Blood of the South

ONE

There is a collective evil that comes over a crowd of people intent on bullying someone. Faces that are habitually genial twist and distort; mouths made for smiling turn down into scowls of anger, dislike and even hatred. It is as if, given a strong lead by the man who first singles out the victim – and I’m afraid it usually seems to be a man – other, kinder souls feel compelled to follow. Then the whole thing gathers an awful sort of impetus, and before you know it, someone gets hurt.

That September morning, as Gurdyman and I stood on the Cambridge quayside in the thin, early sunshine, the victim was a young woman. From her garments, her voluminous veil and what I could see of her face, she was not local. She had a baby with her: in that first glance, I could make out no details, merely noticing the wrapped shape placed on the ground beside her, the swaddling blankets folded too tightly to allow anything to emerge from the bundle except high-pitched, piercing screams. The woman was not trying to soothe her child; she wasn’t even cuddling it. She had both hands up in front of her face in frantic, terrified self-defence, because someone had just chucked a lump of smelly mud at her.

Gurdyman and I, latecomers on the scene, were right at the back of the thronging people. We had intended to be on the quay early, since Gurdyman was expecting the arrival of a cargo from far away and he wanted to ensure first choice of the exotic, mysterious goods. Intentions often go astray, however. I had overslept, Gurdyman had forgotten that today was the day the boat was due to arrive, and, by the time we finally arrived puffing and panting on the path by the river – well, Gurdyman was puffing, but then he is many years my senior, twice my girth and he doesn’t go out much – the port was already heaving. We had been steadily making our way through the crowd to where our boat was likely to tie up, when the loud, braying voices caught our attention.

‘Filthy foreigner!’ someone screamed. A woman; it is not only men who bully.

‘You’re not welcome here, you lying, cheating cow!’ A man’s voice, deep, furious. And he didn’t say cow.

‘Send her back where she came from!’ someone else chimed in. ‘We’ve got cheats and thieves enough of our own, without importing more!’

The voices were getting louder and angrier. The woman tried to say something – from the gesture of her clasped hands, I thought it might be an appeal for mercy – but this only served to further antagonize her persecutors. Another big lump of mud flew over the heads of the crowd, this one hitting the woman on the arm. She gave a sharp cry of pain. The mud had been packed round a stone.

The missile had been thrown from somewhere just behind us. I spun round and saw a fat, red-faced man stooping down to prepare another. Before Gurdyman could stop me – before I had time to think about it, and perhaps stop myself – I leapt on the fat man, knocking him to the ground and falling on top of him. ‘That’s enough!’ I screeched. ‘She’s got a baby with her!’

The fat man lurched to his knees, shoving me away with sufficient force to make me sit down hard on my backside. ‘What’s it to you?’ he demanded, struggling up and looming over me, his small eyes turned to narrow slits of fury. ‘Mind your own bloody business!’

‘It is my business if you hurt either the woman or her child!’ I cried. ‘I’m a healer!’

I was just getting to my feet, but he grabbed me by the shoulders and sat me back down again. ‘Heal your own bruised bum, then!’ he leered.

I’m not sure what would have happened next. In all likelihood, he’d have gathered up another fistful of mud, I’d have tried to stop him hurling it at the woman, he’d have hit me, Gurdyman would have had to step in and a tussle would have rapidly become a free-for-all. Without a doubt, there was enough violence in the air for punches and glancing blows to have escalated into knife-thrusts and serious injuries. Just at that moment, however, there came the sound of several pairs of booted feet marching in step, and a strong, carrying voice that held a distinct note of authority demanded to know what was going on.

The forces of law and order had arrived.

As the sheriff’s men went about dispersing the crowd – not without one or two blows of their cudgels, if the occasional cry of pain was any indication – one of the senior deputies came over to where Gurdyman was helping me to my feet and brushing the dust from my skirts. ‘You’re that healer girl, aren’t you?’ the deputy demanded.

‘Yes, I am,’ I said reluctantly. I was cross, in pain, and humiliated by having Gurdyman repeatedly beat his hand on my bottom. Surely I wasn’t that dirty.

‘You’re wanted,’ the deputy said shortly. ‘Over there.’ He jerked his head towards the place where the woman was cowering. A bareheaded, broad-shouldered man in a leather jerkin – the sheriff, I presumed – was bending over her.

