers. Others were just curious as to see what would happen. Of course, every thief could smell a profit. There’d be purses to be cut and pockets to be picked whilst enjoying a good night’s entertainment. The news had spread across the swollen black Thames, attracting the more well-to-do and genteel from Cheapside, Farringdon Ward, and even as far north as Clerkenwell. Moleskin, the boatman who sailed out of Southwark Steps, was promised a roaring trade. The Thames, however, was choppy, the river breeze sharp as a dagger, so many just slipped under the chains at London Bridge, scampering along the narrow lane between the houses and the great selds, or warehouses, built either side of the bridge. All excited, they ignored the frozen midden piles containing every type of waste heaped high along the middle, nor did they pause to stare at the severed, mouldering heads of traitors placed high on spikes on either side of the bridge. They showed a similar lack of pity for those caught stealing from stalls during the previous day’s trading; these malefactors were now fastened in the stocks by hand, head or leg, or shut up in the cages at each end of the bridge, where they would stand all night and suffer the freezing cold.

The petty traders and chapmen, the sellers of figs and apples, the tallow chandlers, the wax chandlers, the fleshers and the tanners all forgot their trade rivalry, flocking to the Great Ratting. They were joined by doxies and the whores in their gaudy rags from Walbrook and Hounsditch. These ladies of the night hid their charms behind cowls, hoods, shabby cloaks, and masks with gaps for their eyes and mouths. Once they reached the spacious tap room of the Night in Jerusalem they removed such disguises.

The tap room’s tables and chairs were ringed by row after row of barrels, each table being lit by a yellow tallow candle or a bowl of oil with a burning wick floating in the centre. Even though the champions hadn’t arrived, the wagering had begun, encouraged by the good silver and gold brought by the young men of the court, garbed in their tight hose, puffed jackets, protuberant codpieces and high-heeled boots. In the view of many of those who flocked to the tavern, these popinjays with their high-pitched voices, soft hands and faces, and curled, crimped hair were the real reason for the evening. They carried purses and wallets openly for all to see, and the fingers of many itched to be so close to such wealth. A few arrivals brought their own dogs, bull mastiffs, terriers, and even the occasional greyhound or whippet so as to measure up the opposition.