Heartstone (53 page)

'He's possessed, get the priest!'

Then someone said, 'It's the falling sickness,' and Abigail groaned once more.

It was; I had seen it in London. That dread disease where those afflicted seem normal most of the time but can be struck down, out of the blue, to lie jerking on the ground. Some believed it a type of madness, others a form of possession.

Abigail sank on her knees and tried to still her writhing son. 'Help me, Ambrose, for pity's sake!' she cried. 'He'll bite his tongue!' I thought, so this has happened before.

Fulstowe unbuckled his dagger from his belt and thrust the leather scabbard between David's teeth. His lips were flecked with white foam now. I saw Dyrick looking on, astonished. Hobbey stared at his son, then at the watching crowd. He called out, in a voice full of rage and pain, 'Well, you have seen! Now in God's name go, leave us!' Next to him, Hugh stood looking blankly at David. No pity, nothing.

The villagers did not move. A woman said, 'Remember that carpenter who came to live in the village - he had the falling sickness!'

'Ay, we stoned him out!'

Sir Luke Corembeck came to life. 'Disperse, I order you!' he called.

People began to move away, though they looked back at David, with fear and loathing. He lay still a moment, then sat up, groaning. He looked up at his mother. 'My head hurts,' he said and began to cry.

Hobbey came over to him. 'You had an attack,' he said gently. 'It is all right, it is over.'

'They all saw?' David asked in horror. His face wet with tears, he looked wildly round. Hobbey and Fulstowe helped him to his feet. Hobbey clasped his son's arm.

'I am sorry, David,' he said gently. 'I feared this would happen one day. It was the fault of Ettis and his people.' He turned to Sir Luke. 'Thank you, sir, for dispersing them.' At that moment I had to admire Hobbey's dignity. He swallowed hard, then continued, 'I fear, as you have seen, my son has the falling sickness. It comes on seldom, a little rest and he will be as normal again.'

'Ettis and his churls caused this,' Sir Luke said. 'Jesu, it is a fine day when yeomen defy gentlemen.'

We followed the family back down the lanes, Fulstowe and Hugh each with an arm under David's shoulders. I knew this was very serious for the family; among both gentry and villagers David would now be seen as tainted. I gestured to Barak to hang back.

'What about that?' he asked.

'My guess is they've been hiding this for years. Dyrick didn't know - he was amazed. Dear God, that couldn't have happened in a more public way. David Hobbey may be a churl, but he didn't deserve that. By the way, I think there is more to Feaveryear's going than Dyrick said.' I told him what I had seen from the window the previous evening. 'I saw him running as though he'd seen the devil. And Dyrick looks very worried about something.'

'Maybe David had an attack yesterday, too.'

'No. He was standing at the butts with Hugh. Whatever happened, Feaveryear ran to tell Dyrick about it. And now he's gone.'

'When Abigail said after Lamkin was killed that you couldn't see what was before your eyes, she must have meant David.'

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

T
HE 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.

W
HEN 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.'

He crossed to the window and looked through the shutters. 'Yes, I got used to seeing his strange little face about. I am told Master Dyrick has sent him back to London.'

'An urgent case, apparently. He left this morning.' I hesitated. 'I saw him running across the lawn yesterday evening.'

Hugh turned, his face expressionless. 'Master Dyrick had shouted for him.'

'I did not hear him call. I thought I heard someone shout, "No!" '

'You must have misheard, sir. Master Dyrick came out and called. His master's call would always bring poor Sam running.' He looked at me, his blue-green eyes keen. 'Was that why you came to see me?'

'No.'

'I thought not.'

'David's secret is out.'

'I wish it were not.'

'Master Hobbey told me you and your sister learned of his condition shortly after you came to the Hobbeys.'

Hugh sat down on his bed, looking up at me. 'One day not long after we joined the Hobbeys, David and Emma and I were at class with Master Calfhill. He was angry with David, he had not done his set work and Master Calfhill threatened to tell his father. David told him to go and do something abominable with a sheep. Then suddenly David fell off his chair and began shaking and foaming, just like you saw today. Emma and I were frightened, we thought his bad words had called God's justice down on him. We still believed such things in those days,' he added with a bitter little smile. 'But Master Calfhill recognized the symptoms. He settled David and held his tongue down with a ruler, as Fulstowe did today with his scabbard.'

'And David's parents made you and your sister keep the secret?'

'They asked us to.' His voice was toneless.

I said, 'You do not love them as a family, do you? Any of them?'

Hugh's long, scarred face twitched and for a moment he looked like a child again. Then his composure returned and he stared back at me. 'Despite everything,' he said quietly, 'they spent the next months pressing my sister to marry David. Despite his falling sickness, despite his braggart, bullying ways.'

'Emma disliked David?'

'She
loathed
him. Already when she was thirteen he was pawing at her skirts.' Hugh's face darkened. 'I hit him for it. Master Calfhill took our part. He told us Emma could refuse to marry David. She could go to Wards and tell them David had a taint of body.'

'That is quite right. It would be what is called a Ravishment of Wards,' I said quietly. 'But Master Hobbey still wanted to tie her share of your father's lands to his family.'

'Emma and I made plans.' Anger entered Hugh's voice. 'If Master and Mistress Hobbey persisted with their pressure we would threaten to take them to their precious Court of Wards. Master Calfhill had researched the law, he told us that although boys cannot come out of wardship till they are twenty-one, girls can inherit their lands at fourteen.'

'Yes, unless they refuse a suitable marriage.'

'A
suitable
marriage. We planned to wait a few more months till Emma was fourteen, then we would take her lands, sell them, and run away together.'

'Did you tell Master Calfhill your plans?'

'No. Perhaps we should have trusted him,' Hugh added sadly.

'It would have been complicated, you would have needed a lawyer.'

Hugh gave a high-pitched, bitter laugh. It startled me. 'It was never put to the test, was it? My sister died, and then it did not matter any more.' His face twitched again; for a second I thought he would cry but his expression settled into blankness again. I thought, if only Michael Calfhill and Reverend Broughton had known of David's condition before the wardship was granted. Hugh sighed, then scratched his chest in sudden irritation.

'I hope you do not have fleas,' I said. 'I brought some back from Portsmouth, but thought I had got rid of them.'