Belladonna at Belstone aktm-8 Read online

  He fell silent, expecting a similar brief summary of Hugh’s life, and under his interested gaze Hugh found himself retailing his history. By the second quart of ale his temper had improved, and by the third he and Elias were enjoying each other’s company.

  It was as they sat with their fourth pots that Hugh noticed two canons walking quickly from the room.

  “Come on, Paul. There’s no point in either of us staying here,” said one, a moderately ancient man in Hugh’s eyes.

  “But Godfrey, I…” This one was much younger, maybe only twenty or so. He caught sight of Hugh and closed his mouth sharply, hurrying from the room.

  When Hugh saw what had made them both leave, the servant’s mouth fell open.

  Elias followed his look and gave a weary smile. “If you like her you can hire her.”

  Hugh shook his head. He liked Rose and now, after a few ales, he could feel the first amorous stirrings, but through the warm haze that blurred his thinking, he knew he must tell Simon that she was here. After all, it wasn’t often that a young whore could be found consorting with canons within a priory’s precinct.

  Baldwin walked into the church after Bertrand and gazed about him with a feeling of sadness.

  In his day, the Knights Templar had possessed hundreds of little churches, all based upon the same design as Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem: unlike parish churches they were all circular. Although they were always spartan, they were as well-maintained as human ingenuity could manage, and if they needed money spent, they got it. This poor little church seemed as dilapidated as the rest of the priory.

  They had entered through the southern side, from the men’s cloister, and stood in the nave where men and travellers could congregate. The northern wall of the nave was some ten feet high, designed to conceal the ‘Brides of Christ’ from the lascivious gaze of men.

  It was poorly decorated. Baldwin saw paint on the wall over the altar, and could just make out the figure of Christ, but the colours were so faded and flaked that it was hard to see what scenes were being represented. The walls at the southern side had been painted as well, and the pillars, but these too had lost all definition, especially where the plaster had fallen away because of the damp beneath. It was in a very sorry state, and Baldwin felt almost guilty, as though the church was a living creature and he was intruding on its death.

  The altar was well appointed. Baldwin particularly noticed the large silver cross studded with precious stones, but this one area of perfection could not distract from the general aura of decay, an impression reinforced by the hole in the roof over the partition wall. Seeing that void overhead was like seeing a mutilated body.

  “Good God!” Bertrand cried, staring upwards with a devoutly shocked expression.

  Baldwin shot him a look. He had no need to remind himself that Bertrand had spoken of the hole at Peter Clifford’s house. The bishop’s surprise was feigned: there was surely nothing odd in finding it unmended so short a time after his visit – especially as a novice had died since; the nuns had other things to consider.

  Some clerics looked upon such matters differently. The fabric of a building like this was holy: it was a demonstration of the priory’s godliness, proof that the daily round of services served a purpose, protecting the souls of the living and the dead. The whole place was God’s own and, if allowed to moulder, that itself could be viewed as a rejection of God. The death of the novice had merely hastened her soul on its journey to heaven, to such eyes.

  But Baldwin was not of a mood to allow a murder to go unavenged. If, as the treasurer had alleged the prioress had assisted in the death of this young girl, then he, Baldwin, would insist on seeing her charged by a correctly constituted ecclesiastical court. She should suffer her penance for so heinous a crime.

  “The roof leaks,” he agreed testily. “Now, shall we go and see this prioress and make a start on our inquest?”

  Bertrand reluctantly allowed his eyes to return to earth, as if he would have liked to contemplate the seriousness of the damage to the church for a little longer – or perhaps, Baldwin wondered, he merely wanted Baldwin and Simon to add their own expressions of disgust at such a flagrant act of dereliction. Whatever the reason, Baldwin was unimpressed. He was tired, hungry and thirsty, and reasonably sure that Bertrand was motivated by his own political agenda.

  A door near the altar which gave into the nuns’ choir opened, and a man walked through, a youngish cleric, fair and good-looking, who bowed to Bertrand and kissed his ring before continuing on his way.

  Simon jerked a thumb after him. “Who’s that?”

