16 - The Three Kings of Cologne by Kate Sedley

Author:Kate Sedley [Sedley, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: tpl, rt, Fiction, Historical, Mystery & Detective
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2013-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Twelve

I took my leave of Master Moresby and his niece after dinner – a splendid meal of roast pork and apple fritters – in spite of Juliette’s attempts to persuade me to stay.

‘As you say you don’t wish to travel on a Sunday, Master Chapman, why return to the New Inn and pay to be far less comfortable than you would be here? We have a chamber, right at the top of the house, under the eaves, to be sure, but clean and warm and private. At the inn you may well have to share, and I’m certain that the food will not rival mine.’

She looked intently at me as she spoke, conveying the message that there would be other comforts on offer as well as those she had mentioned. But that was the trouble. I knew that if I did as she wanted, I would be unable to resist the temptation of her company in bed, even though her uncle would be in the house. Had the quondam goldsmith added his entreaties to hers, I believe that in spite of my overwhelming sense of guilt and betrayal, I would have given in. But Robert Moresby remained silent; nor could I rid myself of the notion that he would be glad to see me go, although, if I were right, I was uncertain of his reason. Did he simply wish to mourn alone, to come to terms with the fact that for so many years he had vilified a woman he now – however mistakenly – thought to have been his one true love? Or was he afraid of revealing too much if he had to put up with my company for the rest of the day?

Of the two possibilities, the former seemed most likely, but there was no way I could be certain until I had paid a visit to Sir Peter and Lady Claypole at Hambrook Manor, and even then I might be none the wiser. They could both be dead by now and someone else in possession of the manor. Or their memories might not stretch back twenty years, at least not with any clarity. Recollections became muddled after a shorter period than that. But I should have to visit Hambrook to satisfy my own curiosity and find out what, if anything, there was to be discovered.

I could tell that Juliette was disappointed by my decision to return to the New Inn, and when she bade me farewell, she hissed the word ‘Coward!’ in my ear. But she blew me a secret kiss behind her uncle’s back She’d soon forget me when the next opportunity to seduce a man offered itself, but I wasn’t so sure that I’d as easily forget her.

Conscience told me that I should go to confess my sins, but I was bad at acknowledging my transgressions. (I always have been and always will be, I daresay, until the day I die; a day not too far off now, perhaps.) But, for the good

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