The Colour of Evil: A Sebastian Foxley Medieval Murder Mystery

by Toni Mount

‘Be quiet, you stupid wench,’ Jude scolded. ‘And don’t get any ideas on that score, either. Drink your wine and then I’ll take you to the horse fair. If you don’t behave, I can bloody sell you, you silly mare. There’s cockfighting there this afternoon and I might wager a penny or two.’

  ‘Do not waste your coin, Jude,’ I said. ‘A few bedraggled feathers are not worth the risk.’

  ‘Did I ask your opinion, little brother? And keep your bloody long nose out of my business, if you know what’s good for you.’

  Thus was I reprimanded, even in my own house.

  ‘How goes the Vegetius text, Adam?’ I asked, turning to my cousin, changing the subject.

  ‘Better than you might suppose. I can but hope you approve.’ Since he wore a doubtful expression, my heart leapt, fearful of what had been done during my absence that morn.

  ‘Why? What has occurred?’

  ‘Naught untoward, I swear. But we have done much to advance the work.’

  ‘How so? Tell me, Adam. Keep me not upon tenterhooks like a worn tapestry.’

  ‘Well, now, it seems Ralf here…’ he patted his fellow journeyman on the back, grinning the while. ‘He has unused talents, especially in the application of gesso and gold leaf – skills Guy Linton had no use for – but he hasn’t forgotten how, have you, Ralf?’

  Ralf blushed and fidgeted upon the bench.

  ‘Indeed he hasn’t,’ Adam went on. ‘So betwixt us three, for Kate assisted the burnishing, we’ve done the gilding. Fear not! We did exactly as you marked it to be done.’

  ‘How much did you do?’ I chewed my thumbnail.

  ‘All the gesso that was dried since yesterday, Ralf has gilded. All the parts on the miniatures you had already drawn, Kate mixed the gesso and Ralf laid it in place. ’Tis now left to dry.’

  ‘In a single morn you have done all that? There were three pages ready for gilding and two requiring gesso…’

  ‘Well, we just set to and got it done, the three of us together. No distractions. Rose served in the shop and we laboured without pause, did we not?’

  Kate and Ralf nodded agreement and all were well pleased with themselves. ’Tis hard to describe my trepidation, my anxiety that the work had been done in too great haste and would prove to be of a poor standard. For the king, it had to be perfect and what should I do or say if I found it shoddy? If it had to be done over again, there was no saving my underdrawings nor the gold leaf. It would be a great deal of work and materials all gone to waste.

  I said naught more upon the matter but the wild strawberry mess with almond wafers took all my attention, seemingly. I was but delaying the moment when I must see their work, praying it was not beyond redemption.

  ‘Come then,’ I said at last. ‘Show me.’ I pushed back my stool and herded my journeymen and apprentice towards the workshop. My stomach churned - too many strawberries, most like.

  Adam and Ralf lay the newly-gilded miniatures upon my desk, that I might examine them. I held each one to the light in turn. I did not speak. Next, I was shown the work with gesso. My stomach settled and I felt the tension dissolve from my limbs. I could breathe easy.

  ‘Your work be of the finest. I be more grateful than I can express. My thanks for all you have accomplished this morn – all three of you are to be commended.’

  Adam gave a whoop of delight. Kate danced around the workshop and Ralf nodded, knowing he had done well indeed.

  I had ne’er felt such a great wave of relief, a burden lifted. The reputation of the Foxley workshop was safe and in good hands. And who could have thought my approval would mean so much to them? Were my words of praise so rare a thing?

  ‘We was right worried what you’d think and say, Master Seb,’ Ralf admitted. ‘Didn’t know if we’d done the right thing.’

  I smiled.

  ‘You have. And taken a weight off my mind forwhy there be no reason now that the king’s commission cannot be completed in time. I was wrong to assume I must do so much myself. I should have realised you all have talents sufficient to the task and put my trust in you. I apologise for doubting you. You in particular, Ralf. If I had known…’

  ‘Aye. Well, we’d best get on with it, then,’ Adam said, looking somewhat discomfited by unexpected words of praise. All the same, he was grinning widely as he poured fresh ink into his well and sat at his writing slope.

