The Alchemist of Netley Abbey: Eighth in the Hildegard of Meaux medieval mystery series

by Cassandra Clark

  Lucie blushed even more. ‘He can hardly look after himself, let alone anyone else.’

  Hildegard guessed the meaning of Lucie’s blushes. ‘Jankin’s a clever lad. He’ll never go hungry, nor will anyone he cares for.’

  ‘Thank you, domina.’ The blue eyes shone for a moment. ‘He said he would never let anybody box my ears again. I shall stay here until he comes back.’

  ‘Where is he?’

  ‘Helping Master John and Brother Hywel count things off in the sacristy. They’re going to fetch everything else off the cog before night-fall.’

  As Hildegard got up to go she blurted, ‘I hadn’t thought of this till now but you might also find my mistress there. Hovering about Master John.’

  ‘She has designs on him?’

  ‘A wealthy merchant? Of course she does. He could be her means to salvation. At least, that’s what she told me.’

  ‘Lucie, maybe you can tell me why she wanted Friar Hywel to do that horrible thing to the blackbird?’

  ‘It’s going to be part of her act. She’s hoping to set herself up as a seer when we get to France...if she fails to find a rich man before then.’

  Hildegard saw her glance move away and then, like a sudden burst of sunshine, her eyes lit up. She rose onto her knees on the cushion and when Hildegard turned it was to see Jankin dancing towards them.

  He gave a neat bow to Hildegard but his attention was fixed on Lucie and without being invited he threw himself down beside her onto the cushion and gave her a hug. Hildegard decided it was tactful to leave but Jankin stopped her.‘What do you think to this, domina?’

  When she looked closer she saw he was holding out a mouse.

  ‘Oh let me see!’ cried Lucie.

  ‘Aren’t you afraid of him?’ he asked her.

  ‘What? Of a furry little creature like this? May I hold him? What’s he called?’

  ‘You can choose a name for him if you like.’ He looked up at Hildegard, ‘Friar Hywel instructed me to kill him for one of his experiments but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. The little fellow has a wife and six tiny babies still with their eyes shut. I’ll show you their nest,’ he said, turning to Lucie, ‘if your mistress will let you come with me.’

  ‘Her. I’ve just said, she’s probably making eyes at Merchant John and I’m supposed to be making friends with his wife who’s ill to find out his secrets to take back so mistress can work better on him.’

  Jankin frowned. ‘Are you going to?’

  ‘Would I dare not?’

  ‘She’d never know whether what you said was true or not.’

  ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’

  ‘Is a lie sometimes not such a sin, domina?’

  ‘It depends. If the person being lied to is also lying it makes it a confusing point, certainly.’

  ‘There you are then, she’s lying to you so you can lie to her.’ Jankin beamed.

  Hildegard was just about to dispute the point when he swerved back to the topic of mice, ‘I’m keeping this little fellow. I told brother friar I lost him. I think it’s a good lie because it saves the life of a living creature. I’ll say I can’t get another one for him either because they’ve all swarmed to the river because of the cat one of the guests brought in. Can you believe that?’ He laughed. ‘Somebody coming on pilgrimage with a cat!’

  ‘If it’s a pet it can be presented to the saint,’ Lucie replied.

  ‘Or maybe the owner’s a witch,’ Jankin added in a dark voice, ‘what about that, hey, Lucie?’

  She pretended to shiver...although in view of what she had told Hildegard about Delith’s intentions, maybe it was not pretence. Deciding it was time to move off Hildegard asked Jankin whether Mistress Delith was in fact in the sacristy making eyes at Master John.

  He shook his head. ‘Not while I was there she wasn’t but her name was mentioned.’

  Egbert was playing dice and he seemed to be winning. After what he had said earlier about the passion for the game she was astonished. The three mercenaries were lost in wonder at his apparently endless streak of good luck.

  ‘He’s got an unfair advantage over us – with God on his side,’ one of them scoffed, defeated. He got up and headed for the kitchens saying, ‘I’ll go and beg more ale.’

  Egbert threw down the dice and made to leave as well. ‘I shall have to do a penance for this so I’d better stop now or I’ll be on my knees till Christmas. Better luck, lads.’ He threw down a few coins. ‘Take my winnings. See what they’ll do for you. I can’t put them to any use.’

