A Choir of Crows

by Candace Robb

  Releasing her stance, Alisoun slung her bow over her shoulder and tucked the unspent arrow in the quiver. ‘He was watching the house. When Rob and Rose approached him he dashed for the wall, tried to scale it. I stopped him with the arrow while the twins let Ned out of the shack.’ Stepping closer, she added in a low voice, ‘His name is Gabriel. According to Marian he’s Sir Thomas Percy’s man.’

  Percy. God in heaven. ‘How does she know?’

  ‘He was the partner of the one who fell from the roof. They were following her. I did not stay for more.’

  Marian’s story involved the Percys as well as the Nevilles, the two most powerful families in the North. Owen cursed under his breath. ‘Did he give Ned any trouble after you’d shot him?’

  ‘How could he?’

  Owen offered Gabriel a hand. ‘Let us see to that arm.’

  Ned scrambled to his feet. ‘Captain—’

  ‘I will deal with you later. Come along, Gabriel,’ said Owen.

  Injured and dizzy from lack of air the man stumbled against Owen as he struggled to his feet, causing his hat to fly off. Owen steadied him, ordering Ned to fetch the man’s hat and bring it with him to the kitchen. It was no wonder Gabriel’s first impulse was to reclaim his disguise – his bright red hair, like Owen’s son Hugh’s, was a liability for a spy or a tracker, so easily picked out in a crowd.

  ‘Rob and Rose, make the rounds of the houses in the minster yard. Let me know if you come upon any trouble,’ Owen called to the twins.

  With a nod, the two ran off.

  As Owen supported Gabriel down the path to the kitchen door he noticed how the man cradled his injured arm, saw the muscles in his neck bulge as he limped. Either he’d injured his leg or foot in the fall after the arrow hit him or Ned’s fury had caused further damage. Gabriel would find his work challenging for a while, which might make Owen’s work easier, but would only antagonize the Percy family.

  As promised, Bess Merchet had moved the pallet on which the children had spent the night closer to the fire and was now removing the bedding. ‘Put him here,’ she said. ‘I will see whether I’m needed with the children.’ She bustled off to the hall.

  Owen ordered Ned to remove Gabriel’s boots, warning him to have a care with the left one. ‘If you cause any further injury I will lock you in the garden shed overnight.’

  ‘Captain,’ Ned grumbled as he tossed off his remaining boot and then knelt before Percy’s man.

  Owen took Alisoun aside to learn more about Gabriel, but she had little more information.

  ‘I am glad you at least took care not to cause him more harm than necessary.’

  ‘I hunt only what I intend to eat.’

  Ned glanced over with a startled expression.

  Owen drew Alisoun farther from the bench. ‘If this morning is an example of what is to come, Marian may be trouble for us. Is she a Percy?’

  ‘She did not say how she knew his name. But I do not believe this trouble is of her doing, Captain. As it seems likely she is convent-educated, I think she was removed from a convent against her will. When Rose came to tell us there was a watcher in the garden we asked Marian to look. That’s when she told us his name and fealty, and that he traveled with the other, the one who fell yesterday morning.’

  ‘Both Percy’s men?’

  ‘Yes.’

  They both glanced up as Lucie entered the kitchen and joined them.

  ‘How might I help?’

  Owen knew how he wanted to proceed, but it would contradict all Lucie held sacred about a healer’s behavior. ‘My need to learn all that he knows will make me seem cruel. I promise you I will then remove the arrow and allow the two of you to see to him. Will you support me in this?’

  ‘I will,’ said Alisoun.

  Lucie touched Owen’s cheek. ‘I trust you.’ She looked toward the two young men as Ned, who had placed himself on Gabriel’s wounded side, roughly pushed him toward the pallet by the fire. ‘You might keep Ned away before he does more injury. He will not soon forgive the humbling.’

  ‘Did you attempt to reason with Ned?’ Owen asked Alisoun.

  ‘He burst from the shed in a fury. There was no stopping him.’

  ‘Bloody fool.’ Owen pushed Ned out of the way and took charge of Gabriel, helping him ease down onto the pallet and find a comfortable position on his uninjured side.