  I went to my own desk, ready to put the coloured pigments in place on the ready-gilded underdrawing but then a thought came to me. The areas of colour were marked out as to which pigment was to be used. If I was found to have lacked trust in my fellows, I should remedy that now.

  ‘Kate, lass, how would it be if you painted the ground colours on this miniature for me? After all, you have prepared all the pigments in readiness for tempering. Leave the faces and hands of the figures for the present. I will show you how to do those upon some other day but lay on the colours as indicated – not too thickly but as I have taught you.’

  ‘Oh, master. I’ve wanted so much to do some part of the king’s book. I’ll not spoil it, I promise you. My father will be so proud when I tell him.’

  That afternoon, the workshop was as industrious as any beehive ever was. Everyone went about their allotted tasks with such goodwill and eagerness. I should have changed the way of it afore now, putting more faith in their abilities. I knew now they would not disappoint me but continue to earn the good reputation of the Foxley workshop. I was content to do the underdrawings for the two remaining full-page miniatures.

  Wednesday, the twenty-third day of June

  The Foxley House

  The morn had witnessed further, excellent progress upon the Vegetius and I felt well pleased and reassured. I had now commenced the cartoons for the half-page miniatures – a score of them required in all.

  The one small cloud in our privy azure sky occurred when Jude came to see what we were about. My brother stood, hands on hips, like a monarch surveying his lands. He approached each desk in turn, peering at us, inspecting our progress and put me quite upon edge, wondering what disparaging comments he would make.

  ‘Do they always work like this, little brother?’ He spoke as though Adam, Kate and Ralf had not ears to hear. ‘Or are you just trying to impress me with your skills at keeping an orderly workshop?’

  ‘We were not to know that you would come, see what we do. Why would I have put on a show for you? I can tell you in any case, they work as well without me looking over their shoulders every minute. Ask them.’

  Jude simply pulled a face and left us. I was pleased, knowing he was vexed to have seen naught of which he could make complaint. If he had e’er believed the business would founder without him, he now saw his error, for rather it thrived in his absence. Was he envious, I wondered? Could he be jealous of my success, mayhap?

  I hoped not for, in the early days, I could not have survived without him. We were equal in partnership then and it was a sorrow to me in its ending. It was a dreadful admission to make – and silently – but, although I should love my brother until time’s end, I no longer felt the same affection for him as I once had done. He was much changed since our days of closeness and, in all likelihood, so was I. I wished he would go from my house – an unChristian desire indeed. He caused naught but disruption and extra work and expense. Quite how he yet had money to spend, I could not hazard a guess and did not want to enquire. I prayed it was come by honest means.

  Nonetheless, I was in good humour. When Mercy Hutchinson came with the little ones, as was her custom most days, I took my tiny daughter from her more readily than usual. Ever wary of holding so young an infant, I was becoming used to her. For once, Julia was neither sleeping nor wailing but looked at me with great guileless eyes. Such innocence… how could I not love this motherless mite? I knew both Rose and Mercy feared I might not for reason of the grief her birth caused but they should not concern themselves. Juli
a was already a beloved child though I was uncertain how to demonstrate it to one so small and without comprehension. I could but think loving thoughts as I held her and hope she felt the tenderness, somehow.

  Thus, when Thaddeus, his timing faultless as ever, came to have speech with me just as dinner was about to be set upon the board, I was of a humour to greet him right heartily. Since Jude and Chesca did not appear to be joining us, there was food aplenty for my friend to share our meal forwhy Rose had troubled to prepare meats enough for my brother and his goodwife also. Jude was an unmannerly scapegrace not to have spared her the effort and cost by informing her they would be eating elsewhere. No matter, with the bailiff, Mercy and little Nicholas dining with us, naught would be wasted. Mussels and crabmeat in a chive and mustard sauce, topped with crisp breadcrumbs and served with fresh green peas and mint from the garden plot, the first of the year: Thaddeus had chosen well his hour to call by. The peppered and sugared strawberries, decorated with blue borage flowers and the frilled leaves of Our Lady’s mantle, did not sit long upon the dish either. Was the expense of powdered sugar meant to sweeten my brother, or to impress Chesca? Rose did not say, but we all enjoyed them in their brief season.

