by Ellis Peters
‘I know the girl,’ said the porter, nodding. ‘But I’ve seen nothing of her today.’
‘She told them at home she was coming down here. Soon after dinner, so the mother told me.’
‘I’ve neither seen nor spoken to her, and I’ve been here most of the time since noon. An errand or two to do, but I was only a matter of minutes away. Though she may have come in while my back was turned. But she’d need to speak to someone in authority. I think she’d have waited here at the gate until I came.’
Cadfael would have thought so, too. But if she’d caught sight of the prior as she waited, or Anselm, or Denis, she might very well have accosted one of them with her petition. Cadfael sought out Denis, whose duties kept him most of the time around the court, and within sight of the gate, but Denis had seen nothing of Fortunata. She was acquainted now with Anselm’s little kingdom in the north walk, she might have made her way there, seeking for someone she knew. But Anselm shook his head decidedly, no, she had not been there. Not only was she not to be found within the precinct now, but it seemed she had not set foot in it all day.
The bell for Vespers found Cadfael hovering irresolute over what he ought to do, and reminded him sternly of his obligations to the vocation he had accepted of his own free will, and sometimes reproached himself for neglecting. There are more ways of approaching a problem than by belligerent action. The mind and the will have also something to say in the unending combat. Cadfael turned towards the south porch and joined the procession of his brothers into the dim, cool cavern of the choir, and prayed fervently for Aldwin, dead and buried in his piteous human imperfection, and for William of Lythwood, come home contented and shriven to rest in his own place, and for all those trammelled and tormented by suspicion and doubt and fear, the guilty as well as the innocent, for who needs succour more? Whether he was building a fantastic folly round a book which might not even exist, or confronting a serious peril for any who blundered on too much knowledge, one crime was hard and clear as black crystal, someone had taken the sad, inoffensive life of Aldwin the clerk, of whom the one man he had injured had said honestly: ‘Everything he has said that I said, I did say.’ But someone else, to whom he had done nothing, had slipped a dagger between his ribs from behind and killed him.
Cadfael emerged from Vespers consoled, but not the less aware of his own responsibilities. It was still full daylight, but with the slanting evening radiance about it, and the stillness of the air that seemed to dim all colours into a diaphanous pearly sheen. There remained one enquiry he could still make, before going further. It was just possible that Fortunata, grown dubious of venturing to ask admittance to Elave so soon after a first visit, had simply asked someone at the gate, in the porter’s brief absence, to carry a message to the prisoner, nothing to which any man could raise objection, merely to remind him his friends thought of him, and beg him to keep up his courage. It might not mean anything that Cadfael had not encountered her on her way home, she might already have been back in the town, and used the time to some other purpose before returning home. At least he would have a word with the boy, and satisfy himself he was anxious to no purpose.
He took the key from where it hung in the porch, and went to let himself into the cell. Elave swung round from his little desk, and turned a frowning face because he had been narrowing his eyes and knitting his brows in the dimming light over one of Augustine’s more humane and ecstatic sermons. The apparent cloud cleared as soon as he left poring over the cramped minuscule of the text. Other people feared for him, but it seemed to Cadfael that Elave himself was quite free from fear, and had not shown even as restive in his close confinement.
‘There’s something of the monk in you,’ said Cadfael, speaking his thoughts aloud. ‘You may end up under a cowl yet.’
‘Never!’ said Elave fervently, and laughed aloud at the notion.
‘Well, perhaps it would be a waste, seeing what other ideas you have for the future. But you have the mind for it. Travelling the world or penned in a stone cell, neither of them upsets your balance. So much the better for you! Has anyone thought to tell you that the bishop’s come? In person! He pays you a compliment, for Coventry’s nearer the turmoil than we are here, and he needs to keep a close eye on his church there, so time given to your case is a mark of your importance. And it may be a short time, for he looks a man who can make up his mind briskly.’
