C.J. Sansom - Heartstone

The master of Hoyland Priory sat at his desk, his face grave. He asked me quietly to sit. He picked up the hourglass from his desk and turned it over, sadly watching the grains run through. 'Well, Master Shardlake,' he said quietly, 'you have seen that my son has—an illness. It is something we have tried to keep to ourselves. It has been a great strain on my wife; seeing him in a fit strikes her to the heart. Apart from the family only Fulstowe knew. Mercifully David has never had an attack in front of the servants. We kept it even from Master Dyrick.' He smiled sadly at his lawyer. 'I am sorry for that, Vincent. But now everyone knows. Ettis and his crew will be mocking David in the village tavern tonight.' He put down the hourglass and clenched his hand into a fist.

I spoke quietly. 'Hugh, I take it, has known about David for some time.'

'David had his first attack shortly after Hugh and Emma came to us, when we were still in London.'

'And yet still you wanted Emma to marry David. To marry a ward to someone with such a disability as the falling sickness is not allowed.'

Dyrick said curtly, 'The girl died.' He looked anxiously at Hobbey, as though he might give away more than he should. But what more could there be?

I asked Hobbey, 'Hugh has kept it secret all this time?'

He nodded. His eyes were watchful now. 'He agreed he would tell nobody. And he never has.'

'It seems a hard thing to impose on the boy.'

'The fact he has kept silent surely indicates his loyalty to this family,' Dyrick put in.

'But for you coming, but for this business—' Hobbey's voice trembled angrily for a moment, but he quickly brought himself under control—'it has all put my wife and son under great strain. I think that is why David's attack came now.' He gathered himself. 'I would ask you, as a matter of charity, not to report this to the Court of Wards, not to spread our secret throughout London.'

I studied him. There was a quiet desperation in Hobbey's face, his mouth trembled for a second. 'I will have to consider,' I said.

Hobbey exchanged a look with Dyrick. He sighed. 'I should go, there are arrangements regarding the hunt.'

'You are sure it is still wise to go ahead with that?' Dyrick asked.

'Yes. I will hold my head high,' Hobbey added with a touch of his old firmness. 'Face them. And you must come, Vincent, as my lawyer it would be expected. Master Shardlake,' he said, 'will you attend too?'

I hesitated, realizing this was a change of tactics, an attempt to ingratiate himself with me. Then I nodded. 'Thank you. It may ease me of the stiffness I feel after all my days of riding.'

Hobbey stood. 'Bring your clerk, if he wishes to come.' He looked utterly exhausted. 'And afterwards, Sir Quintin and his son will be arriving. I must arrange hospitality for them.'

I WENT TO my room and sat down heavily on the bed. Should I report David's condition to the Court of Wards? I had no wish to. But just how far had living with this tense family and its secret affected Hugh? After a few moments' more thought, I walked up the corridor and knocked at Hugh's door. After a moment he opened it. 'Master Shardlake,' he said quietly. 'Come in.'

I followed him into the tidy room. It was dim, the shutters half-drawn against the bright afternoon light. A book lay open on his desk, More's Utopia .

'You have been giving More another try?' I asked.

'Yes, last night. I fear, Master Shardlake, I still find him a dreamer. And Sam Feaveryear said he burned many good men as heretics while he was Lord Chancellor.'

'Yes, he did.'

'Then who was he to condemn the violence of war?'

I thought, this boy could make a scholar. I said, 'Feaveryear has gone.'

He crossed to the window and looked through the shutters. 'Yes, I got used to seeing his strange little face about. I am told Master Dyrick has sent him back to London.'

'An urgent case, apparently. He left this morning.' I hesitated. 'I saw him running across the lawn yesterday evening.'

Hugh turned, his face expressionless. 'Master Dyrick had shouted for him.'

'I did not hear him call. I thought I heard someone shout, "No!" '

'You must have misheard, sir. Master Dyrick came out and called. His master's call would always bring poor Sam running.' He looked at me, his blue-green eyes keen. 'Was that why you came to see me?'

'No.'

'I thought not.'

'David's secret is out.'

'I wish it were not.'

'Master Hobbey told me you and your sister learned of his condition shortly after you came to the Hobbeys.'

Hugh sat down on his bed, looking up at me. 'One day not long after we joined the Hobbeys, David and Emma and I were at class with Master Calfhill. He was angry with David, he had not done his set work and Master Calfhill threatened to tell his father. David told him to go and do something abominable with a sheep. Then suddenly David fell off his chair and began shaking and foaming, just like you saw today. Emma and I were frightened, we thought his bad words had called God's justice down on him. We still believed such things in those days,' he added with a bitter little smile. 'But Master Calfhill recognized the symptoms. He settled David and held his tongue down with a ruler, as Fulstowe did today with his scabbard.'

'And David's parents made you and your sister keep the secret?'

'They asked us to.' His voice was toneless.

I said, 'You do not love them as a family, do you? Any of them?'

Hugh's long, scarred face twitched and for a moment he looked like a child again. Then his composure returned and he stared back at me. 'Despite everything,' he said quietly, 'they spent the next months pressing my sister to marry David. Despite his falling sickness, despite his braggart, bullying ways.'

'Emma disliked David?'

'She loathed him. Already when she was thirteen he was pawing at her skirts.' Hugh's face darkened. 'I hit him for it. Master Calfhill took our part. He told us Emma could refuse to marry David. She could go to Wards and tell them David had a taint of body.'

'That is quite right. It would be what is called a Ravishment of Wards,' I said quietly. 'But Master Hobbey still wanted to tie her share of your father's lands to his family.'

'Emma and I made plans.' Anger entered Hugh's voice. 'If Master and Mistress Hobbey persisted with their pressure we would threaten to take them to their precious Court of Wards. Master Calfhill had researched the law, he told us that although boys cannot come out of wardship till they are twenty-one, girls can inherit their lands at fourteen.'

'Yes, unless they refuse a suitable marriage.'

'A suitable marriage. We planned to wait a few more months till Emma was fourteen, then we would take her lands, sell them, and run away together.'

'Did you tell Master Calfhill your plans?'

'No. Perhaps we should have trusted him,' Hugh added sadly.

'It would have been complicated, you would have needed a lawyer.'

Hugh gave a high-pitched, bitter laugh. It startled me. 'It was never put to the test, was it? My sister died, and then it did not matter any more.' His face twitched again; for a second I thought he would cry but his expression settled into blankness again. I thought, if only Michael Calfhill and Reverend Broughton had known of David's condition before the wardship was granted. Hugh sighed, then scratched his chest in sudden irritation.

'I hope you do not have fleas,' I said. 'I brought some back from Portsmouth, but thought I had got rid of them.'

'No, I have more scars there, they itch.' He scratched again, but carefully.

'Do you wear Emma's cross there?' I asked gently.

He looked up. 'No, Master Shardlake, I keep it in my drawer. I find it hard to look at.'

'That is sad.'