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Lion Hudson - Mel Starr

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138 pages

English

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I had never seen Master John Wyclif so afflicted. He was rarely found at such a loss when in disputation with other masters.He told me later, when I had returned them to him, that it was as onerous to plunder a bachelor scholar's books as it would be to steal another man's wife.I had, at the time, no way to assess the accuracy of that opinion, for I had no wife and few books ...'So begins another delightful and intriguing tale from the life of Hugh de Singleton, surgeon in the medieval village of Bampton, near Oxford, and bailiff of Bampton Castle at the behest of Lord Gilbert Talbot.Hugh sets his cap at the delightful Kate, who proves equally resourceful in the search for the missing books. Some very determined adversaries are out to stop him, permanently if necessary - but are they motivated by greed or a more personal animosity? Then the corpse of a poor scholar, who had tried to sell one of the books, is found in the river: but he had not simply drowned ...

Informations

Publié par	Lion Hudson
Date de parution	20 septembre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781782640868
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0150€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

By the same author
(in sequence)
The Unquiet Bones
A Corpse at St Andrew s Chapel
A Trail of Ink
Unhallowed Ground
The Tainted Coin
Rest Not in Peace

Text copyright 2010 Mel Starr This edition copyright 2013 Lion Hudson
The right of Mel Star to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Lion Fiction an imprint of Lion Hudson plc Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England www.lionhudson.com/fiction
ISBN: 978-1-78264-085-1 e-ISBN: 978-1-78264-086-8
First edition 2010 by Monarch Books
Acknowledgments Scripture quotations taken from the Authorized Version of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown s Patentee, Cambridge University Press.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover design by Emma De Banks
Cover image: iStockphoto.com/DNY59
For Fran and Larry
In the summer of 1990 my wife Susan and I discovered a lovely B&B in the village of Mavesyn Ridware. The proprietors, Tony and Lis Page, became friends. We visited them again in 2001, after they had moved to Bampton. I saw that the village would be an ideal setting for the tales I wished to write. Tony and Lis have been a wonderful resource for the history of Bampton. I owe them much.
When Dan Runyon, Professor of English at Spring Arbor University, learned that I was writing The Unquiet Bones , he invited me to speak to a fiction-writing class about the trials of a rookie writer. Dan sent some chapters to his friend Tony Collins. Thanks, Dan.
And many thanks to Tony Collins and the fine people of Lion Hudson for their willingness to publish an untried author.
Thanks go also to Spring Arbor University student Brian Leyder, who suggested the title for Master Hugh s third chronicle.
Modern Oxford resembles the medieval city, but there have been many changes. Streets often bear different names than they did six hundred years ago. Dr John Blair, of Queen s College, has been a great help in navigating the differences between the modern and the medieval. However, if the reader becomes lost in medieval Oxford s narrow lanes the fault is mine, not Dr Blair s.