  “The vicar,” Bertrand scowled.

  Baldwin stared after the man. He felt rather than saw Simon turn to the bishop.

  “So, Bertrand, this prioress. Tell us a little about her.”

  Baldwin looked away to stop himself chuckling. He knew how his old friend’s mind worked: Simon and he had investigated too many cases together, and the tone of bright innocence in Simon’s voice told Baldwin that the bailiff had little trust in the bishop.

  “She is lazy. Look about you!” Bertrand said shortly.

  “Is she young and indolent?” Simon pressed.

  “Or perhaps she is too flighty?” Baldwin asked.

  Bertrand sniffed. “You shall meet her,” he said and stomped away.

  Simon touched Baldwin’s arm. “Bertrand wants us to think an ageing trout like Lady Elizabeth could tempt a youngster like that vicar into her bed?”

  “You know the lady?” Baldwin murmured.

  “I know almost everyone living on my moors,“ Simon grinned.

  “I question this bishop’s motive in asking us here,“ Baldwin said. His friend’s eyes narrowed as they both watched the bishop. ”He must have known that there was little likelihood of her attracting so young a priest.“

  “So he’s looking to ruin her for another reason,” Simon acknowledged. “And that is why we are here – to help him. For promotion?”

  Baldwin nodded. Simon had secured his position by his own efforts and was often quick to spot another man’s politicking. Baldwin spoke softly. “He’s more keen on impressing Bishop Stapledon than worrying about a young girl’s death.”

  Simon eased his shoulders. “He may not find my approach to his taste,” he said happily. “For I intend finding the murderer – whatever the impact on Bertrand’s prospects!”

  As the two made their way to the bishop’s side, Jonathan came scurrying up.

  “My Lord Bishop?” he quavered.

  “Where’s the prioress?” Bertrand growled.

  “She…” Jonathan’s voice rose to a nervous falsetto. “She apologises, but pleads her heavy workload, my Lord. She begs that you will leave her until after Vespers. Um… Perhaps I could offer you refreshments? Or maybe you would like to speak to some of the nuns?”

  Bertrand opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Baldwin interrupted him. “I should first of all like to see the dead novice’s body; then the place where she died. Only when we have done that can we sit and relax.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  Bertrand glanced at Baldwin, then at Simon, who maintained a diplomatic silence. “Oh, very well! But you will inform your prioress that I am most unimpressed by her lack of attendance.” He lowered his head bullishly. “You will say that to her: I am most unimpressed.”

  Denise heard his words with a thrill of excitement. She had been about to leave the church, for her bladder was full, but when she heard the angry voice of the bishop she hurriedly threw her cloth and wax back into the aumbry and picked up a broom, posting herself near the door where she could eavesdrop better.

  The door slammed and Jonathan sped past. Denise tried to smile engagingly at him, but he ignored her, and soon his hurried steps had faded in the cloister outside.

  Denise sighed to herself. She would have liked the opportunity to ask him what was happening. Noticing the altar, she made an absent-minded obeisance in apology for allowing her mind to wand
er again, then belched.

  Her thoughts gravitated to the election again. To her mind, Margherita would be the better prioress, guaranteeing that the Rule would be enforced, but she could be a bit of a tyrant, and that might not be all to the good. Many nuns had their little foibles – not necessarily vices, of course, just little lapses – like her own. Denise knew she wasn’t wicked, but now she came to think about it, the treasurer might prove intolerant.

  There was nothing in the Rule to say a nun shouldn’t have a cup of wine or two, especially in winter to keep the chill out. Yet Margherita had presumed to try to tell her she was drunk that day; the night Moll died.

  Well, it was a lie. Denise knew she could hold her drink, and for Margherita to suggest she couldn’t was villainous.

  Pausing and leaning on her broom she recalled the scene. She had been sitting at the far end of the frater where she often settled when she couldn’t sleep. At such times she would drink a bottle or two. It was pleasant there, and when the weather was very brisk the warming room was only a short walk away, so there was always somewhere to ease her chilled limbs.

