Til Death Do Us Part (19 page)

Then as the red haze of fury cleared from his sight he stood for long moments dragging in gulps of air, staring down at the bloody wreckage of her face, threatening worms of encroaching panic wriggling in his mind.

‘Fuckin' hell! Now I'm really in the shit!'

He went to the sideboard, lifted the gin bottle to his lips and took several swigs, gasping as the liquid burned its way down his throat.

Ella Peelson's breathing was an erratic snorting and spraying of blood.

Kent could only stare at her, telling himself over and over again, ‘Now think! Think! What's best to do now? Think, dammit! What shall I do! The girl could come back at any moment!'

That realization tipped the balance and panic overwhelmed him. He rushed upstairs and made a frantic search for money. To his relief he found a satchel containing coins, and an assortment of coinage die-stamps.

He slung the satchel over his shoulder, exited the house by the rear door and, furtively dodging from shadow to shadow, made his escape.

D
usk was fast approaching and the stallholders' lamps were shining as they chaffered and bargained with the shoppers, their mingled breaths cloudlike in the cold, still air. Yakob Weiss's hands were deep in his capacious pockets, his fingers turning, fondling, expertly evaluating the coins within. As he finished totalling the amount he grunted with dissatisfaction. Business had been very slack at this market.

A poke-bonneted, shawl-swathed woman approached him. ‘Can I have a word wi' you?'

‘You can, Mistress. If it's a fine fur cap you want, then you've come to the right man, and I'll do you a very good deal.' He grinned ingratiatingly.

‘Well, yes, I do want to buy a fur cap. But first, I want to know how much you'll give me for these?'

From her capacious shopping basket she produced three black pelts. ‘They're cat furs, and they aren't got no mange nor nothing else wrong with 'um. Beautiful cats they was. I raised 'um from kittens, so I did, and it fair broke me heart when they died a week past. All at the same time, it was. I reckon me neighbour, who don't like me because she's jealous o' what a fine-looking man my husband is, I reckon she fed 'um poison. The evil cow!'

Weiss took the pelts and briefly handled them, then gave them back and told her, ‘I'll tell you what I'll do, Mistress. You choose the cap you wants, and then we'll sort out the prices. I'm a very fair man, I am. As anybody who's ever had dealing with Yakob Weiss will tell you. So now . . .' He moved to run his hands across the dangling rows of fur caps on his display stand. ‘Which one of these fine caps do you want? They're proof against the worst wind and snow, and hail and wet, that the Gods above can throw down upon us!'

Maud Harman came to stand beside him and closely examine the wares before shaking her head.

‘I don't mean you no offence, Pedlar, but these sort o' furs aren't what I'm looking for. You see, like I told you afore, me husband is a very fine-looking man, and he likes to wear only the best of everything. Well, it's the anniversary of our wedding day in a couple of days, and I wants to buy him a real special-looking fur cap, so that everybody who sees him in it 'ull be real jealous of him for having it on his head. I've been saving up me bits o' money for ages, so I can afford to pay a good price for the sort o' cap I wants to buy him.'

Weiss audibly sucked his tongue, and stared speculatively at her for some moments before replying.

‘Well, Mistress, I do have some very special caps which I keeps for my very special customers among the fine gentry and nobility. If your husband was wearing one o' them on his head, why then, all who saw him would swear on oath that he was a nobleman himself, so they would.'

‘Show me them caps then,' Maud Harman demanded.

Weiss spread his hands wide and with a troubled expression answered. ‘Them that I got with me have already been ordered by a Noble Lord, Mistress. I can show them to you, but I don't know what the Noble Lord would say if I was to sell you one of them. He wouldn't like to think that a common working man was wearing the exact same fur cap as him.'

The woman reacted indignantly. ‘I'll have you know that my husband aren't no common working man! He's a Master Tradesman, so he is, and he's got dozens o' common working men at his beck and call. My husband is as great a man as any nobleman in this land, and fit to wear any fur cap that he wants to wear.'

‘I'm sorry, Mistress! I'm sorry! I mean you no offence, I swear I don't. O' course you shall see these caps; and o' course your husband's as good as any Lord in this land.' Weiss volubly sought to soothe her as he delved into the small bag slung across his shoulders and pulled from it a fur cap which he flourished in front of her face.

