The Midnight Man (7 page)

Gascelyn left the death house. Anselm walked round and sat on the edge of the bed, Stephen on a stool. The novice glimpsed a book bound in calfskin, fastened by a silver chain on the chancery table. He rose, walked over and opened the book of hours. He read the first entry, a line from the introit for Easter Sunday: ‘I have risen as I said.' Stephen admired the silver-jewelled illumination. The ‘R', the first letter of ‘
Resurrexi
', was covered in red-gold ivy and silver acanthus leaves. In the top of the ‘R' a chalice, in the lower half a milk-white host above the Holy Grail. Stephen was about to read on when he heard a girl's voice whisper, ‘Eleanora.' He glanced at Anselm, who'd risen to his feet and was staring at the long mortuary table. The room had grown very cold; a faint perfume tickled their sense of smell. After a few heartbeats the sound of a lute could be heard, then the music faded but the rushes beneath the table shifted and a small puff of dust rose.

‘Someone is dancing!' Stephen exclaimed. ‘Someone is dancing!'

The rushes ceased moving. No more dust whirled. A harsh sound echoed through the death house like a cry suddenly stifled.

‘Is there anything wrong?' Gascelyn stood, blocking the doorway. He came in. ‘You heard it, didn't you?'

Stephen glimpsed the desperate, haunted look in the man's harsh face. Gascelyn stood hands on hips, staring down where the rushes had moved. He kicked these with the toe of his boot. ‘Perhaps,' he confessed, ‘I don't sleep too well. I've seen it, I've heard things. I wish Sir William would release me from this.' He lifted his head. ‘Well, is there anything else, Brother Anselm?'

The exorcist simply sketched a blessing in the air, then he and Stephen left.

‘Magister, shouldn't we ask what causes that?'

Anselm stopped and stared at him. The exorcist's long, bony face was pale, the sharp, deep-set eyes like those of a falcon, lips tightly drawn, square chin set stubbornly. Stephen recognized that look. Anselm was troubled – deeply troubled – because he was confused. The exorcist had confessed as much as soon as they'd risen that morning, and apparently his mood had not changed. Anselm ran a finger down the stubble on his chin then scratched his head. He opened his mouth to speak but then shrugged and walked into the shade of a yew tree, beckoning at Stephen to follow.

‘Night-time, Stephen,' Anselm leaned down like a magister in the schools, ‘night-time,' he repeated, ‘is the devil's dark book, or so authorities like Caesarius the Cistercian would have us believe. He described Satan as a tall, lank man of sooty and livid complexion, very emaciated, with protuberant fiery eyes, breathing ghastly horrors from his gloomy person. In another place Caesarius describes Satan as a blackened, disfigured angel with great bat-like wings, a bony, hairy body, with horns on his head, a hooked nose and long pointed ears, his hands and feet armed like eagle's talons.'

‘And you, Magister?'

‘I regard that as pure nonsense – foolishness! Satan is a powerful angel. He is pure intelligence and will. He pulsates with hate against God and man. He does not creep under the cover of darkness or feast on fire. He is arrogant. Dawn or dusk makes no difference to him. Filthy dungeon or opulent palace does not exist for him, only his enemy.'

‘God, Magister?'

‘No, Stephen. Us, the children of God. Satan never accepted God's creation and rose in rebellion, which lasts from everlasting to everlasting. Satan, Stephen, is no respecter of person or place. He waxes fat in the sombre shadows of vaulted cathedrals, behind the stout pillars and recesses of its choirs. He draws power in the silent cloisters from the secret thoughts and feelings of the good brothers. You'll find Satan on the ramparts of castles, breathing pride into the lords of war. He can also be found in the lonely corpse where the sorcerer hums his deadly vespers and casts his foul spells. He lurks in the furrow and fans the hatred of peasants who plough the earth for those who own it. He also lurks here, Stephen, feasting on some filthy nastiness. What that is remains a mystery which must be resolved. In the end we must make him fast and drive him out. So, let us collect our satchel and panniers from the church – we will return to White Friars.'

They stepped out of the yew trees and paused. The corpse door swung open. Parson Smollat and Isolda came out. Isolda was about to walk away, then abruptly strode back and kissed the parson full on the mouth.

‘Lord, save us,' Anselm whispered. ‘So our good parson, like us all, is moved by the lusts of the flesh. Quick, Stephen, collect our baggage and away we go.'

