Chapter 5: WITCHES

Next morning Fernando visits the hall again, to question the household. The old cook was once the housekeeper, so he questions her closely to see if there was resentment over Sir Valentine’s preferment of Mary Durnley in what was originally her position.

“Sir Valentine has eyes on’y for young Izote,” the fat old cook admits, frightened by Ferdinando’s face, that reminds her of an over-broiled blood pudding, “not, Miss Durnley. An’ I ‘as no cut with Mary, she leaves me ter me kitchen, what suits I. If thee’s askin’ me, if’n that Valentine was goin’ ter murder that sweet boy, young Benjy fforde, an’ teke the girl fer hisself, I ask I-self else why camp on the green, when he ‘ad ‘is own ‘ouse an’ promise o’ ‘ot food ‘n’ a cumfty soft bed but a few steps away?”

Yes, why, it looks like Valentine weakened the boy so he would sleep and make it easier to kill his rival for Izote’s honour in his sleep.

Fernando rides onto town once more, and speaks to the Mayor, confirming that Shands’ prison, claimed for the Crown by Briant three days ago, be signed over to the town on a peppercorn rent as the town prison. The cost to the town is much lower than under Shands’ ownership. Thereby, part of the money saved from keeping prisoners is formerly agreed to be used to feed prisoners better and set another part of the same aside to pay for Izote’s child, should she be with one, even though she was not from any of the three parishes within the town’s ancient walls. Shands’ widow was not too upset at her husband’s demise, independent of means by dint of her thriving bakery. The Mayor gladly strikes the bargain with the Judge.

“The wench Mrs Shand has a fine pie shop and’ll not stay single long, I fancy,” The Mayor confides in Ferdinando. “An’ ‘as fer Sir Valentine, y’know, ‘ee be wed to Lady Arabella, a distant cousin of ‘is, who be rumoured to have long bin favoured mistress to Lord Albury, the father, and lately said to have been introduced even unto the King’s Chamber, if’n ye knows what I mean,” the Mayor winks.

Ferdinando remembers that, since his Coronation, King James has given up his two former mistresses, both tall, slim, dark-haired young women. The woman with Lord Albury, seemed to Ferdinando to fit the King’s bill, were he to defy the Privy Council regarding his propriety.

Then onto The Lamb, to interview Ben and the girl, gladly finding that they are both indeed devoted to one another. Izote is now able to stand, curtsey and thank the Judge for saving her. She is still weak in body but her spirit is strong, and her fever is finally broken. She has cleaned up well, a tall, dark-haired and quite slim young woman, in stark contrast to her half sister, the Hall’s housekeeper. Her nose is reset by the skilled Town doctor, but around both eyes she is yellow, black and blue and will be for a couple of weeks before her natural beauty returns. They are both grateful that the town has no choice but to agree to pay the doctor’s fees for treating all four prisoners and the Inn’s not insubstantial bill while the couple recover from their imposed injuries.

In conspiratorial whispers, once he has sent his beloved from his chamber, Ben fforde confirms Ferdinando’s pointed question about the afflicted Knight’s carnal intentions towards his betrothed.

“Aye, my Lord, Sir Valentine promised me the incentives of Stewardship of all his Manors and free use of his stable, were he given license to deflower Izote, and impregnate her for her first-born, for me to act as cuckold to raise such cuckoo child as if it were mine own. He desired to use my wife as and whenever he wished, but I refused him completely of all his wishes notwithstanding his threats and inducements.”

“Quite.”

“And Izote told me that he’d also tried to seduce her, promising that what happened between them would never reach my eyes or ears and, if she complied, he’d make sure that license for us to marry would follow directly, so we would not have to wait another year and a half for her to reach one and twenty.”

“You have done no wrong, my boy, nor does Izote’s honesty or such unwarranted attentions debased her honour. Devotion and trust between blessed couples is a solid foundation for matrimony and family life.”

“Alas, though I love Isote, we cannot afford the marriage licence and the lawyer’s fees to draw up the bond required to guarantee it. Her father works on the estate and is forced by Sir Valentine to deny his consent to marry until she is of full age. That is why I have no horse and reduced to being a musket man in the militia, rather than a mounted junior officer as befits the Borough’s duly elected Headman.”

“A half-crown from my stipend, and my own one hundred pound bond on the marriage licence, will allow you to marry your betrothed, Benjamin, either here in Swainley or when you are well and at home in Dellamere.”

“I cannot thank ye enough, Sire, and cannot marry soon enough.”

“The happy smiles of you and your betrothed are thanks enough, boy, though Headman you be.”

Taking his leave, Ferdinando rides back to the Hall, conscious that he must soon pass judgement, whether to go to trial on the Knight accused of attempted murder, and due a proper hanging; incarcerate him in the Bethlehem Hospital; or leave him as at present, in the safe charge of his housekeeper and servants until the Demon or sickness leaves him, through devil’s boredom or the natural passage of time upon mortal beings.