Her eyes widened, and she exclaimed as if in awe. ‘God strewth! That's a rare looking colour, aren't it? I've never seen a fur cap that colour afore. What sort o' beast does that come from?'

‘One o' the rarest beasts in the world, Mistress. The fur that this cap is made of is from that same rare breed of beast that the King himself demands to have his own fur caps made from.' He paused, and then whispered reverently, ‘This is the fur of a Royal Iceland Otterhound. If a man had one o' these on his head, he could stand under the fiercest waterfall in the world for a hundred years, and not a drop of water would ever pass through this cap to touch his head. A man could be closed into a solid block of ice for a hundred years, and his head would stay as warm as toast, because no cold could ever get through this fur. A man could walk for a hundred years in boots made of this fur, and never need a cobbler, it's so hard wearing.'

He reached out to take her hand and gently enclose it with the cap.

‘There now, Missus. There's the proof that what I'm telling you is the God's honest truth. Feel the softness, feel the warmth, feel the comfort and luxury of it.'

‘I can! I can!' Maud Harman gasped out and closed her eyes. ‘I can feel all them things! I wants to buy this 'un for me husband.' She opened her eyes. ‘What's the price?'

‘Three guineas!' Weiss tested.

‘What?' Maud Harman's horrified reaction. ‘I daren't pay that. Me husband would break me neck for spending that much!'

‘Well, that's what my noble gentlemen pays me for a wonderful cap such as this one,' Weiss gently explained as he took the cap back into his own safe-keeping. ‘And they think it to be a bargain at that price.'

‘Well that may be, but my husband has never paid more than five shillings for any fur cap he's ever wore!' Maud Harman argued.

‘Then he's only ever wore rats skins and the like,' Weiss riposted firmly. ‘The Royal Iceland Otterhound is worn by Kings and Emperors. Just imagine how splendid your fine husband would look in such a Royal fur cap as this one. He would feel like worshipping the ground you walk on for giving him such a magnificent proof of the love you bear for him.'

Maud Harman appeared to be holding back tears of distress. ‘I just can't pay that much for it. I haven't got nowhere near three guineas.'

‘Oh, my dear lady, I cannot bear to see your terrible disappointment,' Weiss murmured sympathetically. ‘How much money do you have with you?'

She rummaged in her purse and choked out, ‘A sovereign, a crown piece, and three pennies. But there's me cat furs as well. They'm worth something, aren't they?'

He shrugged regretfully. ‘No more than a few pennies, dear lady.'

‘Oh my God!' she wailed in despair. ‘I aren't got no more money in me house either, so I can't buy the cap, can I! And I wanted to buy it with all me heart, so I did.'

Weiss held his hand up to signal for silence. ‘Allow me to think for a moment or two.'

She stood gazing anxiously at him until he lowered his hand, and smiled encouragingly at her.

‘It's Leap Year Day today, and it only comes once every four years, don't it? It's a very special day to me because it's the day I wed my beloved wife. What better way could I give thanks for this day, than to do a good turn for a good woman who loves her man, like my wife loves me.

‘So, I'm ready to sacrifice my own profit on this cap. I'll sell it to you for two sovereigns and five shillings only. Now, you already have the sovereign and the crown piece. Is it possible that you might have a friend close hereabouts who will loan you the second sovereign?'

‘Well, my sister-in-law lives just a mile or so along the road towards Bromsgrove. I'm sure she'll lend me the other sovereign and gladly, because she owes me a couple of big favours. I'll go and get it off her straight now.' Maud Harman began to hurry away.

After doing such poor business that day, Weiss wasn't prepared to let this prize fish slip his hook, and he shouted desperately, ‘Wait, dear lady! Wait!'

She halted and turned to face him.

‘I'm finished my trading here for the day,' he hastily explained. ‘And I'm going back to Bromsgrove myself, so we can go together to your sister's house. I just need to take my goods to where my donkey is and then we can be on our way.'

Flanking the road to Bromsgrove, just over a mile from the outskirts of Droitwich Town, the sign of the Robin Hood Inn swung and creaked in the cold wind.