Thankfully Parson Smollat was in the sacristy and didn't see Stephen enter the church. He collected the panniers he had left in the Galilee porch and hurried to join Anselm, who was standing under the cavernous lychgate.

‘Should we not bid farewell to Sir William or Sir Miles?'

‘We'll return soon enough,' Anselm replied. ‘While Sir Miles, believe me, will seek us out.'

They left the precincts of the church, going past All Hallows and into the trading area of Eastcheap. Stephen, lost in his own thoughts, felt his sleeve being plucked. He turned, stared at the young woman brazenly walking beside him and was immediately struck by her: soft and feminine, yet a truly determined young woman. Her skin had a golden, healthy hue; her thick, auburn hair, bound in two plaits, was almost covered by a blue veil. This trailed from a small cap on top of her head, then wrapped around her soft throat like a wimple. She wore a woollen fur coat decorated with silver leaves over a dark clean kirtle, with stout leather shoes on her feet. One of these was loose so she gripped Stephen's arm to steady herself as she put this right.

‘Mistress?'

Anselm, a little further ahead, turned and came back.

‘Mistress?' Stephen flustered, staring into the young woman's beautiful grey eyes. ‘What business do you have with me?'

‘None, Brother.' She smiled cheekily. ‘I am sorry. I'm Alice Palmer. My father owns the tavern The Unicorn on the corner of Eel-Pie Lane close to Saint Michael's church.'

‘I know it,' Anselm replied above the noise of the crowd around him. ‘What is that to us?'

‘A scullion, one of our maids, Margotta Sumerhull, has been missing for weeks. Sometimes she'd go to pray before the Lady altar at Saint Michael's. I've asked Parson Smollat.' She smiled, moving a wisp of hair from her face. ‘My father has also petitioned Sir William but neither can help. Margotta could be wild. Anyway,' she shrugged, ‘we've heard of you, about the strange happenings at Saint Michael's, as well as the presence of a King's man – Sir Miles Beauchamp. We know him. He lives nearby. Sometimes he visits our tavern. Perhaps you would be kind enough to support our petition?'

‘We shall do what we can.' Stephen stood fascinated by that beautiful smile. The young woman grabbed his arm, kissed him full on the lips and fled into the crowd. Stephen's fingers slowly went to his mouth. Anselm, smiling, shook him gently.

‘A woman's kiss,' the exorcist murmured, ‘one of God's great gifts. Count yourself lucky, Stephen, and let's move on.' They hastened through the crowds. ‘The world and its retinue,' Anselm murmured, ‘have gathered to buy and sell.' Stephen kept close to his master. The busy, frenetic atmosphere of the city, hungry for trade, was overwhelming. Carts and sumpter ponies laden with Italian spices, Gascon wine, Spanish leather, Hainault linen and lace as well as timber, iron and rope from the frozen northern kingdoms, forced their way through. The clatter of all these competed with the constant din of chickens, pigs, cows, oxen and geese loaded on, or pulling, heavy wheeled carts and tumbrils. The air was riven by the crack of the whip, the neighing of horses and constant yapping of alleyway dogs. From the cramped alleyways and runnels leading on to the broad thoroughfares of Poultry and Cheapside swarmed London's other city: the hidden world of the wandering musicians, rogues, cozeners, naps and foists, charlatans and coney catchers, all bedecked in their motley, garish rags and eager for prey. A sweaty tribe, which reeked of every foul odour, these swarmed around the hundreds of market stalls, pitting their wits against the bailiffs and beadles who constantly patrolled the markets. The officials had already caught one miscreant, a toper, his nose as brilliantly red as a full-blown rose; arrested for foisting, he was being led off to stand in the cage on the top of the tun which housed the conduit for Cheapside.

The crowd surged, broke and met again. Apprentice boys hopped like frogs, shouting for custom. Fur-gowned burgesses, arm-in-arm with their richly dressed spouses, rubbed shoulders with fish-wives hurling obscenities at each other over a cohort of men-at-arms marching down to the Tower. A market beadle proclaimed the names of two whores missing from their brothel. A juggler leading a mule decorated with cymbals stopped to ask two Franciscans in their earth-coloured, rope-girdled robes for their blessing, only to be screamed at by a group of fops, in their elegant cloaks and soft Spanish leather boots, for blocking the way. Underfoot the thoroughfare was littered with all forms of dirt and refuse. Gong-carts were attempting to clear the mess but were unable to get through. The street air, fragranced by freshly-baked bread and platters of spiced meats, turned slightly rancid as the stench curled in from the workshops of the tanners, fullers and smithies.

