Murder by the Book Read Online Free PDF Page A

and hostels fighting each other – it is worse. There are divisions within foundations, too, and they are tearing us apart. I am ashamed to admit that even Gonville has a traitor.’
    ‘One who has dared not show his face here today,’ added another Gonville scholar sourly. ‘Namely Roger Vale, our second Master of Medicine.’
    ‘Vale is not a traitor,’ said Sawtre firmly. ‘He just likes the idea of a Common Library. As do I.’
    ‘It is the Devil’s work,’ declared Thomas Riborowe, who ran the Carmelites’ scriptorium. He was a skeletally thin specimen with a cadaverous pallor. ‘We should all unite against Satan’s evil designs, and vote to repeal the grace with immediate effect.’
    ‘You cannot really believe that!’ cried Sawtre over the resulting hubbub. ‘The only reason you are able to read the tomes you love so dearly is because your priory owns them. Surely, others deserve that right, too?’
    ‘And they can have it –
if
they take holy orders and become friars,’ screeched Riborowe.
    ‘Enough!’ roared Michael, cutting through the furious squabble that followed. ‘We did not come here to bicker about a grace that has already been passed. We came to discuss my new Junior Proctor. Are there any volunteers?’
    Suddenly, the church went quiet, and Bartholomew noted with amusement that some Regents were holding their breath, afraid to move lest they attracted unwanted attention. Others stared fixedly at the floor or the ceiling,unwilling to risk catching Michael’s eye. When Tynkell declared an end to the gathering a short while later, there was a concerted dash towards the door, still in total silence. Outside, however, the debate about the library continued in venomous brays.
    ‘I was not expecting a plethora of offers,’ said Michael ruefully, watching the last of the Regents jostling through the door. ‘But it is disappointing when not one colleague is prepared to help me. And if there had been a willing candidate, his first duty would have been to visit Weasenham and break the news about Adam. I confess, it is not a task I relish.’
    ‘No,’ agreed Bartholomew, glad it was not his responsibility.
    A crafty look came into Michael’s eye. ‘It will be a terrible shock, and Weasenham’s scribes may need the services of a physician. You must come with me.’
    The stationer’s premises occupied a strategic spot on the High Street, and was where scholars and scribes went to purchase the supplies they needed for their work – pens, ink, glue, parchment and vellum, books and, of course, exemplars. It stood near All Saints-in-the-Jewry, conveniently close to King’s Hall, where the University’s wealthiest academics lived, and was a grand affair with a tiled roof and several spacious rooms. Weasenham and his household lived on the upper floor, while the lower one was dedicated to business.
    Bartholomew had always liked the place, with its sharp, metallic aroma of ink and the rich scent of new parchment, although he was less keen on its owner. Weasenham, a thin, rodent-faced man with long, oily hair, was an unrepentant gossip, and could always be trusted to turn any innocent incident into scurrilous rumour.
    The shop was busy, despite the early hour, which explained why he was one of the richest men in the town. Two Fellows from Bene’t College were discussing whether to purchase a second copy of Gratian’s
Decretum
, watched enviously by a gaggle of scholars from Batayl Hostel who could not afford their first. A group of friars was admiring a new shipment of psalters, and students clamoured at Weasenham’s assistants for the exemplars they needed for the next stage of their studies.
    The stationer himself was talking to William Walkelate, the King’s Hall architect.
    ‘We are doing very well,’ Walkelate was saying happily. ‘There is no reason why we should not be ready by next Thursday. Dunning will be delighted, because he has set his heart on a grand opening at Corpus