Heartstone (Matthew Shardlake #5)(121)

I shook my head. ‘No. She meant something else. She of all people wouldn’t draw my attention to David’s condition.’ I looked at the group ahead of me: Abigail hovered behind her son. ‘Feaveryear’s lodging is hard by yours. Did you hear him go?’

‘I heard a door slam just after dawn, then his quick little steps. I thought he was going for an early prayer.’

‘What made him run like that, I wonder?’ I knew his disappearance was important, but not why.





Chapter Thirty


THE WOOD WAS delightfully peaceful in the early morning. The birds sang lustily in the trees; a squirrel watched me from the branch of a beech, its bushy red tail bright against the green leaves. I was sitting on a fallen log beside an oak tree in a little glade, comfortable in the loose jerkin and shirt I had donned for the hunt. Behind me, though, I could hear the murmuring voices of the breakfast party on the the other side of the trees, while stealthy rustlings deeper in the park indicated Master Avery and his men were checking the deer tracks. But I had had to get away from them all, just for a minute. Soon enough we would be riding pell-mell through the hunting park. I reflected on all that had happened on the previous day.



WHEN WE HAD returned from church David had been taken upstairs to lie down, protesting all the while that he was quite recovered. Hobbey asked Dyrick to follow him to his study. I was on my way upstairs when Dyrick appeared once more and asked if I would attend Master Hobbey.

The master of Hoyland Priory sat at his desk, his face grave. He asked me quietly to sit. He picked up the hourglass from his desk and turned it over, sadly watching the grains run through. ‘Well, Master Shardlake,’ he said quietly, ‘you have seen that my son has – an illness. It is something we have tried to keep to ourselves. It has been a great strain on my wife; seeing him in a fit strikes her to the heart. Apart from the family only Fulstowe knew. Mercifully David has never had an attack in front of the servants. We kept it even from Master Dyrick.’ He smiled sadly at his lawyer. ‘I am sorry for that, Vincent. But now everyone knows. Ettis and his crew will be mocking David in the village tavern tonight.’ He put down the hourglass and clenched his hand into a fist.

I spoke quietly. ‘Hugh, I take it, has known about David for some time.’

‘David had his first attack shortly after Hugh and Emma came to us, when we were still in London.’

‘And yet still you wanted Emma to marry David. To marry a ward to someone with such a disability as the falling sickness is not allowed.’

Dyrick said curtly, ‘The girl died.’ He looked anxiously at Hobbey, as though he might give away more than he should. But what more could there be?

I asked Hobbey, ‘Hugh has kept it secret all this time?’

He nodded. His eyes were watchful now. ‘He agreed he would tell nobody. And he never has.’

‘It seems a hard thing to impose on the boy.’

‘The fact he has kept silent surely indicates his loyalty to this family,’ Dyrick put in.

‘But for you coming, but for this business – ’ Hobbey’s voice trembled angrily for a moment, but he quickly brought himself under control – ‘it has all put my wife and son under great strain. I think that is why David’s attack came now.’ He gathered himself. ‘I would ask you, as a matter of charity, not to report this to the Court of Wards, not to spread our secret throughout London.’

I studied him. There was a quiet desperation in Hobbey’s face, his mouth trembled for a second. ‘I will have to consider,’ I said.

Hobbey exchanged a look with Dyrick. He sighed. ‘I should go, there are arrangements regarding the hunt.’

‘You are sure it is still wise to go ahead with that?’ Dyrick asked.

‘Yes. I will hold my head high,’ Hobbey added with a touch of his old firmness. ‘Face them. And you must come, Vincent, as my lawyer it would be expected. Master Shardlake,’ he said, ‘will you attend too?’

I hesitated, realizing this was a change of tactics, an attempt to ingratiate himself with me. Then I nodded. ‘Thank you. It may ease me of the stiffness I feel after all my days of riding.’

Hobbey stood. ‘Bring your clerk, if he wishes to come.’ He looked utterly exhausted. ‘And afterwards, Sir Quintin and his son will be arriving. I must arrange hospitality for them.’



I WENT TO my room and sat down heavily on the bed. Should I report David’s condition to the Court of Wards? I had no wish to. But just how far had living with this tense family and its secret affected Hugh? After a few moments’ more thought, I walked up the corridor and knocked at Hugh’s door. After a moment he opened it. ‘Master Shardlake,’ he said quietly. ‘Come in.’

I followed him into the tidy room. It was dim, the shutters half-drawn against the bright afternoon light. A book lay open on his desk, More’s Utopia.

‘You have been giving More another try?’ I asked.

‘Yes, last night. I fear, Master Shardlake, I still find him a dreamer. And Sam Feaveryear said he burned many good men as heretics while he was Lord Chancellor.’

‘Yes, he did.’

‘Then who was he to condemn the violence of war?’

I thought, this boy could make a scholar. I said, ‘Feaveryear has gone.’