Paul Doherty - The House of Crows

‘Cecily!’ he shouted.

The young blonde-haired girl, dressed in a long yellow taffeta gown, looked round, startled. Athelstan noticed the black kohl around her eyes, and saw how her cheeks and lips were heavily rouged.

‘Cecily!’ he shouted. ‘Come here!’

The young girl tripped across, face as innocent as an angel’s.

‘Father, what a surprise. What are you doing here?’

Athelstan fought to keep his face severe. ‘More importantly, Cecily, what are you doing here?’

The young girl opened her pert little mouth.

‘And don’t lie,’ Athelstan warned. ‘I missed you at Mass this morning and we had an important parish council.’ He grasped her hand and thrust one of his precious pennies between her fingers. ‘Now go back,’ he ordered. ‘Go to King’s Steps. You’ll find Moleskin there. I need you, Cecily.’ He leaned closer. ‘There’s been a demon seen near St Erconwald’s.’ He gripped her warm hand and tried not to flinch at the cheap perfume the girl had covered herself in. ‘Now go back there and help Benedicta! Stay away from here!’

Cecily, biting her lips, nodded. Athelstan pushed her gently away. ‘Go straight home!’ he ordered. ‘I’ll ask Benedicta when you arrived.’

Cecily was already running, and Athelstan gave small thanks that Cecily’s curiosity about a demon would, perhaps, outweigh any reason for her to stay here. He sat back on the steps and glared around, noticing how the young women flocked here, as noisy as starlings.

‘This is God’s house,’ he muttered. He glanced at a pair of girls flirting with an overdressed lawyer. ‘Sir John’s right! It is a “House of Crows”.’

Athelstan recognised the attractions of such a place for people like Cecily. Men from all over England came here: free of their wives and families, they would take full advantage of their short-lived freedom to indulge their every whim. Athelstan glanced towards the abbey. Perhaps the Parliament would change things for the better. Even his parishioners had talked about it.

Pike the ditcher, however, had been as cynical as ever. ‘Only the lawyers get to Parliament,’ he had declared, ‘and we know what liars they are!’ Pike had lowered his voice. ‘But when it comes, when the great Change comes, we’ll hang all the lawyers!’

‘Dreaming, Brother?’

Athelstan looked up sharply. Cranston was just popping the cork-stopper back into his miraculous wineskin.

‘Most of the abbey is sealed off,’ the coroner explained. ‘The Commons are now sitting in the chapter-house and will be until well in the afternoon. So,’ he helped his companion to his feet, ‘let’s look at the corpses. They both lie coffined in the Gargoyle tavern.’

He led Athelstan out of the abbey precincts, along quiet side streets and through the deep arched gateway into a large courtyard which fronted the Gargoyle. It was a long, spacious tavern, three storeys high, its frontage smartly painted, the plaster gleaming white between black polished beams. The roof was tiled and the elegantly boxed windows were full of leaden glass. The courtyard was a hive of activity: ostlers and grooms took horses in and out, a farrier covered in sweat hammered at an anvil. Geese and chickens thronged about the stable doors, scrabbling for bits of grain. Dogs yapped and huge, fat-bellied pigs, ears flapping, snouted at the base of a large, black-soiled midden-heap.

They entered the tavern hallway. The paving stones were scrubbed, the walls lime-washed, the air fragrant with the smell of sweet herbs and savoury cooking. The taproom was large and airy: there were vents in the ceiling between the blackened beams, and large, open windows at the far end looked out over a garden and one of the largest stewponds Athelstan had ever seen. A few customers sat about, mainly boatmen from the river though, even here, the lawyers thronged, sitting in small alcoves, manuscripts on the tables before them as they whispered pretentiously to each other.

‘You wouldn’t think the corpses of two murdered men lay here, would you?’ Athelstan whispered at Cranston, who was smacking his lips and looking around. ‘No drinking,’ Athelstan warned. ‘We have business with the “House of Crows”, remember?’

‘And what’s your custom, sirs?’ a tall, thickset man asked.

‘None at the moment,’ Cranston replied, ‘except a word with the landlord.’

The man spread his hands. ‘You are talking to him,’ he replied. ‘I am the tavern-master, Cuthbert Banyard, born and bred within the sound of Bow Bells.’

Athelstan stared at the fellow. He had a strong, arrogant face, burnt brown by the sun, with a thick bush of black hair. The eyes were deep-set, the nose curved slightly; his chin, close-shaven face and thin lips gave him a stubborn look. A man with a sharp eye to profit, Athelstan thought.

The taverner gestured at his stained cote-de-hardie which fell down to just below the knee. ‘It’s a fleshing day,’ he explained. ‘Meat has to be cut and blood spurts.’

‘As it does in murder,’ Cranston retorted.

Banyard drew his head back.

‘I am Sir John Cranston, Coroner of the city. This is Brother Athelstan, my secretanus, parish priest of St Erconwald’s in Southwark.’

Banyard smiled deferentially. ‘My lord Coroner, how can I help?’

‘First,’ Cranston replied, ignoring Athelstan’s groan, ‘a blackjack of ale. Your best, mind you, not the scrapings of some open cask. And whatever smells so fragrant in your kitchen?’

‘Capon cooked in mushrooms and onions.’

‘One dish.’ Cranston looked at Athelstan. ‘No, two dishes of that, and a drink, Brother?’

‘Some ale,’ Athelstan replied resignedly.

Cranston swept by the landlord to a table under the window: ignoring Athelstan’s warning glances, he began to point out the different herbs growing in the garden.

‘Now that’s motherwort,’ Cranston explained. ‘You can tell by its hard, brownish stalk: it makes mothers joyful and settles the womb, provokes urine, cleanses the chest of phlegm and kills worms in the belly.’

Cranston turned, rubbing his hands, as the tapster laid down two pewter dishes with delicate strips of capon covered in rich sauce followed by two pots of ale. Cranston and Athelstan took out their horn spoons. Athelstan nibbled, for he had little appetite. Sir John finished his, then attacked his companion’s with equal relish. Once he had finished, Cranston beckoned over Banyard, who had been standing in an alcove watching them closely.

‘Sit down, man. Where are the corpses?’

‘Upstairs, each in their chamber,’ the landlord replied, wiping his hands carefully on a napkin. ‘It’s good that you ate, my lord Coroner, before you viewed them.’

Cranston turned on his stool and leaned against the wall.’ ‘Corpses don’t upset my humours, man. Human wickedness does. Sir Henry was killed when?’

‘Late last night. He went into Sir Oliver’s chamber.’ He pointed to a slattern, a jolly, bouncing girl with long blonde hair. She was at the far side of the tavern, busily serving a number of boatmen and laughing at their banter. ‘Christina saw the door open and went in. You could have heard, the screams at Whitefriars. I ran upstairs. Sir Oliver was in his coffin, Sir Henry dead as a doornail upon the floor.’

‘And where were his companions, the other knights?’ Athelstan asked.

‘Most of them were in their chambers,’ Banyard replied.

‘Most of them?’ Athelstan queried.

Banyard smiled deprecatingly. ‘Brother, I have my hands full managing a tavern. I cannot tell you where each of my guests goes in the evening.’ Banyard grinned. ‘Though it would be interesting to speculate.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Cranston demanded.