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

talking and walking about at the back of the nave during Mass in a very disrespectful fashion. However, I've no time for gossiping. Let me see what's in your pack and then you and the carter can be going. We need to have our wool on the way to the weaving sheds before nightfall.'
    Yet again I laid out my wares, and while the goodwife picked them over I asked her if she knew anything of the shrine in the woods. Her answer was decisive.
    'I've never heard anyone mention it,' she said, 'and I've lived in these parts all my life. Indeed, this was my father's farm and his father's before him. Catchside,' she added, seeming to feel that some explanation was called for, 'was from the city.' She shrugged. 'But there, I was a plain girl and had to take whoever offered. And Andrew had money which he was prepared to put into the farm. My parents thought him a good enough husband for me, at all events, and so I married him.' She pulled herself up short, turning an uncomfortable red and obviously annoyed at herself for confiding in me. 'Hmmph I'll buy this set of spoons, for mine are worn so thin the edges cut my mouth. How much are you asking for them?'
    ‘And you're sure,' I urged, when the transaction was completed and I had knocked a little off the price to pay for my food, 'that this woodland shrine is unknown to you? You've never heard it spoken of by anyone?'  
    'Oh, as to that, never is too final a word. I may, I suppose, have heard it mentioned at some time in my life. I’m past my fortieth birthday.' She frowned, realizing that once again her tongue had betrayed her into an unnecessary confidence. 'But no, not that I can instantly recall. Young man,' she added with asperity, 'I don't know what it is about you, but you have a disarming habit of making me say more than I intended and I suspect that that applies to other women. You must learn not to take advantage of us poor, weak females.'
    I laughed. 'I should never be so ungallant, even if it were true. But you overestimate my powers to charm and your own weakness, I do assure you.'
    Goody Catchside said 'Hmmph' again, but made no further comment, anxious not to hold up the proceedings any longer. We returned to the barn, where the last of three sacks of wool had just been loaded into the wagon. I clambered up beside the carter, thanked my hostess most heartily for my meal and was driven away along the track.
    'Did you find out what you wanted to know?' the man asked me after we had gone a short distance.
    I shook my head. 'Mistress Catchside was unable to recall hearing the shrine talked of, but admitted that her memory might be faulty. However, someone has been there lately and been at trouble to cut a path through the undergrowth to reach it and lay flowers at its base.'
    I sighed. 'Ah well! It's of no importance, I suppose. Do you continue towards Winchester now, or return to Southampton?'
    'I have one more call to make and shall lie at Winchester tonight, at a hostelry just outside the city where they know me. I can therefore take you as far as the suburbs.'  
    'Aren't you afraid of thieves,' I asked, 'while you are sleeping?'
    The carter roared with laughter. 'Who'd be able to move one of those great, cumbersome things?' He jerked his head backwards in the direction of the wool sacks. 'And if you split one open all the contents'd come bursting out. No, no! Wool's the safest cargo anyone can carry.'  
    I accompanied the carter to the second farm and, when the wagon was full, helped him cover it with tarred canvas, but not too tightly. (For as my friend instructed me, wool must be kept dry, but never overheated.) By this time the city bells could be heard ringing out over the surrounding countryside for Vespers and we took leave of one another.
    I made my way to the Hospital of Saint Cross where free ale was always available for travellers, a great consideration with me, as you might imagine. And as I sat in the late afternoon sunshine sipping my ale, my back against the