The Abbot's Gibbet Read online

  “Yes. I have to buy wine. And you?”

  “My son Pietro and I are to visit the Abbot of Tavistock.”

  It was said with a calm hauteur, and Arthur accepted his subservient position. If the Italian could call on an Abbot, a man who ranked with a lord, he must be important. Once Avice was married to John, a little of that great family’s importance would reflect on him, but until then Arthur knew he was only a merchant, someone who might be rich, but who was insignificant compared with a man of God or even the poorest member of the nobility. Caste was important, and Arthur knew his place in society. He might well be one of the most affluent men in southern Devon, yet to a knight or baron he was simply a commoner, and as such unimportant.

  Arthur passed a measuring eye over the man. There was no doubt in his mind that the stranger was very prosperous. His tunic was expensive, of softly woven wool, and his shoes were of supple red leather. At his belt was a sword, and Arthur wondered a moment whether he might be a knight, but although he carried the trappings, something struck a wrong note. Neither he nor his son displayed a shield; neither had heraldic arms woven into their clothing. Their servant, who led two packhorses laden with goods and a large box, was dressed only poorly in a coarse tunic with a linen shirt beneath and ordinary hose whereas a knight’s man-at-arms would have demonstrated how well-heeled his master was by wearing a costly uniform to display his rank and position. This servant was no better clad than Arthur’s groom.

  The quality of their horseflesh jarred too. Though the animals were caparisoned in the latest style, with bells hanging from the harnesses and expensive tooling on the saddles and bridles, the beasts themselves were of low standard, not good palfreys but broken-looking ponies. It made Arthur blink in surprise as he glanced from one to another.

  The son, Pietro, was well-formed—tall, with raven-black hair and the flashing dark eyes of the Mediterranean. He was dressed extravagantly: his hose were tight-fitting, and he wore a parti-colored tunic of red and green velvet. Arthur shot his daughter a glance. To his pleasure, he saw that Avice was maintaining a dignified lack of interest, staring ahead in her eagerness to catch sight of the town.

  Arthur engaged the older man in desultory conversation as they rode, and found that his name was Antonio da Cammino; he was a merchant from Venice. From his speech, Cammino was wealthier than Arthur would have guessed. He spoke of a fleet of galleys trading between the cities of Italy, going as far as Palestine and Byzantium.

  “You speak English very well,” Arthur complimented him respectfully.

  “I have been dealing here for many years—I have an interest in some banking ventures. And now I am here to talk to the Abbot.”

  “For business?”

  The Venetian nodded. “While there is enmity between your King and the King of France, there are opportunities to make money.”

  Arthur nodded. King Edward II was involved in a lengthy dispute with the French once more. The French King insisted on his right to hear appeals from the English King’s vassals in Gascony, but for the English to accept this, they must accept that the French crown was suzerain, and that was impossible while the Gascon territories yielded greater revenue than England. Edward II could not afford to see his lands diminished, they were crucial to him; he wanted to establish that he held Gascony as an alod, in full sovereignty, but the French wanted him to submit to the treaty of 1259 that conferred upon the French Crown rights of vassalage over the English King.

  If the King was strong, there might be a way of negotiating a respectable settlement, but Arthur knew as well as any that Edward II was weak. He had no interest in politics. It was rumored that he was more interested in certain male court favorites than in matters of state, and his reputation as a warlord had been crushed with his soldiers at the disaster of Bannockburn. It was hardly likely that he would consider war against France. How could tiny England ever hope to win a war against so massive and powerful an enemy?

  But Cammino was right: there was always a way to make money, even in a war. A merchant like him, with his own fleet, could import wines from Gascony, or help provision an army, or simply lend cash to a baron or king in need. And while hostilities remained verbal, a skillful man could build up his stores against the time when they would be needed, and earn a good profit.

  Cammino’s son Pietro listened idly to the two men talking about their business, but he found his attention wandering to Arthur’s daughter.

