Death in Rheims: A thrilling espionage adventure in Elizabethan Europe (Tom Walsingham Mysteries Book 3) by C. P. Giuliani

Author:C. P. Giuliani [Giuliani, C. P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2023-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Dinner was perfunctory, and simmering with some expectant quality. Even the explanation of the day’s chapter was cut short, and Father Hodgson had barely descended from the pulpit before servants and students all set to clearing the trestle tables, dismounting them and turning the hall into a chapel again.

“’Tis the sermon,” Will Colson explained, as Tom helped him carry two piled benches. When the boy took a bouncing step, and the uppermost bench began to slide, young Talbot stepped in to stop the fall, exchanging huge grins with Colson. Even Woodward seemed a shade cheerier — although, what joy was to be found in yet more preaching?

“What sermon?” asked Tom who, as a boy, had never known how to sit still through one.

“In English,” Talbot said. “We all practise and prepare.”

“To show off to the heretics.” And this, from Colson, was a little too much for Woodward who, red-faced and purse-mouthed, felt it his duty to correct his younger fellows.

“Dr. Allen says the heretics do their studies in English, and preach all the better to the rabble for it — while we, who know our Scriptures and our Authors in Latin, must practise it…”

And on he went, and Tom soon lost interest in who preached what. Not that Woodward took notice, perhaps practising a sermon of his own. Instead, Tom watched the students and marked two things: for one, John Savage had reappeared; for another, neither Catesby nor Elliot had.

Which was no matter, was it? Not if Tom was to leave — which he’d better do before he betrayed himself to whatever doubts these people had of him. And since there was nothing here to concern the Service…

“Here they come!” Colson called of a sudden. He was at the yard door, hugging the jamb in his eagerness. “Go hurry Pitts, Talbot! They’re here.”

Judging from the way Talbot rushed away, and Woodward and a dozen others joined the boy at the door and window, one would think the Cardinal of Guise himself must be arriving. When Tom pushed his way to the mullioned window that looked out onto the yard, all he saw was a gaggle of men and women, and even a couple of older children — all dressed in their finery, all chattering among themselves and with the students. Bagshaw and Hodgson were there, too, offering welcomes, and Barret had a wizened lady on his arm who smiled up at him in a most motherly way.

“The English of Rheims,” Colson said, with a breathless grin. “They come each Saturday to hear the sermon. And it’s Pitts giving it today. He’ll need the practice soon —”

“Colson!” a man scoffed in a harsh Northern voice — a tonsured student with pale eyes full of distrust. “Dr. Worthington said…”

Dr. Worthington said what? To keep things from all strangers, or this particular one?

For once young Will was not chastised. “Oh, drop it, Yaxley! He’ll see soon enough.”

But what he would soon see, Tom didn’t learn, for the English of Rheims flocked into

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