Devil's Acre
Page 23
Chapter 28
THE END OF EVERYTHING
‘Is he dead?’
‘Yes. He must have slipped away in the night. I found him this morning.’
‘Found - or helped?’
‘I don’t think he suffered. He had a smile on his face at the end.’
‘So it is finished. No more riddles for him to solve. But what of his notes?’
‘I have them.’
‘Did you read them?’
‘That’s just it - there is nothing to read.’
‘What do you mean, nothing to read? He wrote for months.’
‘His name.’
‘What?’
‘He wrote his name. Hundreds of times. He thought he was writing a great history but in the end it was just his name. Walter de Ixworth, over and over. He really was gaga after all.’
‘And there’s nothing else? No copy?’
‘None that I have been able to discover. I have kept the closest watch as you know.’
‘Still, better to let me have them. I will destroy them properly in case he has left some code.’
‘Of course, my lord - just as soon as the proper rites have been observed. Abbot Henry will insist upon it. It would be improper to rush things - and suspicious.’
‘You’re not trying to hoodwink me are you, Gerard? You wouldn’t be the first monk to suffer for his treachery.’
‘No treachery, my lord. I am as keen to destroy his work as you are. But there is one matter you could clarify before you go: what really happened to your cousin Nicholas.’
‘I thought you said there were no notes.’
‘Words, Lord Richard. He told me the story in words. Words evaporate as soon as they are spoken. Surely it can do no harm to tell me now. Surely I have earned the right having done your bidding. It was after all his final quest. It would be a pity not to honour it.’
‘Good God Gerard, I do believe you’ve grown fond of the old quack.’
‘Just tying loose ends. Do you - does anybody know the true identity of Nicholas’s parents?’
‘Who do you think they were?’
‘I really have no idea. I thought at first it might be the countess, but she was too old. And Adela could not have been mother to both Richard and Nicholas. Abbot Samson possibly for the father. Or the blind priest, Ralf.’
‘I can see you have been doing your homework, Gerard. Well the answer is nobody knows who Nicholas’s parents were. Those who did know are all dead. In all likelihood he was the child of some villein couple from one of the Warenne manors who happened to be the right age and who bore a close physical resemblance. Possibly even a bastard line of their own - there have been so many there would be no shortage of candidates.’
‘Then forgive me, my lord, but why was the boy kept for fourteen years? If he was of villein stock, why take him in at all? What possible use did he serve?’
‘If you haven’t yet worked that out Gerard then you’re no better a detective than Brother Walter was. But let me ask you this: our present liege lord and king, Henricus Tercius, is not popular at the moment. There is even talk of possible revolt and a return to the baronial wars of his father, King John. If there was the least hint of imbecility in his family just imagine the sport his enemies would make of that.’
‘So you’re saying that Nicholas was of royal lineage after all? He was truly King John’s son?’
‘No. He was as I said, a mere peasant’s brat.’
‘Well can you at least tell me what happened to him after he disappeared?’
‘Nicholas? Nothing happened to him. I am still here. Richard, on the other hand, died last year on a farm belonging to the Abbot of Bury where he’d been living for forty years - tending pigs.’
Epilogue
‘You say you knew Dom Walter?’
‘Briefly, a long time ago. I had hoped to see him before he passed on.’
‘You have missed him by a few days, I’m afraid. He died on All Fools’ Day.’
‘Indeed? He would have enjoyed that. Dom Walter had a good sense of humour.’
‘Have you come far, brother? From your accent I’m guessing you are not local.’
‘Yorkshire.’
‘I didn’t know Dom Walter had acquaintances so far away. Funny he never mentioned you. In the six months he was here I heard practically his entire life story.’
‘You took care of him in his final days, Brother…?’
‘Gerard. I am the infirmarer here at the abbey. I tended Dom Walter daily.’
‘Ah yes.’
‘You have heard of me?’
‘Dom Walter spoke of you in his letters.’
‘He wrote letters? I can’t think how he could have got them out without going through me. He didn’t happen to send you anything else?’
‘Such as?’
‘Any notes perhaps? He was very particular about his notes. I shouldn’t like to think of them getting into the wrong hands.’
‘Who am I likely to tell in the fastnesses of the north?’
‘Quite so. Yorkshire is indeed remote. But you are not a Cistercian, I think.’
‘We are Cluniacs, brother.’
‘That would account for your robe. And the name of your house?’
‘You won’t have heard of it.’
‘No, perhaps not. Well, I’m sorry you’ve had a wasted journey, brother. However, you may wish to visit his grave before you go. It’s not marked of course, but I could identify it for you.’
‘That would be a kindness. I wonder, though, before we do that if I could make a contribution to the abbey? In payment for all you did for Dom Walter in his last days. And in his memory. I am sure he would not disapprove.’