  Avice Pole was elegant for her fifteen years. Her skin was pale, her features finely molded, with soft doe-eyes and a slightly tip-tilted nose. Her brow was high, giving her a mature and intelligent look, and her hair, from what he could see under her fashionable little wimple, was chestnut. She looked serene and confident in her green tunic with the embroidery at hem and throat.

  He was desperate to engage her in conversation, but Pietro had little experience of talking to women. His life had been one of constant travel, with few opportunities for dalliance, and he had no idea what topic would attract her. It was essential that he should see her again, intolerable that once they arrived in Tavistock he might not—ever. As their little company began to descend a hill he racked his brains to devise a scheme to meet her, but the solution was offered by Arthur himself.

  “It has been pleasant to pass the journey in your company, sir. Would you be kind enough to accept a pot of wine with me? It will take time for my cart to be unloaded tonight, but there is a tavern at Tavistock. Perhaps I could entertain you there at compline?”

  “I would be glad to, and you must bring your delightful wife and daughter,” he said, bowing graciously, and Pietro relaxed, shooting a quick glance at Avice. To his surprise, she was giving him a covert look from the corner of her wimple, and when he grinned, he was sure she returned it.

  It was at the edge of a wood bordering the town’s plain that they first heard the friar.

  “Do you know what you’re doing, eh? Do you realize your mortal danger? Everything you do is against Christ’s teachings!”

  To Luke, Cammino’s servant, he looked like any wandering mendicant: thin, bowed as if from a great burden, with glittering, almost fanatical blue eyes. His hair, what was left below his tonsure, was gray with age, and his skin as brown as a peasant’s, as if he lived all his life in the open air. He wasn’t shouting or haranguing, but speaking sadly, as though convinced his message was essential if only people would listen.

  At his side was a small gathering, most making merry at the cleric’s expense, and children played behind. One man appeared to be listening with interest, however—a rough-looking, barrel-chested, middle-aged man with grizzled hair and the heavy build of a farmer.

  “My friends, haven’t you heard the words of St. Augustine? He told us business itself is evil. Money is evil: it taints your immortal soul. Do not go to the fair to make profit; profit is evil! Do you go to buy new cloths and fabrics? They are the traps of the devil, leading to the sin of pride. Why do you want to flaunt expensive clothing and dress your women in gold and jewels? If you buy up things you don’t need, you are guilty of the sin of avarice. The land is plentiful, there is food enough for all…”

  Friars often selected individuals to harangue in order to emphasize their points, and with relief Luke saw the man’s eyes fall on Antonio and not him. “Master, are you here to sell goods?”

  Antonio glanced down at the friar with distaste. “No, I am here to see the good Abbot.”

  “You are a merchant, though. Friend, give up your life of evil! St. Jerome told us a merchant can seldom ever please God. It’s wrong to make money when you do nothing for it.”

  “I work hard enough for my money,” said Antonio, flushing at the insult to his dignity.

  “Buying goods wholesale and selling them for a higher price without doing anything to improve them is immoral, my son. It is condemned by canon law. My son, stop living your life of sin!” He had grabbed Antonio’s bridle, and stood beseechingly, his eyes holding the Venetian’s.

&
nbsp; Antonio tugged his horse’s head free and swore under his breath. “My life is not sinful. I earn my money, and it’s people like me who give alms to you and your brothers so that you can preach at us. Here…” he pulled a few coins from his purse and threw them down “…take the money, if you don’t think it will taint your flesh! Now, leave me in peace!”

  Spurring his horse, he rode on, and the others followed. Luke heard Arthur say consolingly, “These friars are a nuisance, but don’t let him upset you. He can’t understand business.”

  “I’m just glad he didn’t know I issue loans as well,” Antonio chuckled. “Can you imagine what he would have said if he had heard I was a…a damned usurer!”

  Friar Hugo stared after the little group riding down the slope. There were times when he felt that the struggle to save souls was too much for him. People were uninterested in the life to come; they were too tightly bound to their narrow, secular lives and couldn’t, or wouldn’t, raise their eyes to heaven.

