Katherine Fokker (Katherine de Mowbray) has a new handmaiden, “Susan”, an older woman in her 40s thanks to Sir Martin.
During the intervening time, Laurens goes to see Quillius and finds him, Vivienne, and Vincent gone. (But not before Vivienne took a walk through Hugh’s head)
Sir Martin visits Gwynedd to see if she can talk to Cecily about her anger, but Gwynedd has already visited Cecily. The details about her ordering a hit on Lady Fokker got left out though. They had a chat as Cecily painted and Gwynedd played. A little musings about the rumors floating around, responsibilities of position, Cecily envying Gwynedd’s freedom, and Gwynedd encouraging Cecily to stake out her own place.
Oh, and Gwynedd trying to delicately say she wasn’t interested in a fling with Sir Martin and Cecily misunderstands why, saying, “You know the rumors about the messenger aren’t true.”
Strangely, not only is Simon (Thomas’ youthful ward) recovering, but everyone in the hospital has had a turn for the better (though it’ll still be a while until he’s better). And Thomas has a cat following him around.
Sir Martin seems to be investigating Thomas and his guardsmen.
Donal tells the goon squad to be on the lookout for other folks nosing around York.
Gabriel is setting out to find Thomas of Lancaster and asks Thomas to check in with him three times a day (good luck).
The travelling bookseller is brought to Laurens. He denies selling the spirit-box book. So Laurens orders the bookseller in Leeds arrested too. Someone is lying to him.
Sir Martin asks Thomas about his mercenaries. “They’re in town.” There’s some confusion between Thomas and “Edmund” about where Edmund is staying. “Wolf’s Head” is the answer for the moment.
Some people go to church (Gwynedd and Gabriel). The rest, not so much.
Sir Martin goes to the Wolf’s Head. Edith says the girls miss him. Sir Martin says he’s looking for four men, which doesn’t help his reputation any. But Edith hasn’t heard of Edmund and company.
Laurens is playing William Tell with the pages. Later Lord Samuel of Kirkham stops by to see how he’s doing. “You’ve been the topic two weeks in a row,” he says. Apparently, the Archbishop has basically described him as “the root of all ill things”.
On the road to find his merchant, Gabriel crosses paths with guards coming back from their bookseller roundup. Apparently, Laurens is killing booksellers these days.
Gwynedd is heading west. She passes through Boroughsbridge and heads into the hills.
Donal goes to the docks to recruit a few more people. He hears about Edmund slipping (the captain of the guard), either being sloppy or tolerating more violence in his men. He goes to check with Catherine the Bawd, who points him at Judith, a woman who offers all sorts of temptations. Including changing herself to look more like Vivienne (that could be hazardous...) Donal puts her off for the moment.
Sir Martin is hot on the trail of Thomas for some inexplicable reason as the artist finds rooms for his bodyguards in every inn except the Wolf’s Head. Later, he has dinner with Cecily.
Gabriel hears about Vincent in Leeds. When Thomas contacts him, he says to tell Laurens he’s in town and to ask if there’s anything he needs investigated. Thomas bravely goes to Laurens with an odd cat on his shoulder and does a credible job of telephone to and fro. Sadly, some of the information Laurens gives might be a little incomplete, but Gabriel does hear about the book.
Gwynedd is going to bed in a small shed she’s wrangled. “Is this a bad time?” She’s about to refuse to turn around when she realizes it isn’t the Evil Bastard. There’s a unicorn. They’re kinda coy and shy with each other, and babbling ensues. Eventually, they agree to meet the next morning and travel together. How sweet.
Donal goes to Laurens about the devil-woman in the brothel. No Vivienne or Quillius about, so they’ll have to “handle” it themselves. What could go wrong? They head over, and Laurens gives Judith a violent end.
“Sorry about this,” Donal tells Catherine. She grabs him by the throat at lifts him up. “Me, too.”
Whoops. Demon brothel.
Next episode: The Best Little Demon-House in York