Jane and the Canterbury Tale

by Stephanie Barron

  As the proceedings recommenced, two more strangers made their way into the Little Inn’s publick room: a tall, bearded man respectably dressed, with the look of a solicitor or steward about him; and a bowlegged, shabbily-dressed fellow I recognised at once for a seaman, from long acquaintance with the type during my years of residence in Southampton. His skin was much weathered and tanned, his grey hair was long and tied in a queue, his whiskers grizzled, and his canvas trousers stained with salt. I had occasion to remark upon these details, because the sailor chose to seat himself next to me, the place having been vacated by George Moore; he nodded and grinned as he sat, displaying numerous gaps in a wretched mouthful of teeth.

  The bearded gentleman took no seat at all, but stood near the far wall, his earnest gaze fixed on my brother. For of course, Edward had begun to speak.

  Now, I thought, must come the inquest’s most dangerous passage: the revelation of Captain MacCallister’s summons by the dead man, and his nocturnal walk. Julian Thane, I noticed, was so unaffected by the prospect as to be paring his nails with a pocketknife. His sister’s hand, however, was clenched tightly on MacCallister’s arm; a woman of less courage should have quitted the room entirely.

  But my brother surprized me.

  He spoke briefly in Dr. Bredloe’s ear. The coroner immediately nodded and turned to the panel, with a precise account of the possessions discovered in Curzon Fiske’s coat. The roll of banknotes was displayed, in the amount of nearly five hundred pounds; the scrap of paper with the blurred script was shewn to each man, with the proper interval required for each to attempt to read it; and finally, the tamarind seed—which Dr. Bredloe affirmed was from a plant native to India—was held aloft. The coroner explained, at Edward’s prompting, that the scrap of paper had been wrapped around the seed—as tho’ the tamarind were a token of good faith. The paper, he suggested, had established a meeting, for the only legible words upon it were St. Lawrence Church.

  At which instant, my brother thanked the coroner and begged permission to call one Barnabus Twitch before the panel.

  Of a sudden, there he was: the Wildmans’ imperturbable butler. He was dressed as he had been the previous day, in his livery and wig; he bowed to Dr. Bredloe, and took his oath at Edward’s behest.

  “Your master, Mr. Wildman of Chilham Castle, gave a ball on Wednesday last,” Edward observed.

  “He did, sir.”

  “And during the festivities, a stranger appeared at the Castle door, I think?”

  “That is so.” Twitch inclined his head. “A manservant—Joseph by name—attended the door, as I was otherwise engaged; but being uncertain what reception the man was due, Joseph sought my advice.”

  “And why did he do so?” Edward asked.

  Twitch blinked with the placidity of a cow. “Joseph was confused by the person’s aspect and appearance. He spoke with the accent of the Quality, Your Honour, but his clothing did not suggest an elevated station.”

  “And this fellow was unknown to you?”

  “I had never seen him before in my life.”

  “What was his errand at Chilham Castle?”

  “He wished to present a gift to the bri—the widow of Deceased.”

  “Do you know what that gift was?”

  “A purse of silk, as it were a kind of reticule, embroidered all about with gold threads.”

  “It sounds like an exotic object. Did you accept it from him?”

  “I did, sir—and give it to Joseph to present to the lady.”

  “Do you know what the purse contained?”

  Twitch smiled. “I saw it opened myself. At the time I had no word for what was in it, but I know now they was tamarind seeds.”

  A second murmur rose from the crowd; they were so far diverted from the matter of murder at this point, being adrift on an exotic sea, that I doubted they should ever find their way back.

  “You have heard, I think, that a tamarind seed was found in Deceased’s coat, wrapped inside a note that established a meeting on the Pilgrim’s Way.”

  “Yes, Your Honour.”

  Edward glanced at the coroner’s panel. “I put it to the men of the jury that this seed we speak of, which must be considered a rare and unusual item in England, is unlikely to have come from a different source than the seeds in the silken pouch.”

  Edward allowed the panel an instant to absorb the implications of his thought, but I wondered very much what he was about. Did he intend to condemn Adelaide, whose hands had opened the stranger’s gift? Would he next imply that her hand had written the note, and tucked the seed inside it? I could not risk a glance in the lady’s direction; I feared to see her sensibility, or her husband’s indignation.