  Much of it, he knew, was the fault of corrupt churchmen. Since the Pope had moved to Avignon his sole interest was finance. Appointments were sold, no matter where in the church. Simony was rife, with bishops paying a year’s income for their benefices and then passing the cost down through the hierarchy, affecting—or infecting—all, from abbots to priests and friars.

  And that was not the worst of it. Friars themselves were not living as St. Francis wanted. He, Hugo knew, had forseen the problems; when a novice had asked him for a psalter, St. Francis had refused him, saying that first he would want a psalter, and then he would want a breviary, and then he would sit in a chair like a great prelate and ask another brother to fetch it for him. To St. Francis, the possession of a single item could lead to avarice and the desire for authority over others.

  Now friars were living in halls, their food and shelter guaranteed. They had immense buildings, and some didn’t even wear their habits but dressed as burgesses, ignoring the tonsure, letting their hair grow long and sporting beards. Many were known to father children. They would take small dogs with them when they went abroad, in order to tempt women into conversation, and then ravish them.

  But Hugo took his vocation seriously. He rejected the world of money, of influence, of worldly goods. It was his duty—a solemn, holy duty—to save the souls of the sinners he saw each day.

  “Brother?”

  Hugo turned. It was the man who had stood by him as he preached. The friar gave a faint smile. If only one was prepared to listen, that was at least something. “Yes?”

  “Is it right that a man should take money from another when he doesn’t need it?”

  “Christ taught us that money is evil. It’s right that a man who creates a barrel should be rewarded for his labor, the same as a man who makes a tapestry, or a millwheel, but making money from money is a sin. If a man takes money he has not himself earned from his own labor, he is guilty of avarice, and that is a sin.”

  Some of the crowd had returned, hoping that the friar was to be the target of ridicule. A little boy with a stick poked Hugo’s side, and he gently ruffled the lad’s head. “There’s too much hankering after riches in this world. Look at this boy—he doesn’t care for money. He doesn’t need bells of jewels or gold. He is content. If there was no greed for money, the world would be freed of much of its discord.”

  At the sound of steps he faced the road through the woods again. “My friends, repent of your sins. Do you realize your peril? St. Jerome said…”

  “Shut up, priest. We don’t need your sort to preach at us.” The speaker was a tall, swarthy character, with skin burned from wind and sun. He traipsed along at the head of a group of four, all dressed in cheap tunics and hose, and all armed with clubs and swords like men-at-arms. “We know how religious you and your brethren are, eating meat every day and taking whichever woman takes your fancy.”

  “My son, I eat little meat, only some fish. Does my belly look as if I live on meat and wine? But your soul, if you come to the fair to fill your pockets, will be eating the devil’s food. If you come to make profits from other men’s labor, I will…”

  “Shut up, old fool.” The man shoved Hugo out of the way. “We haven’t time to listen to your prating.”

  “Come on, leave him alone, he’s doing no harm.” Hugo was gripped by the elbows and lifted from the roadway. The man who had questioned him now stood between him and the four. “He’s only trying to help people.”

  “We don’t need his kind of help,” said the spokesman. “We’re watchmen—from Denbury—here to keep the peace, and if you get in our way you’ll not see the fair except through the clink’s bars.”

  “Well, in case you don’t find me, my name is Roger Torre. I’d be happy for you to try to take me to the jail now, but…” he jerked a thumb toward the town “…you might find it hard to carry me so far. I’m heavy.”

  Hugo could hear the light tone of Torre’s voice, but his stance betrayed his readiness. The watchman curled his lip, but was in no mood for a fight after walking over ten miles already that day. He shouldered his club. “I’m Long Jack. If you cross me, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

  “I doubt it,” Torre said cheerily, and stood back to let them pass.

  On they trudged, and Hugo watched them disappear down the slope. “Thank you, my friend, for speaking for me, but don’t put yourself in danger to protect me.”

  “I reckon you need someone to look after you, brother. But enough! Come with me, and I’ll buy you some beer. I want to talk to you about money.”

  2

  Of all the roads he’d travelled since the murders, this one, with the unwanted memories insinuating themselves into his mind, felt the most ominous.