‘A contribution you say?’
‘Not money, unfortunately - we are a poor community. But perhaps I could give you this.’
‘What is it?’
‘A miraculous potion. It has great medicinal properties. Being a physician Dom Walter knew of it and its properties.’
‘Interesting bottle. It’s quite heavy for something so small. What’s this strange writing engraved on the side?’
‘Nothing that can harm a good Christian.’
‘It smells faintly of almonds. How does it work?’
‘It is a libation. A very powerful one. Just the smallest sip is all that’s needed.’
‘And what does it cure?’
‘All manner of things. The ague, cramp, warts.’
‘It sounds almost miraculous.’
‘Some have said so.’
‘I do have a slight headache. Will it cure that?’
‘In a trice.’
‘Just sip it you say?’
‘Just one, and all your troubles will be over. One sip, Brother Gerard. Just one pirrip sip…’
HISTORICAL NOTE
Many of the characters in this novel were real people: Abbot Samson existed as did Brother Walter, Countess Isabel de Warenne, Earl Hamelin, Ladies Maud, Isabel, Adela and Lord William de Warenne, Richard Fitz Roy, Prior Maynus of Acre and Prior Peter Vincent of Thetford. Everyone else is fictitious.
As far as is possible the historical facts mentioned are also accurate: Samson of Tottington did indeed go to Rome in 1160 and as a result was exiled in Acre priory. At that time Countess Isabel de Warenne was a young widow her first husband, William of Blois, having been killed at the Battle of Toulouse in October 1159. Isabel’s second husband and father of her four children, Hamelin Plantagenet, married her in 1164 and died in April 1202 of unknown causes. King John did have an illegitimate son by his cousin Adela de Warenne whom he named Richard Fitz Roy. As Baron of Chilham in Kent, Richard was made constable of Wallingford Castle, married, had three children and died in June 1246 aged fifty-eight.
CASTLE ACRE
Castle Acre today is a pretty English village which boasts the substantial twin ruins of a medieval castle and priory. But this romantic image belies its military past. It stands astride a strategically important crossing
point of the ancient Roman route of Peddars Way and the Nar valley from where it could dominate the surrounding country. Little is known about the village before the Norman Conquest but by Domesday it had become the country retreat of the Warenne earls of Surrey who turned it into a fortified town. Unlike other East Anglian fortresses such as Thetford, Eye and New Buckenham, Castle Acre retained its castle which remained occupied until the fourteenth century. The priory was added in 1089.
SAMSON’S BIRTHPLACE
Tottington is a village locked in time. It lies approximately eight miles north of Thetford in the Brecklands of Norfolk but try to go there today and you will fail. The village was evacuated along with five others in 1944 for the army to practice for the D-Day landings and they have held the place ever since. Now all roads to the village are blocked and the nearest you can get to it is Peddars Way which runs a little under a mile to the east of Saint Andrew’s church glimpsed tantalisingly through the trees. This is not the church that Samson and Walter would have seen but its fourteenth century replacement albeit with a special bomb-proof roof to protect it from the activities of its present custodians. From the air little can be seen of Samson’s birthplace other than the ghostly outlines of former buildings.
SWW December 2013
UNHOLY INNOCENCE
May 1199. Richard the Lionheart is dead and his brother John has just been crowned King of England.
John travels to St Edmund’s abbey in Suffolk to give thanks for his accession. His visit coincides with the murder of a twelve-year-old boy whose mutilated body bears the marks of ritual sacrifice and martyrdom. This isn’t the first time such a thing has happened. Eighteen years earlier another child was murdered in the town in similar circumstances.
Abbot Samson needs to find out if this is indeed another martyrdom or just an ordinary murder and appoints the abbey’s physician, Master Walter, to investigate. Walter discovers a web of intrigue and corruption involving some of the highest in the land but unbeknown to him his own past holds a secret which will put his life in danger before the final terrible solution is revealed.
“Wheeler engages the reader’s interest from page one and doesn’t let go…A book which will appeal to historical novel fans…”
Eastern Daily Press
BLOOD MOON
November 1214. King John has returned to England having lost his empire to King Philip of France. Humiliated and desperate for support, he again travels to Bury St Edmunds where Abbot Samson has died and a battle is raging among the monks over who will be his successor.
In the midst of this there arrives in the town a seemingly inconsequential young couple and their maid. The wife is heavily pregnant and gives birth in the night to a baby daughter.
But then the maid is mysteriously murdered and it is soon apparent that the family is not all that it appears. With rebellion looming, abbey physician Walter of Ixworth is drawn once again into investigating a murder and a conspiracy that threatens to engulf the country in civil war and ultimately leads to the final nemesis that is Runnymede and Magna Carta.