Impatiently I pushed Gurdyman’s hand away. ‘Is the baby hurt?’ I asked anxiously, hurrying off in the deputy’s wake. Oh, if that wretched fat man had inflicted some awful injury …

‘Don’t know about that,’ the deputy said, turning briefly to look at me. Again, he nodded towards the sheriff. ‘Him over there, he just said to fetch you.’

I glanced back to see if Gurdyman was following. He caught my eye, and gave an all but imperceptible shake of the head. Then, swiftly, he pointed to his eyes.

I understood. Gurdyman is wisest of the wise; my teacher, my mentor, my companion and my friend. In addition, he is a wizard – although he himself never uses the word except in ironic self-mockery – and he loves nothing better than to conduct extraordinary and sometimes terrifying experiments in the crypt hidden deep beneath his house. He is a practitioner of alchemy; he is trying to make a map of all the known lands of the world; he makes mysterious potions that on occasion almost choke him with their noxious fumes; he knows so much that often I wonder how it can all be contained within his round, bald head with its fringe of perfectly white hair. He is, I am convinced, a powerful magician.

All of which are reasons why he does not court attention. In those two small gestures – the infinitesimal shake of the head and the finger pointing to his eyes – he was telling me that he wouldn’t accompany me as I answered the sheriff’s summons, but that he would keep his eyes open to see what transpired.

My breath catching in my throat, I skidded to a stop in front of the woman and her baby. The sheriff looked up at me briefly and said, rather calmly, I thought, under the circumstances, ‘They may have been hurt. Will you check them for injuries?’

I nodded. The child, its screaming now reduced to a pitiful sobbing, still lay where the woman had placed it. She had sat, or perhaps collapsed, down beside it, her back straight, the folds of her long, voluminous, high-collared cloak pooling round her feet. She was trembling. She wore a headdress consisting of generous folds of deep blue silk, wrapped round and round her head, concealing her hair and her forehead. The headdress was fringed with small black beads and tiny gold bells that tinkled softly when she moved. Beneath the headdress, entirely covering her nose and the lower part of her face, she wore a heavy veil. The sheriff was standing over her, and he opened his mouth to say something to me. I shook my head. I didn’t want to talk; my instinct, both as a healer and simply as a human being, was to gather up the child, then crouch down beside the woman and give her a hug. She had, after all, just been through a horrifying ordeal. The sheriff seemed to understand. He nodded.

I got as far as scooping up the baby. Then, as I went to approach its mother, she turned and stared at me.

The look in her near-black, slanting eyes stopped me dead.

I felt as if some invisible force was holding me back. Confused, I muttered something, covering my embarrassment by looking down at the baby in my arms. It had stopped sobbing, and was now staring up at me with wide blue eyes. It was quite heavy, and I was just thinking that it was older than I had first thought – too old, surely, to be swaddled so tightly? – when, as if in response to my thought, it gave a powerful wriggle and kicked an arm and a foot out from within the blankets. The heel of the little foot caught me in the stomach; the fisted hand just missed my nose.

I’d had enough.

‘Your child appears none the worse for its fright,’ I said to the woman, staring at her as fiercely as she had just been staring at me. I had the advantage of height; she was still sitting on the ground. ‘Won’t you take it?’ I went on. ‘There are no one’s arms better equipped for soothing a baby than those of its mother.’

For a moment, she didn’t respond. Beside me, I sensed the sheriff move, and I guessed he was about to intervene. I went on looking down at the woman. Finally, with a sort of sigh, she nodded. Kneeling down in front of her, carefully I placed the squirming bundle on her lap. She didn’t seem to know what to do next – undoubtedly she was in shock – and so, gently taking hold of her hands, I put one behind the baby’s head and the other under its hips.

‘We need to move her away from here,’ the sheriff said quietly. He had bent down so that he could speak right in my ear. ‘The mood’s very ugly. We’ll get to the bottom of it, but I’d be happier if that lot -’ he cast a frowning glance over his shoulder – ‘weren’t still hovering around her.’

‘I agree,’ I replied. ‘But first I need to check if either of them has been wounded.’ If you move someone with a broken bone or a head injury, you can make a bad matter ten times worse. The sheriff appeared to know this, for he nodded, muttering something inaudible. ‘Can’t your men hold the crowd back?’ I demanded. ‘They appeared to be only too willing to crack a few heads just now, when you all burst on to the quay.’

