The Pardoner's Crime

by Keith Moray

  He eyed her distastefully. ‘I had a lucky escape then.’

  She laughed and hauled on Wilhelmina’s hair. ‘Get up, my lady. And take a care, for this knife is sharp.’ And to prove her point, she pressed the blade slightly so that a trickle of blood flowed down Wilhelmina’s throat. Wilhelmina gasped in pain, but dared not move. ‘Now bend slowly and pick up this sack.’

  They moved as one and then Emma backed out of the doorway, dragging Wilhelmina with her.

  ‘D-Don’t hurt me,’ Wilhelmina whimpered.

  Emma sneered. ‘Like so many ladies, gutless!’

  ‘Yet she has many womanly qualities,’ said Richard. ‘She likes music, for one thing.’

  ‘What?’ Emma demanded.

  As if by magic there was the sudden strumming of a lute from the corridor, and Emma slackened her grip and turned her head to see the smiling minstrel, Alan-a-Dale standing there with his lute in his hands.

  Wilhelmina grasped the sack with both hands and swung it upwards with all her strength. It arced over her shoulder and caught Emma on the temple.

  The knife fell from her hand and she crumpled unconscious to the floor.

  ‘Find something to bind her with,’ Richard instructed Alan-a-Dale while he strode over in time to catch Wilhelmina, who had started to fall in a dead faint.

  When she came round some moments later and found Richard’s concerned face staring down at her tenderly, she smiled. Then her expression changed to one of consternation. ‘What did she mean you almost slept with her? Why not with me?’

  He laughed. ‘Wilhelmina, this is not the time for such talk.’

  ‘But I want you, Richard. I have wanted you from the first moment I saw you. I want you to —’

  ‘Hush, Wilhelmina, you must rest. I have things to do first. Important things, but in a few days I will be able to — woo you.’

  Her eyes fluttered and as she drifted off to sleep, a smile spread across her lips.

  There came the sound of horse’s hoofs from without, and Richard quickly straightened and crossed to the window in time to see Alan-a-Dale heading towards the drawbridge. The minstrel grinned up at him and raised his hand. Dangling from it was the sack containing the jewels.

  Richard gave a silent curse and was in two minds about whether to go after him, yet he dared not leave Wilhelmina alone with Emma Oldthorpe, even though she was still unconscious and had been bound hand and foot by the minstrel. So thinking, he went over to the crumpled heap that was Gideon Kitchen and, unbuckling the cook’s belt, turned him over and bound his hands behind his back.

  He was just straightening up when he again heard the sound of a horse outside the lodge. This time when he looked out he was surprised to see two people upon the one horse: Robin Hood with Matilda Oxley behind him.

  ‘Hail, Sir Richard!’ cried Robin Hood, upon spying Richard’s face at Wilhelmina’s chamber window. ‘Is all well?’

  ‘It is now,’ returned Richard. ‘I have the other traitors! The cook, Gideon Kitchen and Emma Oldthorpe, the apothecary’s wife.’

  Matilda gasped. ‘Emma Oldthorpe! It cannot be! Sir Richard, you are mistaken.’

  Richard shook his head sadly. ‘There is no mistake, I am afraid.’

  ‘The King is unharmed?’ Robin Hood asked concernedly.

  ‘Aye, thanks to you. So what now, Robin Hood? Where are you going now?’

  The handsome, bearded outlaw glanced over his shoulder at Matilda and grinned. ‘We head for Barnsdale Forest again, and mayhap as far as Sherwood.’ He nodded his head. ‘Our plan worked well enough, did it not?’

  ‘Thanks be to God,’ Richard returned.

  ‘Will we ever be able to return, Sir Richard?’ Matilda asked, her hands tight around the waist of her lover.

  ‘I shall be petitioning His Majesty about it,’ Richard replied. ‘When the time is right.’

  Robin Hood nodded. ‘Then we must be away. My men will have released Sir Thomas’s men — after charging them a suitable toll — and they will be with you as soon as their feet will carry them.’ He raised his hand in a salute. ‘Farewell, Sir Richard Lee.’

  ‘Wait!’ Richard cried. ‘Did you pass the minstrel Alan-a-Dale? I fancy that he has some property belonging to the King.’

