arm that was so tight she feared her bones would snap if she tried to wrest them loose.
A draggle of men and women hurried up the street. Some lit their way through the darkened streets with horn lanterns, but a few held blazing torches that guttered wildly in the breeze, forcing those coming the other way to flatten themselves against the shuttered wooden shopfronts to avoid being singed. Most hurried about their business without giving Talbot or Elena a second glance. It was too cold a night to want to stay outside longer than they had to. But Elena couldn't understand why they didn't all stop and stare at her. She felt every person in the city must know what she was about to do, and with each step she took, the dagger thumped against her leg like the heavy tolling of the funeral bell.
The air was heavy with the sweet smoke of the peat fires. Dozens of supper pots bubbled away in the houses, filling the night with the fragrance of beans, boiled mutton, salt pork, burnt goatweed, bitter sorrel and sour ale. The savoury smoke mingled with the piss and dung of human, dog, goose and swine, mixed up with rotting vegetables and the flyblown offal floating in the gutters.
Elena had grown so accustomed to the odours of the brothel, the sweat, the musky oils and suppurations of sex, that the city stench was as alien to her as a forest to a lapdog.
Talbot said he had found her outside on the street the night of Hugh's murder, but she didn't remember any of this.
They hurried through the alleys of the leather workers, and for a while the smell of new leather, hemp and beeswax feebly nudged their way through the other stenches. Unused to walking in the city streets, Elena continually slipped on the rotting rushes thrown out of the houses and felt the crunch of oyster shells beneath her feet.
Eventually the pair emerged into a broad, straight road, wide enough for carts and wagons to pass along it.
'We're in Mancroft,' Talbot announced, drawing her into the shadow behind some steps. 'Open your cloak, lass, so as they can see the silver hand. But keep your hood pulled well over your head and if you pass anyone, keep your face down. See, that way only the silver will catch the light of any lantern and that's what they'll remember.
'Now, you carry on down this street, then the first street you come to on the right, you go up there. The inn's towards the far end, but you'll not miss it. Look for the carved mermaid with a dried bush tied to its tail, that's it. Go into the courtyard round the back, and you'll see wooden steps. Chamber's at the top.'
'Aren't you coming with me?' Elena asked in alarm.
Talbot rubbed the bristles on his chin; Elena could hear them rasping against his rough hand. 'You're supposed to pass as one of the Hebrews. Their women don't walk with Christian men and no one's ever likely to mistake me for a Jew. For one thing, their men don't cut their beards. Go on now, and you do it soon as you get in there, very first chance you get, afore you lose your nerve.'
The brief moment of resolve Elena had felt in Ma's chamber had long since evaporated.
'I can't, Talbot. I'll fail, I know I will. I'm not strong enough. You could do it, please . . . please,' she begged. You've killed men before.'
'Aye, and so have you.' Talbot put a hand on her shoulder.
'It's got to be you that does it. That cunning woman said it was for the mandrake. If I do it, it'll not lift the curse.'
He bent his head close to hers. His hot breath smelled of raw onions. He pinched her cheek and there was almost a note of sympathy in his voice.
'You seen the other girls, the way they sidle up to a man and run their hand over his shoulder. Then they open their lips just a little and make to kiss him. Girl does that to a man and all his defences leave him. That's what you got to do to Osborn. Then, just as he bends forward to kiss you, you stick the dagger in and run straight for the door.
'Now, go on. Sooner you do it, sooner it'll be over and the safer we'll all be. Remember, lass, if he finds out you killed his brother, he'll