‘I have a dozen men with me, and the mob numbers maybe four, five times that,’ the sheriff remarked. You could understand his point.

‘I’d better be quick, then,’ I muttered.

It seemed unlikely, but I was sure I heard the sheriff give a short laugh.

While the child lay across the woman’s lap, I unwound the blanket and folded back the little garments. The blanket was of fine, soft wool, and the baby’s robe was of silk. Whoever the woman was, she wasn’t poor. Quickly, for the morning air was chilly, I checked over the baby for signs of injury. It – he – was a boy; he must have inherited his light blue eyes and fair hair from his father, but his skin – a beautiful, deep golden-brown colour – was like his mother’s. He was clearly well-fed. He was, I judged, about six months old. He had been circumcised. His flesh was clean and sweet-smelling, and he had clearly been put in fresh linen a short time previously, for the wrappings were still dry and unsoiled. As far as I could tell, he had suffered nothing worse at the hands of the mob than a nasty fright.

I turned my attention to his mother.

I had not expected that she would permit me to examine her, and I was right. She drew herself away, one hand going to her veil as if she feared I was about to tear it off.

I nodded my understanding. ‘I was not proposing to inspect you as I have just done your son,’ I said. ‘But I must ask if you are hurt? Did any of those stones or lumps of mud hit you, especially on the head or face? Such blows can cause concussion, and that carries grave risks.’

‘I am not injured,’ the woman whispered.

It was, I realized, the first time she had spoken. Although not as dramatic in its effect on me as her original intent stare, nevertheless her voice was a surprise. It was immediately clear that the common language was not her mother tongue, although her manner of dress, her veil and her dark eyes had already informed me that she was a stranger, just as they presumably had told the screeching fishwife who had yelled out, Filthy foreigner! No: it wasn’t her accent so much as the husky timbre of her voice that was so startling. She sounded … it was odd, but she almost sounded like someone with a naturally deep voice who was trying to make it higher in pitch. It was totally absurd, but just for a heartbeat I wondered if the veiled woman was really a man.

‘We must go,’ the sheriff said, and now his tone had a definite sense of urgency. Two brawny-looking men had been talking to him while I dealt with the baby and his mother, and one of them raised his voice in repeated accusation: the veiled woman, it appeared, had tried to take two small loaves of bread when she had only paid for one. It seemed a small enough crime to warrant all this fuss, but then times were hard. Bakers have to earn their living like everyone else, and it’s true that nobody likes thieves and cheats. The fact that, being a foreigner, the veiled woman had simply made a mistake seemed a distinct possibility, but I didn’t think now was the time to mention it.

Between us, the sheriff and I got the woman to her feet. She seemed to be unsure how to carry the baby – I thought once more that she was probably still in shock – and she tried to hold him across her outstretched arms, so that his head lolled backwards and he shrieked in alarm.

‘Dear Jesus, she’s going to drop it!’ the sheriff hissed. ‘That’s all we need. Take it from her!’

‘Him. He’s a boy,’ I said, before I could remind myself that being pert with sheriffs is not in general a wise course of action. The sheriff, however, accepted the reprimand with a grin, and said softly under his breath, ‘Take him, then.’

I did as he said, holding the baby up against my chest and wrapping my arms round him. Either he was comforted by being held so firmly, or else his crying had exhausted him; the important thing was, he stopped yelling. Then he gave a huge yawn, his eyelids fluttered down and he went to sleep.

The sheriff’s men had formed up into a double line, standing two abreast, and they held back the crowd while the sheriff led the woman and me away from the quayside. The aggrieved baker and his companion stomped along behind. More deputies had arrived, and the mood of the mob seemed all at once to go off the boil. There was a lot of muttering, some name-calling, and I thought I heard the screeching woman again, still protesting about filthy foreigners. It was deeply unpleasant and unsettling, but I no longer felt in danger of actual harm, either to myself or to the veiled woman and her child. Soon, the river, the quay and the humming activity of the town’s port were left behind us.

