“That whoreson wants to take our business!” He stood up properly and squared with Crispin. “And if you have the same intention, sir, you can be on your way. We potters aren’t getting wealthy here, but we’ll take no more money for our own clay.”
“He paid, did he?”
“Aye. But don’t be getting notions. I’ll not take a farthing.”
“You mistake me, Master. I do not wish to buy your clay. I have no use for it.”
The man looked Crispin up and down suddenly, as if registering him for the first time. “Truly?”
“Indeed. Did the man indicate that he was going into business?”
“I don’t rightly know. It wasn’t me talking to him, was it.”
“I suppose not. When did you say this was?”
The hand returned to the head again and rubbed slowly, back and forth. “I reckon it was before Michaelmas. I remember because I sprained me ankle and Wat here had to turn the wheel for me. You recall that, Wat?”
Wat nodded and offered nothing more.
Michaelmas. That was when the murders began, when the Jewish physician arrived from France. “I must know who talked to this man. Will you tell me which of your fellows it was?”
The man suddenly became reticent. He glanced at Wat before he turned distractedly toward his wares drying on a shelf. “I mind me own business, good sir. I don’t wish to cause trouble for any of my fellows.”
“No one is in trouble. I am not the law. I am merely here to see to these matters to make certain . . . to make certain . . . er. . . .” He had no wish to go into specifics. He blurted the next thing that came to him. “That the guild is not being impinged upon.” It seemed like a poor excuse but it made the man ponder.
He brought up his head. “Aye. The guild, did you say?” He looked at Crispin anew. Yes, Crispin supposed he might look more like someone who might speak on behalf of the guilds. “We did not know this man who wanted the clay,” said the potter thoughtfully. “And we know many of our competitors. The Oxford men and the Kingston men. These Londoners,” he growled, “that they would buy the wares from far away over the good pottery we make right here in the city! It’s a shame, it is. There’s no loyalty at all anymore, is there?”
“Very little,” Crispin agreed. “But can you direct me to someone who spoke to this man?”
He nodded. “Oh aye. Come with me, then.” He ambled toward the door in a stooped posture that spoke of his years over the wheel and motioned for Crispin to follow.
Many eyes followed Crispin and his little company. The potter took the lead, hailing his fellows through their doorways as he passed. Crispin strode behind him with Jack in the rear, trying to urge a contrary Wat to follow.
After the man greeted what seemed like every potter in London, they finally arrived at their destination. Just another potter’s hovel, in Crispin’s estimation. The white daub had long ago turned gray. The thick mist could not hide the unnatural slope of the roof whose clay tiles were mostly broken or missing.
“A cobbler’s children,” Crispin muttered.
“Eh? What’s that, good sir?” asked his guide.
“Nothing,” said Crispin. “Is this the place?”
“Aye. But Bert does not look to be within. We will have to wait.” And then the man proceeded to push open the door.
Crispin stood on the lane as the man disappeared into the shadowed doorway and didn’t reappear again. He had time to share a look with Jack before the man poked his head out again. “Coming?”
Jack gave a shrug and gestured for Crispin to go first. Manners appeared to be a little less formal on the potter’s row. Crispin girded himself and stepped over the threshold, ducking his head under the lintel.
It was little bigger than Crispin’s own lodgings and as sparsely furnished. A cot, a potter’s wheel, and some makeshift shelves were all there was to it. The room itself was smoky from a neglected fire situated in a ring of stones in the middle of the floor. This particular potter did not appear to have an apprentice to keep the fires stoked and the rest clean.
“Should be nigh at any moment, I reckon,” the man said, pouring what looked like ale from a decorative jug into an equally decorative ceramic beaker. He drank up without hesitation as Crispin eyed the doorway. At length, a woman stepped through and Crispin straightened.
“Bert!” The potter wiped his mouth and set the beaker aside. The woman entered and stared suspiciously at Crispin.
“Dickon. What mischief is here?” She was carrying a heavy bundle and set it down by the smoky fire ring. When she rose she brushed back a lock of brown hair. Her face was plain, drawn. A small nose perched above chapped lips. Her squinting eyes, what Crispin could see of them, were light in color.
“This man is from the guild, Berthildus, and he would like to talk about that knave who bought your clay.”
Her head snapped up but her face did not lose its suspicious glint. When she crossed her arms over her chest and clutched her elbows, Crispin could see the dark clay imbedded under her nails. So this woman must be “Bert” the Potter.
“Damosel,” said Crispin, dipping his head in a slight bow, “I am investigating whether certain men are bypassing the guild to make and sell their own wares. Can you tell me what this man looked like?”
Slowly, she bent to her sack and withdrew her shopping; a stringy-looking pullet, some eggs, and a bundle of onions tied together by their dried stems. She set them into a basket under her cot. Wiping her hands on her skirt, she looked from Dickon to Crispin. She had a shrewd look in her eye. More so than the gullible Dickon.
“ ’Bout time our guild fees showed for something,” she said with a nod. “Aye, I recall him right enough. He was a short man, birdlike. Very young. A gentleman. All golden. And foreign.”
Crispin’s breath caught. He certainly knew this man. “And so. He wanted a quantity of clay?”
“Indeed he did. Six bucketsful. And he paid well for it.”
“Did he say what it was for?”
“Alas, no. I was suspicious at the time, but what is a poor widow to do?”
“Indeed. What did he pay for this bounty?”
“Two shillings. I wish I had those shillings still. Business is poor.”
“Did you, by any chance, catch his name?”
“He did not offer it and I did not ask it. It is rare indeed that a gentleman comes down to the potter’s row to buy anything at all. When I discovered he wanted clay and not pots, I wasn’t keen on it. But coin is coin.”
“Coin is coin,” echoed Crispin. How well he knew that particular chant. “How did he transport this clay? Surely he did not carry it himself. Did he have servants?”
“No servants. I sent my boy after him.”
“And where did your boy deliver these buckets?”
“To Westminster Palace. The boy had a lot to say about it, he did. Took him three trips.”
“Where is the boy now? I would speak with him.”
Berthildus gave a proud smile and her hard face softened. “Hugh, that’s my boy, he was told that he had promise. A gentleman of the court, taking him on as a page to teach him to read and write? I could scarce believe it. I gave my consent at once. You never saw a boy more excited than my Hugh.”
Her words settled in and a chill of realization rippled slowly up Crispin’s flanks. God’s blood! Was it as easy as that? Rather than snatched, were these boys lured away with the promise of a better life right under their parents’ noses? By all the saints! How diabolical! They would never be reported missing. They had been given away! And these simple folk could not expect a letter they could not read. Nor any other message from so far away. These boys were gone, never to be seen again. But for all their parents knew, they were simply in a better place. Little did these trusting parents know that that better place was Heaven.