Susanna GREGORY - The Chancellor’s Secret

Susanna Gregory was a police officer in Leeds before taking up an academic career. She has served as an environmental consultant, worked eighteen field seasons in the polar regions, and has taught comparative anatomy and biological anthropology.

She is the creator of the Matthew Bartholomew series of mysteries set in medieval Cambridge and the Thomas Chaloner adventures in Restoration London. She now lives in Wales with her husband, who is also a writer.

Cambridge, early June 1360

John Baldok was pleased with himself. He had been in the castle, delivering a handsome sum of money that had been raised to repair the Great Bridge, when the Sheriffs clerks had been distracted by a commotion in the bailey. It had happened just as they had finished recording receipt of the money in their ledgers, so when they had hurried outside to watch, Baldok had seized his chance. He had grabbed the coins, shoved them up his sleeve, and strolled nonchalantly out through the main gate. No one would ever accuse him of the crime. He was a burgess one of the men who made important decisions about town affairs and thus above suspicion.

Yet he did experience a small twinge of conscience. The town had struggled to pay the levy, and its theft meant people would have to dip into their purses a second time. It would cause hardship and suffering. But the ruthless side of him shrugged it was the clerks fault for putting temptation his way, so any blame should be laid at their door, not his. Besides, he needed all the cash he could get these days, because his new mistress had very expensive tastes.

He grinned when he thought about Rohese. She was the Mayors wife, and he loved the thrill of tiptoeing into her bedchamber while Morys pored over his accounts on the floor below. The lovers were discreet, but their affair was an open secret even so. Fortunately, no one was likely to mention it to Morys, because the Mayor was a very unpopular man.

If you want anything done in Cambridge, another burgess had informed Baldok at his first guildhall meeting, pay Morys. It does not matter what it is building a new house, diverting water from the river, repairing a road, negotiating trade deals. Nothing will happen until he has had his cut. It is the way things work around here.

Why was he elected if he is so brazenly corrupt? Baldok had asked, bemused.

The burgess shrugged. He bought the votes he needed to win, and now nothing nothing happens until he has been paid. Being Mayor has made him very rich.

It was an unsatisfactory state of affairs, but Baldok was disinclined to object, as he was not a very honest man himself.

Baldok reached the Great Bridge and hesitated. It had been damaged by spring floods, and should have been closed until it was repaired. Unfortunately, that entailed users taking lengthy detours, and they had objected so vigorously that the council had had no choice but to keep it open. Very heavy carts were banned, and horsemen were advised to dismount, but other than that, people were free to take their chance.

Only one other person was on the bridge that evening, because it was nearly dark and the weather was unseasonably cold. The traders from the surrounding villages had already gone home, and other than one or two priests hurrying towards their churches for compline, the streets were deserted.

Baldok began to cross the bridge, wincing as the handrail swayed alarmingly in time with his footsteps. He did not allow himself to dwell on the uncomfortable fact that repairs might have started that week, if he had not stolen the money.

It was to be one of the last thoughts he would ever have.

The next morning, Baldoks body was found on the riverbank beneath the bridge. Sheriff Tulyet came to investigate, and asked the Universitys Corpse Examiner, Doctor Bartholomew, for a cause of death. Bartholomew deduced that Baldok had died of a broken neck, sustained when he had toppled over the handrail to land on the shore below.

Are you sure? asked Tulyet doubtfully; despite its lofty name, the Great Bridge was not very high. I could jump off this thing and not suffer so much as a scratch.

Not if you went head first, explained Bartholomew.

So was it accident, suicide or murder? asked Tulyet.

For Baldok to end up in this position suggests a hard push or a vigorous jump, which rules out an accident. Your clerks said he was in good spirits when he left last night

Not suicide either then, said Tulyet. So he was murdered?

It seems most likely.

He had been delivering bridge-tax money to the castle, said Tulyet. It subsequently went missing, although, as it happened when he was left alone with it, I do not need to look very far for the culprit.

He stole it? Bartholomew was shocked. But he was a burgess!

Which is probably why he thought he could get away with it, said Tulyet wryly. Had he lived, he would have learned otherwise.

Well, there is no money with him now, so it was either stolen from his body, or someone else took or was given it before he died.

Tulyet began to investigate, but learned nothing to tell him who had pushed the burgess to his death. Weeks passed, and although he hated the notion of a killer besting him, he was eventually forced to admit that there was no more he could do.

Cambridge, July 1360

Matthew Bartholomew, physician and Fellow of the College of Michaelhouse, was in two minds about getting married in eleven days. On the one hand, he loved Matilde with all his heart, and was looking forward to spending the rest of his life with her. On the other, marriage was forbidden to scholars, which would mean an end to his teaching the mysteries of medicine. He would miss that more than he could say.

He sat in the room he shared with four of his pupils, and stared out of the window into the pre-dawn gloom. Michaelhouse had been his home for the greater part of two decades, and had seen him pass from idealistic youth to pragmatic middle age. Its daily routine was deeply ingrained in his being: rising before dawn for church, breakfast in the hall, teaching and seeing patients until evening, and then preparing the next days classes.

How would he fare as a secular? Filling his time would be no problem he was one of few town medici willing to tend the poor, either for a nominal fee or free of charge, and they would continue to expect his services regardless of whether or not he was a member of the University. However, when he left Michaelhouse, he would lose his College stipend, so his only income would be what he earned from medicine which meant he would have to tout for wealthy clients.

He experienced a pang of unease. What if the towns affluent elite declined to hire him? Matilde was independently wealthy, but he could hardly expect to live off her for the rest of his life. Moreover, every spare penny she owned was being funnelled into the school for women she intended to establish, as she considered it an outrage that half the towns population should be denied the delights of education on the basis of their sex.

At that moment, the College bell chimed, telling scholars to assemble in the yard, ready to process to Mass in St Michaels Church. There was a faint glimmer of light in the east, and he could just make out his book-bearer, Cynric, hauling on the bell-rope.