  Robin laughed. ‘We did — and he has.’ He winked. ‘Let us just say that it is the King’s property, which we will look after for him, until he chooses to pardon the brothers of the Greenwood.’

  Richard grinned as the outlaw wheeled his horse round and waved before galloping for the drawbridge.

  Emma Oldthorpe groaned, and Richard turned to look down at her with sadness and distaste. He was aware that his feelings of attraction to her had been transformed into utter revulsion.

  ‘Will you let me go, Sir Richard?’ she asked, her voice neither pleading nor showing any sign of fear. ‘And if not, will you spare me the worst?’

  He felt the bitter nausea of bile rise in his throat. He shook his head sadly.

  ‘I am afraid that I can do neither, Mistress Oldthorpe. You must face the law.’

  To his amazement, she smiled. ‘The King’s law?’ she asked. She tossed her head back and spat. ‘God damn the King!’

  EPILOGUE

  Richard had not been surprised to learn that Hubert had not found Robin Hood in the sanctuary. He had told him of their subsequent meeting at Sandal Castle and of all that had happened. Hubert had, of course, felt slightly put out that Richard had not informed him of the subterfuge, yet when Richard explained that he needed him to convince Beatrice, he cheered up. And, of course, having the prospect of wedding the beautiful Beatrice filled him with total joy.

  His Majesty King Edward II decided that he had experienced enough of Wakefield and of Sandal Castle and left for Rothwell Castle before heading on to York with Hugh le Dispenser. The conduct of the court he left to Richard.

  The cases did not take long. The evidence was so strong that there was no need for any pressure, despite Sir Thomas’s view that a little torture would speed things up and satisfy the King’s subjects’ bloodlust. Yet this Richard would not allow, for although he was gladly accepted as a suitable suitor for Sir Thomas’s daughter, he was determined not to be swayed by his potential father-in-law in his pursuit of fair justice, as befitted a Sergeant-at-Law.

  Yet the sentences gave Richard no pleasure at all. Gideon Kitchen and Gilbert Gaveston, if that was his name, were to be hanged, drawn and quartered, as the law proscribed for commoners found guilty of treason against the King. Emma Oldthorpe was sentenced to be burned at the stake.

  When the execution day arrived, crowds gathered from Wakefield and all the surrounding villages and hamlets of the Manor of Wakefield. The site chosen was Sandal Common.

  A great pyre was erected in the centre of the common, atop which Emma Oldthorpe was bound. The intention was that she should watch the barbaric deaths of her brother and henchman before she was sent to the fires of Hell herself. Symbolically, the pageant that they had used for their assassination bid had been smashed up and used to fuel the pyre.

  All three of them looked in a piteous state, having had appetite for neither food nor water for several days. The quick deaths that they had asked for had been denied.

  The two men died hideously with much gore and accompanied by much jeering from the crowds. Throughout it all, Emma Oldthorpe screwed up her eyes as she tried to blot it all out of her mind.

  Richard as the presiding judge was obliged to watch, feeling helpless when the lighted brands were finally tossed on the pyre and the dried branches began to smoke and burn, until flames were licking at her.

  Then seemingly from out of nowhere, an arrow flew and pierced her heart. She gasped once, then her head fell and mercifully she knew no more.

  Richard made the sign of the cross over his heart. So many deaths, so much hate. Yet for this last death he was grateful. He was pretty certain that he knew who had fired that arrow.

  ‘God save the King!’ he mouthed, then rose to
leave.

  He had a lady to woo.

  ***

  Want to continue the adventure through Medieval England? Read The Fool’s Folly — Book Two in the Sandal Castle Medieval Mystery series.

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  A NOTE TO THE READER

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for taking the time to read my novel, which is the first in a series of medieval thrillers based around Sandal Castle and the surrounding country. I have lived within arrowshot of the ruins of this ancient motte and bailey castle for over thirty years and I am the current chairman of the Friends of Sandal Castle. It has been a large part of my life and some years ago, on one of my morning runs around it I thought it would make a fine base for a mystery story.

  The impetus to finally write a novel set there came when I won a Fish Award for a short story entitled The Villain’s Tale. To collect my prize, I had to attend the Cork Literary Festival in Ireland and read it before a large audience at a ceremony dinner. The story was inspired by Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and I set it in a rat-infested dungeon, much as I imagined miscreants would be tossed into at Sandal Castle in medieval days. I was somewhat apprehensive about reading it to a literary festival audience, but to my pleasant surprise it was extremely well received. As a result of that I began work on the novel as soon as I returned home and sat down in my study.