  The sailor beside me was agog with interest, leaning forward intently with his elbows resting on his patched knees. He must have taken shore leave from one of the Kentish ports—Deal, perhaps, or Dover—and wandered into Canterbury with an eye for publick spectacle. As a source of entertainment, an inquest could hardly equal a Tyburn hanging; but beggars could not be choosers, after all.

  Edward was speaking again; I must attend.

  “Were you at all acquainted with Deceased in previous years?” he asked Twitch.

  “Mr. Fiske? Aye—I’ve known him, to look at, these seven years or more.”

  “Would you kindly step into the closet with Dr. Bredloe, and inform us whether Deceased is the person who delivered the silk purse to Chilham Castle? We might then explain the seed discovered in his pocket.”

  Ah. Edward hoped to keep Adelaide entirely out of it.

  Twitch opened his mouth as if to protest, then closed it with resignation. He was led into the compartment where Curzon Fiske lay.

  The seaman rose and began to make his way towards the centre aisle; we had not succeeded in securing his interest for so much as a quarter-hour.

  “That’s Mr. Fiske, well enough,” Twitch declared as he emerged from the closet, “tho’ I’d not have known him straight off, with that beard.”

  “And was it he,” Edward asked, with palpable satisfaction, “who rang the bell at Chilham Castle Wednesday night, and asked that the purse of tamarind seeds be presented to the lady?”

  “No, Your Honour, it was not.” Twitch shook his head emphatically. “But I can tell you who did.”

  He lifted his arm and pointed directly at my seaman, who had almost achieved the publick room’s door.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  A Man Impossible to Move

  “That quickness of mind is given, at birth, to every

  Woman: lying and weeping are birthright gifts

  From God, natural weapons to help us live.”

  GEOFFREY CHAUCER, “THE WIFE OF BATH’S PROLOGUE”

  23 OCTOBER 1813, CONT.

  SUCH A LITTLE THING, THAT POINTED FINGER; BUT IT CAUSED the sort of chaos to which even a Royal rout should never be equal.

  “Stop that man!” Dr. Bredloe cried, at which the seaman heaved open the publick room door, and dashed towards the Little Inn’s front entry.

  I rose, but the entire throng was before me; I had an idea of MacCallister and Thane surging through the Canterbury bystanders, determined to seize the fellow, and being stopped by a knot of men in the doorway; heard a great halloing from the main body of the inn, and the crash of an overturned bench besides. I glanced about me, and saw that Adelaide MacCallister had not stirred from her place; her head drooped a little beneath her bonnet and veil, the countenance obscured. I hesitated, and then crossed the aisle to where she sat.

  “Are you unwell, Mrs. MacCallister?”

  She turned her head, then raised her veil. “Miss Austen! What a comfort it is to see another lady in this miserable place!”

  Impulsively, as it seemed, she extended her gloved hand, and I took it between both of my own. “I hope that we need not remain very much longer.”

  “They have not called me,” she said in some agitation. “They have not called Andrew, or Julian.… The agony of waiting! How
long are we required to endure it? I confess that I live in dread of the moment, however. It was almost too much to witness poor James—”

  “And yet he acquitted himself admirably, did he not?”

  She drew a trembling breath in an effort to calm herself; she was far more discomposed than I had ever seen her. “I cannot say whether he spoke well or ill. He certainly did not speak frankly. I cannot blame him for that; we are all terrified of what we do not know—of what may be hidden in those around us, the impulse to violence. You cannot know what it is like at Chilham Castle—each of us aware of James’s pistol, and the use to which it was put, and wondering who among us employed it.… Every word is charged with unintended meaning, and the very air of the place is turned poisonous. Oh, God, that I had never come there, to trouble such good friends!”

  I sank down on the bench beside her; she was shivering, and I placed an arm about her shoulders. “Come. You require refreshment. Shall I get you some coffee? A glass of wine, perhaps?”

  She shook her head, and leaned a little towards me; I perceived that she was weeping. And then a shadow fell across us.