Mel Starr
Angelus bell: Rung three times each day - dawn, noon, and dusk. Announced the times for the Angelus devotional.
Assart: Turning unused or waste land into cultivated farmland.
Bailiff: A lord s chief manorial representative. He oversaw all operations, collected rents and fines, and enforced labor service. Not a popular fellow.
Banns: A formal announcement, made in the parish church for three consecutive Sundays, of intent to marry.
Braes: Medieval underpants.
Calefactory: The warming room in a monastery. Benedictines allowed the fire to be lit on 1 November. The more rigorous Cistercians had no calefactory.
Candlemas: 2 February. The day marked the purification of Mary. Women traditionally paraded to church carrying lighted candles. Tillage of fields resumed this day.
Canon: A priest of the secular clergy who lived under rules comparable to monastic orders. Did not usually minister to the commons.
Chauces: Tight-fitting trousers, often parti-colored (having different colors for each leg).
Claret: Yellowish or light-red wine from the Bordeaux region.
Coney: Rabbit.
Cordwainer: A dealer in leather and leather goods imported from Cordova, Spain.
Cresset: A bowl of oil with a floating wick used for lighting.
Curate: A clergyman who often served as an assistant to the rector of a parish.
Dexter: A war horse, larger than pack-horses and palfreys. Also called a destrier. Also the right-hand direction.
Dower: The groom s financial contribution to marriage, designated for the bride s support during marriage and possible widowhood.
Dowry: A gift from the bride s family to the groom, intended for her support during marriage, and widowhood, should her husband predecease her.
Egg leaches: A very thick custard, often enriched with almonds, spices, and flour.
Farthing: One fourth of a penny. The smallest coin.
Free companies: At times of peace during the Hundred Years War, bands of unemployed knights would organize themselves and ravage the countryside. France especially suffered.
Galantyne: A sauce made with cinnamon, ginger, vinegar, and breadcrumbs.
Gathering: Eight leaves of parchment, made by folding the prepared hide three times.
Groom: A lower-ranking servant to a lord. Often a teenaged youth. Occasionally assistant to a valet. Ranked above a page.
Hallmote: The manorial court. Royal courts judged free tenants accused of murder or felony. Otherwise manor courts had jurisdiction over legal matters concerning villagers. Villeins accused of murder might also be tried in a manor court.
Kirtle: The basic medieval undershirt.
Lammas Day: 1 August, when thanks was given for a successful wheat harvest. From the Old English loaf mass .
Liripipe: A fashionably long tail attached to a man s cap.
Lych gate: A roofed gate in the churchyard wall under which the deceased rested during the initial part of a burial service.
Mark: 13 shillings and 4 pence - 160 pence.
Marshalsea: The stable and associated accoutrements.
Martinmas: 11 November. The traditional date to slaughter animals for winter food.
Maslin: Bread made with a mixture of grains, commonly wheat with barley or rye.
Matins: The first of the day s eight canonical hours (services). Also called Lauds.
Nones: The fifth canonical office, sung at the ninth hour of the day (about 3 p.m.).
Oyer et terminer: To hear and determine.
Palfrey: A gentle horse with a comfortable gait.
Pannage: A fee paid to the lord for permission to allow pigs to forage in an autumn forest.
Pottage: Anything cooked in one pot, from the meanest oatmeal to a savory stew.
Prebend: A subsistence allowance granted to a clergyman by a parish church.
Sacrist: A monastic official responsible for the upkeep of the church and vestments, and time-keeping.
St Catherine s Day: 25 November. St Catherine was the most popular female saint of medieval Europe. Processions were held in her honor on her feast day.
St Stephen s Day: 26 December.
Set books: The standard texts used by medieval university students.
Solar: A small private room, more easily heated than the great hall, where lords often preferred to spend time in winter. Usually on an upper floor.
Subtlety: An elaborate dessert, often more for show than consumption.
Terce: The canonical office (service) at 9 a.m.
Toft: Land surrounding a house, in the medieval period often used for growing vegetables.
Valet: A high-ranking servant to a lord - a chamberlain, for example.
Vigils: The night office, celebrated at midnight. When it was completed, Benedictines went back to bed. Cistercians stayed up for the new day.
Villein: A non-free peasant. He could not leave his land or service to his lord, or sell animals without permission. But if he could escape his manor for a year and a day, he would be free.
Whiffletree: A pivoted swinging bar to which the traces of a harness are fastened and by which a cart is drawn.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Afterword
I had never seen Master John Wyclif so afflicted. He was rarely found at such a loss when in disputation with other masters. He told me later, when I had returned them to him, that it was as onerous to plunder a bachelor scholar s books as it would be to steal another man s wife. I had, at the time, no way to assess the accuracy of that opinion, for I had no wife and few books.
But I had come to Oxford on that October day, Monday, the twentieth, in the year of our Lord 1365, to see what progress I might make to remedy my solitary estate. I left my horse at the stable behind the Stag and Hounds and went straightaway to Robert Caxton s shop, where the stationer s comely daughter, Kate, helped attract business from the bachelor scholars, masters, clerks, and lawyers who infest Oxford like fleas on a hound.
My pretended reason to visit Caxton s shop was to purchase a gathering of parchment and a fresh pot of ink. I needed these to conclude my record of the deaths of Alan the beadle and of Henry atte Bridge. Alan s corpse was found, three days before Good Friday, near to St Andrew s Chapel, to the east of Bampton. And Henry, who it was who slew Alan, was found in a wood to the north of the town. As bailiff of Bampton Castle it was my business to sort out these murders, which I did, but not before I was attacked on the road returning from Witney and twice clubbed about the head in nocturnal churchyards. Had I known such assaults lay in my future, I might have rejected Lord Gilbert Talbot s offer to serve as his bailiff at Bampton Castle and remained but Hugh the surgeon, of Oxford High Street.
Kate promised to prepare a fresh pot of ink, which I might have next day, and when she quit the shop to continue her duties in the workroom I spoke to her father. Robert Caxton surely knew the effect Kate had upon young men. He displayed no surprise when I asked leave to court his daughter.
I had feared raised eyebrows at best, and perhaps a refusal. I am but a surgeon and a bailiff. Surgeons own little prestige in Oxford, full of physicians as it is, and few honest men wish to see a daughter wed to a bailiff. There were surely sons of wealthy Oxford burghers, and young masters of the law, set on a path to wealth, who had eyes for the co