Blood Runs Thicker by Sarah Hawkswood (best electronic book reader txt) 📗

the filching of her laboriously gathered produce. She actually begged Alnoth not to desert her when Walkelin began to speak with him.

‘I am not here to take him from you, maid,’ Walkelin had assured her, and had given the girl a small smile.

‘Then what is it you seek of me, friend?’ enquired Alnoth, sounding curious but not wary.

‘I am Walkelin, Sheriff’s Man, and I need to know about the hat you sold to a man of Flavel yesterday, and how you came by it and the boots upon your feet.’

‘By no thievery or wickedness, I swear oath.’

‘No oath is needed, for the man who owned them before, left this world the day before yesterday, right by Lench, which is not two days’ walk from here.’

‘But it is two days since I came upon the things, Master Walkelin.’

Walkelin had been momentarily taken aback, for nobody had ever addressed him so respectfully. Had the term been used it had been laced with irony and accompanied by a sneer.

‘Er, it is?’

‘It is.’ The man clearly had no thought to dissimulate. ‘I was on my way from Worcester. I takes it at an easy pace, though my legs are as good as any man’s, and had spent the night at Aston, on a way as gives me fair lodging, not the swiftest, for I knows when the markets are held and need only to be in the towns for them. The God Houses are always generous and kind, but townsfolk can be harsher than their country brethren, and I like the walking. The lord of Aston is none so particular welcoming, but his man as is steward has always seen there is room in a dry stable for me and a meal in the kitchen. In exchange I bring the news of the shire as I hears it. Amazin’ how many thinks a man without hands is also without ears or wits.’ Alnoth chuckled. ‘I gave the manor the news when the lord King was freed from chains, afore it came to the lord himself, and knows the gossip of the markets, where there have been thieving bands upon the roads, even the sins of the lords, though none would let that reach their master’s ear. The lord of Flavel, now, he has a woman in Worcester, fine skin she has and a fair figure. Not a patch on the poor Mistress Ricolde, God have mercy on her soul,’ Alnoth crossed himself, ‘but she was of as beautiful of heart as body, and generous. Never failed to give me a ha’penny if she passed me. The lord Raoul’s woman has him in her bed out of need, for her husband died and her stepson took the trade and cast her out.’ He sighed. ‘’Tis an unfair world.’

Whilst interested in Alnoth’s rambling discourse, Walkelin needed him to return to the matter of the clothing, but he first asked one question.

‘What is the name of the fine-skinned woman?’

‘Her name be Leofeva, widow of Will Brook, the coppersmith. Now—’

‘I thank you, but we must speak of the hat and the clothes you found.’

‘Ah yes. Well, as I said, I was on my way from Aston, and was a bit short of Lench. Came a time I needed to step off the way, you might say, my innards being something urgent.’

For a moment Walkelin had been completely distracted by how a man with but two fingers like talons might drop his breeches, and his face made Alnoth laugh. He was a surprisingly happy fellow.

‘O’ course, you being a man as questions things would wonder. I has a piece of wood with a hole bored through it, and the cord is tight through that and long enough so as I can hold the end with my teeth and move the wood with my fingers. Ways and means, master, ways and means is how such as I get by. It takes a little longer, but I found an old tree stump and—’

‘You found the hat there.’

‘No, no, you gallop when you should walk. I was there, a-doin’ what was natural, and I heard a voice, a man’s voice, and twigs breaking. Well, I supposed it to be a man with mine own intent, and kept quiet, or mayhap it was a man with a maid, but there came no woman’s words. The voice muttered for a moment, and then it was quiet, and I waited for the sound of him leaving and the branches telling me so, but there was nothing. When I came from my tree stump behind the bushes I was curious, and went towards where the sound had been, and there they were, a hat of fine, dark red, felted wool and a short cloak, well used and the bottom edge given a new binding, but sound. It was not so thick as to keep out rain and winter, but another layer is always of use to me. Since they had been cast into the wood I took them, and no thieving was it, for I do not steal, God’s oath.’ Alnoth repeated his avowal.

‘Be easy, friend, but did you not question why someone had cast them away?’

‘Ah.’ Alnoth nodded. ‘Had I found some poor soul upon the road, robbed, I would have given him help, and the hat and cloak also, but I saw none.’

‘And what about the other clothes?’

‘I had but hat and cloak, then.’

Walkelin frowned. It was not what he was expecting.

‘What time of the day was it?’

‘Sun was right high, so a mite after noontide, near enough.’

‘And then you went through Lench and found the boots after that? Did you see anyone?’

‘I did not go through Lench but skirted about it.’

‘Had the lord Osbern been heavy of boot to you?’ Walkelin had decided Osbern and Baldwin de Lench were very alike in use of the lordly boot.

‘No, though I recall him as a man of temper, years back. He has a son, a strange son. The lordling followed me once, when I passed