Read Online The Malice of Unnatural Death: by Michael Jecks - Free Book Online Page B

startled him out of his mild torpor. He put his hands on the hay and pushed himself upright. There was
a liquid mess on the hay under his left hand, and without wanting to look at it or discover what it might be, he averted his
head, still queasy, and wiped his hand dry on the stems before walking to the door and peering out into the sunlight.
    Shielding his eyes from the brightness, he was relieved when a cloud drifted lazily overhead and shut out the light. He crossed
the yard, aware at every step of the looseness in his belly. It felt deeply unpleasant. At the gate to the yard, he found
himself looking out into an ancient alley which smelled rank with the odour of faeces and rotten meats.
    From here, the alley ran southwards down to the southern gate. It lay a distance below him, down the hill. His eyes were not
as strong as they once had been, even before the ale last night, yet he could make out a group of people standing in a ragged
line at the bottom of the hill. One was a great, bearded fellow, and Robinet wondered who he could be. Certainly, the fellow
was haranguing his audience with vigour, from what Robinet could see. And then he saw thebody being drawn from the rubbish, and he withdrew from the doorway in alarm, his hand on his knife. Quickly, he snatched
it free and stared in horror at the blackening stains on the metal of the forged blade. Filled with a rising horror, he noticed
his hand – the mess that he had rested his palm on was blood …
    His common sense rose swiftly now, and he strode across, back into the stable. Yes, the mess in the hay beside the flattened
area where he had slept was indeed beslobbered with blood. He quickly grabbed a handful of straw and wiped his hand again,
then rubbed at his dagger’s blade until it was clean.
    ‘Must leave the town,’ he said to himself. His pack must be here somewhere, and he cast about for it. The room appeared to
be a storage house for a rich man or someone, and was filled with hay and barrels of salted fish among other items. Nothing
good for him just now, certainly. He must find his few belongings and be gone, that was all that mattered to him now: to get
to Walter’s house, collect his belongings and make good his escape.
    And then he heard voices approaching the place, and he must retreat into the shadows, his eyes as wide as a felon who felt
the rope begin to tightened about his neck.
    ‘Sweet Jesus, what have I done?’
    As soon as the voices had passed by up the alleyway, he kicked the hay about to conceal where he had lain and cover over the
blood, and then slipped out into the alley himself.

Chapter Five
Exeter City
    C OME, NOW! W HO FOUND THIS BENIGHTED SOUL?’
    Willwas fretting enough already, without this giant bellowing at him. He tentatively put up his hand and confessed that he had
discovered the corpse.
    ‘You again, eh? You found the poor devil up that alley as well, didn’t you? Don’t be so damned nervous, man. You make me twitchy! Come along, come along! What happened, hey?’
    Not only was Will a watchman, he had also been involved in several juries over the years, and the thought of a coroner’s inquest
held no fears for him. He knew the coroners of the city, and they were not scary. Yet this man …
    Sir Richard de Welles was a large man – not over-tall, perhaps a little more than six feet, nor grossly fat, but in some way
the bearded knight appeared to take up more space than an ordinary mortal. He stood with his legs set widely apart and gazed
about him with an expression of benign approval on his cherubic face. Much was concealed by the thick bush of beard that overhung
his chest like a heavy gorget. His eyes were dark brown and shrewd, and criss-crossed with wrinkles, making him appear older
than his true age of some fifty summers.
    Andjust now those keen, narrowed eyes were studying Will.
    ‘W ELL, MAN? ’ he suddenly barked, and Will all but dropped his staff.
    ‘Sir, if it pleases your honour, I found him here. A