Free Face Down under the Wych Elm by Kathy Lynn Emerson Page A

the blackness.

Chapter 13
    Maidstone had entirely too many inns. Nick had to visit five of them before he reached the east side of Gabriel Hill and discovered Adrian Ridley had a room at The Ship.
    Striking up a conversation with a stranger in that hostelry's common room, however, was not difficult. Ridley proved a personable fellow, if somewhat rigid in his beliefs. He also struck Nick as being deeply troubled.
    "In town for the Assizes?” Nick asked him.
    "In a manner of speaking."
    "I've a civil suit pending."
    "My employer sent me to Maidstone. I'd not have come else. I take no pleasure in being here.” Brooding, he drank deeply from his tankard, then looked more closely at Nick. “I have seen you before. Near the gaol. You appeared to be waiting for someone."
    To delay his answer, Nick took a turn to drink deep. The same instinct that had made him a successful merchant told him Ridley was an honest man who would respond to the truth but meet evasive answers with silence. “I waited there for Lady Appleton to come out,” he admitted. “I believe you know the gentlewoman."
    Momentary surprise flickered in Ridley's expressive eyes. “Aye, but I have no notion why she should interest herself in Mistress Crane's plight."
    "Mistress Crane did not tell you?"
    "Mistress Crane would prefer not to speak to me at all, let alone answer any questions I pose."
    Something in his tone made Nick wonder if there was more to the clergyman's interest in Constance Crane than the concern of chaplain for parishioner. He put that intriguing thought aside to contemplate later and instead gave Ridley part of the answer to his question.
    "They had friends in common when Lady Appleton was in the household of the duke of Northumberland and Mistress Crane served the marchioness of Northampton."
    "I see.” It was clear he did not.
    "I do not believe they had spoken since before Lady Northampton's death but when Lady Appleton heard Mistress Crane's name, she wished to know if the accused witch was the same woman."
    "Vulgar curiosity?” Ridley inquired.
    Nick shrugged. He hesitated to tell Ridley that Susanna Appleton was committed to the pursuit of justice. Such an uncommon passion in a woman might too easily be misinterpreted. When the charge was witchcraft, it was wise to take no chances.
    "Does she believe Constance ... Mistress Crane?"
    "I think she does,” Nick said cautiously. “Is it so impossible for the woman to be innocent?"
    Ridley drank again. He sighed. He stared at his hands where they were clasped around the tankard. “I would like to believe she did no wrong. I would like to believe she never took Peter Marsh into her bed."
    "Mayhap she did not. Unless you caught them there..."
    "There was something between them."
    "Who was this Marsh she's accused of killing?"
    "He served in the household at Mill Hall before I came there."
    "In what position?"
    "Clerk. When Hugo Garrard decided to install his own chaplain, he assigned Marsh's tasks to me and let him go."
    "Then if it had been you beneath that tree, Marsh would have been the obvious suspect."
    Smiling at Ridley's horrified reaction to this suggestion, Nick signaled for more beer.

Chapter 14
    On a morning that was near perfect, Susanna and Jennet set out again from Mill Hall, this time on foot. A faint blue haze had hung over the countryside at dawn, but it had soon been dispersed by the breeze blowing inland from the sea, a bracing current of air that carried the invigorating tang of salt air and the sweet scent of thyme.
    Susanna paused to look south over level marshland. Across a landscape brilliant with juniper bushes, fritillaries, harebells, and scabious she caught a glimpse of the Narrow Sea, its salt water glistening in the distance.
    "I am told the edge of that inland cliff once marked the coastline,” she told Jennet, nodding toward the promontory. “Then the sea receded and created Romney Marsh."
    At supper the previous night, Hugo Garrard had responded with