St. Peter's Fair by Ellis Peters Read Free Book Online Page B

lashed out in
alarm, I grant you, but without cause.”
    “I
take your word for that, and I’ll stand by it. But he led the attack, and he’ll
end with the rest, as he should, seeing he loosed this on us all. They’ll be
bailed by their fathers, the lot of them,” said Hugh wearily, and passed long
fingers over tired eyelids. “Do I seem to you, Cadfael, to be turning horribly
into a crown official? That I should not like!”
    “No,”
said Cadfael judicially, “you’re not too far gone. Still a glint in the eye and
a quirk in the mind. You’ll do yet!”
    “Gracious
in you! And you say this Bristol merchant struck the silly wretch down without
provocation?”
    “He
imagined provocation. The boy laid a detaining hand on his arm from behind, meaning
no ill, but the man took fright. He had a staff in his hand, he turned on him
and hit out. Felled him like an ox! I doubt if he had the strength to knock the
trestle from under a stall, after that. For all I know, he may be fallen out of
his senses, somewhere, unless his friends have kept their hands on him.”
    Hugh
looked at him across the trestle on which their ownelbows were
spread, and smiled. “If ever I want for an advocate, I’ll come running to you.
Well, I do know the lad, he has a well-hung tongue, and lets it wag far too
freely, and he has a hot temper and a warm heart, and lets the pair of them run
away with his own sense—if you claim he has any!”
    The
lay porter put his bald brown crown and round red face into the room. “My lord,
there’s a lady here at the gate has a trouble on her mind, and asks a word. One
Mistress Emma Vernold, niece to the merchant Thomas of Bristol. Will you have
her come in?”
    They
looked at each other across the board with raised brows and startled eyes. “The
same man?” said Beringar, marvelling.
    “The
same man, surely! And the same girl! But the uproar was all over. What can she
be wanting here at this hour, and what’s her uncle about, letting her venture
loose into the night?”
    “We’d
best be finding out,” said Hugh, resigned. “Let the lady come in, if I’m the
man she wants.”
    “She
asked first for a guest here, Ivo Corbière, but I know he’s still out viewing
the preparations along the Foregate. And when I mentioned that you were here,
she begged a word with you. Glad to find the law here and awake, seemingly.”
    “Ask
her to step in, then. And Cadfael, stay, if you’ll be so good, she’s had speech
with you already, she may be glad of a known face.”
    Emma
Vernold came in hurriedly yet hesitantly, unsure of herself in this unfamiliar
place, and made a hasty reverence. “My lord, I pray your pardon for troubling
you so late…” She saw Brother Cadfael, and half-smiled, relieved but
distracted. “I am Emma Vernold, I came with my uncle, Thomas of Bristol, we
have our own living-space on his barge by the bridge. And this is my uncle’s
man Gregory.” It was the youngest of the three who attended her, a gawky, lean
but powerful fellow of about twenty.
    Beringar
took her by the hand and put her into a seat by the table. “I’m here to serve
you, as best I can. What’s your trouble?”
    “Sir,
my uncle went to see to the stocking of his booth at the horse-fair, it was not
long after the good brother here leftus. You’ll have heard all
that happened, below there? My uncle went to join his other two men, who were
busy there before him, and left only Gregory with me. But that’s nearly two
hours ago, and he has not come back.”
    “He
will have brought a great deal of merchandise with him,” suggested Hugh
reasonably. “It takes time to arrange things to the best vantage, and I imagine
your uncle will have things done well.”
    “Oh,
yes, indeed he will. But it isn’t just that he is so long. The two men with him
were his journeyman, Roger Dod, and the porter Warin, and Warin sleeps in the
booth to mind the goods. Roger came