Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake Mysteries) (41 page)

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Authors: C J Sansom

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I shrugged.
 
‘To me, every groat that goes to the Ch-Church is won for God from the sinful world. Can you understand that? It goes to support prayer and charity. But for what we give them the p-poor would have nothing. We
have
to give alms, because of our faith.’
 
‘And for kings it is a choice, one they may choose not to make?’
 
‘Just so. And the payment we receive for Masses for the dead, sir. It is good in God’s eyes, it helps the dead in purgatory and brings merit for the giver.’
 
‘Purgatory again. You believe in it?’
 
He nodded vigorously. ‘It is a real place, sir, we disregard it at the peril of many pains to come. And does it not make sense, that God weighs up our merits and sins and casts us in the balance as I balance my accounts?’
 
‘So God is a great figurer?’
 
He nodded. ‘The greatest of all. Purgatory is real; it lies beneath our feet as we stand. Have you not heard of the great volcanoes in Italy, where purgatory’s fires spew out on the land?’
 
‘Do you fear it?’
 
He nodded slowly. ‘I believe we should all fear it.’ He paused, collecting himself and eyeing me carefully. ‘Forgive me, but the Ten Articles do not deny purgatory.’
 
‘No indeed. What you have said is permissible. And interesting. But were you not also implying just now that the king might not act responsibly in his headship of the Church?’
 
‘I told you, sir, I s-spoke only of kings in general, and I said the Church, not the pope. With respect, m-my views are not heretical.’
 
‘All right. Tell me, with your background in the army, would you know how to use a sword?’
 
‘Such as killed the commissioner?’
 
I raised my eyebrows.
 
‘I guessed that was how it was done when I heard how the body looked on my return from the estates. I saw enough men beheaded when I was young. But I forswore that world as soon as I reached manhood. I had seen more than enough blood by then.’
 
‘The life of a monk has its drawbacks though, does it not? The vow of celibacy, for example, that must be hard.’
 
His composure faltered. ‘W-what do you mean?’
 
‘As well as the death of the commissioner I now have to investigate the death of a young girl.’ I told him whose body was found in the pond. ‘Your name was given, among others, as one who had behaved improperly towards her.’
 
He sat down at the desk, bowing his head so I could not see his face. ‘Celibacy is hard,’ he said quietly. ‘D-do not think I relish the urges that come over me, as some do. I hate these d-devilish passions. They tear down the edifice of a holy life it takes such labour to build. Yes, sir, I w-wanted the girl. It is as w-well I am a timid man: each time she gave me harsh words I went away. But I would come back. She seemed to tempt me just as the lust for glory tempts men to war.’
 
‘
She
tempted
you
?’
 
‘She could not do otherwise. She was a woman, and what are women on earth for if not to tempt men?’ He took a deep breath. ‘D-did she kill herself?’
 
‘No. Her neck was broken.’
 
He shook his head. ‘Sh-she should n-never have been allowed here. Women are the D-Devil’s instruments.’
 
‘Brother Edwig,’ I said quietly. ‘You may call yourself timid, but I think perhaps you are the hardest man here. And now I will leave you, you will have figuring to do.’
 
 
I STOOD OUTSIDE on the landing, collecting my thoughts. I had been certain Gabriel was the murderer and had killed in hot passion. But if the book I had found was the same one Singleton had uncovered then Brother Edwig had a clear motive for my predecessor’s death. Yet Singleton had been killed in a passion, and I could see no passion in the bursar save for figuring and money, though a fraud he almost certainly was. And he had not been at Scarnsea that night.
 
As I turned to the stairs, a light on the marsh caught my attention. I made out two yellow flickers, far out on the mire they seemed. I remembered reflecting there would be half a chestful of gold in those land sales, and that Brother Edwig had come upon me the day I went out on the marsh. And if one wanted to move gold, who better to turn to than professional smugglers? I caught my breath and hurried back to the infirmary.
 
 
ALICE WAS SEATED in the prior’s kitchen, cutting the roots from some herb. She looked at me with sharp hostility for a second, then forced her features into a smile.
 
‘Preparing one of Brother Guy’s potions?’
 
‘Yes, sir.’
 
‘Is Master Mark returned?’
 
‘In your room, sir.’
 
The hostility in her aloof courtesy saddened me. Mark, then, had told her what I had said to him.
 
‘I have been at the counting house. I saw lights out on the marsh from an upper window. I wondered whether the smugglers may be busy again.’
 
‘I do not know, sir.’
 
‘You told Master Mark you would show us the trackways.’
 
‘Yes, sir.’ Her voice was wary.
 
‘I would be interested to see them. I wonder if you would take me tomorrow.’
 
She hesitated. ‘I have duties for Brother Guy, sir.’
 
‘If I were to speak to him?’
 
‘As you instruct.’
 
‘And - there are one or two matters I would like to talk to you about, Alice. I would be your friend, you know.’
 
She looked away. ‘If Brother Guy says I should accompany you, then of course I will.’
 
‘Then I will ask him,’ I replied in a tone as cold as hers. I felt hurt and angry as I went along the corridor to our room, where Mark stood looking gloomily out of the window.
 
