Dark Fire by C J Sansom

Author:C J Sansom [Sansom, C J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Deckare
Published: 2010-11-19T23:00:00+00:00

We walked to the inn where we had left the horses. The way was narrow and Joseph walked a little way behind Barak and me, his shoulders slumped.

'He's near the end of his tether.' I sighed. 'But so am I.'

Barak raised his eyebrows. 'Don't you start playing the martyr. It's bad enough with him and her.'

I looked at him curiously. 'You had the measure of her in there. It was you got her to write that sentence.'

He shrugged. 'I've had some experience of her way of thinking. When I ran away from home I felt all the world had turned against me. It took being arrested to bring me out of it.'

'It hasn't done that for her.'

He shook his head. 'Something bad must have happened to drive her to those depths.

Something the girl thinks will never be believed.' He lowered his voice. 'We'll see what's in that well tonight.'

Chapter Twenty-four

I SAID FAREWELL TO JOSEPH, promising I should have news for him tomorrow. As I rode down Cheapside to the Guildhall I wondered again what might be down that well. I had to ride carefully to avoid the small boys playing in the puddles, squelching joyously with their bare feet in the ooze even as the puddles shrank around them. I thought of the sun's fire turning the water to vapour, drawing it upwards from the earth through the hot air. Earth, air, fire, water: the four elements that, combined in a million ways, made up everything under the moon. But what was the combination that produced Greek Fire?

Arriving at the Guildhall, I left Chancery in the stables and went to find Vervey in his shaded office. He was studying a contract with leisurely carefulness, and I found myself envying his peaceful routine. He welcomed me warmly and I gave him the opinion I had written out the previous evening. He read it, nodding occasionally, then looked up at me.

'You are hopeful, then, of a victory in Chancery?'

'Ay, though it may be a year before we get there.'

He looked at me meaningfully. 'We may need to take more than the usual fee to the Six Clerks' Office up at the Domus.'

'That may help get the matter listed more quickly. I am going to look at Bealknap's property this morning, by the way. The Chancery judge will want to know all the circumstances of the nuisance.'

'Good, good. The council places the highest priority on this. Some of these tenements in the old monastic properties are shocking. Hovels of cheap wood, unsanitary and a fire risk too, with everywhere as dry as tinder.' He looked out of his window at the clear blue sky. 'If a fire breaks out people may not be able to get enough water from the conduits to quench it. Then the Common Council will be blamed. We're trying to stop leaks in the pipes, but some of them run miles from the streams.'

'I know of a man who is working on repairing the conduits. Master Leighton.'

'Yes. I have a note to chase him, he was supposed to bring our contractors some new pipes but he hasn't appeared.

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