  “Mrs. MacCallister,” Edward said gently. “I am sure you feel faint. It has been a very trying day, indeed; will you not take an airing? I should be happy to escort you outside through the side door; no one shall trouble you in that direction. We might attend your husband’s return.”

  She glanced up, her eyes as dark as rain-washed violets; then she nodded and pulled the veil once more over her features.

  When Edward returned a few moments later, he was alone.

  “I set her to walking in the Cathedral Close until such time as MacCallister is able to escort her home. There is nothing for her to do here. It is a damnable business, Jane!”

  My brother, the gallant. Not even Edward is immune to the pleasure that a pair of fine eyes, in the face of a pretty woman, may bestow.

  THE CORONER’S PANEL HAD PROVED ADMIRABLY RESTRAINED during the interval, and had failed to break ranks when the rest of the room had pelted out the door in pursuit of the seaman; but the patient fellows were beginning to shift uncomfortably on their benches, as if uncertain what next should be required of them.

  “I warrant you did not expect this result, when you put your questions to Twitch,” I observed drily.

  Edward studied the Wildmans’ butler, who still stood placidly in the area reserved for witnesses, until he should be told he must do otherwise.

  “That seaman is the fellow who caused your manservant such perplexity?” Edward demanded. “I should have thought one glance at his clothes might be enough to earn him the tradesman’s entrance!”

  “Ah, but then Your Honour never heard the lad speak,” Twitch returned comfortably. “Fair Eton and Cambridge, he is, when he gets to jawing. May I stand down, sir?”

  “By all means. I have already taken too much of your time. Have you a conveyance back to Chilham?”

  “I’ll stand up behind Mr. Wildman’s curricle, thank you kindly, sir. I expect Mr. Wildman and Young Mr. Wildman will be making for home soon.” He bowed. “I hope you catch the fellow.”

  As the butler quitted the room, Edward consulted his pocket watch, then turned to the panel. “Pray adjourn to the private parlour, where I shall have some ale sent in to you.”

  With grateful mutters and thanks, the men did as my brother suggested. Edward closed the door upon them, and glanced at me thoughtfully. “I am not sure that Twitch has not done us a very great service, Jane.”

  “By providing an excuse to suspend the proceedings?”

  He smiled, and went off to order the ale.

  He was good enough to bring me ratafia and cakes upon his return; and we sat in splendid solitude, nibbling contentedly, until the distant sounds of riot pronounced the search party returned.

  It was Julian Thane who thrust open the publick room door, and Thane who dragged the seaman in by his collar. Behind him strode Captain MacCallister, with his sabre pointed at the seaman’s back. After MacCallister came a flood of people, many more than had originally filled the publick room, the chase through Canterbury’s streets having attracted an admiring train. There were children and beggars, flower sellers and pedlars of sacred relics from the Cathedral Close; and even one or two housewives seduced from their shopping, with paper parcels on their arms.

  There was no sign of Adelaide MacCallister.

  “Pray bring the fellow forward,” Edward commanded.

  Thane dragged the seaman before the empty benches where the panel had formerly sat, and glanced round in perplexity.

  “Dr. Bredloe!” Edward called towards the rear of the room. “What do you wish? Your panel is closeted with their ale!”

  The coroner sighed, and forced his way through the throng. In a matter of seconds the panel returned, several wiping their mouths on their shirtsleeves, and took up their places.

  “Now, then, my lad, what is your name?” Dr. Bredloe demanded of the seaman.

  The wizened old man surveyed the coroner imperiously. “I hardly think I am your lad, Dr. Bredloe—if indeed I have your name correctly. My own is Sir Davie Myrrh, late of Ceylon.” And he performed a bow that should have graced the portals of Almack’s.

  THERE, HOWEVER, ENDED THE SEAMAN’S EFFORT AT COOPERATION. Sir Davie refused entirely to answer any questions put to him, until, he said, he should have taken counsel of his solicitor; and being required to name that gentleman, offered the direction of an intimate of Temple Bar, London. Dr. Bredloe lifted a quizzical brow at my brother, and raised his hands as tho’ incapable of further decision; and after a brief, private colloquy, coroner and magistrate appeared to be mutually satisfied. Dr. Bredloe turned his attention to his panel.