  ‘I’m returning to Gracechurch Street this afternoon, Seb.’ Thaddeus said having sucked the last of the strawberry juice from his fingers and wiped them on his napkin. ‘Will you join me?’

  ‘Is there any chance that Clement Mallard will do other than send us off with ill-words sounding in our ears this time? Do you have a warrant to question him or just cause to search his place?’

  ‘Oh, just cause, indeed, you’ll be pleased to hear. Not against the old man in person but against that high-and-mighty servant of his: that insolent wretch Phelps. Come, I will explain all to you as we walk. And bring your writing stuff, if you will?’

  ‘I knew you must have some other purpose in inviting me, Thaddeus, apart from the gratifying prospect of bearing witness to you scoring a mark off one so deserving. I am to play your humble clerk yet again, I suppose?’

  Mallard Court in Gracechurch Street

  We came to Mallard Court once more but its fine facade no longer enthralled Thaddeus.

  ‘Shall you knock, as last time? Or shall we find the servants’ entrance?’ I asked.

  ‘Why trouble ourselves when, like as not, the fellow we seek will open the door himself?’

  Thaddeus proved correct. Phelps did indeed open at our knocking, imperious as afore.

  ‘You.’ Somehow he contrived to make so small a word sound a great insult. ‘Again.’

  ‘Aye. Us again,’ Thaddeus said, grinning in triumph. ‘And with a warrant this time, signed and sealed by Lord Mayor Gardyner as chief magistrate of the City of London, so stand aside.’ The bailiff shook the parchment ’neath the fellow’s elevated nose then entered the hall without breaking step.

  ‘I’ll inform the master.’

  ‘Don’t bother. Just show us to your quarters. ’Tis you upon whom this warrant is served.’

  ‘Me?’

  ‘Indeed. You.’ Thaddeus had his petty revenge, employing the exact same tone as had been used upon us and smiled. ‘Edward Phelps. That is your name, is it not?’

  ‘W-well, yes. But I’ve done naught amiss to bring you here.’ Of a sudden, his demeanour was not so haughty and a definite pallor made known his fear.

  ‘Edward Phelps, you stand accused of feloniously and maliciously passing counterfeit coins other than the sterling coinage proper to this realm with treasonous intent to undermine the aforesaid sterling coinage proper to this realm, to the great inconvenience of our sovereign lord, King Edward, and all the peoples of this Kingdom of England.’ Thaddeus had not unrolled the parchment to read it out. Nay. He knew every word of it by rote and relished each one, the taste of it upon his tongue, the sound of it in his ear.

  I had ne’er seen my friend take so much pleasure in exercising his authority.

  ‘What! But I never did any such thing.’ Phelps’s hands went to his breast as if to steady a racing heart. He took an uncertain step back. ‘Who dares accuse me so? I am innocent of the charge, I swear before God and all the saints in heaven.’

  ‘Then you can have no fear of showing us your quarters; that we may make diligent search of the same.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Phelps wailed, his voice aquiver.

  ‘You paid a quarterly reckoning of £2 13s and 4d to a tailor in Threadneedle Street and another quarterly settlement of £5 18s and 11¼d to a grocer in Leadenhall. Both reported receiving counterfeit coins among those in your payments.’

  ‘T-that wasn’t my money.’

  ‘You’re a thief also, then?’ Thaddeus looked upon the verge of laughter, eyes merry, the corners of his mouth twitching.

  ‘No! I was settling Master Mallard’s accounts. It was his money. I was but the m-m-messenger. You cannot accuse me. The coins were in small pouches, ready counted. I never so much as set eyes on them. How was I to know they weren’t proper sterling? I just paid them over, I swear to you.’

  Nevertheless, Thaddeus went through the motions of making a cursory search of the fellow’s bed and coffer in a space so small that outstretched arms could touch either wall. Phelps might be grandly attired at his master’s expense to make a fine show but the remainder of his possessions were few and mean.

