The Midsummer Crown by Kate Sedley

Author:Kate Sedley [Sedley, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2011-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

I flung wide the shutters and shouted, ‘Well? Can you see any way to get in?’

It was the following morning and I had recruited Piers Daubenay to assist me in a small experiment. I had, without its occupier’s knowledge or permission, locked, or rather bolted, myself into the room next door to Tutor Machin’s, having previously directed Piers to remain outside on the castle’s landing-stage. Now, as I leant out of the open casement, his youthful, smooth-skinned face was upturned to mine, the morning sun catching the red glints in his curly hair and turning it to copper.

‘Well?’ I demanded again testily. ‘Is there any way in which you can climb up the wall to this window?’

He shook his head. ‘I can’t see one,’ he reported cheerfully. ‘This stretch of wall is smooth, But you must know that. You must have inspected it already.’

‘I just wanted a second opinion, that’s all. You would agree with me, then, that no one could have climbed into any of the rooms along this passageway from outside?’

‘Impossible,’ he confirmed.

‘Now come in and see if there is any way – any way at all – that you can get inside this room without me unbolting the door.’

‘You know fucking well it can’t be done.’

As once before, at Minster Lovell, the swear word jarred, not because I was a prude and didn’t use it myself on occasions – quite a few occasions, if I’m honest – but because it seemed deliberately chosen to prove a point. But what point? That the soft-cheeked boy was really a man who could hold his ale and curse along with the next fellow? Probably. He couldn’t possibly believe it would shock me.

‘Just come in and do as you’re told,’ I said.

A few minutes later, the latch rattled, then there was a thump as Piers presumably threw his weight against the door. Nothing happened, of course. The bolt didn’t even tremble. Like its counterpart in what had been Gregory Machin’s room, it was too stoutly made. I partially loosened it, so that only the tip of the shaft remained in the socket.

‘Try again,’ I ordered my helper. ‘Harder this time.’

Piers obliged, but once more there was no appreciable result. No one could have entered the tutor’s room even if the bolt had not been properly rammed home. I sighed and opened the door.

‘So what’s the answer?’ Piers asked as I stepped outside and went to look yet again at the neighbouring chamber.

This had at last been swept clean of the shards of wood from the broken door, although the castle carpenter had not so far had time to make and fit a new one.

‘I don’t know,’ I admitted. ‘There doesn’t seem to be one.’

Piers crossed himself and made the sign to ward off the evil eye, his jaunty air suddenly deserting him.

‘There’s only one explanation then, isn’t there?’ he demanded unhappily. ‘This was the Devil’s work.’

I didn’t reply because there seemed to be no satisfactory alternative solution. And yet I still couldn’t bring myself to accept it.

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.