Susanna GREGORY - A Poisonous Plot

‘She has a “certain history” with Stephen, Frenge and Wayt, too. Indeed, I wonder whether you and I are the only two men in Cambridge she does not count among her conquests.’

Michael made no reply as he hammered on the brewery door, although there was a distinct pink flush to the plump cheeks. He continued to pound, loudly enough to prevent Bartholomew from asking questions, until Peyn came to answer it.

‘Have you come for a drink?’ Peyn asked insolently, staggering as Michael shoved past him. ‘What will you sup? Apple wine or ale?’

‘Neither – not with you,’ retorted Michael. ‘ Latet anguis in herba , to quote Virgil.’

Peyn’s eyes narrowed. ‘He said that about me? Perhaps I should sue him.’

‘You could try,’ said Michael caustically. ‘But he has been dead fourteen hundred years, so I doubt even Stephen will recommend it.’ He saw Peyn’s blank look and became impatient. ‘He was a Roman poet. Do you have no education? I doubt the clerks at Westminster will be impressed.’

‘Of course I know the poet Virgin,’ declared Peyn. ‘I read his verses when I am here at night, guarding the brewery against marauding scholars. He just slipped my mind.’

‘Then maybe you should drink less apple wine,’ said Michael, regarding him with dislike.

‘I never drink any apple wine,’ said Peyn sullenly. ‘I dislike sweet things.’

‘You prefer mud, which you enjoy lobbing at scholars. It was fortunate you missed Wayt yesterday, or you would have spent the night in my cells.’

‘Fortunate for you,’ sneered Peyn. ‘Because if you had laid so much as a finger on me, my new employers at the Treasury would have come here and crushed you like a worm. So perhaps you had better take your nasty University to the Fens, Brother – it is a place where you cannot get yourself into so much trouble.’

‘Was it you who started that ridiculous rumour?’ asked Michael in disgust. ‘I imagine it came from the town, because no scholar is foolish enough to have invented such a tale.’

‘I had nothing to do with it, but it is true. If you will not go of your own accord, then you will have to leave once these lawsuits begin in earnest – King’s Hall prosecuting us, us hitting back, and Anne suing Zachary. And if they do not force you out, the people suffering from the debilitas will do it – folk who are sick because his sister opened a dyeworks.’

Peyn jabbed an accusing finger at Bartholomew and stalked out, slamming the door behind him with a noisy crack. Thinking they had been left unattended, Michael was about to indulge in a prowl when Shirwynk emerged from the shadows.

‘My son makes very good points, Brother,’ the brewer said smugly.

‘Your son is a fool,’ retorted Michael. ‘As are you, spreading lies about the dyeworks and encouraging Anne to sue Zachary. Do you want the town ablaze? What is wrong with you?’

‘Nothing is wrong with me,’ replied Shirwynk coolly. ‘I just do not appreciate having my town infested with scholars. I want you gone.’

‘Then you are going to be disappointed, because we are here to stay. But you have done business with us for years, so what has turned you against us all of a sudden?’

‘It is not all of a sudden,’ snarled Shirwynk. ‘I have always disliked you, and the whole town feels the same. Now get off my property before my apprentices remove you forcibly.’

‘I have questions,’ said Michael, not moving. ‘And if you will not answer me, the Sheriff will put them to you instead. He will arrest you and keep you in a cell until he is ready, but he is a busy man, and it might be days before he finds the time. Will Peyn delay his journey to Westminster, to make ale and apple wine while you are indisposed?’

Shirwynk scowled, trapped. ‘Questions about what?’

‘About your wife. I find it odd that she and Frenge died on the same day.’

‘It was a nuisance. Do you have any idea how much burials cost? And I had to fund two – no joke, when I have Stephen’s bills to pay as well. But all will be well when I win my case against King’s Hall, because then I shall have more money than I can count.’

‘Frenge was frightened of you,’ said Michael, when he saw the brewer was not going to tell him anything useful about Letia. ‘He–’

Shirwynk interrupted him with a braying laugh. ‘Rubbish! We were the best of friends.’

‘Really?’ asked Michael archly. ‘That is not what you said when we first discussed your relationship with him. Then you gave the impression that you were no more than working colleagues – men who endured each other’s company for the sake of the business.’

‘You misunderstood,’ said Shirwynk sullenly. ‘We were fond of each other.’

‘Then why did you encourage him to invade King’s Hall?’

‘Not this again,’ groaned Shirwynk. ‘I would not have done it had I known those humourless rogues would respond by killing him. It is them you should be persecuting, not me. They are probably the ones stealing our apple wine, too. Some disappears almost every night, despite the precautions we take to repel burglars.’

‘Ah, yes,’ said Michael. ‘Your precautions. They involve Peyn standing guard, which suggests one of two things: either he quaffs the stuff himself and lies when he says it is stolen; or he abandons his post to go carousing with his friends.’

Shirwynk regarded him with dislike. ‘He does not drink wine, and of course he is obliged to slip away on occasion – to visit the latrine or to patrol our yard at the back. The villains wait for him to leave and then they strike.’

Michael snorted his scepticism. ‘Perhaps you should consider using your apprentices instead. Or do you not trust them?’

‘I trust my son,’ snarled Shirwynk. ‘And if he says scholars are stealing our wine, then scholars are stealing our wine.’

‘It is more likely to be a villain from the town,’ countered Michael. ‘There are far more seculars who know about theft than academics, and if you do not believe me, look in the castle prison. It is stuffed full of them.’

It was drizzling as Michael stalked towards St Mary the Great to berate Tynkell for requesting a licence to absolve scholars from acts of violence. The Chancellor was in his office, so pale and wan that Bartholomew was concerned.

‘I have the debilitas ,’ Tynkell whispered plaintively. ‘And Stephen will be here in a moment, to tie me in logical knots. Please do not leave me alone with him, Brother.’

Michael’s ire evaporated at such a piteous appeal, and he flopped wearily on to a bench, which groaned under his weight. Bartholomew was about to dispense the mixture for distressed stomachs that he often gave to Tynkell, when he noticed a tremor in the man’s hands.

‘I have had it ever since Morys and I became kin by marriage,’ the Chancellor explained tearfully. ‘But it is worse today, because I have just had a letter from my mother, saying she is coming to visit. If she does, it will be the end for me.’

‘The end in what way?’ asked Bartholomew kindly.

‘In every way,’ replied Tynkell miserably. ‘Indeed, I might have to ask your book-bearer for a charm against evil spirits. She is a dragon, you see.’

‘Please do not,’ begged Bartholomew, not liking to imagine what might be made of the fact that the head of the University consulted a Michaelhouse servant on matters of superstition. ‘I am sure she cannot be as dreadful as you think.’

‘Easy for you to say,’ muttered Tynkell disconsolately. ‘You have never met her.’

‘While we are on the subject of outrageous missives,’ said Michael, ‘perhaps you will explain why you applied to the Bishop for a certain licence.’