I wondered if we were heading for the small stone-built house by the Great Bridge. It was the place where the port officials were to be found, and I knew of it because I had occasionally been there on errands for Gurdyman, when goods he had ordered and paid for were temporarily impounded: Gurdyman’s list of necessities contains some quite unusual items. Thinking of him made me wonder where he was, and if he had succeeded in keeping the promised eye on me. I glanced around, but the streets were busy and I could not see whether or not he was following. You would think that Gurdyman, being short, rotund and habitually dressed in a brightly coloured shawl which he drapes over his sombre gown, would have been easy to spot. In fact, when he wants to, he manages to blend in with his surroundings remarkably well.

The sheriff, the veiled woman, the baker and his friend and I strode on, past the port officials’ house and over the Great Bridge. Once or twice the woman stumbled – she didn’t seem much better at walking than she was at holding her baby – and each time the nearest deputy reached out a hand to steady her. I noticed that she didn’t thank him.

Suddenly I knew what was the matter with her. The costly blanket and garments in which the baby was wrapped should have given me a hint, and, now that I had belatedly realized, her own cloak and richly decorated headdress supported my conclusion. I glanced down at her feet: she was wearing soft little boots in a gorgeous purplish-blue shade, the leather so shiny and supple that it looked like a second skin.

She was, of course, a rich woman. Rich woman weren’t called upon to do much for themselves; other people set out their clothes, helped them into the garments, fetched horses or carriages to transport them, tended and carried their babies. For some reason, the veiled woman was here alone with her child, separated by some mischance from husband, kin and servants. No wonder she seemed so ill-equipped for managing the world on her own; usually, she never had to.

Smiling to myself, proud of my astute summing-up of the situation, I followed the sheriff, the veiled woman and the more senior of the deputies as we walked on. We passed the large plot where a vast gang of men were busy building the new priory, and then turned to stride up Castle Hill to the intimidating wooden structure crowning its summit. Our little procession made its way up a steep, narrow walkway made of stout planks that led to the castle’s first-floor entrance, and, my heart in my mouth, I stepped from the sunshine into the chilly, dimly lit interior. The baker and his companion shuffled in behind us, and the last of the deputies slammed the door.

We were in a stone-walled anteroom. It looked as if it was the sort of place where lesser men filter callers, dealing with minor matters themselves so that the man at the top isn’t constantly bothered by trivialities. The veiled woman settled herself elegantly on the only seat: a bench set against the wall opposite the door. She spread the wide skirts of her cloak around her so that anyone else wishing to sit down would have had to move them out of the way. She made no move to take her son from me, so I held on to him. He was sleeping soundly now, and it would have been a shame to risk waking him by transferring him to those inept, inexpert arms.

The sheriff ran his hands through his light brown close-cropped hair – some of the mud thrown at the veiled woman had missed its mark – and then opened a solid-looking door studded with iron, disappearing under a low arch that presumably led through to his inner sanctum. I heard voices: his, and another; the other man sounded at first irritated, then downright cross. Finally he yelled, ‘Christ’s bones, Chevestrier, you deal with it! It’s what I pay you for! It’s only a matter of one fucking bun!’

Instantly I realized my mistake. Of course. If I’d stopped to think about it, I would have known full well that the man on the quayside wasn’t the sheriff of Cambridge. He was too young, for one thing; only a handful of years older than me; and, for another, the sheriff was hardly likely to have abandoned the cosy shelter of his private quarters to hurry outside on a chilly morning to attend to a minor rumpus over the alleged theft of a small loaf. No. Picot – for that was the sheriff’s name – was a self-serving, sly and reputedly deeply corrupt man, who our local monks referred to variously as a hungry lion, a prowling wolf, a dog without shame and a filthy swine: to a man, the monks did not approve of Picot. It was said – mainly by the monks – that he deprived the local populace of their rights to some of the common pasture, which he had appropriated for himself. Such actions do not win a man approbation, when so many go hungry to their beds at night. Assuming they have a bed …

The man I had believed to be the sheriff, and whom I now knew to be called Chevestrier, returned to the anteroom. He must have been aware that we’d all overheard Picot shouting at him, but, far from being disconcerted, he was smiling to himself. He closed the heavy wooden door with exaggerated care, as if intent on saving Picot any further interruption, then turned to the rest of us and said, ‘The sheriff sends his apologies, but he is busy on important matters of state. He has entrusted this business to me.’ He added something under his breath; I wasn’t sure, but it sounded like, One fucking bun ought to be within my competence. From the quirk that twisted his well-shaped mouth, I guessed he was suppressing a chuckle.