  He joined Hildegard.‘Well, well,’ he said under his breath.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I never expected to be playing dice with Arundel’s cut-throats.’

  ‘Arundel?’

  ‘They can’t help the fate that’s been thrust upon them,’ he added with a glint of compassion, ‘but I wish they’d open their eyes to the light. Maybe my apparent preferment in the sight of the lord will bring them to it?’’

  She caught his eye. ‘Egbert! You would never do that, would you?’ She lowered her voice. ‘Sleight of hand?’ When he chuckled she said, ‘You devil in monk’s garb!’

  ‘Ways and means. Worth it to save a soul? You saw how impressed they were?’

  ‘On that same subject of souls, can you tell me if Gregory is still searching for Mistress Delith?’

  ‘He was last time I saw him. Why?’

  ‘Has he tried the sacristy?’

  Egbert bestowed one of his special smiles on her. ‘Let’s go. Who did you get this from?’

  The sacristy was a good-sized, vaulted chamber between the Chapter House and the misericord with a door half-way along one wall and a larger one facing Cloister Garth. It had a small ante-chamber with a locked aumbry full of books and with only a couple of narrow window slits had little natural light. A series of cressets in metal wall-brackets were placed at intervals between the storage stacks bestowing colour on a multitude of objects.

  Master John’s booming voice, magnified by the stone roof vault, came to them distinctly as they banged on the studded oak doors and a lay-brother inspected them through a crack. When he saw a monk and a nun he let them in. At his hip was a useful-looking sword.

  ‘No insult, brother, domina. Just following orders. We’ve got some valuable stuff in here.’

  ‘Quite right, brother,’ Egbert agreed. ‘Any thief would be glad to get his hands on this lot, no doubt about that.’

  Grinning, the lay-brother led the way to an inner door and pointed to the chamber beyond. ‘If it’s Master John and Brother Hywel you want they’re in there as you can hear.’

  ‘No-one else with them?’ Egbert asked above the sound of raised voices.

  ‘Only Brother Heribert to keep an eye on things.

  Egbert indicated for Hildegard to go first.

  Such was the fierceness of their argument the two men did not hear anyone enter. Hildegard stopped on the threshold and stayed Egbert with one hand.

  Master John was shouting about something not being his fault and that he ran a tight outfit. ‘Are you telling me my ship man is a liar? And if he isn’t, I am? You scoundrel. You interfering, feckless friar, dragging me into your necromancies. I shan’t take this sitting down. You’re finished – ’

  ‘On the contrary, master.’ Hywel sounded ice cold. ‘It is not I who am finished but you yourself. When it gets out what has been stolen, and why, you’ll be hounded from the county. Then what will you do? Return to London? I doubt you’ll be able to. Is your ban still standing?’

  ‘Don’t you dare jibe me with that! It was a fix! Everybody with half a brain knows Nick Brembre fixed me good and proper. And now he’s fixed and so is his head – on a spike on Tower Hill! I’ll be back in favour before you can shake a stick. You don’t think I spent two years in Tintagel Castle for nothing do you? Day after day looking at the wall of my prison cell? I know what happened and I know how they rigged the vote – ’

  ‘So why did your lord the
duke of Lancaster not set you free before he sailed off to Castile? Does he count you so cheap he can do without you?’

  Hywel laughed with such open scorn it was enough to send the merchant flying across the chamber towards him as if to grasp him round the throat but Hywel merely gave him a look of such hatred he was stopped in his tracks,

  ‘I would not treat my powers so lightly, merchant, or you might find yourself on the wrong side of one of my spells.’

  ‘I’ll have you burned, you heretic – ’

  ‘Fortunately England does not burn seers and prophets – although, given the rabid incitements to do so coming from the mouths of lord Arundel and his brother it won’t be long before we sink into the same barbarous practices as France and Spain – then everybody will have to watch their tongues, including you.’

  ‘I’ll get you for treason then – ’

  ‘My crime? Trying to import a book which you and your ship man have allowed to be purloined?’ He laughed again. ‘I do not think you will do that, master. Not if you know what’s good for you.’

