The Brothers of Glastonbury

The Brothers of Glastonbury Read Online Free PDF

Book: The Brothers of Glastonbury Read Online Free PDF
Author: Kate Sedley
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Mystery & Detective, rt, blt, _MARKED
by sobs which made her utterances difficult to understand, but both Cicely and I somehow managed to catch the gist of it.
    The girl patted the older woman’s shoulder and made soothing noises. A little colour had crept back into her cheeks and the sparkle to her eyes.
    ‘Aunt Joan,’ she urged, ‘tell me exactly what has happened!’
    Mistress Gildersleeve took a deep breath and attempted to speak more calmly. ‘It’s Peter,’ she sobbed. ‘He’s vanished.’

Chapter Three
    I could not immediately satisfy my curiosity by following Cicely and her aunt into the house, because the rouncy’s welfare had to come before mine. I knew enough of horsemanship to understand that this was one of the cardinal rules; and I also knew it to be the reason why, as long as I had youth and strength, I should always go about my business on two legs instead of four. Not only did I hear and see more travelling on foot, but neither was I forced to place an animal’s well-being before my own.
    I was advised by a passing pot-boy from the George hostelry that there was a good livery stable in Northload Street, just off the market place, where Barnabas would be well looked after for a reasonable daily charge. I made my way there, and after satisfying myself that the stalls were clean and capacious and the straw fresh, I handed him over with a sigh of relief and returned to the Gildersleeves’ home as fast as I could.
    Cicely must have been watching out for me. As I approached, she appeared at the street door to greet and guide me upstairs to the living quarters, where, in an airy chamber directly above the workshop at the back of the house, overlooking the kitchens and a small, walled garden, sat a tearful Dame Joan. A bottle of what I discovered to be primrose wine and four mazers had been placed on the table, together with a dish of cinnamon biscuits and another of medlars, squashy and brown and bursting from their skins. A glance through the open casement showed me the tree below, in the centre of some neatly laid out flower and herb beds, with a narrow bench surrounding its trunk. There was money enough for comfort here, I decided, stealing a furtive and hasty look around the room.
    Cicely urged me to sit down at the table with them, and poured me some wine.
    ‘Aunt, this is the Duke of Clarence’s messenger I’ve been telling you about. His name is Roger.’ I noticed that she carefully avoided any reference to my true occupation.
    Mistress Gildersleeve nodded, dabbing at her eyes, apparently too overcome with emotion to question my lack of livery as one of His Grace’s men.
    ‘What has happened?’ I asked, sipping my wine and looking across at my erstwhile charge.
    But it was Mistress Gildersleeve who answered. A great shudder convulsed her thin frame. ‘Witchcraft!’ she uttered, barely above a whisper.
    ‘Aunt, please! Don’t say that! We know nothing for certain.’ Cicely got up from her stool and, stooping, put her arms around the older woman’s shoulders. ‘When Mark returns, or Rob or John, we might have better news. One of them may have discovered Peter’s whereabouts or what has happened to him. No one can just vanish into thin air.’
    Dame Joan’s violet eyes widened in horror. ‘He can if the Devil takes him!’
    It was Cicely’s turn to shiver, but she protested gamely, ‘And what would Old Scratch want with a good, upright citizen like Peter? A man who says his prayers and goes to Mass as regularly as anyone in the parish.’
    Dame Joan pressed her hands to her flushed cheeks. ‘All those books that he keeps in that chest at the back of the workshop – how do we know what’s in them? They might contain incantations, spells, black magic. I can’t read and neither can you. We wouldn’t be any the wiser even if we studied them.’
    ‘But Mark can read,’ Cicely said impatiently, releasing her aunt and returning to her place on the opposite side of the table. ‘He would know if there was anything
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