Free To Wear The White Cloak: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery by Sharan Newman Page B

povideat. Hoc utique vobis paratius est quam caelia, quae a nostratibus [sic] usu vulgaria cervisia nuncupatur. Ego tamen utriusque bibax sum, et non abhorreo quicquid inebriare potest.
     
    But now I am thirsty and it is possible that I may choke from the dryness of your loaves unless you, in your mercy, give me wine, which is more available to you than caelia, which we vulgarly call beer. But I will drink both and do not disdain anything that will make me drunk.
     
    —John of Salisbury
Letter 33 to Peter, Abbot of Celle
     
     
    C atherine recognized Edana’s cry from upstairs. She raced down at once, pulling a long chainse over her head as she went.
    “What is it?” she cried, scooping the child from Marie’s arms.
    “A knife cut,” Marie said. “But it’s not deep. Samonie is making up a bread-and-honey poultice.”
    “Oh, good. That should protect the cut,” Catherine said. “All we need to do is keep her from eating the poultice. How did she come by a knife?”
    Astrolabe showed it to her.
    “It’s a meat knife that was left among the rushes,” he said. “It’s not mine. The design on the handle is unfamiliar.”
    “It doesn’t belong to the house,” Catherine said after examining it. “The handle is deer horn, with a star design near the blade. Anyone recognize it? Samonie?”
    “No,” the woman said as she put the poultice on Edana’s leg and wrapped cloth around it. “Perhaps one of Lord Guillaume’s men dropped it.”
    “They weren’t in here this morning,” Astrolabe said. “At least I don’t think so. But I’ll ask.”
    As he left he passed Edgar, who had just come down, having taken time to dress and put on shoes. Catherine explained to him what had happened. With a whimper of “Papa,” Edana held out her arms, sure of extra comfort. He spent a moment cuddling her and finished with a tickle as Astrolabe returned.
    “None of the sergeants has seen it before,” he told them. “Perhaps it was left by your father?”
    He was beginning to suspect where the knife had come from, but he clung to the hope that he was wrong.
    “Samonie!” Edgar called to her as she was going back to the kitchen. “The floors were bare when we got here, I remember. You just put the rushes down a day or two ago, is that right?”
    “Yes, Master Edgar,” she said. “There was nothing there then. I would have noticed.”
    “What are you thinking, carissime ?” Catherine asked.
    “Of those men who were in the garden,” he answered. “They didn’t find what they were looking for. Perhaps I need to set guards down by the creek at night.”
    “Strangers in the house?” The idea made Catherine’s stomach lurch. “And none of us woke?”
    Astrolabe sighed.
    “I’m afraid I did,” he admitted. “I thought it was a rat and only managed to come round long enough to throw a boot. There was a clank that may have been the knife dropping. Whoever it was must have been a natural thief, for I heard nothing more.”
    “Was anything taken?” Catherine asked.
    Everyone looked around, checking chests and shelves.
    “Nothing has been disturbed,” Samonie told them. “Perhaps Master Astrolabe routed them with his boot.”
    “Edgar, do you think this was one of the men we heard when we were sleeping in the garden?” Catherine asked.
    “Well, I hope so.” Edgar set Edana down. “I wouldn’t like to think our home has become a Jerusalem for thieves.”
    “But what could they be looking for?”
    “It couldn’t be the body.” Edgar considered the question. “They must have realized we’d have found it by now. In another day the whole street would have smelled it. Yet the knight wore no valuable rings or brooches, and there was nothing in the counting room. I have no idea. But I’m posting guards in the back again until we find out.”
    “What is all this noise? Can’t a man get any sleep in this town?”
    They all looked up; Catherine’s brother was scowling at them all.
    “All I wanted was