He turned to the baker. ‘Now, will you tell me what this woman stole from you?’

The baker looked at the veiled woman, posed on the rough bench as if she were a queen on a throne and staring at the baker with cold eyes as if she would like to condemn him to the deepest dungeon. ‘Er-’ he faltered. His companion gave him a nudge, hissing something in his ear. ‘That’s right!’ he said pugnaciously, recovering a bit of his original umbrage. ‘I told her how much them little loaves cost, and she paid me for a single piece, then bugger me if she didn’t pick up a second one!’ He nodded for emphasis, glaring round at the assembled company. One or two of the deputies were grinning. Chevestrier, however, seemed to have conquered his amusement.

He stared at the baker. His eyes, I noticed, were a bright, clear shade of green, untouched by blue or brown. He frowned in thought, then said, ‘She picked up a second loaf, you said?’

‘Yes, that’s right!’ the baker said, indignant all over again. ‘Blatant-like, with no attempt at all to cover it up!’

Chevestrier nodded, as if something had just been proved to his satisfaction. ‘Is that how thieves normally operate?’ he asked quietly.

I began to see what he was doing. The baker, however, did not. ‘No, it’s not!’ he replied hotly. ‘Normally they sneak things off my stall when my back’s turned, or they get some guttersnipe accomplice to attract my attention, and often I only realize I’ve been robbed when I stop to count up at the end of … Oh.’

Realization, it seemed, had struck.

‘I think,’ Chevestrier said kindly to the baker, ‘that you may have acted a little hastily. Which is quite understandable,’ he added swiftly, as the baker’s face began to redden with angry embarrassment. ‘My lady -’ he spun round to face the veiled woman – ‘will you give your word that you made a genuine mistake? That you believed you had paid for two loaves, when you had in fact only paid for one?’

The veiled woman twitched her head to one side, as if she was heartily sick of the matter. She gave a graceful shrug. ‘It is as you say,’ she said dismissively.

‘And are you now prepared to pay for the second loaf?’ Chevestrier went on.

She shrugged again, then, reaching under her cloak to a beautiful, bejewelled little leather purse that hung from her belt, she shook out a couple of coins and flung them at the baker’s feet.

It was a disdainful, insulting action.

Chevestrier clearly thought so too. ‘And maybe,’ he said silkily, ‘if you were to add a small consideration for the good baker’s inconvenience, he might be persuaded not to press charges against you and let this unfortunate business drop.’

It might have sounded like a mild suggestion rather than an order, but I don’t think anyone was fooled. The veiled woman certainly wasn’t; she shot Chevestrier a look from those dark eyes that would have sent a superstitious man grabbing for his rosary. But then she extracted another coin, and this time, with Chevestrier still watching her, she got up and placed it in the baker’s hand.

The baker muttered something that it was probably better I didn’t hear, then he turned, nodded his thanks to Chevestrier, spun on his heel and, flinging the door open, marched off down the walkway, his companion at his side. Chevestrier spoke quietly to one of his deputies, leading him and the others outside. The veiled woman, the baby and I were momentarily alone in the room.

She sat gazing at the wall opposite to her. Not by word, gesture or glance did she acknowledge my presence. She might have been temporarily parted by some distressing circumstance from her own kin and attendants, but, as far as servants were concerned, she seemed quite willing for me to step up as replacement.

For my own part, I wasn’t so sure. It was tempting to dump the baby in her lap and quietly slip away, but, on the other hand, I was intrigued by this veiled foreigner with her rich garments and her husky voice.

I stood there, gently rocking to and fro – the baby was beginning to wake up – and waited to see what would happen next.

The ensuing events lacked the high drama of what had just occurred. Chevestrier came back into the anteroom, and the expression on his face suggested something had just been arranged to his satisfaction.

‘My lady,’ he said, standing before the veiled woman and giving a quick bow, ‘have you somewhere to go? People who await you?’

She stared at him for a moment. Then she shook her head. ‘I am – alone,’ she murmured.

‘So I assumed, since nobody stepped forward in your defence out on the quay,’ Chevestrier said, more to himself than to her. ‘What is your business in Cambridge?’

