A Play of Piety

Table of Contents

 

 

The Middle Ages Come to Life . . . to Bring Us Murder.

“Will entertain and confound you with its intricately plotted mystery and richly detailed writing . . . Ms. Frazer knows the fifteenth century and it shows . . . You’ll want to rush out and get the previous books in this wonderful series.”—
The Romance Readers Connection

“[An] amazing wealth of historical detail. While the mystery is compelling, and rooted in a fascinating historical period, it’s the details of everyday life that make the story and characters leap off the page . . . Will appeal to readers who enjoy historical mystery and historical fiction.”—
CA Reviews

 

“Deftly drawn characters acting in a stage of intricate and accurate details of medieval life.”—
Affaire de Coeur

“A meticulously researched, well written historical mystery that brings to life a bygone era . . . Historical mystery fans will love this series.”—
Midwest Book Review

“Wonderful . . . As always, the author provides a treasure trove of historical detail . . . [G]ood, solid mystery.”

—
The Romance Readers Connection

 

“In the course of the book, we learn a great deal about theatrical customs of the fifteenth century . . . In the hands of a lesser writer, it could seem preachy; for Frazer, it is another element in a rich tapestry.”—
Contra Costa Times

“Careful research and a profusion of details, especially those dealing with staging a fifteenth-century miracle play, bring the sights, smells, and sounds of the era directly to the reader’s senses.”—
Roundtable Reviews

“A terrific historical whodunit that will please amateur sleuth and historical mystery fans.”—
Midwest Book Review

 

 

“An exceptionally strong series . . . full of the richness of the fifteenth century, handled with the care it deserves.”

—
Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

“What Frazer, a meticulous researcher, gets absolutely right in
The Sempster’s Tale
are the attitudes of the characters.”

—
Detroit Free Press

 

“Action-packed . . . A terrific protagonist.”—
Midwest Book Review

 

“Will please both Frevisse aficionados and historical mystery readers new to the series.”—
Booklist

 

“Anyone who values high historical drama will feel amply rewarded . . . Of note is the poignant and amusing relationship between Joliffe and Dame Frevisse.”—
Publishers Weekly

 

“As usual, Frazer vividly re-creates the medieval world through meticulous historical detail [and] remarkable scholarship.”

—
Publishers Weekly

 

“Meticulous detail that speaks of trustworthy scholarship and a sympathetic imagination.”—
The New York Times

 

“A brilliantly realized vision of a typical medieval English village.” —
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“Great fun for all lovers of history with their mystery.”

—
Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

“Will delight history buffs and mystery fans alike.”—
Murder Ink

 

“The period detail is lavish, and the characters are full-blooded.” —
Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

“This fast-paced historical mystery comes complete with a surprise ending—one that will hopefully lead to another ‘Tale’ of mystery and intrigue.”—
Affaire de Coeur

 

“Some truly shocking scenes and psychological twists.”

—
Mystery Loves Company

 

“A tale well told, filled with intrigue and spiced with romance and rogues.”—
School Library Journal

 

“Very authentic . . . The essence of a truly historical story is that the people should feel and believe according to their times. Margaret Frazer has accomplished this extraordinarily well.”

—Anne Perry

 

“Frazer uses her extensive knowledge of the period to create an unusual plot . . . appealing characters and crisp writing.”

—
Los Angeles Times

 

 

A PLAY OF ISAAC
A PLAY OF DUX MORAUD
A PLAY OF KNAVES
A PLAY OF LORDS
A PLAY OF TREACHERY
A PLAY OF PIETY

 

 

THE NOVICE’S TALE
THE SERVANT’S TALE
THE OUTLAW’S TALE
THE BISHOP’S TALE
THE BOY’S TALE
THE MURDERER’S TALE
THE PRIORESS’ TALE
THE MAIDEN’S TALE
THE REEVE’S TALE
THE SQUIRE’S TALE
THE CLERK’S TALE
THE BASTARD’S TALE
THE HUNTER’S TALE
THE WIDOW’S TALE
THE SEMPSTER’S TALE
THE TRAITOR’S TALE
THE APOSTATE’S TALE

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This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2010 by Gail Frazer.

 

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

eISBN: 9781101455180

1. Medicine, Medieval—Fiction. 2. Great Britain—History—Lancaster and York, 1399-1485—Fiction.
I. Title.
PS3556.R3586P555 2010
813’.54—dc22 2010023083

 

 

To The Four
—Leslie H., Patty H., Carol M., and Cindy U.—
Excellent friends who have seen me through so much of the
Bad Times

My usual way has been to leave my authorial comments for the ends of my books.

I am adding this foreword because when I would tell people that I was writing a book set in a medieval hospital, as often as not their response was some expression of disgust that reflected the engrained, erroneous idea that medieval times were nothing but dirty, nasty, ignorant, and unremittingly brutal—a notion cheaply (and tediously) perpetuated in most novels and movies supposedly set in the Middle Ages. Therefore it seems a goodly notion to explain here at the beginning that the hospital in this story is imagined but
not
idealized. Its running is based on the recorded regulations of actual medieval English hospitals and reflects their expectations of cleanliness and care, as well as the charity and concern for souls with which they were founded.

Nor is a woman acting as a
medica
at the time an imagined possibility. Women could and did act as physicians in medieval times.

Chapter 1

I
t was the golden time of year, the wide fields of ripened grains standing tall under the hot August sky or already turned to golden stubble where the harvesters had passed with sickle and scythe, and soon the geese and cattle would be turned to graze, to fatten for Michaelmas and winter.

After three years of failed harvests and the dearth that followed, with hungry winters and starving springs, those golden fields under a cloudless sky would have been enough to raise Joliffe’s heart high as he long-strided along the summer-dusty road, but besides the hope of a fat winter, he was free for the first time in more than half a year from lessons, from being taught and tested and then set to learning more. He had forgotten, in the years since he had been a boy and a scholar, how good it felt to be let out from school, but he was remembering it now. He had, in truth, enjoyed much of these past months’ learning and some of the work that went with it, but this was better—to be on his way toward somewhere he had never been, with the sun warm on his back, coins in his belt pouch, and no one wanting him for anything.

Time was that he would have added, along with all else to the good, that no one in particular knew where he was, but anymore he had to doubt that was true, and somewhere far down in his mind he knew how little he liked that thought, but there was nothing he could do about it. Last year he had said certain words to a powerful man, and eight months ago, in answer to those words, he had been summoned out of his familiar life. Now, feeling crammed to the crop with new knowledge and new skills, he was on his way to rejoin the wandering company of players that had been his life and livelihood for years. There had been good times in those years, and some very bad times, and for the past two years—since the wealthy Lord Lovell had made the company his own and under his protection—increasingly good times. Through all of them, Joliffe had never been away from the company for any time long enough to be worth counting, until he was summoned away last winter. He had been told then that when time came for him to rejoin them, someone would know where they were. That had proved true enough, which was both a comfort and a discomfort. It was good to know where to find the players again, a discomfort to know some manner of watch was being kept on them at the order of someone whose heed they might well have been better without.