The Guilt of Innocents Read Free

because another brother, a merchant, was married to one of Dame Lucie’s closest friends.
    Shaking his head, Master Nicholas said, ‘It is a sad afternoon’s business, young Jasper. I understand the pilot is dying.’
    Jasper crossed himself. ‘He was not long in the water, but it’s so cold.’ He shivered at the thought of it.
    A well-dressed young man joined them, though in truth he joined Master Nicholas for he did not seem to notice Jasper at all.
    ‘This will go ill with the dean and chancellor, Father Nicholas,’ said the newcomer in what seemed to Jasper a goading tone. ‘I pray none of your scholars were involved.’
    ‘They were not,’ Nicholas said with undisguised irritation. ‘What brings you to York, Master Osmund? I should think you’d be in Weston celebrating your father’s safe return.’
    ‘I’ve already toasted Sir Baldwin,’ said Osmund. ‘Why aren’t you tending your flock in Weston?’
    Jasper recalled that Hubert’s father was fighting for a Sir Baldwin of Weston. ‘Did Hubert deWeston’s father return as well?’ he asked Nicholas.
    The priest nodded and said quietly, ‘I pray that’s where the lad’s gone, to see his father.’
    ‘We should dine together while I’m in the city,’ said Osmund, ignoring Jasper.
    Noticing that Brother Henry was alone despite the crowd of people clogging Marygate, Jasper pushed his way towards him in the hope of finding out more about Drogo’s condition. Brother Henry’s predecessor as infirmarian of St Mary’s, Brother Wulfstan, had been Jasper’s good friend, and through him he’d known Brother Henry since the monk’s novice days. It took him a little while to work through the gossiping, excited people.
    Henry met Jasper’s greeting with a distracted, worried expression.
    ‘This is a terrible evening, terrible,’ he said. ‘I was just thinking of Captain Archer when you hailed me.’
    Jasper glanced round. ‘The captain? I didn’t see him.’ What he did see was a man lying on the pallet, blankets and hides now wrapped about him like heavy winding sheets, his face the only part of him visible.
    ‘The captain’s not here,’ said Brother Henry. ‘I was considering whether to ask my lord abbot’s permission to seek the captain’s advice. I fear that what happened to this man was no accident.’
    Owen Archer was captain of the archbishop’s guard and noted in the city for solving crimes for the archbishop.
    ‘Is Drogo still alive?’ Jasper asked, still staring at the body placed before the Blessed Mother as if an offering.
    ‘He is, God be praised, but I doubt he will be for long unless we move him in to the infirmary so that I might care for him.’ The servants who had brought out the pallet for Drogo waited nearby with poles ready to turn the pallet into a litter.
    ‘Benedicite , Jasper, Brother Henry.’
    Abbot Campian’s arrival stirred them both to straighten up as if they’d been discovered at some mischief.
    ‘If the poor man dies I shall insist that the scholars of St Peter’s pay for his funeral mass and burial,’ said the abbot. ‘Perhaps that will put an end to their warfare.’ Campian believed order to be man’s greatest virtue, and so deplored the feud between the students and the bargemen.
    Jasper felt his face grow hot under the abbot’s stern gaze. ‘We meant only to help one of our fellows.’ He felt unjustly accused.
    ‘I have heard the story,’ said the abbot. ‘Had you informed your schoolmaster of the boy’s loss he would have seen to it.’
    Of course he would have. Jasper bowed his head, feeling more than a little foolish despite not having been involved in the planning. It hadn’t even occurred to him that Master John might intercede for them, and obviously it had not occurred to the older boys.
    ‘My Lord Abbot, if I might call your attention to the dying man.’ Henry drew the abbot towards Drogo. ‘Certain marks on his left cheek, near the ear, and his neck and hands suggest that