The Vanishing Witch Read Online Free PDF Page A

but he still manages to arrive in time for supper. It will be quite ruined. The beef will be as dry as kindling.’
    For thefirst time in many years Robert looked at his wife and saw that she was no longer a shy, slender little bride of fifteen, but a stout matron in her fifties. Her greying hair hung in looped braids on either side of her face and was dyed a fashionable saffron yellow, which served only to emphasise the sallowness of her skin.
    And what had he been thinking, having that gown made for her? It was thelatest fashion, of course, but it didn’t flatter a woman of her age or girth. The low-cut top revealed a neck and bosom that were puckering with age, and the narrowness of her white surcoat, which hung like a tabard over her scarlet gown, drew attention to the thickened waist and hips that bulged out on either side beneath it. Edith was not given to over-indulgence in food or any other pleasuresof the flesh, but having given birth to six boys – and lost all but two – she no longer possessed the proportions of a maiden.
    Thomas rose from a chair set next to the blazing hearth, a sheepish grin on his florid face.
    ‘Don’t scold him, Edith. As we all know, when Robert is at his ledgers a week may pass and he thinks it an hour. You should be used to that after all these years.’ He winkedat Robert. ‘You should have married me, Edith. I merely send out the men-at-arms to see to my business, then retire to my dinner without another care.’
    Robert’s irritation mounted. ‘Well, you should care, Thomas. Those men-at-arms need sharpening up. The streets are full of vagabonds and beggars and no one moves them on. They should be rounded up, the pack of them, and whipped out of the cityat the cart’s tail. Word would soon get round that this is not a city for easy pickings.’
    Thomas frowned. ‘Has there been trouble?’
    Robert hesitated. He could hardly call it
trouble
. ‘It’s nothing . . . Coming home this evening, I thought I was followed by someone who’d been at the warehouse earlier.’
    Edith gave a little cry. ‘How many times have I begged you to hire one of the linkmen to lightyour way home? It isn’t safe to walk the streets at night without an armed man. But, of course, if you came home at a decent hour . . .’
    Robert ignored the last little dagger thrust. ‘I’ll not waste money hiring men to keep me safe in my own city. I’m already paying a king’s ransom in taxes for the watch to patrol the streets.’
    ‘It’s money well spent if it keeps you from robbery or worse,’ Thomassaid. ‘Edith’s right. You shouldn’t be walking abroad alone, especially in clothes that tell every cutpurse and thief in the shire you’re a wealthy man. My men can’t be everywhere at once. Most of their time is taken up with the taverns and cockpits. I’ve not the money to put a watchman on every street corner. As one of the Common Council, you should know that better than most.’
    ‘What I know—’Robert began, but was interrupted by a clatter of footsteps on the stairs at the back of the hall and the crash of a door being flung open. A boy raced into the room.
    ‘I’ve told you a hundred times not to run in the house, Adam,’ Robert snapped.
    The boy’s face fell and he edged nervously towards his mother, who placed a protective arm about him.
    Thomas beamed at him. ‘Finished your Latin copy,have you, my boy? Nothing like Jan, is he? As I recall even if you’d nailed his backside to a bench, he wouldn’t study. Jan takes after you, Robert. The only kind of books you’ll tolerate are ledgers. But Adam here,’ he ruffled the boy’s curly head, ‘I hear he’s quite the scholar. Edith tells me he’s hoping to study at university.’
    Edith gazed fondly at her son, who smiled shyly up at her. Robertgave a noncommittal grunt. He was gratified that the boy attended to his lessons – but as long as he could read, write and had mastered figures, what more education did any man