[Roger the Chapman 06] - The Wicked Winter Read Free

this morning. Plainly, in the same spirit, he was carrying out his own crusade against lechery and debauchery, the sins which gave him most offence.
    I thought it time to change the subject. 'Where do you go when you leave the city, Brother?'
    'I go as far as the coast, to Woodspring Priory, where Father Prior has sent word, asking me to preach to his flock.
    But between here and there, I shall spread God's message wherever men will heed it.' He leant towards me, the pale blue eyes seeming to change colour until they were almost black. 'Lead a pure and untainted life, Chapman. Resist the temptations of the flesh.' He drew back abruptly and rose to his feet. 'Thank you for your hospitality, Mistress Walker, and God's blessing on this house.'
    He wrapped himself in his thick frieze cloak, nodded in my direction as Margaret and I respectfully rose to our feet, laid a perfunctory hand on Elizabeth's fair head and then was gone, letting in a short blast of icy wind as he first opened and then closed the door behind him.
    The atmosphere inside the cottage lightened perceptibly with his departure. Even my mother-in-law felt it, although she said gravely, 'A saintly man.'
    I grunted and resumed my seat upon the floor beside my daughter. It had often crossed my mind that saints caused as much trouble in this life as sinners, but I did not speak my thought aloud. Margaret would have been scandalised at the idea and I needed her to be in a good mood. I was wondering how to break the news of my imminent departure, but she forestalled me, sitting down once more and regarding me with a shrewd, unwinking gaze.
    'So,' she remarked, 'you're leaving tomorrow morning, early.'
    I jumped. 'How... how did you know?'  
    'I told you this morning, you have been restless for days.'  
    'But - you couldn't have known exactly when I meant to go. I only made that particular decision a moment or two since.'
    Margaret laughed. 'Roger, yours is not a difficult mind to read. I had only to watch your face when Brother Simeon was speaking of travelling on to realise that his example had fired you with an immediate desire to follow in his footsteps. It was, however, unlikely that you would be off without apprising me of your plans and taking a proper farewell of Elizabeth first. It therefore seemed improbable that you would leave today. But tomorrow, at first light, yes, then you will take your pack, your cloak, your cudgel and we shall not see you again for weeks. Months, maybe, if the wanderlust grips you.'  
    I looked at her with respect. 'You're a clever woman, Mother.'
    She made a vigorous denial. ‘I can't read and write as the monks taught you to do. I just use my common sense.' I smiled and heaved myself up off the floor and on to the stool which the friar had vacated, slipping an arm about her still trim waist.
    'I'm lucky to have you to look after Elizabeth for me,' I said. 'Don't ever think that I'm ungrateful, or sorry that I married Lillis.'
    She sighed. 'No, not now that she is dead. No, no! That's not meant as a reproach. You didn't love her, and I know that what happened between you was not your fault alone. Lillis was always a wayward girl, determined to get what she wanted. And now,' Margaret added on a more practical note, 'I must see to it that your spare shirt is ready and take your boots to the cobbler by Redcliffe Church. You'll need a stout pair of soles on them in this weather, and Matt Cordwainer will mend them while I wait.'
    I gave her a hug. 'You're far kinder to me than I have any right to expect. I shan't be gone more than a couple of weeks at the most.'
    'Don't make promises that you might not be able to keep,' she admonished me, standing up. 'Give me your boots and I’II be off directly. While I'm gone, you can draw some water from the well and refill the barrel. Also replenish my store of logs from the common pile. Tie Elizabeth to her bed with this strip of linen so that she can't crawl into the fire when you're not here to