  ‘Don’t you threaten me, you cur!’

  Egbert was gripping Hildegard by the arm until it hurt. She turned her head. ‘Shall we go or stay?’

  ‘Stay?’ Egbert nodded his head faintly and stepped past her. ‘My dear friends, are we interrupting something?’

  Both men stared open-mouthed.

  ‘We were, it seems, unreliably informed that Mistress Delith was here?’

  Hywel gave a sneering laugh.

  Heribert, flattened against the bales of goods shrank back even further.

  Genial as ever Egbert said, ‘A search party is out looking for the good widow. This was our last resort.’ He pretended to peer round as if she might be hiding among the bales.

  ‘Of course she’s not here! Why should she be? And I told that man on the door not to let anyone in. I’ll skin him alive – ’

  ‘My fault entirely, master,’ Egbert broke in. ‘I pulled rank on the poor fellow. Forgive him. He was coerced by me most shamefully and could not do otherwise than obey me,’ and to drive home the point about rank he added, ‘brother friar, master,’ and inclined his head in a most abbatial manner towards each of them.

  John gave a sideways glance at Hywel and they both fell back a pace. ‘Can we help you?’ he asked grudgingly.

  ‘Not if she’s not here. We’ll let you get on with your business. Bless you both.’

  He and Hildegard withdrew but slowly enough to hear John mutter, ‘Did they hear anything? What are they slinking about here for?’

  ‘You heard them. They’re after one of your followers – ’ but the rest of Hywel’s words were inaudible.

  At the door on their way out Egbert spoke to the lay-brother. ‘If they give you any trouble, let me know. I couldn’t help putting the fear of God in you to force our way in, could I!’

  Grinning, the guard unlocked the door to let them out.

  ‘So that’s our Master John showing his true colours,’ remarked Egbert as they walked away. ‘I suspected he was a wrong ‘un.’

  ‘If I’m not mistaken he was known in the City of London as John of Nottingham. It must be the same man. He was accused, judged and sentenced to an indeterminate stay in Tintagel Castle. You won’t have heard about all that, being abroad. Back when Mayor Brembre was elected this Nottingham was Nick Brembre’s bitterest rival. Both of them played havoc with the voting system when it came to electing the City mayor – ’

  ‘By intimidation, no doubt?’

  ‘Paying armed men to oversee the voting in the wards, throwing opposition voters out of the Guildhall at sword point, yes, that sort of thing – and worse, if rumours are to be believed. Nottingham tried to get the popular vote by breaking the victualling guilds’ monopoly. It sounds fair until you understand that he was doing it to catch votes.’ She sighed. ‘I heard all about it when I was down there at the Parliament two years ago with Archbishop Neville. In fact it seemed to come down to the price of fish.’

  ‘As trivial as that?’

  ‘Not when you understand that fish is the staple diet. Pushing up the price of fish by fixing it high and using false weights brought many to the point of starvation. For the poor it became a matter of life and death. It made Nottingham popular when he was seen to challenge it.’

  ‘Merchants think only of profit. But this Nottingham, if it is him, seems to have good in him?’

  ‘Except that once in power he went on to establish a monopoly of his own. He thought nothing of infringing the freemen’s right to elect their own leaders. Things will never change in favour of ordinary folk while that goes on. They’ll always suffer by having the baron’s favourites thrust upon them to serve their own interests – ’

  ‘And his master is...?’

  ‘Arundel, of course.’

  ‘It was no different when I left England seven years ago, factions, secret allegiances. Will it ever change? The way parliament is set up fosters the greed of already rich men.’

  ‘Is it the same the world over?’

  ‘There’s always somebody trying to justify greed and ambition on the grounds that they know best.’

  Nobody needs more than one or two gold rings, or more than a few silk gowns – and maybe a plot of land where they can grow their own crops.’

  ‘We might debate this and a few other ideas forever.’He turned to her. ‘So...we can’t take the news to Gregory that we’ve found her. Where on earth can she be?’

  They parted then as the bell was calling them into the next Office and, with no sign of Delith in church, and no sign of Gregory either, Hildegard decided it was time she paid some attention to her abbot.

