Unhallowed Ground Read Online Free PDF Page A

houses of Emma and Maud, the widows of Henry and Thomas.
    I followed the merrymakers to the Broad Street and Cheapside, where they busied themselves raising a maypole at the marketplace. I found Hubert Shillside there, observing the youth of Bampton with a proud smile upon his face.
    “Will is well chosen,” I congratulated him. “And the lass also. Her father has a yardland of the bishop, does he not?”
    “Aye. She has two brothers.”
    With four words the haberdasher had told me neither he, nor Will, I assumed, was interested in the maid. The lass might bring coin and some possessions to her marriage, but the land would stay with the older brother. And should he die, another heir was in place.
    “Bampton has several comely maids.”
    “Hmmm. ’Tis so. But most will bring little to their husbands. You did well with Kate… a house in Oxford.”
    “Aye, but measured against her other virtues the house is of scant value.”
    “Hah. So you say now. When you are wed some years such a dowry will loom larger. Beauty does not last, houses and lands will.”
    “Perhaps.”
    Shillside must know of his son’s attraction to Alice atte Bridge and be displeased. I thought to bait him on the matter. “Will seems more interested these days in pleasing his eye than his purse,” I laughed.
    Shillside peered at me and frowned.
    “I have seen him in company with a comely maid who will bring nothing to her husband but herself.”
    “Ah,” the haberdasher smiled. “You speak of Alice atte Bridge. ’Tis true… Will is smitten with the lass. But she is not so poor as all think.”
    This was a surprise to me. When three years past I sent her to the castle I thought she owned nothing. Indeed, Alice believed so as well.
    Shillside saw my astonishment and continued. “Alice’s mother, Isabel, was second wife to the elder Henry atte Bridge, as you know. Isabel’s dowry from her first husband was a half-yardland in the Weald. When she died, an’ then Henry, the land came to Alice.”
    “Alice did not speak of this.”
    “She was but a child… perhaps she knew nothing of it.”
    “Isabel had no children of her first husband?”
    “None,” Shillside smiled.
    “Henry and Thomas atte Bridge claimed their father’s lands when he died.”
    “Aye, so they did. But not all of it was theirs to have.”
    “How did you learn this?”
    “Isabel’s sister is wed to William Walle. His brother Randall is haberdasher in Witney. We do business.”
    “Does Alice know?”
    “Aye, she does.”
    “And the vicars of St Beornwald? Disputes in the Weald are their bailiwick. Do they know of this?”
    “Aye. The matter is to be brought before hallmote.”
    “Thomas atte Bridge will not attend to defend his taking.”
    “Nay,” Shillside smiled again. “Alice will gain her due, I’ve no doubt.”
    “And her husband, whoso that may be, will add a half-yardland and pasture rights to his holdings.”
    “Just so. Alice will not stand in the church porch so penniless as many would think of a scullery maid.”
    “Did Thomas atte Bridge know of Alice’s suit to regain her mother’s dowry lands?”
    “Aye, he did. And was ready to dispute the matter, but I think Maud will not refuse Alice her due as Thomas would.”
    “’Tis convenient, then, for Alice and whoso she may wed, that Thomas hanged himself at Cow-Leys Corner.”
    “Aye, it is so.”
    Revelry continued that fine spring day but I felt no wish to join it. My Kate was unwell, and distasteful images flashed through my mind. As I retreated to Galen House I saw in my mind’s eye Hubert Shillside prowling about in Thomas atte Bridge’s toft, intentionally disturbing his hens. I saw atte Bridge stumble from his hut to investigate the uproar, and saw Shillside swing a cudgel to deliver a blow to the back of Thomas’s head. I saw Thomas catch a glimpse of movement in the darkened toft, and turn so that Shillside’s blow caught him in the face, upon his mouth.
    I envisioned