Guilty by Definition

by Susie Dent

“Anyone remember ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’?” Alex said, pulling smoothly out into the traffic and raising her hand to an SUV that had slowed to let her out onto the main road. “It’s one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, but that’s the sum total of my knowledge. Chorus must have mentioned it for a reason.” Martha had a Pavlovian response to mention of Chaucer. She could see the opening page on her desk at university under the glow of her reading light, hear the laughter of other students passing in the corridor outside. Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour. “It’s one of my favorites,” Safi said. “Radix malorum est cupiditas. Greed is the root of all evil. It’s the one where three young men go in search of Death to kill him because he’s taking so many of their friends. They’re told they’ll find him under a tree, but when they get there, there’s a big pile of treasure instead, and they end up killing each other over it.”