Study of Murder, The (Five Star Mystery Series) by Susan McDuffie Read Free Book Online

conversation while Mariota pored over the medical texts. Clarkson seemed to be wanting to redeem a pledge but the bookseller was reluctant, saying that Clarkson owed him money still. I wondered a little at their talk, but it was none of my business, for all that. Mariota meanwhile seemed entranced by the medical texts. At length I opened
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
and lost myself in the story, struggling some with the unfamiliar English.
    The door of the shop slammed open and Master Clarkson left abruptly, walking down the High Street as quickly as he had come.
    “He did not seem to be in good humor,” Mariota observed. “He is the master of the college?”
    Just then the bookseller reappeared. “Excuse me, just a matter of business that needed attending to. Did any of these texts seem as though they would interest your father?”
    Mariota ignored the implication and picked out two books, the treatise on the examination of urine and another text by Galen on the complexions and what they revealed of a patient’s humors. At the last moment I added
Sir Gawain
to the pile. The tale had captured my fancy, and I justified the purchase thinking that reading it would improve my English. We had the funds to pay for the volumes, as his lordship had made sure we were well supplied with money for the time we were in Oxford.
    I asked the bookseller about the parchment and if he had others from the same source.
    “Those were just some old parchments that were sold by one of the schools. I do not think I have any others, someone just brought in a few sheets to sell.”
    We thanked him, took our purchases and left. Mariota wanted to walk up School Street. The narrow street was crowded with houses and halls and jammed with students jostling each other as they left the lecture halls or waited outside other buildings until the last moment before going in. There was a babble of voices as many of them attempted to remember the lessons they had just heard.
    We paused before one of the halls. “There,” said Mariota, “that is where many of the medical lectures are given. It is said that Master Rudolfo, from Salerno, is a very fine lecturer. I would love to hear him,” she said, and looked so wistful that my heart hurt sharply to see the expression on her face.
    “There’s nothing for it, white love,” I said, “you know women cannot attend the lectures.”
    Mariota nodded, and we continued down High Street, although she did make one more stop at the cloth merchant’s as we passed by his stall, picking out some blue wool of stout weave.
    “A new kirtle?” I asked.
    “Something of the sort,” Mariota replied.
    We turned onto School Street and Mariota said she would go on to the widow’s through Smithgate. I decided I should go check on Donald and entered the hall. The lecture room was simple, wood benches around the edges and a lectern at the front where the master spoke. Julian Delacey was lecturing on grammar, from
De partibus orationis ars minor
. Delacey was somewhat short, with a ruddy complexion, and to me he seemed a pompous fool. I took a seat at the back and waited for the lecture to end. It was not a stimulating topic. Delacey asked the questions and the students, most of whom looked to be about the same age as Donald, chanted their answers back.
    “How many attributes has a noun?”
    “Six.”
    “What are they?”
    “Quality, comparison, gender, number, form, case.”
    I saw Anthony and Crispin, who were seated a ways down the bench from Donald, writing something on their wax tablets and smirking. Master Delacey apparently did not notice. Then they passed the tablets down the row toward Donald. He glanced at the tablets, his face reddened, and he slammed them shut. Delacey did notice this and he fixed Donald with a glare, his hazel eyes bulging somewhat from his face. “You will show me your tablet, young man.”
    “But—” Donald started to argue, then shut his mouth, walked up to the podium and handed the