Michael Jecks - The Malice of Unnatural Death

Ivo noticed that the man paid none of them any attention. Rather he hurried along the streets with his hand clamped like avice on Ivo’s upper arm. Although he didn’t see the knife, he was sure that it must be very close.

‘This man … is he likely to be dangerous?’ he ventured.

‘Very.’

‘Perhaps you should allow me to fetch reinforcements? If he bests you, you won’t want him to escape, will you?’

The man stopped, suddenly, and turned to face Ivo. He had very penetrating, dark eyes that seemed to cauterise all the bloodvessels in Ivo’s brain as he stared. The intensity of his look seared all thoughts in his mind and left Ivo cowed.

‘You think he will escape me ?’

They continued, but now, as they drew nearer the house where the man was staying, Ivo jerked his chin to point.

‘Good. Say nothing,’ he heard in his ear. He carried on walking, and soon the pair of them were beyond the house on the steepsection of Stepecote Street, looking back to the house.

‘That is Michael’s house?’

Ivo nodded. ‘That is where I was told he was staying. What will you do?’

The man stood peering up at the place with a considering expression. Then, ‘I think now I should report the man to the Watch.’

Jen woke with a short cry as the door opened and bright sunlight flooded the little chamber, shining straight into her eyesand blinding her.

‘Now then, maid, what are you doing here in my loft?’

She wriggled away from him, deeper into the hay, staring at him with alarm. From here, in the darker recesses, she could seelittle. The opening was a blinding whiteness beyond the fine green-yellow hay. There was nothing there except a confusingwhirl of dancing motes. They glittered before her, and she could feel them catching at the back of her throat, making hercough. Eyes watering, she tried to blink them away as she gazed forward in the direction of the voice.

And then the air cleared as the air gusted through the room and she could see him.

He was an older man, grizzled and bent like a miner, with a bush of beard and eyes of bright blue that twinkled as he smiled. Just now he wore a felt cap to cover his old locks, and he appeared to realise that it hid his face, so he slowly took itoff. He looked the sort of man who would be very thoughtful, she thought; the sort who would smile a lot.

‘Come now, I won’t hurt you. You can’t stay up here, though.’

The events of the previous day came back with an awful clarity. Her lover had spurned her, and even when he heard her as hewas leaving the city, he had ridden off as though he was scared of her or something. It was awful. That hog-faced bitch helived with must have soured his feelings towards her. There was no telling what she might have said to him last night. Noone could know what a man and woman spoke of in their chamber, and it was plain enough that the woman would have done allshe could to poison Matthew and Jen’s relationship.

‘Maid?’ Suddenly the twinkle in the eyes had gone, to be replaced by a serious contemplation. ‘Maid, have you been hurt? Is that blood?’

She stared at him without speaking for a moment, then shot a look at her arm. From the hand up as far as her elbow was blackenedwith blood, and she frowned with mild confusion. There was a reason for it, she knew, but just now she couldn’t remember whereit had come from.

‘Have you been harmed, child? Eh?’ His tone was even more solicitous now. ‘Was it a man from round hereabouts did that? Eh? Have you been raped?’

Suddenly she could have smiled and laughed aloud. ‘Raped … yes, I’ve been raped.’

‘You come down here, lass. You’ll be safe with me. I’m a watchman, I am. They call me Will, Will Skinner. Any man tries thatwith you, I’ll have his ballocks in my purse! Come, now. Do you know who it was? Was it last night? Well, we’ll have to getyou straight to the sheriff, and that’s final. It’s a job for him to sort out this sort of thing. We’ll catch the bastard,maid, don’t you worry. You give me your hand, now. That’s right. Christ alive, but you’re frozen, child. Let’s get you insidefirst and warm you up as we may, eh? This way, child. This way.’

Exeter Castle

Sheriff Matthew was up at his usual hour and, as was his wont, made a circuit of the castle’s walls before returning to hishall for his breakfast. There he found his wife already waiting, and while the first messes of men at arms entered and tooktheir places he sat, hands on the table, watching them.

There was a strangely muted atmosphere about the hall. Usually this meal was one of the loudest, with men bellowing at eachother and demanding more bread or ale. It was the beginning of their working day, and the servants tended to eat and drinktheir fill, putting off the moment when they must get on with their duties — but not today. Today there was a quiet, reflectivefeeling about the place.

It was her. The mad one. Or perhaps the friend she’d killed: Sarra. They were all feeling it. Such a shame to lose a pairof girls like them — but it couldn’t be helped. Jen was plainly lunatic and Sarra had been killed by her in a frenzied attack. Not his fault, that much was certain.

‘Bread, my dear?’ he asked, offering Lady Alice a slice before taking his own from the panter.

She looked at him, startled, and he thought to himself that she reminded him of a hart in the forest when it first heard the huntsman’s horn. Wide eyes, elfin features … God, she was lovely.

He smiled at her, but the reciprocating easing of her face was slow and only a pale reflection of his own. ‘Are you well,my dear?’

‘Husband, I have to ask you — did you ever take that girl to your bed?’

He gasped at the injustice that was done to him, his knife falling from his hand to clatter on the pewter dish. ‘You ask methat?’

‘She was so twisted with her rage, there must be some cause for it. And she claims that you promised her … that you woulddivorce me.’

‘If I had done that, the girl would scarcely need to kill you as she tried yesterday, would she?’ he asked reasonably. ‘Andin any case, if she were to murder you, I doubt there would be a vicar in the whole of the country who would consider joiningus in marriage! Can’t you see that everything she suggests is mad? She is clearly out of her senses. There is no logic toanything she says. Alice, my love, you must ignore everything she has said.’

‘I cannot but remember her face. It returned to me in my dreams! Oh, Matthew, I feel so scared. While she is free, she couldappear in front of me at any time in the street.’

‘You will be safe, my love. Do not fear her. We will catch her. And until we do, you will have the best guards from all mymen here.’

‘I am scared.’

‘Well, you will have to remain here in the castle. That is all.’ He sipped from his mazer — a good red wine — and then casuallyasked the question that had been uppermost in his own mind. ‘By the way — what were you and your maid doing down that street yesterday?’

Alice licked her lips. ‘I wished to speak to the man in the house there.’

‘The necromancer?’

‘Yes.’

‘I thought I told you to avoid him, Alice.’

‘I wanted to ask about our future. I was worried, Matthew.’

‘He is dangerous,’ the sheriff stated in a low voice, leaning towards her. ‘In ways you cannot appreciate. Please, as youlove me, do not visit him again. Or any other magicians.’

‘He is harmless, though.’

‘He may be so personally, but his craft makes him dangerous. Believe me, he and his type will only get us into trouble.’

And that, he reflected with some sadness as he toyed with his drink, was the understatement of the century. Suddenly his appetitewas gone and he pushed his plate away, petulantly refusing any more and glaring at his silent household. He wanted to shoutat them to be calm and enjoy their meal more, but he daren’t.