The House of Crows

mouth to say that wouldn’t be hard, but his little friar had, for one of those rare occasions, really lost his temper.
    ‘You’d best come into the parlour,’ Simplicatas whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘I am sorry, Father, but Perline stole a Barbary ape.’
    ‘Never mind,’ Athelstan said softly. He glared over his shoulder at an unshaven Perline now squatting at the foot of the stairs. ‘Just come in and tell me what happened.’
    They all trooped into the sweet-scented parlour. Athelstan’s anger began to cool. Simplicatas apparently was skilled in embroidery: some of her work, brightly coloured cloths, hung against the whitewashed walls. Fresh green rushes strewed the floor, and little pots of rosemary stood on the battered wooden table. Simplicatas waved them to the cushioned stools on either side of this. The friar glimpsed the small wooden cradle in the far corner, a sign that Simplicatas was invoking all the lore for, if a cradle was left standing in a parlour for a year, a bouncing child would fill it within six months.
    ‘It’s the baby, Father,’ she murmured, catching his glance.
    ‘What baby?’ Cranston asked, staring around. ‘Don’t say you’ve sold that, Perline!’
    The young soldier, his thin, narrow face even more pale and drawn, sat like a sleep-walker.
    ‘No, we want a baby,’ Simplicatas explained in a rush. ‘Perline has fashioned the cradle. I have embroidered the cloths. We hope, Father, to have it baptised at St Erconwald’s. We were thinking of calling it Athelstan if it’s a boy — or John,’ she added swiftly.
    ‘And if it’s a girl, I suppose Maude?’ Athelstan asked archly.
    Simplicatas sat down. She put her face in her hands and sobbed, though she left a gap between her fingers so she could study Athelstan and Cranston.
    ‘Well, if you’re expecting a child,’ Cranston bellowed, ‘all I can say is, bless your breeches and all that’s within them!’ He hit the table with his hand. ‘But all this nonsense!’
    ‘Tell him,’ Simplicatas wailed.
    Perline opened his mouth.
    ‘From the beginning,’ Athelstan added.
    ‘I enjoy being at the Tower,’ the young man began. ‘Good food, good wages, free kindling, my own pot, plate and pewter spoon. A change of livery twice a year.’ Perline smiled wryly. ‘And not an enemy in sight. But it’s boring,’ he added, ‘so I used to go down to the royal beastery.’ He glanced at Athelstan. ‘Father, something should be done about those animals. Since the old king died, no one gives a whit about them.’
    ‘I intend to deal with that,’ Cranston interrupted sharply.
    ‘Well, there are some Barbary apes,’ Perline continued hastily. ‘I’d never seen one before: it wasn’t like those little monkeys which sit and shit on pedlars’ shoulders. Father, these are grand beasts. Anyway, I began to take them food, I’d just sit there and watch them. Now there’s one, bigger than the rest, I became very friendly with him. He used to chatter through the cage but he always looked lonely. So, I says to myself, I’ll have to help Cranston.’
    Simplicatas’s hands flew to her face whilst Perline’s jaw dropped.
    ‘What did you call him?’ the coroner asked quietly.
    Athelstan bit his lower lip, and just hoped he would not burst out laughing.
    ‘What did you call him?’ Sir John barked.
    ‘No offence, Sir John, but I called him Cranston. You see, he was bigger and fatter than the rest and…’
    ‘He was their leader, wasn’t he?’ Athelstan asked helpfully.
    ‘Oh yes, Father.’ Perline smiled gratefully. ‘He always took the best food and there are two or three females there whom he er...’
    ‘Paid court to?’ Athelstan asked.
    Perline’s gratitude was more than obvious, but Cranston’s face turned an even deeper red.
    ‘Go on,’ he growled. ‘The more I listen to you, Master Brasenose, the more interested I am becoming.’
    ‘Everything went well,’ Perline continued. ‘I used to take Cranston-‘
    Athelstan now put his head down, shoulders shaking.
    ‘-anything I could find in the market; fruit, vegetables, whatever. Then the Commons met at Westminster. Some of the representatives came to visit the beastery and see round the Tower. I immediately noticed how Sir Francis Harnett from Shrewsbury was much taken by the Barbary apes, particularly Cranston.’
    Sir John spluttered, but Perline blissfully continued. ‘He noticed how friendly he was. Harnett said he had seen