Bartholomew.
It was standard practice among apothecaries and there was nothing untoward in it. Jonas nodded. 'Did Eleanor know this?'
'I showed her how I diluted it yesterday,' said Jonas, his hands fluttering even more wildly. 'For you as a matter of tact. You ordered some for the lepers at Barnwell Priory.'
'Do you know Eleanor and her family have gone?' asked Bartholomew.
'Gone where?' asked Jonas, bewildered. 'Not far, surely.
She said she would help me this afternoon and I have come to rely on her. And her family is coming for dinner this evening.'
'I do not think so,' said Michael. 'The Tyler house is abandoned and all removeable items gone.'
Jonas shook his head. 'They are coming to eat with us tonight. Meg!' he yelled suddenly, making Bartholomew leap out of his skin. Immediately, there were footsteps on the wooden stairs, and Jonas's wife appeared.
They say Agnes has left town, Meg,' said Jonas, still wringing his hands. 'I told them that was impossible because she and the family are coming to dinner tonight.'
Meg's eyes grew huge and flitted from Bartholomew to Michael in terror.
Tell us what you know, Mistress,' said Michael, watching her reaction with resignation.
Meg's fearful eyes danced back to her husband, who smiled at her, encouraging her to support his statement.
'I went round to Agnes's house yesterday afternoon and they had everything piled up in the middle of the room,' she said. 'They made me promise not to mention they were leaving until they had gone.'
'Gone where?' asked Bartholomew. 'And why?'
Meg shook her head. 'I begged them to stay. They are my only relatives here but they were insistent that they should go.'
'Do you know that Eleanor sent me a powerful poison yesterday, in place of the diluted oleander I use for treating leprosy?'
'No!' Meg cried. 'She did not!'
'Oh, but she did, Mistress,' said Michael. 'And I suspect you know far more than you are telling us. Now, we do not have all day, so tell us the truth and hurry up with it.'
Meg's eyes flitted to her husband's horrified face and she burst into tears.
'This oleander has caused the death of someone,'
Michael pressed. Jonas's legs gave out and he plopped on to a low bench on top of a bunch of dried mint.
Within moments, the herb's pungent odour filled the shop.
'Oh no!' he groaned. 'Who has died? Not that saintly Master Kenyngham? My business will be finished for ever if this gets out! '
Meg wailed louder, so that Michael had to raise his voice to be heard. 'I am sure your part in all this will be overlooked if you tell us what we need to know.'
Meg fought to bring her sobs under control. 'Eleanor said that Doctor Bartholomew had been asking questions about Joanna,' she said, after a few moments of serious sniffing. 'She was terribly distressed because she said she did not want him, of all people, to be the cause of her mother's downfall. I am not sure what she meant. I thought it was Joanna's prostitution and that Eleanor was worried for the good name of her mother's household, but I think now that it was more than that.'
She paused to scrub at her nose with the back of her hand. 'I saw Eleanor in the poisons cupboard yesterday and she told me she was preparingyour order of oleander.
Later, I remembered that Jonas always keeps the diluted oleander for you in a separate jar, but that Eleanor had been using the concentrated powder.'
'So it is true!' wailed Jonas in horror. 'We did send concentrated oleander to Doctor Bartholomew! This is just too dreadful!'
'Please continue, Mistress,' said Michael, silencing the apothecary with a disdainful glance.
Meg took a deep breath. 'I was appalled that she might inadvertently have sent you the wrong thing, and rushed to her house so we could put all to rights before Jonas found out, or anyone was harmed. Agnes and Hedwise had all their belongings piled in the middle of the floor while Eleanor sat in a corner and wept. They would not tell me what was amiss. I asked Eleanor about the powder but she said it was still on the shelf with the other orders awaiting delivery.'
She gestured to the package above her head with Bartholomew's name written on it, a certain defiance in her eyes. 'And there it is.'
'But she was lying, Mistress,' said Michael harshly.
'Eleanor had already dispatched one package to Doctor Bartholomew — the one she had prepared at home containing the concentrated oleander she had stolen from Jonas. She hoped it would have done its job before he received the real package and became suspicious. And you suspected all was not well by her behaviour.'
'No!' shrieked Meg, weeping afresh. 'I did rzo^know. I came home, and there was the package, just as she said it would be. I threw it away and prepared another in its place — with diluted oleander.'
'And do you know what Eleanor's motives were in all this?' persisted Michael, his grim expression making it abundantly clear that he did not believe her for an instant.
'Motives for what?' cried Meg. 'She did nothing wrong!
She accidentally used the wrong powder in your order but I discovered her mistake and corrected it before anyone came to harm. I do not know how poor Master Kenyngham died but it was not with anything from our shop!'
Michael said nothing, and regarded her long and hard.
Bartholomew had known Jonas and Meg for years and knew they would not risk their livelihood so rashly: he was therefore inclined to believe they were telling the truth. But Eleanor was another matter. Clearly, she had stolen the concentrated oleander and prepared it for Bartholomew in the safety of her own home, as attested by the residues in the bowl Michael had touched.
But was Mistress Tyler aware of her daughter's actions?
Or Hedwise? Surely, Bartholomew's feeble investigation concerning Joanna could not warrant Eleanor trying to kill him? He decided that he might be wise to stay away from future involvements with women — at least until he had learned a little more about them.
Meg wiped her nose. 'Eleanor told me some days ago that Doctor Bartholomew had some odd notion that Joanna had been murdered during the riot. Of course, nothing of the kind had happened and we all know that Joanna had left because she found Cambridge too violent.'
'So, Joanna is in Ely?' asked Michael. Meg nodded and Michael continued. 'In that case, surely it would be a simple matter to summon her back again and prove that she is alive and well, living a life of sin near the greatest Benedictine House in East Anglia. Why did Mistress Tyler not do that?'
Meg looked bewildered, as though such a notion had not occurred to her before. 'I do not know,' she stammered. 'Perhaps because they were so relieved when she left. Joanna was definitely not the demure and gentle niece we remembered from years ago.' She pursed her lips in disapproval. 'She had become a harlot.'
Bartholomew studied the frightened woman soberly.
She did not possess the quick intelligence and courage of her Tyler relatives and Bartholomew was in no doubt that she had believed what she had been told. Meg's crime was nothing more than gullibility. But Bartholomew was now certain that Joanna had played a part in some plot — whether willingly or unwillingly he did not know — and that Eleanor had sent him the poison in order to prevent him coming any closer to the truth. The more he thought about it, particularly in relation to the bloodstains in the house, the more he sensed that there was most definitely something untoward about Joanna's sudden departure, and that Eleanor had taken it upon herself to protect her family from the consequences.
'Did you see Joanna after the riot?' asked Bartholomew, already guessing what the answer would be.
Meg shook her head. 'Agnes said Joanna did not want to help with the clearing up afterwards. It is typical of her.
She has become a lazy woman. Agnes saw her off early that morning.'