  The trees met overhead, their branches intermingling to shut out the light and creating a cavern of twilight beneath. Here in the gloom lay the road. In the oppressive, muggy heat of late August, the horses’ hooves and harnesses sounded dull. Soft grass underfoot deadened the tramping feet. The rumble of the wagon wheels, the squeaking of the axles and chains, the hollow rattle of pans knocking together, all sounded dead to him, as if he was riding on in a dream in which the pictures were distinct but all noise had been killed. Many years ago this environment had given him peace. Now it represented only danger.

  As the track began to rise, he could remember that last journey as distinctly as if it had been last week, not years ago. It felt as if the road was taking him back to his past, and it was with a mixture of fear and hope that he jolted along. Both struggled to overcome him, but he kept his face expressionless. His fellow travellers could not guess at his emotions.

  It was nearly twenty years ago, he recalled. Yet after so long, the smells and sounds were still familiar. This was the place of his birth. These were the smells of his childhood: herbs, peat fires, the tang of cattle in their yards, the musky stench of humans. Even the reek from the midden was oddly poignant.

  Now, over the creaking and thundering of the wagons, he could hear other noises. There was hammering and shouting, the rasp of saws through wood, and echoing thuds as axes sliced into boughs. They were the noises of his youth, the cacophony of business as could be heard in any thriving borough, but in these surroundings they gave him a feeling of release, as if he was at last being freed from his isolation.

  He came into the sun and stared down along the valley. The view was one he had held fixed in his mind over all the hundreds of miles since he had managed to escape. His nose caught a faint peatiness in the air, and he snuffed the breeze with a quick pleasure, like a spaniel scenting game, before the other memories flashed back into his mind and his face took on its customary blank hardness.

  The wind was welcome. It was almost the feast of St. Rumon, at the end of a hot summer, and the soft gusts were pleasant, cooling the sweat on the traveller’s body as he glanced at his companions. Few among them could know how vicious and deadly those same winds would be in the dead of winter. He did; he had seen how the chill winter blast could kil
l men out on the moors.

  But his thoughts were not bent toward the weather. With every foot and yard he covered, he could feel the memories rushing back to engulf him: her face, screaming; the bloody axe; the taunting cries and jeers as he ran from them—and later the disbelief that he should be the one accused, the one arrested for the inevitable trial, the one to be hanged.

  He could see the gibbet in his mind’s eye: a stark shape among the softly moving trees at either side. It had been dusk when he first saw it, and as he had passed it with his father, it had squeaked in protest to the wind, and made him shiver. It sounded eerie and evil. In later years he had rarely glanced at it—there were so many up and down the country—yet once riding back from Oakhampton, he heard it creaking and moaning in the gusts, and when he looked, the trees were waving their branches in a sinuous dance as if beckoning him. He had been fixed with a sudden horror, as if the gallows were calling to him alone.

  At the time he must have been Hankin’s age. He glanced at the boy. Hankin sat on the cart, reins slack in his hands, nodding somnolently under the effects of the warm sun and the quart of good ale he had drunk for his lunch. Hankin was the orphan of an English merchant in Bayonne, and when no one else would look after the lad, he had taken him on as apprentice. Hankin in some way filled the gap left by his wife, who had died from a hemorrhage while pregnant with their first-born, and he liked to think his own son would have been much the same, quick to learn and self-confident.

  They were coming out of the woods now, and he slowed, to the loud disgust of the men and women behind, as he stared down at the town.

  In the late afternoon of a summer’s day, it was a scene of perfect tranquility. From this direction, the valley looked like a wide saucer of land. The river was a glittering band cutting through the countryside like a curving steel ribbon. Smoke rose from the houses and hamlets dotted around the small plain, and the gray moorstone blocks of the church and Abbey stood somehow indistinct in the haze. The towers rose spectacularly, gaunt and bold in their great simplicity. Little could compare with their stark squareness; their very regularity was a testament to their holy design. Nearby buildings were dwarfed.