The Vanishing Witch Read Online Free PDF Page B

were correct,’ Jan said, helping himself to a large measure of wine. ‘And don’t worry, Father, I doubled the watch on the warehouse.’
    Edith’s head snapped round. ‘But I thought you said you were checking the cargo, Robert.’
    Jan glanced sharplyat his father. ‘He was, but I knew you’d want him home, so I said I’d finish.’
    He slid into the chair next to his mother, who patted his hand affectionately. ‘You’re a good son to your father, Jan.’
    ‘Yes, I rather think I am, aren’t I, Father?’ Jan said, staring pointedly at Robert.
    Robert avoided meeting his son’s questioning gaze and concentrated on the stew. He felt irritation mounting again.He had done nothing for which to reproach himself but he was annoyed to be caught out in a lie by Jan. The boy had always looked up to him, and he was proud of the way his son was shaping up to follow in his footsteps. Not that he would tell Jan so, for Robert did not believe in indulging his sons.
    ‘I trust the loads all tallied?’ he asked sternly.
    Jan hesitated.
    Robert lowered a sop of gravy-soakedbread that was halfway to his mouth. ‘Out with it, lad.’
    ‘One of the boatmen lost a bale overboard on the way back from Boston. He said he’d been rammed by another punt. It’s the third accident of this sort in as many weeks. But I got talking to a man in the inn last night. He’d just returned from Horncastle market. He swore he’d seen a bale of our cloth being hawked by one of the pedlars. Theseal had been cut away, but he knew it for our shade of dye and reckoned it had never been near a drop of water.’
    Robert’s face turned puce. ‘One of our own boatmen stealing from us? What have you done about it?’
    Thomas looked equally furious. ‘Have you sent for the bailiff, Jan, had him arrested? I can assure you, Robert, if this is proved, he’ll be dangling by the neck from the castle wallsafter the next assizes.’
    Jan refilled his goblet and drained it before he seemed sufficiently braced to answer. ‘It’s not just one boatman. These accidents are happening to different men, different boats. We can’t arrest them all – we’d have no men left to work the river. Besides, proving that any of them stole the bales rather than lost them will not be easy.’ Seeing the fury building on Robert’sface, he added quickly, ‘I reckon someone’s behind it, paying them to do it. That’s the man we’ve got to find. But I will find him, Father, and when I do, I’ll hand him trussed and bound to Sheriff Thomas. That I swear.’
    Thomas nodded approvingly. ‘The lad’s right, Robert. They must be selling them on to someone, and once we have him in the castle dungeons, I’ll soon make him talk. Show him thegallows and he’ll be eager to turn king’s approver and name all those involved. We’ll winkle them out, Robert, don’t you fear. I’ll have my informers keep their ears flapping in the taverns and marketplaces. They’re bound to hear something sooner or later.’
    ‘It’s the talk of
later
that concerns me,’ Robert said. ‘I can’t afford to keep losing goods while your spies loll at alewives’ doors, drinkingthe city’s savings in the hope of hearing something. Between these thefts and the King’s taxes, money is running out of my coffers like sand through an hour-glass, and with the weavers in Flanders in rebellion, there is precious little going back in to refill them.’
    He slammed his goblet onto the table. ‘At least this evening has resolved one thing. The rents on my properties must be raised.And this time I’ll not let you talk me out of it, Jan. This is your future as well as mine and your mother’s. I’ll not stand by and see my family ruined.’
    ‘But I’ve told you before, Father, they’re struggling already. I inspect our tenants’ cottages each year and I can see things are getting worse for a good many of them.’
    ‘Since the boatmen who are stealing from me are my tenants, they maythink