‘In Cambridge?’ She looked surprised, although surely she must have been aware of the name of the port in which she had that morning arrived. Unless, of course, something else had gone amiss with her; something in addition to apparently losing every last one of her travelling companions and her servants. Was she ill? Had she lost her memory? Her mind?

‘This town is Cambridge,’ Chevestrier said gently. ‘In the country of England,’ he added. Perhaps he too was wondering if the veiled woman had parted from her wits.

‘I am aware of the country,’ she said loftily. ‘I seek a place, but the name is not Cambridge …’

Chevestrier waited. I waited. Finally he prompted her: ‘Yes?’

‘I seek kin in Fen,’ she said at last. ‘Perhaps, Fens.’

Chevestrier muttered under his breath. ‘The fens are over there.’ He waved an arm roughly in an eastwards direction. ‘But -’ he shot a glance at me – ‘the region is extensive, as this young woman could tell you.’ He knows where I come from, I thought. I didn’t know if to be intrigued or afraid. ‘If you want my help,’ Chevestrier went on, ‘you’ll have to be more specific.’

She fixed her slanting, dark eyes on him. It was hard to tell, with her lower face covered, but I had a good idea she was scowling. ‘I have not asked for your help.’

He sighed. It was hardly surprising; most men would have run out of patience with her ages ago. ‘Have you somewhere to stay?’ he repeated. His tone was definitely less kindly now.

She gave that eloquent shrug again. ‘I must find my kinsman’s dwelling, but I do not know where it is. For now, there are inns on the quayside …’

‘I would not recommend them to a woman of means,’ Chevestrier replied. ‘But one of my men has a sister who works in a better class of tavern.’ The veiled woman looked as if she was about to protest, but he did not give her the chance. ‘A room is being made available, and I will take you there now.’

Abruptly she stood up, the movement accompanied by the swishing sound of her cloak, her gown and what sounded like several layers of silk underskirts. ‘Do so,’ she commanded. She jerked her head towards me. ‘She will bring the infant.’

I was about to protest, the angry words lining up, but Chevestrier did it for me. ‘I think it would be more polite to ask,’ he said with icy courtesy. He turned to me, giving me the exact same bow he had earlier given to the veiled lady. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know your name. I’m aware of your reputation as a fine healer and I know you by sight, but not how to address you.’

‘Lassair,’ I said.

‘Lassair,’ he repeated. Then: ‘We have taken up a good part of your morning, and I am sure you have your own affairs to attend to. However, it would be very helpful if you could accompany us over to the tavern. There will undoubtedly be practical tasks to be done for the baby, and-’ He stopped, spinning back to look at the lady.

And I don’t think she’ll have the first idea how to start was, I imagined, what he’d been about to say. I grinned. I quite agreed with him. ‘I’ll come,’ I said.

He bowed again. ‘Thank you.’

Just then, the door to the inner room was flung open, and a short, pot-bellied, red-faced man stood glaring out at us from close-set eyes. This, I guessed, was Sheriff Picot. His gaze fixed on Chevestrier. ‘Christ’s holy bones, are you still here?’ he demanded, spittle flecking his thin lips. ‘I told you to-’

He had spotted the veiled lady. With the quick intelligence of his kind – it’s said that the Conqueror chose for the office of sheriff men who shared his ruthless ambition and determined self-advancement – he ran his sharp, assessing eyes over her. The furious scowl changed to an ingratiating smile; no doubt the expression he habitually adopted before the wealthy and powerful.

‘My lady,’ he said, making a low bow – I noticed he’d carefully arranged his thinning, gingery hair across a big bald patch – ‘I am Sheriff Picot, and I am at your disposal.’ He straightened up, and his expectant grin suggested he was hoping for more than the lady’s look of cold disdain. Discomfited – you could hardly blame him – he spun back to Chevestrier. ‘Get on with it, you indolent sod!’ he yelled. ‘Don’t keep her standing here – help the lady!’

I watched Chevestrier’s face. There was an instant when I thought he was going to give in to temptation and give the response that Picot deserved, but then it was gone. An expression of bland serenity ironed out the fury, and Chevestrier said calmly, ‘As you wish, sir.’

Then he spun round and led the way out into the sunshine.