When the lights shining from the inn's windows came into view, Maud Harman told her companion, ‘There's the Robin Hood, me sister-in-law's house is right behind it. We'll be there in no time at all.'

‘And you will then become the lucky owner of one of the finest fur caps in all of England.' Weiss smiled. ‘And your husband will be made a very happy and loving man.'

‘He will indeed!' Maud Harman happily declared, and quickened her pace. ‘I can't wait to get there!'

‘No more can I, dear lady,' Weiss chuckled.

Maud Harman led the way up to the frontage of the inn, and told Weiss, ‘You wait here, because I don't want me sister-in-law to know that I'm buying this present. I wants to keep it a secret until I give it to me husband. Here, hold this basket for me. I'll be back in two ticks.'

She handed him her laden basket and scurried round the side of the inn out of his view.

Weiss hummed contentedly to himself. ‘There now, Yacob, this day's ended well after all.'

Within scant seconds Maud Harman was back, triumphantly brandishing a gold sovereign. ‘There now, didn't I tell you that I'd get the money? Come into the light so we can see what we're doing.'

They stood bathed in the light shining from the window, from where the voices and laughter of the people within came clearly to their ears. Maud Harman carefully counted the two sovereigns and the five-shilling piece into Weiss's hand, and in return he un-strapped the small bag from the donkey's load, opened it and handed her the fur cap.

He re-strapped the bag on to the donkey and told her, ‘Your man's going to love the cap, dear lady. And now I wish you goodbye.'

He started to lead the donkey away but had only taken a few paces when a voice shouted.

‘Stand still, Pedlar! In the King's name! Stand still!'

Dark-shadowed figures loomed at each side of him.

‘I'm Constable Potts, and I'm arresting you, Yakob Weiss, in the King's name. If you try to resist we shall use force.'

Deep in shock, Weiss could only blurt, ‘I've done nothing wrong! I've done nothing!'

The second man snatched the donkey's lead rope from Weiss's hand, as Tom Potts gripped the pedlar's arm and pulled him back into the light from the window.

Tom produced a vellum document and showed it to the bemused man, and then requested, ‘Please will you, Ma'am, and Master Bennett also take heed and bear witness to what I am now going to say? This is the warrant authorized by Reverend the Lord Aston, Justice of the Peace. It's for the arrest of Yakob Weiss on the grounds that he is defrauding His Majesty's Commissioners of the Treasury . . .'

‘No! No! I'm doing no such thing! I'm an innocent man! An honest man!' Weiss shouted in continual protest.

Tom continued in a steady voice. ‘Yakob Weiss holds the four pound' per annum Pedlar's License, which entails that he back-packs his goods to market and between markets. I, Thomas Potts, Constable of the Parish of Tardebigge, have solid proof and witnesses that in fact he uses a donkey to transport his goods, which means that he should be in possession of the eight pounds per annum Hawker's License for his use of beasts of burden in the pursuit of his business.

‘Therefore, Yakob Weiss is currently defrauding His Majesty's Treasury of four sovereigns per annum. For which offence he can be imprisoned, or fined very heavily and his goods be confiscated.

‘I am arresting you, Yakob Weiss, for this license offence, and I warn you that any attempt at resistance will be very severely dealt with.'

‘And it's me that'll be doing the dealing!' Tom's companion, Alfie Bennett, brandished his cudgel in menacing threat.

‘But you got no right to arrest me here,' Yakob Weiss argued desperately. ‘You're only the Constable of Tardebigge Parish, and we're in the Droitwich Parish, so you've got no power of arrest here. And that bugger there aren't a constable, so he's breaking the law by robbing my donkey from me by force, and I shall lay charges against him for horse thieving.'

Tom smiled grimly. ‘This warrant empowers me to arrest you in any parish of this kingdom, Master Weiss, and this Gentleman with me is obeying the law by giving me the assistance I demanded from him in the King's name.'

Tom turned his head to speak to Maud Harman. ‘I regret, Ma'am, that I must regretfully confiscate the fur cap you have just purchased from this pedlar as material evidence. Also you will be called upon to testify at his trial, both as witness and victim, in that he has taken your money under false pretence.'