Free Blood Moon by Stephen Wheeler Page A

the ground in the process. Fortunately he was too drunk to notice who it was shouldering him. He went down hard and didn’t look as though he was about to get up again too quickly. Frankly, I’d have been happy to leave him there, but ever a slave to my own scruples I could not leave the boy lying in the gutter where he might be robbed or beaten or worse. Certainly leaving him would not help the Lady Adelle and her child. So reluctantly, and with Onethumb’s assistance, we lifted him up and half carried, half dragged the boy down the hill to the jeers and cheers of the ale-house clientele.
    By the time we got to the abbey grounds Raoul was barely conscious. He’d either drunk an inordinate amount or - more likely - his young head was simply not used to strong ale. Either way the night porter would never allow us to bring him back inside in his condition, and heaven alone knew what Brother Gregor would have made of it, so we heaved him up over the wall as quietly as we could – no mean feat for a one-armed apothecary’s assistant and a feeble old monk – and hoped he didn’t break his neck on the way down the other side.

Chapter 8
    A BODY IN THE MARKETPLACE
    Raou l didn’t break his neck, more’s the pity, but then I didn’t really think he would. I’ve seen enough drunks to know that they rarely hurt themselves in a fall, ale seemingly able to turn grown men into rag dolls that flop harmlessly onto the hardest surface. It was my back that felt broken for rag doll or not, Raoul was no light-weight and it took the combined strength of both Onethumb and me to get him over the abbey wall. I sent Onethumb home and hurried back inside the monastery grounds hoping no-one found Raoul before I got to him. I found him on the other side of the wall still among the bushes where he’d landed and had to summon Dominic to come and help me haul him back to my laboratorium where we left him to sleep off his excesses on the floor. It would have been impossible to return him to his own rooms without rousing the entire monastery, and I didn’t think the Lady Adelle would have thanked me for trying. I left Dominic to watch over him for the rest of the night while I took myself off to my cell where I collapsed exhausted onto my cot.
    *
    Next morning I went straight down to my laboratorium where I found Dominic fast asleep on the cot. Apart from a few scuff marks on the floor and a suspicious-looking puddle, there was no sign of Raoul.
    I kicked the side of the cot to waken the boy with a jolt. ‘I thought I asked you to keep an eye on our visitor?’ I castigated him fiercely.
    ‘I’m sorry, master . I must have dozed off for a minute.’
    ‘Hm,’ I frowned. ‘ I take it since he isn’t here he must have survived the night. What time did he leave?’
    ‘I’m not sure ,’ Dominic yawned rubbing his tonsured pate. ‘I rose to sing lauds at daybreak and he was still here then. By the time I returned he was gone.’
    ‘It doesn’t look as though you got any more sleep than I did .’
    Dominic shook his head. ‘ I slept badly. He snored noisily and eructed odorously throughout the night.’
    ‘Eructed?’
    ‘Belched. He also vomited copiously.’ Dominic indicated some sour mess on the floor covered with a cloth.
    ‘I see. And did he also go on a murderous midnight rampage?’ I nodded to a dead cat that was lying on the bench.
    ‘Oh that. I found it among the bushes,’ said Dominic stroking the animal’s pelt. ‘Such a shame. I rather like cats. One of God’s gentler creatures, I always think.’
    You wouldn’t say that if you saw what they bring in from the garden, I thought. ‘What were you doing out among the bushes at midnight? I thought I’d asked you to stay with our guest.’
    ‘We are all slaves to our bodily functions, master. I was in need of micturition.’
    Micturition? Eructation? I’d forgotten Dominic came from an educated and aristocratic Norfolk family. Doubtless the whole lot of them spoke to