  “Men of the jury,” he said, “the Magistrate has requested an adjournment of this proceeding, so that the present confusion might be thoroughly penetrated. Do you agree to such an adjournment, with the inquest to be resumed at a later date, under the Magistrate’s advising?”

  There was an uneasy silence. One member of the panel—a man of middle years, with the stalwart looks of those who spend their days in the fields, lifted his hand hesitantly to his forelock. “Begging yer pardon, Crowner, but what about the corpus? Adjourn howsoever long you like, but there’ll be a stink.”

  “Having entered into the record my examination of Deceased,” Dr. Bredloe said, “and having required the panel to view Deceased’s remains, there can be no bar at present to Christian burial. Proper interment need not wait on the resumption of the inquest—provided the Magistrate concurs.”

  The Magistrate concurred.

  In addition, he ordered his constable to take Sir Davie Myrrh, late of Ceylon, into custody on the suspicion of murder; and so the seaman was led away to Canterbury gaol.

  “IT IS ALTOGETHER AN IMPENETRABLE BUSINESS,” GEORGE Moore observed, as our carriage rattled along the road to Godmersham. His countenance was considerably lighter than it had been on our journey out to Canterbury; either his errands in the Cathedral Close, or his estimation of the inquest, had cheered his humour. We were forced to a tête-à-tête, Edward having determined to follow his new-found oddity to Westgate, where the gaol was housed, in order to interrogate him more closely. He should not have been doing his magisterial duty otherwise; but deemed it unlikely the man should relent, and speak without his lawyer. The mystery of Sir Davie Myrrh would have, perforce, to await that fellow’s arrival—an event that could not occur before Monday at the earliest.

  I glanced through the carriage window; we had covered but two miles of the distance to Godmersham, and a tedious interval lay before us. Mr. Moore had drawn a small leatherbound volume from his coat, and was preparing to immerse himself in its pages; Aeschylus’s Prometheus, I observed. I pursed my lips, unwilling for my curiosity to alienate the gentleman further, and bring down a rain of strictures upon my head—but I might never have so perfect an opportunity to question him again.

  “Such matters are always impenetrable,” I be
gan, “when the parties involved are less than frank.”

  “You would refer to that deluded seaman, I presume.”

  Mr. Moore had been treated to a summary of the business from Julian Thane, having missed the episode himself.

  “Yes—the seaman, naturally … and poor James Wildman, of course. One could perfectly discern that he did not wish to speak frankly of Curzon Fiske. I must suppose that partiality for his cousin Adelaide sealed his lips; but there is a history, there, begging to be told.”

  “I suspect you know little of the matter, Miss Austen, being a stranger to Kent, and most of the people in it.”

  It was a snub; a decided snub; Mr. Moore meant to quell my pretensions as thoroughly as tho’ I had been Miss Clewes, and throwing out lures to Jupiter Finch-Hatton. But my gambit succeeded in this: the clergyman closed his book.

  I regarded him coolly. “The history of Fiske’s final wager will have to be canvassed, of course, however unpleasant the exercise must prove. Your calm good sense will be invaluable to my brother, Mr. Moore—for you were one of the party at Chilham Castle, were you not, when all the gentlemen played at whist for pound points, and Mr. Lushington accused the dead man of cheating?”

  “The events of that night can have nothing to do with Fiske’s death, Miss Austen.”

  “The man was murdered, Mr. Moore,” I returned in exasperation. “A violent act does not arise in a vacuum; it requires profound emotion to spur it on—hatred, for example, or a desire for vengeance. Add to this that Fiske was killed by a pistol belonging to Chilham Castle, in the very neighbourhood he fled three years before, and the likelihood increases that the two episodes are linked.”

  “By one of the whist players, you would suggest. You forget, I think, that we all presumed Fiske to be dead—and were dancing at his wife’s wedding when he died.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “The fact of his murder proclaims that one among you knew that he was alive. Perhaps Fiske corresponded with an old acquaintance.”

  Mr. Moore’s eyes narrowed. “Is the exchange of letters now enough to hang a man?”