“Forgive me, my lord. There were special problems. We tried to summon his children for mourning but, by then, they were told they must leave for archa towns under the statute. As quickly as possible, we had to sell what could be and organize safe conduct for the widow to travel to Lincoln, the archa town to which her daughter and her son-in-law had gone at the king’s command.”
Ralf started to speak.
Jacob anticipated the presumed question. “I did not have the requisite license to stay in Cambridge, but I have proof that I paid the proper fee for the right to remain there until now.” His voice betrayed no resentment.
Ralf glared. His roughness of manner would not surprise this man and would also let the crowner hide his thoughts. In fact, he hated the Statute of Jewry. Courtiers had long howled over debts they owed Jewish moneylenders, debts made more onerous because of royal policies that required greater speed in repayment. Now that Edward had turned to Italian merchants for his own needs, instead of relying on the Jews, he could gain favor with his barons by eliminating future usurious loans, hampering repayment of past ones, and putting harsher restrictions on a despised group.
The crowner felt some sympathy for the king’s people, and most certainly resented the extra work the statute caused sheriffs, but none of this would he admit to Jacob ben Asser, a man who might be a murderer. “You travel with your wife. Others?”
The man gestured toward the unfinished stables. “One maidservant and my mother-in-law. The others were sent ahead to seek lodging for us all in Norwich, along with the armed men we had hired for protection on the road.”
A mewling cry came from the hut.
All Jacob’s determination to remain impassive melted. He began to wring his hands. “My wife is heavy with child, my lord. She suffers greatly and cannot travel the last distance to Norwich. If you will, accept payment in exchange for permission to remain…”
“Keep your coin. I want it not,” Ralf snapped. “As for the health of your wife, there is a well-regarded hospital close by this village at Tyndal Priory. Let me tell them of your wife’s need, and they will send someone for her. I know your…”
“Forgive me if I offend, but my child must not be born on priory grounds. Babes of my people are often baptized against the will of the parents. The child is then placed in a Christian family because he may no longer live with his Jewish parents, unless they also convert. Perhaps you can understand why one of my faith would be wary.”
Suddenly, Ralf grew angry. “You would cling to your faith and let your wife die?”
Jacob paled but said nothing for a moment, then asked, “Are you married, my lord?”
“Your question is impertinent. What is your point?”
“If you and your pregnant wife were stranded in the land ruled by those you deem heretics, would you foreswear your faith, deny the one whom you worship, if such were the price of saving her life?”
“A priest would say that your decision would not have the same weight as mine.” Ralf responded as he believed proper for a Christian, but he secretly knew he would do anything to save Gytha’s life were she the one bearing the child. He looked away, hoping to hide that weakness from ben Asser.
Jacob bowed. “If you have no further need to speak with me, I beg leave to attend my wife.”
Ralf saw the redness in the man’s brown eyes, deep lines in his forehead, and gray streaks in his black hair. If a man could age in a few moments of conversation, Jacob ben Asser had. Surely all these details had been present before, but the crowner had not noted them. “I have need to speak with you but not now. Go to your wife.” He gestured at Cuthbert. “My sergeant will remain here as your guard. The other man…he has been detained.”
Ben Asser murmured something and raced back inside.
Ralf spun around. “You will stay.”
Cuthbert’s eyes widened in horror. “Why? My wife…”
“She knows your duties for me often delay you.”
“Let these people hire another to guard them.”
Stepping closer to keep his words private, Ralf whispered: “No one in this village will do so. These are Jews. Their last guard has been murdered, and Mistress Signy overhead ben Asser arguing with him. Whatever the truth of the matter, he might be judged guilty of the crime simply because of his faith. If word spreads of this argument, the village may rise against the man and his frail wife, murdering both, before I can determine who should actually hang.”
Cuthbert opened his mouth to protest further.
Ralf snarled.
The sergeant reluctantly agreed.
As the crowner turned away, he realized that Cuthbert held the same opinion of this family as his neighbors did. Who better to blame for the death of an unpopular man than Jacob ben Asser?
9
Gytha slipped behind the pewterer’s stall and watched as Ralf left Cuthbert and went back inside the inn. If God were kind, the crowner would not have seen her.
“Are you ill, mistress?”
She shook her head and smiled at the youth, son of the master craftsman. He was a sweet lad with flaxen down on his cheeks. His brow, furrowed with concern, betrayed a kind heart as well as an ill-hidden attraction to the prioress’ maid. “It is the sun,” she replied. “I should have returned to the priory sooner.”
He glanced around him, hoping to see the apprentice returning from the errand he had run. “I could carry that heavy basket for you on the road back.”
“You are most considerate to suggest it, but your father needs you here for the customers.” Gytha kept her tone both gentle and firm. “I shall not trouble you further.”
He began to protest.
With a quick look toward the inn, she stepped away from the stall. “I am quite recovered,” she said, knowing it would not be kind to torment the lad just because she could not face meeting the crowner.
As Gytha walked away, she knew she did not imagine the deep sigh coming from behind the display of finely crafted plate and vessels. Her own heart ached as well, but not for this merchant’s son.
When the crowner had asked if he might walk with her through the stalls on this market day, she had given a grave assent even though her heart urged a more passionate reply. When had she not loved the man?
As a child, she had run circles around him, giggling with joy when he visited her brother. Later, when she reached marriageable age, she began teasing him with a flirtatious edge. At first, she was embarrassed by the change in her feelings but soon understood that he enjoyed her jests, even when he blushed. She learned to take pleasure in their brief moments of bantering. Although many men had wanted her as wife, begging Tostig for permission, he had honored her refusals. Only Ralf the Crowner filled her with both comfort and excitement.
Yet he had never approached Tostig with a proposal even though she was quite convinced the failure was not from lack of interest. She knew of his past love for Sister Anne. The one marriage to a woman of rank and property was expected, and she had accepted it. Despite her youth, Gytha had always owned a clear eye, but now matters were different. He was a widower with a daughter she adored.
His growing shyness, when she came to see his child, and the boyish color on his cheeks, when he asked to carry her basket on market day, proved he certainly liked her enough to bed. But he would never disgrace her or her brother by seeding a bastard in her so casually. For all his flaws, and she loved him in spite of many, Ralf owned an honorable heart.
So why had he not asked her to be his next wife? His rank might be above hers, but everyone in the village knew he had no love for a courtier’s life and had heard how he refused to marry another of Sir Fulke’s choosing. When he asked to accompany her this day, she did wonder if it was the time he might finally inquire if she were willing to share his life.