  ‘It is easier to talk when sitting up,’ Lucie said. ‘We will prop him up on cushions so that he is half sitting.’ She disappeared into the hall to collect what she needed, Alisoun following.

  Owen fetched a bowl of water, the basket of potions, instruments, and bandages that Lucie kept near the door, additional rags, a flagon of wine and a bowl, and a low stool to sit on while he questioned the man. Ned retreated to the bench near the door.

  Once the patient was settled, Lucie and Alisoun withdrew to seats sufficiently close that they might hear all that was said, but out of Gabriel’s sight so as not to distract him.

  Resting elbows on knees Owen studied Gabriel, his guarded expression, the stubborn set of the jaw. ‘Are you comfortable?’

  ‘No I’m not comfortable, I have an arrow in my arm, or did you not notice?’

  ‘I am well aware of it, and have every intention of seeing to it. But first you will tell me what you know of our houseguest.’

  ‘I saw her at the midden this morning. Did she tell you who I am?’

  ‘Gabriel. Now what can you tell us of Marian?’

  ‘No longer Matthew?’ A little laugh. ‘She must feel safe here.’ A shrug that caused a wince.

  Owen slipped out his dagger, touched it to the wound. ‘I prefer to play the healer with you, but unless you tell me all you know of the woman and what she has endured …’ He twirled the dagger. ‘Your choice.’

  Gabriel pressed back against the cushions. ‘I am Sir Thomas Percy’s man. If you dare harm me—’

  ‘Sir Thomas, is it? We are acquainted.’ Long ago, on a battlefield, and Percy had no reason to remember Owen, but this ginger pup would not know that. ‘He is an honorable man and will take the word of Prince Edward’s man in York. Besides, the harm has been done, eh?’ He kept his one-eyed gaze steady on the man who stank with fear and blood and a long while on the road. ‘You would do well to talk to me.’

  Gabriel attempted to cross his arms, another ill-advised gesture.

  ‘Best wait until I remove the arrow to do that,’ Owen said. ‘You’ve only to tell me what you know and I will get to work.’

  Silence.

  ‘As you wish.’ Owen rose and strolled over toward the fire. ‘I should fetch more firewood.’

  Lucie took his cue and headed for the door. ‘I will check on the shop.’

  Gabriel wrenched himself round to see the two of them. ‘You would leave me here?’

  ‘Alisoun will call us back when you are ready to talk.’

  ‘But the children,’ Alisoun protested.

  ‘What of my arm?’ cried Gabriel. Yet when Alisoun approached he shrank from her.

  Assuring him that she meant him no harm, she knelt beside him, gently resting one hand above and one below his injury. ‘I do not like the feel of the flesh around the wound. I would advise you speak up, and quickly.’

  ‘You did this.’

  ‘You might have knocked and stated your purpose. Instead you accosted the bailiff’s man and trapped him in the garden shed.’ She rose and started for the door to the hall.

  ‘Come back,’ Gabriel whimpered, ‘I cannot lose my arm. I will tell you what you want to know if you help me.’

  Owen was back on his stool in a few breaths. The flushed face might be emotion, might be fever. ‘Tell me.’

  ‘She is Dame Marian, a sister of Wherwell Abbey. Sir Thomas Percy’s ward.’

  Owen knew of Wherwell, a fine abbey between Salisbury and Winchester. Bishop Wykeham’s territory. ‘The abbey is far from Percy lands.’

  ‘But near one of Sir Thomas’s manors. A royal gift in token of hi
s services. His widowed sister Lady Edwina manages it for him.’

  ‘How came Dame Marian to stray so far from the abbey?’

  ‘She went missing the night of a fire at the abbey in the week after Pentecost.’

  Late May. ‘She escaped a fire?’ Owen asked.

  A deep breath. ‘The fire began around the window in the library that holds the nuns’ music. Dame Marian’s pallet was right there. When she was not among the sisters helping pass buckets of water or carrying manuscripts out of harm’s way they feared they would find her bones in the ashes. But when the laborers searched the ashes the next morning they found no bones. The fire had not burned so long that a body would leave no trace. Her nun’s garb was found in a gardener’s shed in the outer part of the abbey enclosure. The reverend mother and Dame Eloise, the cantrice who taught her, both insisted someone had taken her, that she would not have set the fire, she would not have run on her own accord.’

