The Alehouse Murders (2007) by Maureen Ash

Author:Maureen Ash [Ash, Maureen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Maureen Ash
ISBN: 9780425217658
Publisher: Berkley

“These are the copies of the letters that Sir Philip sent to Hugo”s mother, Eleanor. The others are her replies. You will find they are in the order of their dating.”

Bascot motioned to the coffer. “These have been kept locked away all the time Sir Philip was in correspondence with the boy”s mother?”

“They have,” he affirmed. “Only Sir Philip and myself had access to them.” Scothern”s genial freckled face was drawn in lines of tautness and there was a fine sheen of perspiration on his upper lip.

“Is Sir Philip literate?” Bascot asked.

Scothern shook his head. “He can sign his name, and scan the tallies of some of his holdings, but not much more.”

“Then you will have written all of his letters and read the replies for his benefit?” The secretarius nodded. “How did your master locate the boy”s mother? It would seem she had been gone many years from Lincoln.”

“Her father was a perfume maker, and Sir Philip knew that he had relations in Maine and also believed that was where she was sent when… her condition… became obvious. I made enquiries among the merchants of Lincoln and, from the information I garnered, we discovered that it was most likely she was in the town of La Lune. Sir Philip directed that a letter be sent there—to the provost of the town—asking that he make an attempt to locate the lady he was looking for. Not much later we had a reply from a priest—the lady apparently lived in his parish—and Sir Philip sent a letter, written at his direction by myself, for the priest to forward to her.”

“I see.” Bascot picked up one of the scrolls. It was neatly dated on the outside with the inscription of a day in early April. “This is the first one received from her?”

Scothern nodded and Bascot unrolled the letter and scanned the contents. The scribing was neat, probably written by a clerk or priest. It was in formal language, thanking her former lover for his interest in their son and telling how she had, with the help of relatives, been able to follow her father”s trade of perfume maker. She went on to say that she had never married, that her whole existence had revolved around Hugo and that she had never let him forget that his father was of the English nobility. He was a fine boy, she had appended, whom she had managed to have educated and who had repaid her efforts by being hardworking and honest. The letter closed by saying that she hoped one day Philip would want to meet his son and that they looked forward to further communications from him.

In all, it was a letter written with almost fawning politeness and hinted at the underlying hope of some gain from the resumption of de Kyme”s interest. Philip”s reply was enthusiastic, expressing a desire to see his son and offering to pay the expenses of the boy”s trip to England. Eleanor”s reply to this letter was effusive, as was the next, and last, one.

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