  When Margherita appeared that night Denise had only had the one bottle and was considering fetching a second when she saw the shadow pass on the wall opposite. At first she was struck cold with fear. All the novices were told hideous stories of the devils who lived on the moor, and no girl who had ever lain awake in the middle of a night, cold, lonely and homesick, who had heard the breeze mournfully groaning as it circled around the cloisters, or howling down the chimneys, or shrieking as it squeezed around doors, could ever quite forget the terror.

  There, sitting all alone in the frater, she had felt the force of the tales return, and as she watched the massive black shadow leap across the wall, she couldn’t restrain a squeak of horror: it was coming for her!

  Instantly she heard the reassuringly angry voice of Margherita. “Denise? Is that you?” She strode closer and wrinkled her nose. “Have you been drinking again? Yes, you’re drunk, aren’t you?”

  “I’m not, I was just having a little wine to keep the cold out. It’s so bitter in the dorter.”

  “You’re drunk, Denise, and you should get straight to bed. What would the novices think if they found you asleep down here snoring in your cups as they came back from Matins? No, not another word: go to your bed!”

  Cowed, Denise had obeyed. After all, obedience was one of the threefold oaths, together with poverty and chastity.

  Yet she couldn’t quite forget the sight of that shadow, not even now in the daylight. It wasn’t the petrifying, creeping movement it had seemed to make, nor the attitude, as if preparing to pounce, that got to her.

  Denise shivered and began sweeping more urgently as if trying to sweep away her memory. No, it wasn’t the shadowy figure itself; it was the sharp outline she had seen. The pointed outline of a long dagger in one hand.

  Chapter Eight

  Simon’s discomfort grew as the angry bishop walked to the door dividing the nuns’ cloister from the canons’. He could see that Baldwin was unaffected; the knight was perfectly used to wandering about religious grounds, and Bertrand was beyond any feelings other than his own pique at what he perceived as a slight from the prioress.

  But Simon knew no such comfort. To him, walking about this place was almost sacrilegious. It was a place of worship for those who dedicated their lives to God; not somewhere for the likes of him to idle about unhindered.

  It was a curious sensation for him. Usually the bailiff was hard-headed and impervious to such fine perceptions, a truly secular man. Raised and bred in Devon, living almost all his life out at Crediton, he had always prided himself on his commonsense. Not, of course, that that prevented him from a certain amount of what he thought of as sensible superstition.

  But Simon knew that his place was in the towns and wastes of Dartmoor, not in a convent, and especially not one in which nuns lived. If he had any choice in the matter, he’d have left right now. He was an instrument of secular law, responsible, through his Warden, to the King himself; but if a nun had committed an offence – even murder – he had no authority.

  That knowledge was frustrating in its own right. He knew, just as everyone did, that England’s stability was on a knife-edge, with barons up and down the realm joining forces to get rid of the upstart Despenser family. Simon was glad that he was entitled to leave his wife and daughter within Lydford Castle if they needed the security, for otherwise, with the country in the state it was, he’d not have left Lydford, suffragan Bishop Bertrand or no. If he had to leave Lydford, there were things Simon could have been doing to help secure the kingdom, raising money and assessing men-at-arms for the war which he had little doubt was shortly to come. Yet here he was, in a place where he could achieve nothing. Nuns fell under Canon Law; they were safe from prosecution in a civil court.

  What was the purpose of his presence? Simon wondered as he trailed unhappily after the bishop.

  Bertrand opened the connecting door Jonathan had used up near the altar and stalked through. Simon swallowed his feelings as Baldwin disappeared, and then followed them.

  For the first time in his life he was in a nunnery; the experience wouldn’t fulfil the occasional erotic dreams he’d enjoyed as a youngster. There would be no pleasure for him here.

  Hugh missed the table with his elbow, and carefully lifted it again, sure that no one would have noticed his slight clumsiness. It wasn’t as if he was drunk, after all; he was just drowsy. He needed refreshment after a long ride like that.

  Elias leaned with his back against the wall opposite. He made no sign of seeing Hugh’s near tumble as Hugh rested his chin on his hand, frowning with concentration. “So she comes up here to visit each night?”

