Masques of Gold by Roberta Gellis

Author:Roberta Gellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2011-11-21T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Lissa was perfectly correct about her father, having a much clearer understanding of his nature than her uncle did. At the time Gamel was leaving the house in Soper Lane, William Bowles was entering one on Wine Street in Bristol. He was at once shown upstairs to where a very old man nodded at him. William broached his business at once, telling the aged vintner that he was confirmed in his desire to buy the manor of Red Cliff but that he still had some business to complete before he could pay the full price. Master Henry nodded again, and they bargained politely for a little while, the discussion ending with an agreement that William, who was known as Amias FitzStephen, would pay another quarter’s rent to hold the manor.

They agreed on a price, touching hands to seal the bargain. In Bristol Amias FitzStephen had an excellent reputation, and the vintner did not feel more than a handclasp was necessary. William smiled with satisfaction. The old man, he thought, could be no more than days or weeks away from death, and the nephew who now ran his business and would inherit everything else would take a much lower price. He would believe Master Amias’s word and, since the money was to be Master Henry’s death gift to the Church and would not come into the nephew’s purse in any case, would care little.

Meanwhile William knew he would have to stay away from Red Cliff until the old man died. He might as well go back to London and sell the business there. He would get a better price if he was not in a hurry. There would be more chance that Lissa would find out what he was planning too, but what could she do? He had paid her dower; that was daughter’s share, and she had no right to son’s share. Of course, she could tell her cursed uncles, who were in and out of the Steelyard at this time of year. William shuddered. Maybe he would not rush home. Perhaps he should first travel to the north and return to London from there, just in case someone became curious about where he had been.

Partly because William was not much more eager to see Lissa than she was to see him, partly because the weather was unusually dry and pleasant, and partly because he had felt the need to be circumspect in his behavior while he was Amias FitzStephen, he retraced his route northward. There were places he had stayed on other journeys where, if he was not much liked, his coin was known to be good and his needs were supplied. At one of these places, to his enormous surprise, a message was waiting for Master William Bowles. A fellow pepperer of Peterborough had written to say that two young men had sold a pair of goblets to a goldsmith of the town at a suspiciously low price.

Peterborough was hardly out of William’s way, and he rode over to speak to the goldsmith who showed him the goblets, which he still had.

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