Rest Not in Peace Read Online Free PDF

you. The pie is not so badly burnt.”
    “Lord Gilbert asked me to dine at the castle.”
    “You did so?”
    “Aye. I wished to observe Sir Henry’s family and retainers.”
    “Because one of them slew him?”
    “It must be. Lord Gilbert wished him away and back to his own demesne, but would not have murdered him to be rid of him, nor asked another to do so.”
    “What did you learn, watching them eat?”
    “Nothing. Sir Henry’s wife believes my sleeping potion to blame, and ate heartily of her dinner. But only one of Sir Henry’s squires had appetite for his dinner. Lord Gilbert has promised to tell Lady Margery how Sir Henry died, and I must travel to Oxford and return tomorrow with the sheriff. The murder of a knight is more his business than mine. It happened in my bailiwick, but his shire.”

    Sir Roger de Elmerugg possesses champion eyebrows. They cross his face like a hedge through a meadow. When I told him of death at Bampton Castle and its cause, his ruddy forehead furrowed above his brows.
    “You do not know who has done this murder?” he said.
    “Nay. Lord Gilbert wishes you to attend him and seek the felon.”
    “You are bailiff there. Does he not trust your competence?”
    “Sir Henry,” I shrugged, “is… was a knight. And,” I added, “I am suspect.”
    “You? How so?”
    I explained that Sir Henry had slept uneasily and had asked for a sleeping draught.
    “You provided this?”
    “Aye. ’Twas but the pounded seeds of lettuce, a physic I have often used to bring slumber.”
    “What if a man took your potion, yet could not sleep, so consumed more? What then?”
    “The seeds of lettuce are a mild soporific. We may see how much remains in the pouch of what I gave him,but he could have consumed all and it would not have stopped his breath. Lettuce seeds may poison a man if taken to excess, but there were not enough in the pouch to sicken Sir Henry. And I told you of the blood I found in his ear.”
    “Aye. Well, Lord Gilbert asks, and I will come. You may sleep this night in a guest chamber, and your man may sleep with the castle sergeants. We will set out tomorrow after we have broken our fast.”
    I had slept in Oxford Castle before, but not under a clean blanket. I had been charged with stealing another man’s fur coat, which I had not done, so until I was freed at Lord Gilbert’s command I spent several days in the castle dungeon. The experience returned to my mind and so occupied my thoughts that I did not readily find sleep.
    A sergeant pounded upon the chamber door shortly after dawn and announced that Sir Roger would have me and Arthur join him to break our fast. We found the sheriff in the hall, his mouth stuffed with wheaten bread and cheese. No maslin loaf for the sheriff of Oxford. Another sergeant was there also, and Arthur and I joined readily in consuming the loaves and cheese and ale.
    Sir Roger, the two sergeants, Arthur, and I, our bellies pleasingly full, rode under the Oxford Castle gatehouse half an hour later, crossed the Isis on Bookbinder’s Bridge, passed Osney Abbey, and set off for Bampton.
    Whole families were in the fields as we passed. Men swung long-handled scythes to cut hay close to the ground. Women and children followed to turn the hay so it would dry evenly. In other meadows, where the hay had been cut some days past, men were gathering it into great stacks. Many of these laborers watched our party pass upon the road, and some noticed that Sir Roger and I were garbed as gentlemen and tugged at a forelock as we passed.
    The hall was prepared for dinner when we arrived at Bampton Castle. Lord Gilbert had expected Sir Roger’s arrival, so the meal this day featured many pleasing dishes: roasted partridges, cony in cevy, stewed pigeons, and boar in confit, amongst others.
    Place was made at the high table for Sir Roger, and I, again, sat at the head of a side table. Sir Roger was seated beside Lady Margery, and throughout the meal she continued an