House of Shadows
“‘There’s not a breath of wind left and the fog’s thickening.’ Straining his eyes, John de Wolfe could just make out a low shore a few hundred yards away on the larboard side of the little cog Saint Radegund, but even that view came and went as greyish-yellow fog rolled in intermittent patches up the estuary of the Thames.
‘Where in God’s name are we, William?’ he shouted back to the bandy-legged sailor who commanded the vessel from the high stern.
‘Just off Woolwich, Crowner! As far as we’ll ge...t on this flood tide with no wind. Unless I anchor now, we’ll drift back down with the ebb.’ John’s two companions heard the news with mixed feelings. Thomas de Peyne, the small priest who was the coroner’s clerk, was murmuring thanks to the Almighty for the flat calm that came with the fog, for this was the first day he had not been trying to turn his stomach inside out on the four-day voyage from Devon.
However, the coroner’s officer, Gwyn of Polruan, was irritated by their lack of progress, especially as until now they had had an exceptionally swift passage from Dawlish, a small port not far from Exeter.MoreLess
‘Where in God’s name are we, William?’ he shouted back to the bandy-legged sailor who commanded the vessel from the high stern.
‘Just off Woolwich, Crowner! As far as we’ll ge...t on this flood tide with no wind. Unless I anchor now, we’ll drift back down with the ebb.’ John’s two companions heard the news with mixed feelings. Thomas de Peyne, the small priest who was the coroner’s clerk, was murmuring thanks to the Almighty for the flat calm that came with the fog, for this was the first day he had not been trying to turn his stomach inside out on the four-day voyage from Devon.
However, the coroner’s officer, Gwyn of Polruan, was irritated by their lack of progress, especially as until now they had had an exceptionally swift passage from Dawlish, a small port not far from Exeter.MoreLess
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