  ‘Dearest Hubert,’ she began as soon as she was sitting beside him in the privacy of his cubicle. ‘Are you feeling neglected?’

  He opened his eyes. ‘What I feel, Hildegard, is indescribable in mere words, English, French, Latin, or otherwise.’

  ‘Try, if you like. I’m here now.’

  His eyes gleamed. ‘I would probably shock you rigid with the wildness of my thoughts.’

  Her lip curled in mock-derision. ‘I doubt that, my lord, but do try me if you wish. I can withstand any shock.’

  He reached for her hand. ‘Now I feel only joy to be remembered in this one small corner of your day.’

  ‘Have you had many other visitors?’

  ‘Apart from Gregory. Did he eventually find the widow?’

  She shook her head. ‘Not as far as I know. Neither of them were in church just now.’

  Hubert looked puzzled. ‘What was she doing on the ship, apart from the obvious? Surely she couldn’t have anything to do with Brother Martin’s death? It makes no sense.’

  ‘Now we know he was poisoned everybody who was on board is open to suspicion. Delith was certainly on board when he died even though, as far as the ship man admits, she was busy most of the time.’

  ‘It might have taken only a moment to thrust something into Martin’s hand to kill him, a poisoned cup of some sort? One of these lethal concoctions from Venice?’

  ‘But where would she get hold of any such thing? And are you also suggesting she carried it over in the coracle? And if he rowed it over why did she not offer it before they left? Why go out to the St Marie to kill him?’

  ‘To confuse the issue of her involvement, perhaps?’He looked doubtful. ‘I agree, it doesn’t make sense. Not when so many of the crew can attest to her presence on board. Nor does it suggest a motive. Why Martin for heaven’s sake? By all accounts he was a harmless young fellow, and, as far as I understand it, she had only just arrived at Netley – as one of the pilgrims bound for France.’

  ‘Would you like me to get you a cordial from Friar Hywel?’ she asked, changing the subject. ‘You look as if you need cheering up.’

  ‘I definitely can’t spend the next few weeks like this. Although...’ he sighed heavily, ‘it’s giving me plenty of time to contemplate of my faults.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘It would
be a kindness, Hildi, to fetch me something special to calm my mind.’

  When she went through the little gate that led onto the path winding round the building into Hywel’s herb garden she could hear the murmur of voices coming from the direction of his drying hut. It sounded like a catechism, question and answer and proceeded quickly, ending in a sudden burst of laughter. Neither voice was that of Hywel.

  Pushing aside the hanging vines she ducked her head underneath and called out. Jankin jerked up as if stung and behind him Alaric pushed something out of sight. When they saw it was Hildegard they relaxed and Alaric brought out what he had so suddenly thrust aside. It was a book, one of the small chap books used by the novices in the cloister school.

  ‘Friar Hywel not here?’ she asked, pretending not to have noticed this flurry of activity.

  ‘No, domina, but we can be your hosts in his place. May I offer you some of his cider?’

  ‘Is that what you two are drinking?’

  ‘Only in enough quantity to ease our thirst, my lady.’ Alaric got up straight away and demonstrated that his courtly bow had not lost any of its perfection.

  When beakers of cider were filled, and in two cases, she noticed, refilled, she asked, ‘So is this where you have your reading lessonst, Alaric?’

  His expression tightened and she said quickly, ‘I think it’s a good idea if Jankin is willing to help you.’

  ‘Alaric is teaching me to juggle in return,’ Jankin told her.

  ‘He wants to impress his girl,’ mocked Alaric, for which he got a clout on the head.

  ‘Boys,’ Hildegard broke in, ‘may I ask something?’

  Two pairs of blue eyes stared guilelessly into her own. ‘This book Friar Hywel says has been stolen from the cargo of the St Marie seems to be causing him much disappointment. Was it especially valuable, do you know?’

  ‘It was written by a learned Saracen,’ Jankin told her at once. ‘I was looking forward to seeing it. They produce rare craftsmanship, apart from the nature of its contents.’ He turned to Alaric, ‘You could have started on that next as you’re doing so well with your letters.’