A Trail of Ink by Mel Starr

Author:Mel Starr [Starr, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: General, Mystery & Detective, Christian, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781854249746
Google: dQCtpbpoBqkC
Amazon: 1854249746
Publisher: Monarch
Published: 2010-10-14T18:30:00+00:00

L ord Gilbert and his six grooms halted at the Castle Mill Stream and bade Arthur and me farewell. The streets of Oxford were crowded with folk completing the day's business. No man was likely to accost me in such a public place, and Lord Gilbert was eager to return to Eynsham.

Arthur and I again left our horses at the Stag and Hounds. Bruce seemed pleased to enter the yard behind the inn. Perhaps he considered the place a second home. We entered Canterbury Hall in time for supper, a pease pottage with maslin loaf and cheese. I was not much hungry.

Master John was surprised at my early return. After supper he called me to his chamber to learn of the journey and the treatment he supposed I had given to Lord Gilbert's son. Master John seems always ready to hear of surgeries I have done.

I explained that Sir Walter Benyt, was that his true name, had misled me, and told of my brush with felons on the road. Master John was of the same opinion as Lord Gilbert.

"There is villainy in this," he spluttered. "'Twas not only your purse they sought!"

angered some who now wish to do me harm," I agreed.

"On my account, perhaps. I will be a wretched man should evil befall you as you seek my books. See to your safety, Hugh."

"Perhaps I was attacked by men in league with Sir Simon Trillowe?"

"Hmm. The sheriff's son who would have pursued Kate Caxton."

"Aye. We met a few days past outside the gate to Canterbury Hall. He is not content, I think, to let the matter rest."

"Young knights are a vain and vexatious lot. Well, he must be content, like it or not, in a month, will he not?"

"Aye. Kate will be my wife, we will dwell in Bampton, and I need see the fellow no more. If I find your books."

The Angelus Bell rang from the Priory Church of St Frideswide and I could not stifle a yawn. Master John grinned. "I thought 'twas only we aged who must go to our beds with the Angelus Bell," he jested.

"You? Aged?"

"A figure of speech. Older than you, Master Hugh. Although there be mornings my bones seem to creak more when I rise from my bed than they once did. In holy writ a man's years are three score and ten... but few there be who see that many seasons. So wed your Kate and make the most of the years God will grant you."

"I will do so. I did not sleep well last night for weighing who might have misled me and sent me to Bampton, and why they did so."

"Then be off to your bed, and leave the matter with God for the night. Thinking on it when you might be sleeping will bring no solution, and on the morrow, when you might be rested and have your wits about you, you will be doltish for loss of rest."

I did as Master John advised. But it was not so easy to fall to sleep as he suggested.

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