[Roger the Chapman 06] - The Wicked Winter by Kate Sedley

Author:Kate Sedley [Sedley, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, General, Historical
ISBN: 9780312206253
Google: rd-Ku1tjDWIC
Amazon: 0312206259
Barnesnoble: 0312206259
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 1995-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

I wish I could say that I had intended to disclose my presence immediately, but that they began to speak before I had sufficient time to do so. The truth, however, is that there was a long enough pause for me to have shown myself and I kept quiet, huddled silently in the musty gloom of the confessional box.

A second voice belonged, unsurprisingly, to Ursula Lynom. She sounded a little breathless, less self-assured than she had done the previous morning, and her words made it apparent that this was the first occasion since her arrival on which she and Sir Hugh had thought themselves sufficiently out of earshot of any other inhabitant of the manor. They had not after all - or so I guessed - dared to spend the night together.

'Hugh, you've no need to pretend with me. Hamon told me everything.' The tone was low, but perfectly audible.

'What do you mean by that, pray? What could Harnon possibly have to tell you?' The knight's voice was edged as much by irritation as by fear.

'He saw you bending over Jeanette's body outside the tower.'

There was a silence during which I scarcely dared to breathe. The pounding of my heart sounded so loudly in my ears that I was convinced one of them must hear it. I started to sweat in spite of the cold.

At last, Sir Hugh demanded harshly, 'What was Hamon doing at the tower?' I wondered if he had considered denying the accusation. If so, he had thought better of it.

'He came here on my instructions, to deliver some buttons to you; buttons that I'd bought from the chapman. I explained all this yesterevening.' She was impatient.

'I haven't forgotten.' Her lover was equally annoyed. 'But why was Hamon anywhere near the estuary? I should have expected him to look for me in the house.'

'He... He probably did.' Mistress Lynorn's tone was guarded. 'He... saw you, and followed.'

I thought to myself, 'Simeon, you and I may congratulate ourselves on having approached so near to the truth.' But the next moment, I was not so certain.

'No.' Sir Hugh was confident. 'No one followed me from the house, I'm sure of that. You know as well as I do that once you leave the gate in the wall, the path lies across open country. I looked over my shoulder several times, but there was no one behind me. If your man was at the tower, he must have left the main track before he reached the manor and approached it by the path through the scrubland. And if that is so, he had to be there for his own purposes.' After a moment's hesitation, he added, 'Or yours.'

Another, longer silence succeeded his words, and although I could not see either the knight or Mistress Lynom through the worn velvet curtain, I could imagine them eyeing one another up, wary as a pair of cats.

Eventually, the woman asked, 'Why should he be there for any purpose of mine?' continuing, with

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