‘I heard the to-do about someone arriving,’ said Elave. ‘I heard the horses on the cobbles. But I didn’t know who it might be. Then he’ll be wanting me soon?’ At Cadfael’s questioning glance he smiled, though seriously enough. ‘I’m ready. I want it, too. I’ve made good use of my time here. I’ve found that even this Augustine went through many changes of mind over the years. You could take some of his early writings, and they say the very opposite of what he said in old age. That, and a dozen changes between. Cadfael, did you ever think what a waste it would be if you burned a man for what he believed at twenty, when what he might believe and write at forty would be hailed as the most blessed of holy writ?’
‘That is the kind of argument to which the most of men never listen,’ said Cadfael, ‘Otherwise they would baulk at taking any life. You haven’t been visited today, have you?’
‘Only by Anselm. Why?’
‘Nor had any message from Fortunata?’
‘No. Why?’ repeated Elave with sharper urgency, seeing Cadfael frown. ‘All’s well with her, I trust?’
‘So I trust also,’ agreed Cadfael, ‘and so it should be. She told her family she was coming down to the abbey to ask if she could see you again, or get word of any progress in your case, that’s why I asked. But no one has seen her. She hasn’t been here.’
‘And that troubles you,’ said Elave sharply. ‘Why should it matter? What is it you have in mind? Is there some threat to her? Are you afraid for her?’
‘Let’s say I should be glad to know that she’s safe at home. As surely she must be. Afraid, no! But you must remember there is a murderer loose among us, and close to that household, and I would rather she kept to home and safe company than go anywhere alone. But as for today, I left Hugh Beringar keeping a close watch on the house and all who stir in and out of it, so set your mind at rest.’
They had neither of them been paying any attention to the passing sounds without, the brief ring of hooves distant across the court, the rapid exchange of voices, short and low, and then the light feet coming at an impetuous walk. It startled them both when the door of the cell was flung open before a gust of evening air and the abrupt entry of Hugh Beringar.
‘They told me I should find you here,’ he said, high and breathless with haste. ‘They say the girl is not here, and has not been since yesterday. Is that true?’
‘She has not come home?’ said Cadfael, aghast.
‘Nor she nor the other. The dame’s beginning to be anxious. I thought best to come down and fetch the girl home myself if she was still here, but now I find she has not been here, and I know she is not at home, for I’m fresh come from there. So long away, and not where she said she’d be!’
Elave clutched at Cadfael’s arm, shaking him vehemently in his bewilderment and alarm. ‘The other? What other? What is happening? Are you saying she may be in danger?’
Cadfael fended him off with a restraining arm, and demanded of Hugh: ‘Have you sent to the workshop?’
‘Not yet! She might have been here, and safe enough. Now I’m going there myself. Come with me! I’ll see you excused to Father Abbot afterwards.’
‘I will well!’ said Cadfael fervently, and was starting for the door, but Elave hung upon him desperately, and could not be shaken off.
‘You shall tell me! What other? What man? Who is it threatens her? The workshop… whose?’ And on the instant he knew, and moaned the name aloud: ‘Jevan! The book – you believe in it… You think it was he…?’ He was on his feet, hurling himself at the open doorway, but Hugh stood solidly in his way, braced between the jambs.
> ‘Let me go! I will go! Let me out to go to her!’
‘Fool!’ said Hugh brusquely, ‘don’t make things worse for yourself. Leave this to us, what more could you do than we can and will? Now, with the bishop already here, see to your own weal, and trust us to take care of hers.’ And he shifted aside enough to order Cadfael, with a jerk of his head: ‘Out, and fit the key!’ and forthwith gripped Elave struggling in his arms, and bore him back to trip him neatly with a heel and tip him onto his bed. By the time he had sprung again like a wildcat, Hugh was outside the door, Cadfael had the key in the lock, and Elave thudded against the timber with a bellow of rage and despair, still a prisoner.
They heard him battering at the door and shouting wild appeals after them as they made for the gatehouse. They would surely hear him right across the court and into the guest-hall, all the windows being open to the air.