  ‘Unless she feared she would be blamed for the fire,’ said Owen.

  ‘You would not be the first to suggest that. Sir Thomas and his sister, Lady Edwina, thought that likely and expected her to come to them. But we searched the countryside between the abbey and both their houses and found no sign of her. Then one of my fellows learned that his brother Phillip, Dame Marian’s music teacher in Lady Edwina’s household, had disappeared a few days before the fire. His family was frightened. He’d seemed obsessed with his former student, enraged when she went to the abbey, saying they had been meant for each other and he would find a way to rescue her.’ Gabriel had been speaking so quickly he needed to pause for breath. His voice had grown raspy. ‘Might I have some of that wine?’

  Keen to keep him talking, Owen poured a cup, handed it to him. ‘And so you were sent to find Phillip and Marian?’

  ‘Four pairs of us, plotting our paths with information Rupert gave us about his brother’s rambling, where he had served, where he studied. We were to track the two of them, take them both, return them to Sir Thomas. Whether we returned with Phillip alive or dead mattered not a whit to my lord. But Dame Marian was to be treated with respect.’

  ‘Was this Rupert of the party?’

  ‘He was my comrade on the road.’

  The brother of the man suspected of abducting Dame Marian had been trusted as part of the search party? ‘Just the two of you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Unwise. Owen wondered how Sir Thomas justified that. ‘Have you found Phillip?’

  ‘What we found were rumors of his death. That villagers burned him as a pestilence-carrier, but she escaped. She might have betrayed him to them. Or so the story went.’

  ‘Did you send word to your lord?’

  ‘We were in pursuit. That would have taken time.’

  ‘So then your mark was only Dame Marian, the betrayer of your partner’s brother?’

  Gabriel looked away. ‘I was caught up in the chase. I did not think.’

  ‘Go on. You were now searching for her.’

  ‘We lost all track of her for a good long while and wondered whether the villagers had not wished to admit they had burned her as well. If they’d learned she had been a bride of Christ they would fear God’s punishment. We were about to turn back north of Bath when we heard of a company of minstrels and players with a comely lad, voice of an angel, fair hair, pale eyes— We kept going.’

  ‘And once you found her Rupert leaped off the roof of the chapter house?’

  ‘I don’t know what happened between them. I was waiting outside the minster. I did not see them disappear into the chapter house.’ Gabriel was panting with fear. ‘I pray you, save my arm!’

  ‘You rode together, drank together, but you have no idea why Rupert would take her somewhere without informing you? I don’t believe you. I think you knew he meant to punish her for his brother’s death and something went wrong.’

  ‘I knew of no such intention, I swear. We were following the French spy, Ambrose Coates. We thought he would be a fine addition to our catch. I waited without that evening, Rupert went in to watch the meeting. Ambrose had told her he was meeting someone about her stolen prayer book. I don’t think she believed him. I had told her Ambrose was a French spy.’

  A stolen prayer book? The psalter? ‘How did you know Ambrose, and the rumors about him?’

  ‘He is not a man one forgets.’

  ‘Where had you seen him?’

  ‘At the French court. A few years past. I offered Dame Marian a trade – information about the French spy for a message to Sir Thomas telling him where I’d found her and that we would travel south as soon as the snow melted.’

  ‘As was your duty.’

  ‘She did not know that.’

  ‘Did you send the message?’

  ‘I did. As was my duty.’ He drained his cup, set it aside with a clatter, closing his eyes. ‘I would speak with her. Find out what happened that night. I followed the clerk who unlocked the south transept, but he returned while I was searching the chapter house, before I found anything. She had been in there with him?’

  ‘It was you who accosted the clerk when he returned to lock the door?’

  ‘I am sorry for that. Was she with him?’

  ‘Was there anyone else in the chapter house when you searched?’

  ‘I found no one.’

  ‘That was not long after Rupert fell. How did you learn of it? Were you still at the minster?’