The two Carmelites entered the Shambles. Butchers and their boys, bloodied from head to toe, were busy slaughtering cattle. In a flutter of plumage birds of every kind: quail, pheasant, chicken and duck had their necks wrung, their throats slashed, before being tossed to the sitting women to be plucked and doused in scalding, salted water before being hooked above the stalls. The cobbles glittered in the bloody juices from all this carnage. Dogs, cats and kites fought for globules of flesh, fat and entrails. The air reeked of blood, iron and dung. Anselm hurried past on to the great concourse before the forbidding mass of Newgate prison, its crenellated towers soaring either side of the grim, iron-studded gates. An execution party was assembling. The death cart rolled out, crammed with manacled prisoners bound for the Elms at Smithfield or the Forks by Tyburn stream. Immediately the waiting crowd surged forward as friends and relatives fought to make a sombre farewell. Some prisoners screamed their messages; a few were so drunk they lay unconscious against the sides of the cart. Mounted archers beat back the mob with whips and sticks while the sheriffs, resplendent in their ermine-lined red robes, shouted for order. Anselm and Stephen waited until the execution party moved off, then pushed their way through a crowd thronging around a Dominican garbed in the distinctive black and white of that order.

‘Beware,' the trumpet-voiced preacher declared, ‘beware, you adulterers! In hell you shall be bound to stakes in a fiery pool; each will have to face his mistress similarly bound. And that is not all, oh no! Demons will lash your private parts with wire. You traders who cheated the poor, your fate will be sealed in a red-hot leaden casket in Satan's own black castle. You gluttons who stuffed your gaping mouths . . .'

‘I don't think this concerns us,' Anselm murmured. ‘Never mind gluttony! I'm starving.'

They passed through the old city walls, turning left into the maze of alleys leading down to Fleet Street and the House of the Carmelites, the White Friars. Stephen tried to hide his nervousness. These runnels were a labyrinth of iniquity. Here lurked the sanctuary men, the wolfsheads, the utlegati and the proscribed wanted by this sheriff or that. Here the knife, the garrotte or the club were drawn at the drop of a dice or the turn of a counter. Narrow, evil-smelling lanes, the walls on either side coated with a messy slime, the ground under foot squelched with the dirt and refuse thrown out by those who lived in the rat castles on either side. Now and again a candle glowed against the perpetual darkness. A
flambeau
burnt under a crucifix which did not hold the figure of Christ but Dismas the Good Thief. Shadow people, nighthawks and darksmen flittered through the murk. Anselm and Stephen were watched then dismissed.

‘Friars, white-garbed!' The cry went out. Doors slammed, shutters clinked. Anselm and Stephen hurried on. The figures who confronted them seemed to merge out of the gloom: three women, street-walkers, their hair dyed different stripes of colour, their feet bare and their loose-fitting gowns open at the neck and chest to expose nipples painted a bright orange. The women blocked their way. At first Stephen thought they were drunk but, as he grew more accustomed to the dim light from the lantern horn the woman in the middle held, cold dread seized him. All three stared, hard-faced and glassy-eyed. Creatures from beyond the edge of darkness.

‘Out of our way!' Anselm ordered.

‘Preacher! Peddling preacher! Interfering mumble-mouth! Another shaven pate comes with his cub to confront and oppose,' the woman opposite Stephen snarled, bringing the long stabbing knife out of the folds of her gown to glitter in the juddering light. ‘Who are you?' the woman jibed mockingly.

‘Anselm the do-gooder,' one of her companions replied. ‘Mind you, he's seen enough hot blood gurgle and splash. So, who set you up as a prophet in Israel? Why have you come to meddle?'

‘To spoil our little games with your stupid chuntering,' her snarling friend jeered. ‘You whoreson bastard! Why have you come into our domain? You, Anselm, a filthy sinner with your dirty thoughts and foul moods.'

‘And you, Stephen of Winchester,' the third woman took up the litany of insults, ‘a friar, are you – why? No vocation, surely? Fleeing your father?' The voice was harsh, mocking and ugly.

Stephen, mouth dry, was aware of other dark shapes creeping along the walls on either side – scuttling shadows, as if a horde of hairless rats were swarming around.

Anselm stepped forward. ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus, by what are you called?'