Read [Roger the Chapman 05] - Eve of Saint Hyacinth for Free Online Page A

placing my pack at my feet. My companion gave his horse the office to start and we began to move forward.
    'Are you a native of these parts?' I asked.
    'Born and bred within the walls of Southampton.'  
    'Do you know the countryside about here? The woods around Chilworth Manor?'
    The carter shook his head. 'I stick to the beaten tracks, although I know Sir Cedric Wardroper. I cart his wool to the spinners and weavers. Why do you want to know?'  
    'I wondered if you'd ever heard of a deserted shrine in the woods near here. I stumbled across it, quite by chance, this morning.'
    The man scratched his head. 'Can't say as I ever have. But then, as I say, my home's Southampton. But you could inquire at the Catchside farm when we get there. One of the workers might know something of it. Or Master Catchside and his wife. You can but ask, if it's important to you.'
    At this point we turned off the main road and rattled over a mile or two of rough track before arriving at the farm. It appeared to be of sufficient hideage to support a family and its dependants in comfort, boasting a plough and four oxen, hens, cows and a flock of sheep which had recently been sheared, and whose fleeces the carter had called to collect.
    Most of that particular day's activity was therefore centred in the barn, where the wool was being packed. The women were rolling the fleeces, their smaller fingers dextrously pulling and smoothing as they did so, and securing each neat bundle with a narrow cord of fine twine. In the centre of the barn a huge sack was suspended almost at floor level by ropes from the beams. Two men stood in the sack, packing and treading down the rolled fleeces as the women passed them in, the wall of wool rising higher and higher until it reached the top, when the men sat astride the sack and sewed it up. It was then lowered to the ground and knotted at each corner in order to ease the handling of such a cumbersome object.
    I watched, fascinated, my hunger temporarily forgotten, until the carter hailed the eldest of the women, whose tendency to direct operations rather than participate in them had already marked her down in my mind as likely to be the mistress of the house. I was not mistaken.
    'Goody Catchside, here's a chapman I picked up on the road, who'd be glad of some dinner.' The man chuckled. 'He missed his by getting lost in the woods.' The farmer's wife clucked in a motherly fashion.
    'You'd best come with me then, lad,' she said, 'and bring your pack with you. There's one or two things I'm short of, and if you have them it'll save a journey to Winchester at this busy season. Come along! Don't loiter!' She bustled ahead of me, but paused at the barn door to fling an admonition at her husband. 'Andrew! Make sure the men put aside enough wool for our own use before they go loading up the cart. I know him,' she added in a grumbling undertone as I followed her in the direction of the house. 'He'll sell far too much for the sake of an extra shilling or two and then where does that leave us? Short of winter garments and forced to buy. A false economy, chapman! A false economy.'
    I was given bread and cheese and ale, together with a bowl of fish stew, which reminded me that it was Friday. I remembered guiltily the collop of bacon I had eaten at Chilworth Manor for breakfast. I must have grimaced at the memory, for the goodwife asked sharply, 'What's the matter? There's nothing amiss with that soup. I made it myself with fish caught fresh from the stream this morning.'
    I hastened to reassure her and explained the reason for the face I had pulled. Mistress Catchside snorted in disapproval.
    'I've always suspected that the Wardropers were lax in their religious observance. A flighty woman, Lady Wardroper, far too young for Sir Cedric. And young Matthew, as I remember, was never a reverent child. One might have hoped that his years in Leicestershire, or wherever it was, would have improved him. But since his return home I've seen him