Read Online The Stone Wife by Peter Lovesey - Free Book Online Page B

why he got so excited when the Wife of Bath came up for sale.”
    “A vindication of his wasted summer?” Poke said. “That’s not outside the realms of possibility.”
    “Have you heard of Petherton Park?” Diamond asked Halliwell. “I’m damned if I have.”
    “There’s a small town called North Petherton on the A38, south of Bridgwater.”
    “The same place, but there’s no certainty Chaucer ever went there,” Poke said with a clear desire to undermine them as well as his former colleague. “He was living in London at the end of his life.”
    Diamond ignored him and spoke to Halliwell. “How far south of Bridgwater?”
    “Only two or three miles. Strange that the Wife of Bath should end up in the museum there.”
    “Correction,” Diamond said. “She ended up in my office.”
    “There’s something else about the place,” Poke said, pressing a hand to his forehead. “Something far more interesting. It’ll come to me presently.”
    “Petherton Park?”
    “North Petherton. I’m trying to think. It has associations with Anglo-Saxon studies. Would it be the church, I wonder?No, I have it now.” He clasped his hands in triumph. “North Petherton is where one of the great Anglo-Saxon treasures was found—the Alfred Jewel, a spectacular piece from the ninth century, unearthed by a ploughman over three hundred years ago, filigreed gold enclosing a highly polished piece of clear rock crystal, now in the Ashmolean at Oxford. The lettering round the side provides evidence that it was made for King Alfred.”
    “All I know about Alfred is that he burnt the cakes.”
    Dr. Poke’s tongue clicked in contempt. “Supposedly at Athelney, where he took refuge from the Vikings. Such stories must be treated with reserve. However, Athelney is a mere four miles from North Petherton. This is my period. I can tell you a lot about Alfred.”
    “We’ll pass on that, unless it ties in with Chaucer,” Diamond said.
    “Hardly. Chaucer came five hundred years later.”
    Halliwell spoke up. “Well, what if the jewel was presented to Chaucer in thanks for all the services he performed for the king? It may have been a gift from the royal family.”
    “And then he loses the thing?” Diamond said. “Unlikely. I think we can safely forget about the Alfred Jewel. I’m interested in the link with Chaucer. It’s safe to say Professor Gildersleeve thought there was good evidence, even if he failed to find it.”
    “We can make a search online,” Halliwell said.
    Seated in front of the computer, Diamond could hardly refuse. Never comfortable with technology, he grasped the mouse and stared at the screen.
    Halliwell said, “It’s one of the icons at the bottom.”
    “I know, I know.” He found the Google icon and typed in PETHERTON PARK .
    “Put in Chaucer’s name while you’re at it,” Dr. Poke said. “See what you get.”
    Up came a welter of results. The one that caught Diamond’s attention was towards the bottom of the screen. In bold blue letters: CHAUCER CLOSE, NORTH PETHERTON .
    “Promising.”
    The other two moved to his side to look. He pointed to the name and immediately the list of websites was replaced by an estate agent’s website with a list of houses.
    “How did that happen?”
    “It’s touch-sensitive,” Poke said.
    “You see?” Halliwell touched the screen and restored the list of hits. “But this is good news. North Petherton must be the right place.”
    “I wouldn’t get too excited. We’ve got a Chaucer Close in Reading,” Poke said.
    “There’s a Chaucer Road in Bath,” Diamond said.
    Halliwell leaned over Diamond and brought up a map that showed the location of North Petherton. “Well, I wasn’t wrong about where it is, just down the road from Bridgwater.”
    “I saw another hit mentioning Petherton Park,” Diamond said.
    They returned to it and Halliwell was proved correct. Petherton Park, North Petherton, was, indeed, a one-time forest, and Geoffrey Chaucer had been the