“Aye, my lord.”
For the first time, Meriwether was starting to show Douglas some respect. Now that he’d tipped his hand and introduced all of the strength he brought to a fight, he seemed more willing to talk.
“What are you doing in Axminster?” Douglas asked.
Meriwether slowly produced a dagger he’d had tucked away. “Because I commissioned this from one of the smithies a fewmonths ago,” he said, making sure to hold it by the blade carefully. “I’ve come to town to pay for it.”
“Did you actually pay for it?”
Meriwether snorted again. “The smithy is bigger and stronger than you are,” he said. “Aye, I paid him. I had to unless I wanted my head smashed.”
“But you sought to cheat the tavernkeep, who isnotbigger and stronger than the smithy.”
Meriwether lifted his shoulders in a noncommittal gesture. “I told you that I was going to pay him,” he said. “I did.”
Douglas gave him a disbelieving look, but before he could reply, it seemed like a gang of people came up behind him and, suddenly, a woman was flying at Meriwether with some kind of club in her hand. Before Douglas could intervene, she crowned Meriwether with it and an all-out brawl was sparked.
“He stole from me!” the woman was screaming as she hit him again before Douglas could grab her. “He stole from my stall! I want my things back!”
Punches were flying and people were rolling around in the dirt as some merchants descended on the men from Tatworth. Douglas, Jonathan, Davyss, and the rest of the soldiers were forced to jump in and start separating the combatants. Douglas narrowly avoided being hit in the head with the same club, which turned out to be not a club at all, but a stone pestle to grind grain.
And the woman’s aim with it was true.
“Stop,” he commanded, taking it from her as he pulled her away from the fighting. “Lady, you will control yourself. What’s this about?”
“Him!” the woman shouted, pointing at Meriwether. “He came into my stall and scooped things up with his hands and then threatened me when I tried to stop him. I will stop him now!”
She pulled away from Douglas, heading again for Meriwether, who was just starting to come around, but the fight was dwindling by now and Douglas indicated for the woman to stand aside while he hauled a dazed Meriwether to his feet.
“It sounds as if you’ve been a naughty lad today,” he said. Then he held out a hand, palm up. “Where is the merchandise you stole from this woman?”
Meriwether shook his head, trying to shake off the stars. He was going to deny knowing what Douglas was asking for when he caught sight of the woman with the pestle in her hand. He could also see that several other merchants that they’d stolen from that morning were pounding his comrades and taking back what had been stolen. Trinkets, soap, combs—they’d had their pick this morning, and no one had challenged them because they’d threatened everybody.
But now, there was safety in numbers. Seeing that the tavernkeep had gotten his money, the merchants descended. When Meriwether was too slow to respond, Douglas snapped his fingers.
“Come on,” he said impatiently. “I don’t have all day. Where is it?”
Realizing he was caught, Meriwether reached into the pockets of his tunic and began pulling things out, slapping them into Douglas’ open palm. It was all jewelry, things for women, and Douglas looked at it in confusion.
“What’s all this?” he asked. “Did you steal this for your wife?”
“I don’t have a wife,” Meriwether said, pulling out the last piece, a necklace. “But gifts like this can get me what I want in any town from Carlisle to Birmingham.”
He lifted his eyebrows suggestively, and Douglas eyed the man he had little patience for. The woman was standing a few feet away, still screeching about her merchandise, so Douglascalled her over to identify it. She could, of course, inspecting it for damage as she told Meriwether just what she thought of him.
The last thing Douglas handed her was a necklace with a gold cross pendant. He glanced at it as he handed it over to her, but held it a moment longer to inspect it. It was a lovely piece, a delicate cross with semi-precious stones on it, and on the back he could see an inscription.
“Meum arbitrium,” he muttered. “My choice.”
The woman plucked it out of his fingers. “Good,” she said. “I was afraid this one was lost and I didn’t want to lose it. ’Tis worth a good deal.”
Douglas held his hand out for it. “Let me see it,” he said. “What kind of stones are on it?”
The woman reluctantly handed it back to him. “Garnets,” she said. “Amethyst and peridot. And the big pearl in the center of it.”
The more Douglas looked at it, the more exquisite it became. “My choice?” he repeated. “What does that mean? What choice?”
The old woman was holding her hand out for it. “I purchased it from a nobleman who sold me his daughter’s jewelry,” she said. “The lass had taken the veil and had no more need for her finery. He said that he gave his daughter that necklace when she decided to take the veil, as a gift to commemorate the occasion, but she had to give her jewelry up when she went in the convent.”