‘I sent to saddle up a horse for you,’ said Hugh, ‘as soon as I heard she was not here. I can think of nowhere else she might have gone, and seeing he went back there… Has she been searching? Did he find out?’
The porter had accepted the sheriff’s orders as if they came from the abbot himself, and was already leading a saddled pony up from the stable yard at a brisk trot.
‘We’ll go straight through the town, it’s quicker than riding round.’
The thunderous battering on the cell door had already ceased. Elave’s voice was silent, but the silence was more daunting then the fury had been. Elave nursed his forces and bided his time.
‘I pity whoever opens that door again tonight,’ said Cadfael breathlessly, reaching for the rein. ‘And within the hour someone will have to take him his supper.’
‘You’ll be back with better news by then, God willing,’ said Hugh, and swung himself into the saddle and led the way out to the Foregate.
*
Between the bells that signalled the offices of the horarium, Elave’s timepiece was the light, and he could judge accurately the passing of another clear day by those he had already spent in this narrow room. He knew, as soon as he drew breath and steeled himself into silence, that it could not be long now before the novice who brought his food would come with his wooden platter and pitcher, expecting nothing more disturbing than the courteous reception to which he had become accustomed, from a prisoner grimly resigned to patience, and too just to blame a young brother under orders for his predicament. A big, strapping young man they had chosen for the duty, with a guileless face and a friendly manner. Elave wished him no ill and would do him none if he could help it, but whoever stood between him and the way to Fortunata must look out for himself.
Yet the very arrangement of the cell was advantageous. The window and the desk beneath it were so situated that the opening of the door partly obscured them from anyone entering, until the door was closed again, and the natural place for the novice to set down his tray was on the end of the bed. Visit by visit he had lost all wariness, having had no occasion for it thus far, and his habit was to walk in blithely, pushing the door wide open with elbow and shoulder, and go straight to the bed to lay down his burden. Only then would he close the door and set his broad back to it, and pass the time of morning or evening companionably until the meal was done.
Elave withdrew from the indignity of shouting appeals that no one would heed or answer, and settled down grimly to wait for the footsteps to which he had grown used. His nameless novice had a giant’s stride and a weighty frame, and the slap of his sandals on the cobbles was more of a hearty clout. There was no mistaking him, even if the narrow lancet of window had not afforded a glimpse of the wiry brown ring of his tonsure passing by before he turned the corner and reached the door. And there he had to balance his tray on one hand while he turned the key. Ample time for Elave to be motionless behind the door when the young man walked in as guilelessly as ever, and made straight for the bed.
The smallness of the space caused Elave to collide sidelong with the unsuspecting boy and send him reeling to the opposite wall but even so the prisoner was round the door and out into the court, and running like a hare for the gatehouse, before anyone in sight realised what had happened. After him came the novice, with longer legs and a formidable turn of speed, and a bellow that alerted the porter, and fetched out brothers, grooms and guests like a swarm of bees, from hall and cloister and stableyard. Those quickest to comprehend and most willing to join any pursuit converged upon Elave’s flying figure. Those less active drew in more closely to watch. And it seemed that the first shouted alarm had reached even the abbot’s lodging, and brought out Radulfus and his guest in affronted dignity to suppress the commotion.
There had been from the first a very poor prospect of success. Yet even when four or five scandalised brothers had run to mass in Elave’s path and pinion him between them, he drove the whole reeling group almost to the arch of the gate before they hung upon him so heavily that he was dragged to a standstill. Writhing and struggling, he was forced to his knees, and fell forward on his face on the cobbles, winded and sobbing for breath.
Above him a voice said, quite dispassionately: ‘This is the man of whom you told me?’
‘This is he,’ said the abbot.
‘And thus far he as given no trouble, threatened none, made no effort to escape?’
‘None,’ said Radulfus, ‘and I expected none.’
‘Then there must be a reason,’ said the equable voice. ‘Had we not better examine what it can be?’ And to the captors, who were still distrustfully retaining their grip on Elave as he lay panting: ‘Let him rise.’