  The Pardoner’s Crime is a work of fiction, yet the location, some of the main characters and certain events are real.

  In 1313 the jewels referred to in this tale were indeed taken at Newcastle by the Earl of Lancaster, amid great controversy.

  In 1316 Robert Hood (Hode) appeared before the Manor of Wakefield Court and was fined for failing to take up arms on behalf of John de Warenne the Earl of Surrey. He is believed to have been one of the 700 bowmen who fought at Boroughbridge under Thomas Earl of Lancaster, and was subsequently declared a contrariant and outlaw. It is thought that he was subsequently pardoned by King Edward II, for he and his wife Matilda returned to live out their days in the house that he built on the Birch Hill.

  In November 1326 Hugh le Dispenser, the King’s favourite, was taken prisoner and tried for treason, then executed at Hereford by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

  On 21 September 1327, King Edward II, who had been forced to abdicate in favour of his son (King Edward III) was murdered in Berkeley Castle upon the orders of his wife, Queen Isabella, and her lover Roger de Mortimer, first Earl of March. It is said that the assassins were instructed to leave no mark upon the King’s body. A horn was inserted up his rectum and a red hot spit was thrust into it to penetrate and burn his entrails.

  England in the fourteenth century was a dangerous place to be. Great acts of barbarism occurred and not even kings were safe.

  If you have enjoyed the novel enough to leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads, then I would be truly grateful. I love to hear from readers, so if you would like to contact me, please do through my Facebook page or send me a message through Twitter. You can also see my latest news on my Website.

  Keith Moray

  keithmorayauthor.com

  ALSO BY KEITH MORAY

  FICTION

  The Sandal Castle Medieval Thriller Series:

  The Fool’s Folly

  The Summoner’s Sins

  The Torquil McKinnon Investigation Series

  The Gathering Murders

  Deathly Wind

  Murder Solstice

  Flotsam & Jetsam

  Death in Transit

  Deadly Still

  As Keith Souter:

  The Curse of the Body Snatchers

  As Clay More:

  Raw Deal at Pasco Springs

  Judge on the Run

  Double-Dealing at Dirtville

  A Rope for Scudder

  Stampede at Rattlesnake Pass

  Dry Gulch Revenge

  Adventures from the Casebook of Dr Marcus Quigley

  The Doctor’s Bag

  The Doctor

  The Apothecary’s Quest

  Redemption Trail

  The Pest House

  Wanted Dead or Revived

  The Dime Novelist

  As Ford Fargo:

  (Collaborative novels set in the fictitious town of Wolf Creek, featuring Clay More’s character, Dr Logan Munro the town doctor)

  Bloody Trail

  The Taylor County War

  Hell on the Prairie

  Night of the Assassins

  O Deadly Night

  The Dead of Winter

  War Stories

  Luck of the Draw

  Hunter’s Moon

  NON-FICTION

  As Dr Keith Souter:

  Homoeopathy for the Third Age

  Homoeopathy: Heart & Soul

  Cure Craft – Traditional Folk Remedies and Treatment from Antiquity to the Present Day

  Get Well Soon

  Not Just a Room With a Bath

  The Art of Homoeopathy

  Doctor’s Latin

  50 Things you can do today to manage back pain

  Coping with Rheumatism and Arthritis

  Understanding and Dealing with Stroke

  Understanding and Dealing with Depression

  Understanding and Dealing with Type 2 Diabetes

  Understanding and Dealing with Heart Disease

  Prescribing Methods

  An Aspirin a Day

  Schoolboy Science Remembered

  The Classic Guide to King Arthur

  The Tea Cyclopedia

  The Pocket Guide to Dice and Dice Games

  Medical Meddlers, Mediums & Magicians

  The Little Book of Genius

  The Little Book of Golf

  How You can Talk to Anyone

  Published by Sapere Books.

  20 Windermere Drive, Leeds, England, LS17 7UZ,

  United Kingdom

  saperebooks.com

  Copyright © Keith Moray, 2008

  Keith Moray has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.

  Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.

  eBook ISBN: 9781913518547

  Keith Moray is represented by Isabel Atherton at Creative Authors.