Satan's Fire (A Medieval Mystery Featuring Hugh Corbett) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Corbett’s messenger.
    ‘Good,’ he whispered.
    Corbett whirled round. ‘What holds you at York, Ranulf?’
    ‘Oh, nothing, Master.’
    Corbett studied him carefully. ‘Do you ever tell the truth, Ranulf?’
    ‘Every time I open my mouth, Master.’
    ‘And you have no lady-love here? No burgess’s buxom wife?’
    ‘Of course not, Master.’
    Corbett turned back to his writing tray. Ranulf pulled a face behind him and quietly thanked God that Corbett hadn’t questioned him about the burgess’s buxom daughters.
    ‘So, we are staying?’
    ‘Yes,’ Corbett wearily replied. ‘We’ll take lodgings in St Mary’s Abbey. Meanwhile, we have work to do. You have the petitions?’
    Maltote hurried across, carrying a thick roll of vellum. ‘This is what the clerks have received.’
    Corbett gestured at his servants to sit on either side of the table.
    ‘We’ll work for two more hours,’ he declared.
    As Corbett reopened his writing case, Ranulf looked across at Maltote and raised his eyes heavenwards. ‘Master Long Face’, as Ranulf had secretly nicknamed Corbett, was not in the best of humours. Nevertheless, both men helped as Corbett began to work through the roll of vellum containing all the petitions the council had received, once the good burgesses of York knew the king was visiting their city. Every town had the right to petition the Crown, and Edward took such matters most seriously. The Chancery clerks would collect individual petitions, write them out again in a fair hand on sheets of parchment which were then sewn together. One of Corbett’s functions, whenever he was at Court, was to deal with such requests. This collection of petitions covered a multitude of affairs: Francesca Ingoldsby complained against Elizabeth Raddle for assaulting and beating her with a broomstick on a pavement in the presence of their neighbours. Matthew Belle complained against Thomas Cooke for assault and striking him in the face with a poker at the Green Mantle tavern. Thomasina Wheel sought a licence to go beyond the seas to St James’s Shrine at Compostella. Mary Verdell alleged she’d lost a cloak and believed Elizabeth Fryer was the culprit. John de Bartonon and Beatrice his wife complained against the vicar of their church who constantly trespassed upon their property. On and on the petitions went. Corbett ordered some of them to be sent to the city council, others to the sheriff, or the mayor; a few he kept for the king’s consideration. One, in particular, he did scrutinise: it was from Hubert Seagrave, ‘king’s vintner in his own city of York’, seeking permission to buy two messuages of land adjoining his tavern.
    Corbett smiled across at Ranulf. ‘We can deal with this one ourselves,’ he muttered. ‘I am to collect a tun of wine from Seagrave and take it to the Templars at Framlingham.’
    Ranulf, busily writing down his master’s decisions, just mumbled a reply. Corbett returned to the roll, noticing how a growing number of petitions from individual citizens, as well as some from the commonality of York, complained about the strange and mysterious events happening at the Templar manor at Framlingham. One man, John de Huyten, complained of lights burning late in the manor house, with hymns being sung at the dead of night. A batch of further petitions complained about how, since the Templar commanders had arrived at Framlingham, the gardens and estates of the manor were very closely guarded, and ancient rights of way across the Templar estates were now closed. A petitioner, Leofric Goodman, carpenter, declared how he had been ejected from Framlingham. He had been hired to work in the manor: he had gone upstairs to repair a shutter on a window but a Templar soldier had accosted him and driven him away with threatening and violent language.
    Corbett put his pen down and went out to stand by the window. Daylight was fading: already lamps and torches had been lit, and even Ranulf was muttering that the light