Read Online The Queene’s Christmas by Karen Harper - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Karen Harper
Ads: Link
gripping her hands hard in her lap.
“It is. Though it may not belong to whoever hit Hodge, gave him a hoist up, and knocked over that stool, it’s a place to start”
“Was there blood,” Harry asked, “on his skull up under that peacock skin?”
“Indeed, though it seems the bird skin acted as a sort of bandage to mat and pool the blood,” Cecil explained. “Yet I doubt that the skin was placed on his head as an afterthought to hide that blood. It all seems diabolically designed. I believe the murderer slipped into Hodge’s workroom with the intent to kill and display his victim, but for what purpose or motive I do not know.”
“That,” Elizabeth said, “is what we must learn to find the killer.”
“By the way,” Cecil added, turning over the coroner’s report, “I’ve sketched something here I believe is as significant as the boot print.”
“What’s that, then?” Meg asked as they all gazed at the strange shape.
“I warrant it’s the circumference of the head wound,” the queen answered for him.
Jenks leaned forward, frowning at the sketch of the oblong wound with rivulets of blood or some crude pattern roughly drawn in. Ned quickly rose from his seat and leaned close to see.
“Yet his face was bluish,” Elizabeth went on, “which means he did indeed strangle or suffocate from the noose—but after he may have been stunned enough to be lifted up there and dressed with the peacock regalia. If he were dazed, that could also explain someone’s being able to hold his hands at his sides while he weakly struggled and so died, but without disturbing the symmetrical arrangement of feathers under his arms or making ligature marks.”
Cecil nodded. Harry seemed silently thoughtful, and her servants still wide-eyed. Only Ned looked as if he’d like to argue, but for once he said nothing.
“Then I must cut this meeting short,” the queen said, rising and scraping her chair back. “Cecil, Jenks, and I must return to the site of the murder instantly to search for what could have caused this mark—the first of the two murder weapons, in effect, if we count the noose, too.”
“I looked around as best I could while the coroner worked,” Cecil said as everyone rose. “Whatever caused this blow, Hodge’s murderer must have taken it with him.”
“I suppose it has to be a him,” Meg put in as Jenks squeezed her shoulder and hurried after the queen, “because a woman probably couldn’t lift him, but she could wear a boot like that Are we going to check the boot soles of everyone to see if one fits that shape or has cumin stuck in the cracks of it, Your Grace?”
“That would be fruitless with so many at court The culprit could merely change boots, though the size of the foot may help us to narrow down possibilities later. Meg, I can’t ask my maids for a cape this late, or they’ll know I’m going out. Lend me yours, if you please. My lord Harry, best go back down to join your wife and keep an eye on things below. If anyone asks how I am, report that I am fine but resting until tomorrow.
“Cecil, Jenks, and I,” she went on, stopping in the door to her chamber, “will go down my privy staircase to the river, out and around to the kitchen court, and in that way, to avoid everyone still lingering about the Great Hall or gadding about in the corridors. Meg and Ned, you will stay here and, if something demands my presence, Ned, hie yourself to fetch me, while Meg speaks for me through the door as if I am too tired to come out.”
As the queen took Meg’s squirrel-lined wool cape, Elizabeth realized her herbalist did not look as happy as usual to play queen, even if only for Ned’s eyes. Perhaps, for once, she didn’t want to be alone with him, she thought as she hurried toward her bed-chamber, where her father’s old privy staircase could be entered behind an arras. Jenks didn’t look too happy to be leaving Ned and Meg behind, either.
The slap of chill night wind shocked the
“It is. Though it may not belong to whoever hit Hodge, gave him a hoist up, and knocked over that stool, it’s a place to start”
“Was there blood,” Harry asked, “on his skull up under that peacock skin?”
“Indeed, though it seems the bird skin acted as a sort of bandage to mat and pool the blood,” Cecil explained. “Yet I doubt that the skin was placed on his head as an afterthought to hide that blood. It all seems diabolically designed. I believe the murderer slipped into Hodge’s workroom with the intent to kill and display his victim, but for what purpose or motive I do not know.”
“That,” Elizabeth said, “is what we must learn to find the killer.”
“By the way,” Cecil added, turning over the coroner’s report, “I’ve sketched something here I believe is as significant as the boot print.”
“What’s that, then?” Meg asked as they all gazed at the strange shape.
“I warrant it’s the circumference of the head wound,” the queen answered for him.
Jenks leaned forward, frowning at the sketch of the oblong wound with rivulets of blood or some crude pattern roughly drawn in. Ned quickly rose from his seat and leaned close to see.
“Yet his face was bluish,” Elizabeth went on, “which means he did indeed strangle or suffocate from the noose—but after he may have been stunned enough to be lifted up there and dressed with the peacock regalia. If he were dazed, that could also explain someone’s being able to hold his hands at his sides while he weakly struggled and so died, but without disturbing the symmetrical arrangement of feathers under his arms or making ligature marks.”
Cecil nodded. Harry seemed silently thoughtful, and her servants still wide-eyed. Only Ned looked as if he’d like to argue, but for once he said nothing.
“Then I must cut this meeting short,” the queen said, rising and scraping her chair back. “Cecil, Jenks, and I must return to the site of the murder instantly to search for what could have caused this mark—the first of the two murder weapons, in effect, if we count the noose, too.”
“I looked around as best I could while the coroner worked,” Cecil said as everyone rose. “Whatever caused this blow, Hodge’s murderer must have taken it with him.”
“I suppose it has to be a him,” Meg put in as Jenks squeezed her shoulder and hurried after the queen, “because a woman probably couldn’t lift him, but she could wear a boot like that Are we going to check the boot soles of everyone to see if one fits that shape or has cumin stuck in the cracks of it, Your Grace?”
“That would be fruitless with so many at court The culprit could merely change boots, though the size of the foot may help us to narrow down possibilities later. Meg, I can’t ask my maids for a cape this late, or they’ll know I’m going out. Lend me yours, if you please. My lord Harry, best go back down to join your wife and keep an eye on things below. If anyone asks how I am, report that I am fine but resting until tomorrow.
“Cecil, Jenks, and I,” she went on, stopping in the door to her chamber, “will go down my privy staircase to the river, out and around to the kitchen court, and in that way, to avoid everyone still lingering about the Great Hall or gadding about in the corridors. Meg and Ned, you will stay here and, if something demands my presence, Ned, hie yourself to fetch me, while Meg speaks for me through the door as if I am too tired to come out.”
As the queen took Meg’s squirrel-lined wool cape, Elizabeth realized her herbalist did not look as happy as usual to play queen, even if only for Ned’s eyes. Perhaps, for once, she didn’t want to be alone with him, she thought as she hurried toward her bed-chamber, where her father’s old privy staircase could be entered behind an arras. Jenks didn’t look too happy to be leaving Ned and Meg behind, either.
The slap of chill night wind shocked the
Similar Books