Elave braced his hands against the cobbles and got to his knees, shook his bruised head dazedly, and looked up from a pair of elegant riding-boots, by way of plain dark chausses and cotte to a strong, square, masterful face, with a thin, aquiline nose, and grey eyes that were bent steadily and imperturbably upon the dishevelled hair and soiled face of his reputed heretic. They looked at each other with intent and fascinated interest, judge and accused, taking careful stock of a whole field of faith and error, justice and injustice, across which, with all its quicksands and pitfalls, they must try to meet.
‘You are Elave?’ said the bishop mildly. ‘Elave, why run away now?’
‘I was not running away, but towards!’ said Elave, drawing wondering breath. ‘My lord, there’s a girl in danger, if things are as I fear. I learned of it only now. And I brought her into peril! Let me but go to her and fetch her off safe, and I’ll come back, I swear it. My lord, I love her, I want her for my wife… If she is threatened I must go to her.’ He had got his breath back now, he reached forward and gripped the skirt of the bishop’s cotte, and clung. An incredulous hope was springing up within him, since he was neither repelled nor avoided. ‘My lord, my lord, the sheriff is gone to try and find her, he will tell you afterwards, what I say is true. But she is mine, she is part of me and I of her, and I must go to her. My lord, take my word, my most sacred word, my oath that I will return to face my judgement, whatever it may be, if only you will loose me for these few hours of this night.’
Abbot Radulfus took two paces back from this encounter, very deliberately, and with so strong a suggestion of command that all those standing by also drew off silently, still watching wide-eyed. And Roger de Clinton, who could make up his mind about a man in a matter of moments, reached a hand to grip Elave strongly by the hand and raise him from the ground, and stepping with an authoritative gesture from between Elave and the gate, said to the porter: ‘Let him go!’
*
The workshop where Jevan of Lythwood treated his sheepskins lay well beyond the last houses of the suburb of Frankwell, solitary by the right bank of the river, at the foot of a steep meadow backed by a ridge of trees and bushes higher up the slope. Here the land rose, and the water, even at its summer level, ran deep, and with a rapid and forceful current, ideal for Jevan’s occupation. The making of vellum demanded an unfailing supply of water, for the first several days of the process running water, and this spot
where the Severn ran rapidly provided perfect anchorage for the open wooden frames covered with netting, in which the raw skins were fastened, so that the water could flow freely down the whole length of them, day and night, until they were ready to go into the solution of lime and water in which they would spend a fortnight, before being scraped clean of all remaining hair, and another fortnight afterwards to complete the long bleaching. Fortunata was familiar with the processes which produced at last the thin, creamy-white membranes of which her uncle was so justly proud. But she wasted no time on the netted cages in the river. No one would hide anything of value there, no matter how many folds of cerecloth were wrapped round it for protection. A faint drift of a fleshy odour from the soaking skins made her nostrils quiver as she passed, but the current was fast enough to disperse any stronger stench. Within the workshop the fleshy taint mingled with the sharp smell from the lime tanks, and the more acceptable scent of finished leather.
She turned the key in the lock, and went in, taking the key in with her and closing the door. It was heavy and dark within there, having been closed since morning, but she did not dare open the shutters that would let in light directly on to Jevan’s great table, where he cleaned, scraped and pumiced his skins. Everything must appear closed and deserted. There were no houses near, no path passing close by. And surely now she had time enough and no need for haste. What was no longer in the house must be here. He had no other place so private and so his own.
She knew the layout of the place, where the tanks of lime lay, one for the first soaking when the skins came from the river, one for the second, after both sides had been scraped clean of hair and traces of flesh. The final rinsing was done in the river, before the membranes were stretched over a frame and dried in the sun, and subjected to repeated and arduous cleanings with pumice and water. Jevan had taken in the single frame in use on his morning visit; the skin stretched over it felt smooth and warm to the touch.
