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Then I went down the lane a little to get away from the hangers-
on. I need to keep supple, so I do exercises every night and
didn t want some idiot gawking at me.
The constable drove the image of Margaret somersaulting down
Fish Street from his mind, and asked her to continue.
That s it. I came straight back when I heard the commotion
start, and the rest you know.
Bullock felt frustrated. Why was it none of the troupe could
vouch for the whereabouts of any other? Apart from those on the
stage, every one of them seemed to have been on their own. He
only had John Peper left to question. Then a thought occurred to
him. You say John was playing the part of Noah?
Margaret nodded.
I ve seen that play performed before. Do you follow the usual
practice and build the ark on stage?
Yes, Stefano insists that we do it properly it s quite a
spectacle.
So Noah would be carrying carpenter s tools? Including chisels?
Margaret didn t reply, but Bullock already knew the answer from
the look in her eyes.
*
In Aristotle s Hall the handful of students who would remain in
residence for the Christmas festivities were emptying their purses
of all the coins they could find. It was a small, sad pile that sat
on the long, battered table in the communal hall. Thomas Symon,
the most senior clerk present, counted the coins again. But
however many times he did so, it did not amount to enough. For
several weeks Thomas and the others had been following the
growth of the bristly red sow that their neighbour was fattening
in the yard next to the students hall. They had looked on with
pleasure as the pig s cheeks filled out and its tiny eyes sank into
the fleshy face. The students were not interested in the rotund
body of the pig, but when it was slaughtered they had agreed to
purchase the head. Boiled, it would provide a magnificent feast
to mark Christmastide. Now it seemed they did not even have
enough to buy the head.
One student, a scrawny youth with a pock-marked face,
suggested they could work in the fields to earn a few marks.
Thomas, a farmer s son, snorted his derision.
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Stephen. There is no work on a farm at this time of year. Most
animals have been slaughtered already, and if you think anything
grows at this time of year you re a bigger fool than I took you for.
The scrawny youth scowled. What did he know of the
countryside? His father was a silversmith to the King and lived
in Westminster. The nearest cows had been a good mile away
from where he lived. Thomas s rebuke prompted him to offer
another suggestion.
Then we should take our weapons and go and rob some rich
traveller coming through Bagley Wood.
If you think that, then you re a fool for certain.
The regent master s sharp tones cut across the students
chatter. Falconer was sitting hunched over the fire in the hearth
at one end of the hall, and his charges had all but forgotten he
was there. Deep in thought, he had been almost ignoring their
conversation until he heard Stephen foolishly suggest robbery.
He turned from the warmth of the flames and glared at the youths
seated round the scratched and battered table.
The King has just arrested twenty townsfolk for merely being
suspected of involvement with a robber band. They are to be
hanged after Christmas. So don t suggest robbery even in jest.
The youths were shocked into silence they had not heard
their master speak so harshly before and sat staring at the
forlorn heap of coins on the table. Falconer regretted his outburst,
but thought it best not to soften his words Stephen Cosyn was
stupid and impetuous enough to carry out his ill-conceived ideas
if not firmly stopped. He returned to tossing plans around in his
own head. He had to find a way to save at least Zerach de
Alemmania from the noose, if not the other townspeople. He had
been surprised to hear from another master of the unscientific
way that the supposedly guilty men had been identified. It offended
all his tenets of good deduction, based on Aristotelian logic.
Successful solution of crime depended on careful comparison of
known truths, from which a greater truth could be inferred. Hadn t
he used this method himself to solve several murders in Oxford?
That the King could be so easily beguiled into believing the words
of known rivals of the supposed malefactors annoyed Falconer,
particularly as a former Chancellor of the university had been
instrumental in collecting the so-called facts .
His informant had referred to de Cantilupe s role in providing
the King with the culprits, and it had been the first Falconer knew
of the ex-Chancellor s presence in Oxford. In his time at the
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university, the man had been a worthy adversary of Falconer s,
challenging the regent master s role in murder investigations.
Curiously, Falconer respected him for his clear thinking, which
made it all the more irksome that he should be involved in Zerach s
arrest. He had thought of approaching de Cantilupe to help him
convince the King of the citizens innocence, but knew it was
useless. De Cantilupe was obviously prepared to sacrifice them
for his own ends, and was unlikely to change his mind for the sake
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