  All the while, I stood by and watched. The space was such that I could not assist the search and, besides, it took the bailiff less than the time to say a Paternoster and an Ave to rummage through the coffer and unmake the bed. Thaddeus found naught of interest yet, to judge from his expression, he was not disappointed but took delight in the tangle of linens he left.

  I began to feel some element – small but real enough – of sympathy for Phelps, the hapless servant, guilty of no more than running his master’s errands.

  ‘You enjoyed that, you rogue,’ I chided my friend as we departed the premises.

  ‘Aye. As did you, no doubt.’

  ‘Not so. Phelps be of little account, yet you made him feel even less worthy. I do not wonder so much at his assumed airs and graces now, seeing he has naught else to his name. Besides, it was a pointless exercise. You did not find anything and yet I think you ne’er expected to, did you?’

  ‘I got what I wanted.’

  ‘Exacting your revenge?’

  ‘Not at all, Seb. You don’t think I’m so petty-minded as that, surely?’

  ‘In truth, I wondered…’

  ‘Phelps told us it was his master’s money, already counted out to pay the tradesmen. That’s what I wanted: someone to connect Mallard to the false coins. Now I can apply for the warrant I need to search all over this house and Mallard’s warehouses and any place else that he owns.’

  ‘Forgive me, Thaddeus. I underestimated you, aye, and discredited you with possessing a meanness of spirit, undeservedly. I beg pardon for that.’

  ‘Don’t. I admit, I most thoroughly delighted in seeing that odious lackey writhe like a worm under my boot. You owe me no apology. This was a fine afternoon’s work. On the morrow, I’ll serve the second warrant with constables at my back to enforce it since, no doubt, Phelps will have forewarned his master. Shall you want to be part of that, Seb?’

  ‘Why would you have need of me, Thaddeus, when you have burly constables to assist?’

  ‘Aye, they’re brawny fellows, Seb, but they lack your sharp wits and keen eye. You may recognise false coins better than they… or me.’

  ‘For knowing counterfeit monies, a goldsmith will be of better use to you.’

  ‘But I know of no goldsmith I can trust as well as you. You unravelled the mystery of the pigment shells. None else could have done that. You set us on the path to Mallard’s door in the first instance.’

  I sighed. My friend was appealing to my vanity. Flattery was e’er a persuasive weapon with me. Mea culpa. Th
addeus understood my weakness too well.

  ‘Then, I suppose if you truly require my talents… but if there be any who make their objections known, concerning your searches, by physical means, I be no man for violence, you realise. A broken hand be more than I dare risk with the king’s commission yet unfulfilled.’

  ‘That is the work of my constables. Fear not, Seb, I won’t expect you to be a party to any brawl that might result. Just keep your eyes open for anything – I know not what – out of place. That’s all I ask of you.’

  ‘Then I shall come. At what hour will you want me?’

  We parted company by Old Jewry, where Thaddeus turned off Poultry towards Guildhall. I continued along Cheapside, construing arguments in my head as to why I required to be absent from the workshop, yet again, upon the morrow. I realised with a jolt that I had no reason to contrive my lawyer’s suit. I had to excuse my actions to none but myself. Emily was no longer my keeper nor captain of my affairs. Then a wave of remorse washed over me forwhy I had felt such relief.

  The Foxley House

  I arrived home in good time, afore supper was to be served. Rose and Nessie were preparing the meal at the kitchen hearth. Little Dickon played ’neath the table board but he crawled out from amongst the trestles upon sight of me, pulled himself upright and tottered towards me, grabbing my hose to maintain balance.

  ‘Well done, little man,’ I commended him, swept him up and kissed him heartily. When I set him down, he grabbed at Gawain’s fur instead, chuckling merrily. The dog’s forbearance was exemplary, as always, never minding the tail-pulls or ears poked or paws trodden upon. I noted then that one in the kitchen wore a frown of discontent. Most unusually, it was Rose.

  ‘Be aught amiss, lass?’ I asked. ‘You appear vexed.’

  ‘They’re back.’ She cocked her head towards the passage that led to the workshop and parlour. ‘I fear, I haven’t enough supper for all. I wasn’t expecting them.’

  I could hear Jude’s voice issuing forth from the parlour, Chesca laughing.