  “Not every night,” Elias laughed. “Just now and then.”

  “What – sort of once a week?”

  “Yes, I suppose.” The smith nodded, then belched. “Last time I saw her was…” he went vacant a moment “… oh, when poor Moll died – yes, that was last week.”

  Hugh absorbed this. “But why doesn’t the prioress stop her?”

  “Prioress has better things to do,” said Elias, and tried to tap the side of his nose. His finger shot past without connecting.

  “What could be more important than stopping a whore in a convent?” Hugh demanded.

  “It’s more important she keeps it quiet,” Elias said knowingly, and grinned at his pot as if sharing a secret with it.

  “You mean she’s…?”

  Elias glanced up, and then gave Hugh a very old-fashioned look. “I won’t talk about the prioress.”

  When Hugh studied him, he thought the lay brother could only be some twenty-five summers old, no more, and yet his expression was as forbidding as a moorland farmer who had lived forty years on the bleak and inhospitable land.

  Elias continued, “I’m a lay brother. I may not be a priest, but that’s only because of my education. I’m not going to be disloyal to my prioress.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything,” Hugh said hastily. There was an edge of truculence to Elias’s voice that promised violence, and Hugh had no wish to be arrested for quarrelling in a convent. He hurried on soothingly, “Look, though – all those lads seem happy enough to take her. Are they all just unreligious or something?”

  Elias glanced over Hugh’s shoulder to where other brothers sat drinking. Rose had gone into the little room at the back with one of her clients, out of view of the rest so that those who wanted to stick to their vows wouldn’t be quite so sorely tempted. “They’re religious enough,” he said sadly. “But you don’t realise how hard it is to obey the Rule all the time, every day. Sometimes the men who’ve been serving longest just have to break free. Don’t condemn them for being men.” He took a gloomy sip of his drink.

  “I can’t blame them,“ Hugh agreed. ”How could I? She’s a lively little thing, that girl. She could tempt Christ Himself with those bright eyes of hers.“

  Elias nodded.
It was hard suffering the torments of lust, especially as a man who had sworn his life to the service of his God. Whether a man could love his Lord so perfectly when he desired a woman – well, the answer was easy, wasn’t it? The Rule said that any fornication was wrong, and the lay brothers must put aside lecherous thoughts. Not that it was easy when every day they knew that just a few yards away, over the wall that ran down the centre of the church, were women: some old, some young, and surely several of them as lusty as any of the men on this side.

  “You must be very God-fearing to be able to resist her charms, that’s all I can say,” said Hugh affably. He rose unsteadily. “Well, I’d best be getting back to my master’s room. Thanks for the ale.”

  “You’re most welcome.”

  Elias watched Hugh walk slowly and cautiously to the door, and then out into the darkening yard. And as he watched the servant, Elias could feel tears prickling in his eyes.

  “Who are you?” Bertrand barked.

  Denise dropped her broom and fell back a step, her mouth working with alarm.

  Baldwin touched Bertrand’s arm and stepped around him, smiling reassuringly. “Do not worry, Sister. This is the visitor, here to speak to your prioress about the death of the novice. My friend and I are both assisting him.”

  “I am the sacrist, My Lord Bishop,” Denise said breathlessly. “I am sure that Lady Elizabeth would…”

  Bertrand waved his hand dismissively. “I’ll see her later. For now, tell us where the poor girl’s body has been put.”

  Baldwin walked at Simon’s side a short way behind the visitor. Bertrand was rushing at this affair like a maddened boar, he thought. The man had no idea of subtlety. Even now he moved along at a cracking pace, hands clasped behind his back, withered left hand grasped in his right as if there was need for urgency. Baldwin was convinced that there was not. As far as he was concerned, the first thing to clear up was whether or not there had been a murder. No matter what the treasurer’s letter to Bertrand had said, deaths could often look suspicious. Especially if someone wanted things to look odd, and from the allegation the treasurer had made, she clearly thought something strange was going on. No, Baldwin hoped the whole matter had come up because of an accidental death; if so, then so much the better, for then they could all return to their homes.