Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom

Author:C.J. Sansom [Sansom, C.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction
ISBN: 978-0670033720
Publisher: Viking Penguin
Published: 2014-10-04T04:00:00+00:00

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. Do you know him?'

'Only by repute. I hear he is a skilled man.'

Vervey smiled. 'Ay, he's one of the few founders who knows that type of work. A skilled fellow.'

Probably a dead fellow, but I could not tell him. I changed the subject. 'I wonder if I might have a look at your library while I am here. Perhaps borrow one or two books if you have them?'

He laughed. 'I can't see that we would have anything Lincoln's Inn does not.'

'It's not legal works I'm after. Some Roman history. Livy and Plutarch, Pliny.'

'I will prepare a note for the librarian. I heard about your friend Godfrey Wheelwright and the Duke of Norfolk.'

It was safe to speak, for Vervey was known as a reformist. 'Godfrey should be more careful.'

'Ay, the times grow dangerous again.

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