The Bloody City: A Mediaeval Mystery by Hanley C B

Author:Hanley, C B [Hanley, C B]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-01-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Edwin knelt in the cool silence of the cathedral, thoughts scattering like sheep in his mind as he tried to order them. Start from the beginning. There was some sort of resistance in the town which was meant to help the castle. But what exactly is it I’m supposed to be looking for? Is it a cache of weapons? Some kind of information that would stop the siege engines or that would help a relieving force? There was no way of knowing. But someone in the city knew what it was, and he’d failed in his task of finding out who. Try as he might, he kept coming back to Nicholas Holland. Had he really been going out that night in search of his mistress? Ralf seemed to think so, and the others had all been ready to believe him. No, not all – Alys had been certain that that wasn’t it. But was she just a naïve girl who wouldn’t believe any ill of her father? He tried to summon up an image of her face. It wasn’t difficult. He saw her as he’d seen her this afternoon, tried to analyse her expression again as it had been when she heard Ralf’s tale. There had been anger, surprise, and something else. What was it? He screwed his eyes up even tighter as he tried to look more closely at the picture in his head. Surprise, anger, and … yes – that was it. A look of relief. But what did that mean? He sighed, shifted his position and started all over again. Someone had tried to help the castle …

As the afternoon drew on into evening, and the cold of the hard stone floor seeped into his knees, he tried one last prayer. Please Lord, help me. Help me not for myself, but for all the people here who will suffer and perhaps die if I don’t succeed. It’s growing dark and I need to be back at the castle tonight, yet I have nothing to say. What is the missing clue? This is probably blasphemous, but Father, if you are up there among the saints and the blessed, please ask one of them to intercede for me. I need your help.

He felt a touch on his arm and saw an aged, wrinkled hand. His breath stopped. But the hand belonged not to a spirit. It was William.

‘Edwin – there you are. I have been looking for you every-where. Master Michael said he had seen you enter earlier, but I had not thought you would still be here.’

Edwin tried to rise, but his knees were stiff. William put out a hand to help him, but his balance wasn’t good, and the two of them were nearly bowled over by a slight man in a dark cloak and red hat, who stopped to offer an apology and help them up. Edwin recognised him as being the neighbour of Alys. Not the young man Gervase, but the other one, the one who lived on the other side.

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