A mason working on the doorway winked and gave Richard the thumbs up sign. The vicar noticed the gesture and took Richard's arm.

'I think it better that we should leave.'

'Not until he's told us what's happened to our font.' Richard pointed through the archway to where the font had once stood. They've taken it away.'

'The font has been taken to a place of safety,' the sacrist said. 'Two nights ago our bailiffs surprised a gang of Welshmen trying to drag it off. Isn't that right, Master Gallor?'

'It is, your reverence. Three Welshmen and a Lollard tinker ... all associates of Master Vowell, here.'

'You made the whole thing up,' Richard glared at the sacrist. 'You told Wat Gallor to say that so you'd have an excuse to take it away.'

'The father abbot has instructed that the font be placed at the end of the nave,' the sacrist insisted. 'There will be no hindrance to its use.'

'So he's still around is he ... the reverend father?'

Richard thrust his face at the sacrist.

'I'm told he's not been seen since Christmas. Are you sure someone didn't slip a green powder into his communion wine? You should go up to his chamber ... see that there's not a mummified corpse in his bed.'

'Master Vowell, this is seditious talk.'

'Don't talk to me about sedition, Master Sacrist. I fought for our young king in France. I'm not plotting to make peace with the rebels ... not like some people we know.'

Richard turned to leave then swung back for a final blast.

'You've not heard the last of this.'

***

The girl pulled up her skirt and Alice examined the dome of exposed flesh. Her patient was about sixteen and this was her second pregnancy. The first had ended in miscarriage.

'I've prayed to the Holy Mother that it shall not happen again,' the young woman sobbed. 'It's because of something I done. I don't know what but Holy Mary will speak for me.'

Alice probed gently. The girl was approaching full-term and her second offspring was showing the same tendency for a feet-first exit. The result would be another fatality. The child's head would be trapped and violent intervention by the midwife would be needed to save the mother.

The midwife was Betty. Alice had known Richard Vowell's woman for only a short time. She was plump and placid and Alice had developed a lot of respect for her. Somehow, solid, dependable Betty had attached herself to the wild man of the town.




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