The House of Crows

your child.’ Athelstan shook his head. ‘If you had only told me the truth, a great deal of confusion could have been avoided.’
    ‘I know.’ Perline glanced up from underneath his eyebrows.
    ‘Simplicatas has told me about the rumours.’
    Athelstan got to his feet. ‘Yes, your fellow parishioners think that the ape is a demon. If they catch it, they would probably kill the poor creature. Now, you have your orders, Perline. You are not to come back to this house. You are not to see Simplicatas until that ape is back where it should be.’ He glanced across at the wooden cradle. ‘You’d make a fine carpenter, Perline.’
    ‘I’ll carve you a statue,’ the soldier offered. ‘A peace offering, Father.’
    And, with the young couple’s thanks ringing in their ears, and the coroner’s parting shots of advice being bellowed through the doorway, Athelstan and Cranston went back along the alleyways of Southwark. For a while they walked in silence, then Cranston grasped Athelstan tightly by the arm.
    ‘If I ever, Brother, hear the words “Barbary ape” and ‘Cranston” in the same sentence again —’ he shook a finger in the friar’s laughing face — ‘the devil really will come to Southwark!’

CHAPTER 11

    They walked back towards the quayside, Cranston still loudly declaiming against an ape being named after the king’s own coroner. Athelstan pulled the cowl over his face, nodded gravely, and hoped Sir John would not realise he was fighting hard not to laugh. Outside the priory of St Mary Overy, however, Cranston’s mood suddenly changed. He turned to face his companion squarely.
    ‘You don’t really believe that scapegrace has anything to do with Harnett’s death, do you?’
    ‘No, Sir John, I don’t.’
    Athelstan glanced away; he studied an old beggar clad in tattered rags who stood at the mouth of an alleyway. The man’s face was covered in bluish stains, as if he had been disfigured in some terrible fire.
    ‘Well?’ Cranston asked. ‘Brother!’ he exclaimed. ‘What on earth are you staring at?’
    Athelstan held a hand out. ‘Stay there, Sir John.’
    The friar marched towards the beggar, whose eyes widened in alarm as he recognised his parish priest.
    ‘Mousehead!’
    Athelstan seized the beggar by his stocky shoulder. The beggar flinched, but the friar held him fast as he scraped a finger down Mousehead’s face, removing the dirty coating of powder and paint.
    ‘Father!’ The beggar began to hop from one foot to another.
    ‘Mousehead!’ Athelstan warned. ‘If I have told you once, I have told you a thousand times! To beg if you are unable is acceptable to the Lord, but to beg when you are able and pretend you are the opposite, only makes the good Lord angry.’ Mousehead stared fearfully at the friar, his buck teeth even more protuberant, his nose twitching faster than usual. Athelstan pushed him away.
    ‘Now go and see Widow Benedicta. You will find her at St Erconwald’s. She’ll have a task for you: tell her you can help Perline.’
    ‘But Perline has gone missing, Father, and there’s a demon near your church.’
    ‘There’s no demon, Mousehead, and Perline’s not missing. You’ll find him there.’
    Mousehead scampered off. Athelstan walked back to where Cranston stood leaning against the wall, staring up at a cat which sat in an open window. Athelstan followed his gaze.
    ‘Don’t worry, Sir John, I think there’s a solution to your missing cats.’
    ‘And Perline and Harnett?’Cranston asked. ‘You didn’t answer my question.’
    Athelstan sighed. ‘I’d swear on the cross that Perline had nothing to do with Harnett’s death. However, Harnett did go into the lonely Pyx chamber at a time when he and his companions were being stalked by a killer. Now, why should he do that? What would draw Harnett out away from the rest?’
    ‘Some conspiracy perhaps?’Cranston replied. ‘Or Perline Brasenose?’
    ‘Or Perline Brasenose,’ Athelstan repeated. ‘No, no, Sir John, I am not talking in riddles. What I think happened is that someone knew about Harnett’s secret negotiations with that young soldier. Somehow or other, the killer used Perline’s name, and the prospect of buying a Barbary ape, to lure Harnett into the Pyx chamber where he was killed.’
    ‘But, apart from Brasenose, the only people who would know that would be Harnett’s companions, wouldn’t it?’
    ‘Not just them, Sir John.’ Athelstan linked his arm through Cranston’s