Ship of Fire

Read Ship of Fire for Free Online

Book: Read Ship of Fire for Free Online
Authors: Michael Cadnum
prim servants, waiting for the master of the house to inspect them and pay their weekly allowance—but their clothes were undone about their tops. Even though I struggled not to gape and stare, I could not help myself.
    When I heard a familiar voice demanding, Let me past, whore-monger , I turned to see my master, red-faced and ordering me to leave the place at once. I have never felt such gratitude and such shame at once.
    â€œAnd will Titus recover?” my master asked now.
    â€œIf indeed he has the pox—and I have no doubt he does—” I could not complete my painful diagnosis, respectful of my master’s feelings.
    â€œWill he live?” William insisted in a tone of sad exasperation.
    â€œNo, my lord,” I was forced to say. “God forgive us all, he will be as we see him now, but grow worse, over hours or perhaps days. He will surely die.”
    â€œSo it is always with the pox, Thomas,” said my master. He was quiet for a moment, unable to continue out of sorrow for his old friend. “And Titus was a good Christian scholar, and knew Ovid by heart, and Sallust by the verse as well as any man. Ten or twenty years ago he galloped with a whore, or even some honest poxy woman—and he caught this curse.”
    It was called the French welcome , and I knew by my training that it killed as many, over time, as the plague. “My lord,” I said now, my voice hoarse with feeling, “I neither touched nor spoke to any of the women in the trugging shop.” This was not the first time I had made such a protest since my embarrassing rescue.
    â€œIf I hadn’t passed by, in a hurry to try my luck,” said William, “you’d confront the same ultimate illness as my poor friend. It must have been God’s grace that let me see a familiar red-haired young man, big as any farmer, walking into the Wildrose Inn.”
    I nodded in red-faced agreement.
    I was grateful for my escape from this evil. And yet, I wondered, why was such a dangerous sin so quick to stir desire? Shouldn’t a merciful Heaven have created women less beautiful, more unlikely to warm the blood? Because certainly when I closed my eyes at night I still saw the women around the broad, unpainted plank table.
    Besides, a certain spirit stirred in me. I wanted to hear my master explain a certain mystery—how a man could be wise on the question of pox, and on many other matters of man and God, and still lose his wealth down to the last bad penny betting on a bear notorious for its feebleness.
    I was ready, with the question on my lips.
    But loud steps crashed up the stairwell before I could speak. Nicholas, our landlord, burst into our room without the courtesy of a knock, wide-eyed.
    â€œSoldiers!” he said breathlessly. “By Jesus, armed men are coming, good doctors, wearing helmets and carrying pikes.” He let us consider this news, and added, “The tavern-boy has come back terrified, saying they are marching from the Tower itself—on their way here.”
    While not strictly yet a doctor, I was sometimes addressed as one, as an additional courtesy, and the title did not displease me.
    But I was startled by this news, and so was my master, judging by his shocked silence.
    Nicholas knotted his hands together, breathless with anxiety. “Could your patient be a spy ?” He said the word with special emphasis, dropping his voice to a whip-lash whisper.

Chapter 8
    â€œThis sick gentleman is a doctor,” said my master in response. “He is in need of our medicine and your prayers. As you are in need of a cup of strong wine to strengthen your nerves.”
    â€œOh, let me have my boys carry your sick gentleman friend out the back way, my lord,” said Nicholas, “down into the alley, if it please you. He could prove to be an officer attempting to run off, a naval secret in his heart, before poison lay him down stiff—in my tavern!”
    The sound

Similar Books

All for a Song

Allison Pittman

The Day to Remember

Jessica Wood

Driving the King

Ravi Howard

The Boyfriend League

Rachel Hawthorne

Blood Ties

Sophie McKenzie