The Death Ship of Dartmouth: (Knights Templar 21) by Michael Jecks

and sighing. His fingers rapped on the arm of his great chair as though in time to some internal music. When the drinks appeared, he grabbed for his jug, almost spilling the wine down his breast, and poured a large gobletful, all but draining it at the first draught.
    ‘Master Pyckard, it’s plain that you aren’t feeling well. Would you prefer me to come back later?’
    ‘That, Bailiff, could be a waste of your time if you tried it,’ Pyckard said with a twist of his lips that was intended to show humour. ‘I may not be here for much longer.’
    ‘This pain abates somewhat through the day?’
    ‘There are stupefactives which my physician has given me, but they work less and less well. No, there is no cure and no means of preventing the pain. I’ve confessed, and that took a weight off my soul, which helps a little.’ He looked past Simon’s shoulder to the tall window beyond. ‘There is some peace from that.’
    ‘Something you did in the past?’ Simon wondered.
    ‘Something that’s none of your affair, Master Bailiff!’ Pyckard snapped, but not rudely. He squirmed in his seat again. ‘So ask away. It’s what you’re here for!’
    ‘It’s your ship – the cog
Saint John
. I’d heard that there was nothing taken from her. Is that right?’
    ‘So far as I know, yes. I haven’t been to inspect hermyself, of course. I don’t think I could walk so far. Christ alive! It is hard enough for me to walk to my door and back. Only two days ago I could walk about the town – but now? Nothing!’
    ‘Does it not trouble you that the ship was taken and her cargo left aboard? That to me seems most strange.’
    ‘There are many strange things in life, Bailiff. The
Saint John
was one of my older vessels, so perhaps these pirates decided she wasn’t worth the capture once they’d taken her.’
    Simon tried to keep the disbelief from his voice. ‘You are suggesting that mariners would take her, and then leave her to burn, still with a valuable cargo on board, because they thought she was too old and not worth their time? Surely they’d have seen that from the outset? If the craft was not worthy of capture, they would have left her.’
    ‘You are not a man of the sea, are you, Bailiff? Let me explain. The ship was perfectly well worth taking from the point of view of the cargo, but she herself was –
is
– old. Perhaps they saw the second ship arriving and knew there was no time to move all the cargo from the
John
to their own ship. And the
John
is a slow beast. Seeing a faster ship appear over the horizon, they may simply have sought to destroy evidence of their crime. It could have worked, were Hawley and his men less fast and seamanlike.’
    Simon fiddled with the long tongue of his belt, which dangled over his thigh. ‘Master Hawley caught the ship and put out the fire in a very efficient manner.’
    ‘He’s a good man, Hawley.’
    ‘It was fortunate that he appeared at that moment.’
    ‘Yes. But it was on the main route we both use.’
    Simon nodded. ‘Do you have any idea who could have attacked her?’
    ‘On the open sea? Are you joking? It could be any one of a hundred hundred men. There are pirates from all over Normandy, the Breton lands … they come here and pick off what they can all the time. They’ve stopped their raids on the shore now, but our ships are always at risk. Then there are the men from our own coast. If a ship from a Cinque Port saw a ship in danger, it might wonder whether it was worth taking her and stealing the cargo rather than helping her to port.’
    ‘What of the men of Lyme?’
    Pyckard shrugged. ‘It’s possible, I suppose. Yes. They have had arguments with us for many years now. It’s only two years since the last fight. Probably about time one of us was caught by them.’
    ‘Is it so normal for you to fear the people from other towns?’ Simon asked. He
was
still very new to the ways of the sea, he reminded himself.
    ‘Those daft buggers from Lyme have no