The Falconer's Knot by Mary Hoffman

Author:Mary Hoffman
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Poison in the Air

When Chiara left the Abbess and crossed the convent yard, she saw two brothers hastily carrying a plain coffin into the main house. She stopped for a moment and crossed herself, a cold premonition touching her spine.

But she shook off her fears. There surely couldn’t be another death so soon. While she was still watching, the painter Simone and his friend Pietro hurriedly crossed the small distance between the two houses, looking desperately worried.

‘Ah, Sister Orsola,’ said Simone. ‘Well met. Can you take us to Abbess Elena?’

‘Of course. You want to see her before you go to the colour room?’ asked Chiara, setting off to retrace her steps.

‘I think our commission of ultramarine will have to wait,’ said Pietro. ‘We bring bad news from the friary.’

Chiara halted. ‘Someone else has died, haven’t they?’

The two painters looked at each other. ‘Such news should be told first to the Abbess,’ said Simone gently.

‘Please!’ insisted Chiara. ‘If it is one of the brothers, tell me who. I have friends there.’

Pietro shrugged. ‘It is Brother Landolfo.’

Relief flooded through Chiara’s body. Then she felt ashamed. She did not know Brother Landolfo but she was sorry that any of the friars had died and so suddenly that he must have gone unshriven. How awful to die unconfessed and unabsolved, she thought, especially for a friar. But perhaps, being a friar, he had very few sins to confess or forgive?

‘How did it happen?’ she managed to ask.

‘It appears that he might have been poisoned,’ said Simone, as the friary chapel bell started to toll.

‘Another murder?’ asked Chiara.

‘We really should go to the Abbess,’ said Simone.

‘Yes,’ said Chiara. ‘I’ll take you straight to her.’ But her thoughts were in chaos.

Another murder meant another murderer – or the same one who had stabbed Ubaldo the merchant. But that meant it was one of the brothers – it was unthinkable! She wished she could talk to Silvano and Anselmo about it.

Once she had left the painters at the Abbess’s door, she had to run to Sister Veronica and tell her what had happened. The sisters in the colour room had already heard the passing bell and were sitting white-faced, waiting to find out what had happened.

‘Poison?’ said Sister Veronica, as if she hadn’t understood the word. ‘He must have eaten something bad.’

Chiara lowered her eyes and whispered, ‘I think it was another murder.’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.