  ‘I’d returned, hoping to sneak in with someone. That’s when I heard a man had fallen.’

  ‘Did you see him?’

  ‘I joined the clerks crowding round him. I could see enough in the lantern light.’

  ‘Did you see the vicar’s body near the chancellor’s house?’

  ‘No. Though I saw men there as well. I swear I had nothing to do with that. I did not know the man. Ambrose did. Ask him.’ His voice broke and he closed his eyes for a moment, his breath shallow.

  ‘What did you intend to do with Ambrose?’

  Licking his lips, Gabriel rasped, ‘The enthronement. All the Northern families would be coming. Keep watch, deliver him up to the Percys. Deliver both.’

  Owen took out the shears, began to cut away the sleeve around the arrow. ‘Where did you plan to keep Marian until then?’

  ‘With Tucker the fiddler. Gave the goodwife coin to take good care of her.’

  Alisoun brought the kettle to add hot water to the bowl.

  ‘Take good care?’ Owen said. ‘Why not St Clement’s Priory, where she need not pretend to be a lad, where she would be safe?’

  Gabriel opened his eyes wide. ‘You are angry. How can I trust—’ Noticing Alisoun’s hands on him he tried to wrench away his arm.

  ‘Do not be such a fool,’ she said in an even tone. ‘I am cleaning the wound.’

  He watched her closely for a moment.

  ‘St Clement’s,’ Owen prompted.

  ‘We did not think of the nuns.’

  Good at tracking, too inexperienced to plan the rest. Not surprising. The wound clean, Owen summoned Ned to hold Gabriel’s legs, asked Alisoun to hold his shoulders while he pulled the cushions away. Once the man was lying flat, Owen cut the shaft as close to the arm as he dared, then, while holding down the arm with his knee, pulled out the rest. Painful, but quick. Gabriel shrieked and kicked Ned in the mouth.

  ‘Now you see why I had you remove his boots,’ said Owen.

  Ned muttered a curse as he sat back to nurse his jaw. Gabriel moaned and thrashed.

  ‘Be still while Alisoun cleans it and wraps it in a poultice,’ Owen said.

  ‘You cannot keep me here.’

  ‘I do not intend to. Where are you lodging?’

  Closed eyes, tightened mouth.

  ‘Then I will take you to the castle.’

  ‘Holy Trinity Priory.’

  ‘Good. I will deliver you to the infirmarian at the priory.’

  ‘Might I see her? I need to know why he jumped. If she pushed him. What happened.’


  ‘When the infirmarian judges you fit, you may return. I suggest that you knock on the door and make your request with courtesy. Until then, she is under my protection.’

  ‘You will take the credit.’

  Owen chuckled. ‘No, young Gabriel, I assure you that the tale is yours to tell to her family. You have much to explain.’

  ‘We found her!’

  ‘And I would guess by the welts on her wrists and ankles that Rupert had no intention of delivering her safe to her family. I would guess he meant to throw her off the roof. Had you two been in the chapter house before?’

  ‘I was never there.’

  ‘But he?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘You each went your own way in the city?’

  ‘At times.’ Gabriel caught Owen’s arm as he began to rise. ‘Will I heal?’

  ‘Be still and receive our ministrations with good grace. The more patient you are, the better the outcome. Tell me about the prayer book.’

  ‘A small thing, but Lady Edwina claims it has value. She commissioned it for Dame Marian, a gift when she took her vows. My lord Percy called it “a choir of crows.” The illustrations. Said it was his sister’s jape, the sisters being crows cawing around Dame Marian, the nightingale.’

  ‘When was it lost?’

  ‘At Tucker’s. According to Dame Marian, Ambrose believed their host stole it, claims he followed him to Ronan’s lodgings. He believed that the vicar either bought it from Tucker or advised him as to its value.’

  ‘Did you retrieve it?’

  ‘No. We might ask Dame Marian. She might have overheard Ambrose meeting with that vicar.’

  A choir of crows. Magda had called Thoresby the Old Crow. By extension all clerics were crows to her. And nuns? Lady Edwina shared her humor. ‘Did you see the prayer book?’