An Order for Death by Susanna Gregory Read Free Book Online

Faricius was definitely inside when the front gates were closed. He could not have gone out
     again without asking me to open them – and he did not.’
    ‘Did he sprout wings and fly over the walls, then?’ demanded Michael impatiently. ‘I repeat: he was found on Milne Street.
     Perhaps he did not leave through the front gate, but he was outside nevertheless.’
    Lincolne’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘You are taking a very biased approach to this, Brother. It is not Faricius’s actions
     that are on trial here: it is those of the Dominicans. They killed Faricius. Interrogate them, not me.’
    ‘Oh, I will,’ said Michael softly. ‘I will certainly get to the bottom of this sorry little tale.’
    When Prior Lincolne had completed his prayers over Faricius’s body, two Carmelite students arrived to keep vigil. It was nearing
     dusk, and one had brought thick beeswax candles to light at his friend’s head; the other carried perfumed oil to rub into
     Faricius’s hands and feet, and held a clean robe, so that his dead colleague would not go to his grave wearing clothes that
     were stained with blood. One student was self-righteously outraged that the Dominicans had dared to strike one of their number,
     and complained vociferously about it to Michael; the second merely twisted the clean robe in his hands and said nothing. Michael
     homed in on the latter.
    ‘What is your name?’ he demanded.
    The student-friar jumped nervously. He was about the same age as Faricius, and had a mop of red-brown hair that was worn overly
     long. A smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose gave him a curiously adolescent appearance, and his grubby fingers
     had nails that had been chewed almost to the quick. There was nothing distinctive or unusual about him, and he looked just
     like any other young man whose family had decided that a career in the Church would provide him with a secure future.
    ‘Simon Lynne,’ he replied in a low voice, casting an anxious glance at the other student.
    ‘What can you tell us about Faricius, Simon?’ asked Bartholomew, in a kinder tone of voice than Michael had used.
    ‘He was a peace-loving man,’ stated the other student hotly. He was a thickset lad who was missing two of his front teeth.
     ‘He would never have started a fight with the Dominicans.’
    ‘We were not talking to you,’ said Michael, silencing him with a cool gaze. ‘We were speaking to Lynne.’
    Lynne swallowed, his eyes flicking anxiously to Faricius’s body. ‘Horneby is right. Faricius was not a violent man. He came
     to Cambridge last September, and was only interested in his lessons and his prayers.’
    ‘Do you know why he happened to be out of the friary when your Prior and I expressly instructed that everyone should remain
     inside?’ asked Michael. ‘Was he given to breaking orders?’
    ‘No, never. He always did as he was told,’ said Lynne.
    ‘Then why was he out?’ pressed Michael.
    ‘He was not,’ said Lynne unsteadily. ‘He remained in the friary to read when the rest of us went with Prior Lincolne to pin
     that proclamation to the church door. After that, you ordered the gates closed and they did not open again until Prior Lincolne
     was summoned here.’
    Michael was growing impatient. ‘But if Faricius had been safely inside, he would not be lying here now, dead. At somepoint, he left the friary and was attacked. How? Is it possible to scale the walls? Is there a back gate? Are the porters
     bribable, and willing to open the gates for a price?’
    ‘No,’ said Lincolne immediately. ‘All our porters are commoners – men who have retired from teaching and live in the friary
     at our expense. They are not bribable, because they would not risk being ejected from their comfortable posts by breaking
     our rules.’
    ‘The walls, then?’ pressed Michael irritably. ‘Did Faricius climb over the walls?’
    ‘Impossible,’ said Lincolne. ‘They are twice the height of a man and are