“Priest and wise-woman have left him alone with a man whose brothers are afeard to come near him and whose heriot, should he die, will be a five-toed cockerel. At dusk Edmund hustles cock and hens into the coop, fills buckets in the river and, after lighting one of Nell’s tallow candles, eats the bread and cheese in his pouch. Flame and faggot natter in the hearth. Dark patches now stain the skin on Ezekiel’s chest; when Edmund tries to make him drink, his tongue is blackened and his breath vile. He groans and cries out, sometimes gabbling words that make no sense, and though the evening is cool, he is on fire with fever.”

From ‘The Seeker of Mercy’ – included in the showcase