The Chapel of Bones: (Knights Templar 18) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and follow that all the way to the end. That will bring you to the friars’ old compound, and you’ll find all the huts there. I think that Saul and Sara’s was the third on the left as you bear round to the right, just before the left-hand turn in the road. She used to have a door of limed oak – but I don’t know if she still has. A door like that is expensive, and many up there would be keen to filch it, I don’t doubt. So remember to count.’
    ‘I thank you, Master Almoner,’ Thomas said, respectfully ducking his head low as he set off.
    As the man had said, it was easy to find the place. Where the Friary had been, the workers had removed all the building material, razing the old house and leaving nothing but a wasteland. It was here that the poorest of the city had taken up residence, throwing up a series of hovels, each one room and no more. The stench was overwhelming, for although there was a drainage channel cut into the lane leading up, the area itself was relatively flat and, rather than walk to the gutter, people threw their wastes into a hugemalodorous midden that lay just to the left of the entrance to the place.
    There were two dogs fighting over a bone as Thomas arrived, with four men idly watching them and gambling on the winner. He didn’t wish to speak to them. Instead he walked along the road, hoping that the Almoner was right about the location of the woman’s home.
    The third house on the left was a sturdy enough looking place, and the door was whitened timber. Thomas closed his eyes a moment, then took a deep breath and crossed the yard, past the scanty little vegetable plot with its yellowing cabbages and stunted leeks. He rapped hard on the door.
    ‘Sir?’
    The voice came from behind him, and he almost sprang into the air with alarm. Turning, he found himself staring into the laughing green eyes of a woman who was almost as tall as himself. She had hair the colour of burnished copper, and skin that was pale and freckled, with almond-shaped eyes and a tip-tilted nose. She smiled, showing regular teeth that shone. ‘My apologies, master. I didn’t mean to terrify you. Do you want me?’
    ‘I was looking for Saul’s wife,’ he said, and as he spoke the last word, his voice died away. He looked at her silently for a moment.
    She returned his gaze and gradually her smile disappeared. ‘Has something happened to my husband?’
    ‘Mistress, I wish I could …’ he croaked.
    ‘Is he dead?’ she demanded.
    ‘I … yes. I am sorry.’
    She didn’t seem to hear; she made no movement for a moment, and then he saw her eyes roll upwards, and he had to leap to catch her as she fainted.
    The saddler was drunk.
    That fact was unarguable, and more than a little amusing, Henry reckoned, as he slumped back in his chair, blearily staring at the mazer on the table before him. With a burp, he smacked his lips and reached cautiously for the wine.
    ‘Husband, haven’t you already had enough?’
    ‘Enough? When there’s still a little more left in the jug, my dearest? Of course not!’ He chuckled to himself, repeating his words a couple of times to gain the fullest humorous benefit from them.
    Mabilla’s face swam into focus at the other side of the table, and he waved a hand at her in a vague gesture of dismissal. ‘Woman, leave me in peace!’ he pleaded.
    ‘I will not leave you to ruin yourself and us,’ she stated flatly. ‘You are drunk again. This cannot continue, Husband.’
    ‘Don’t seek to rule me,’ he growled, but then his eyes popped open as she leaned across the table towards him.
    ‘And
you
don’t seek to tell
me
what I can and cannot do, Henry Potell!’
    ‘Am I not master in my own home!’
    ‘You need to ask me that? What is making you behave this way? You never used to get so drunk. Is it something serious?’
    ‘Oh, it’s serious, madam!’ he said, assaying a light giggle. It appeared to fall flat.
    ‘Henry Potell, you will ruin us all.
That
is very serious. I