[Roger the Chapman 05] - Eve of Saint Hyacinth Read Online Free PDF

and she had herself informed me that the cook, kitchen-maids and pot-boy had sleeping quarters in the main hall, in company with the rest of the servants.
    I observed her in silence some moments longer, then touched her gently on the shoulder. She was awake on the instant, tossing back the blanket and sitting up to hug her knees. The mane of hair acted as a cloak, but the swelling curves of her limbs and breasts were visible through the tangled tresses.
    'You must go,' I whispered reluctantly and nodded towards the cracks of light around the shutters. 'Some of the servants are already stirring. I can hear them.' I leaned across and kissed her willing lips. 'And it's almost time for me to be on my way.'
    Jennet sighed, got up and draped herself in the blanket.
    She stood looking down at me, a slight smile touching the full, sensuous mouth, a sparkle in the grey-green eyes.
    Then she winked, hitched the blanket more firmly around her and padded across to the door, her bare feet slapping on the flagstones.
    Left alone, I dressed quickly and went outside to the courtyard pump, splashing my face and hands with the icy water. By the time I returned to the kitchen, two of the maids had made their appearance, yawning and rubbing the sleep from their leaden eyes. I cajoled one of them into boiling water for me to shave with, having first agreed to work the bellows and blow some life into last night's embers, smouldering on the hearth. The second girl, without inducement, said that if I liked she would make me gruel and fry a collop of bacon to go with it, an offer which I gratefully accepted. I was still eating when the cook arrived, but she merely nodded in my direction, making no comment other than that she trusted I'd soon be off, as she didn't want me under her feet any longer than was necessary°
    'I'm away this minute,' I assured her cheerfully, shovelling the last of the bacon into my mouth and pulling on my jerkin. 'It looks as if it'll be a fine day and I don't want to waste it.'
    'Where are you heading for?' she asked, tying on her apron and wielding a massive ladle.
    'Today, Winchester. But eventually London.' She gave a throaty chuckle. 'They say the streets there are paved with gold, but I doubt it's like any other place, mostly horse-shit.'
    'True enough,' I laughed. 'And dead dogs and rotting garbage and fly-blown muck. Pigs running amok when they've no right to be within city limits and various other contraventions of the law.'
    'And murder,' she suggested. 'I dare say there's plenty of that.'
    'Oh yes,' I agreed. 'There's always wickedness of that sort even in the smallest town.' I had spoken with more bitterness than I intended and the cook glanced sharply at me. I went on quickly, 'Is there another path to the Winchester road from here, or must I go back the way I came and return to the ford?'
    'Ay, there is another path,' she conceded. 'It's a track well known to local people and you'll probably find it easily enough if you follow my directions.' She accompanied me to the kitchen door and stood looking out at the hazy morning, where the sun was just beginning to penetrate the mist. Somewhere to our right a large bird, a wood pigeon perhaps, clattered through the branches of the trees. The cook gestured with her ladle. 'When you go from here return to the stream and continue eastwards. Just after leaving demesne lands you'll come to a woodsman's cottage at the junction of another track, running north and bearing westwards. It's a well-trodden path and, if you keep to it, it will join the Winchester road some mile or two south of the town.'
    I nodded, picturing the triangle of roads in my mind's eye, and foresaw no problem in discovering my way. The cook, however, was not so certain.
    'The first league should present few difficulties. It's well worn and will lead you directly to a hermitage in the middle of the woods. But half a mile or so beyond that, be careful.
    The main path thereabouts is not so easily