‘I have asked Alice to show me the paths through the marsh,’ I said without preliminary. ‘I saw lights there just now. I see from her manner you have told her what I said about leaving her alone.’
 
‘I have told her you think it unseemly that we associate.’
 
I took off my coat and flung myself into the chair. ‘So it is,’ I said. ‘Have you given the abbot my orders?’
 
‘Commissioner Singleton’s grave will be cleaned tomorrow and then the pond drained.’
 
‘I would like you there. I will go out on the marsh with Alice alone. And before you say something you might regret, I have asked her to do this because I think those smugglers may matter to our enquiry after all. And then I am going to the town, to see Copynger.’ I told him what I had found in Brother Edwig’s office.
 
‘I wish I were among ordinary people again,’ he said, avoiding my eye. ‘Everywhere you turn here you seem to find a rogue or a thief.’
 
‘Have you thought any more on what we said, about what you will do when we return to London?’
 
‘No, sir.’ He shrugged. ‘There are rogues and thieves aplenty there too.’
 
‘Then perhaps you should live in the trees, among the birds, so that you are not soiled by contact with the world,’ I said curtly. ‘And now I will take some more of Brother Guy’s good potion and sleep till dinner. This has been as long and hard a day as any I have known.’
 
Chapter Twenty-three
 
SUPPER IN THE REFECTORY that night was a subdued affair. The abbot called on everyone to observe silence during the meal, enjoining them to pray for the soul of what he called the unknown person whose body had been found in the pond. The monks wore strained, worried expressions and I caught many fearful, anxious looks cast at me. It was as though the sense of dissolution the abbot had mentioned was already starting to pervade the entire monastery.
 
Mark and I walked back to the infirmary in silence; we were both exhausted, but also I sensed once again the distance that had come on Mark since I forbade him to court Alice. When we regained our room I threw myself down on my cushioned chair, while Mark put some more logs on the fire. I had told him of my encounter with Brother Edwig. My head was still abuzz with it.
 
‘If I set Copynger about his enquiries tomorrow morning we should have an answer the day after. If even one of those land sales is confirmed, we have Edwig for fraud. And it gives him a clear motive for murder.’
 
Mark sat down on a pile of cushions opposite, his face alive with interest. Whatever our quarrels, he was as eager as I to catch our murderer. I wanted to test my thoughts against his wits, and also it was cheering to hear him talk enthusiastically again.
 
‘We always come back, sir, to the fact he was away. Away when Singleton found the book and away when, the same night, he was murdered.’
 
‘I know. Only Athelstan knew and he said he told no one else.’
 
‘Could Athelstan be the killer?’
 
‘Him strike off a man’s head, a commissioner? No. Remember how frightened he was when he approached me to offer himself as an informer. He hasn’t the courage to defy a mouse.’
 
‘Is that not an emotional reaction to his personality?’ There was a note of sarcasm in Mark’s voice.
 
‘All right. Perhaps I was carried away with the logical edifice I had built when I accused Gabriel. Yet it all seemed to fit so well. But yes, of course we must take our judgement of men’s characters into account and Athelstan’s is palpably weak.’
 
‘And why should he care if Brother Edwig goes to the gallows, or even if the monastery goes down? He is hardly devout.’
 
‘And how could he have come by that sword? I wish I could trace its history; in London I could probably discover the maker through his mark. The swordsmiths’ guild would know. But we’re trapped down here by this snow.’
 
‘Sir, what if Singleton told someone else what he had found in the counting house and they decided to kill him? The abbot, perhaps. His seal would be on those deeds.’
 
‘Yes. A seal he leaves lying on his desk, where anybody could use it while he was away.’
 
‘Prior Mortimus, then? He’s brutal enough for murder, surely? And isn’t it said that he and Brother Edwig run the place?’
 
‘Those two in a fraud together? I wonder. I must get that answer from Copynger.’ I sighed. ‘How long is it since we set out from London? A week? It seems a lifetime.’
 
‘Just six days.’
 
‘I wish I had time to go back. But even sending a message would take days in this snow. Pox on it, is it going to go on for ever?’
 
‘It seems so.’
 
 
SHORTLY AFTER Mark got into his little wheeled cot and pulled it back under my bed. I sat on, staring into the banked-up fire. Through windows already frosting again with ice I heard the bells ring out for Compline. Whatever happened, whatever nightmares unfolded, the services still went on.
 
I thought of Lord Cromwell, waiting in London for my reply. I must try to send a message soon, even if it were only to say I had no answers and two more murders to solve. I could imagine his angry face, his oaths, his wondering again about my loyalty. But if Copynger confirmed the land sales I could have Brother Edwig arrested for fraud. I had a vision of myself interrogating him in Scarnsea gaol, manacled in some dark hole, and found the thought gave me pleasure. That disturbed me and I reflected how dislike of a man and the prospect of power over him led the mind into unpleasant paths. Guilt stole over me and I began thinking once more about Mark and Alice. How pure were my motives there? All I had said to Mark about the difference in their degree, and his obligation to his family to succeed, was true. Yet I knew the worm of jealousy stirred in me. The sight of them embracing in the kitchen came back to me and I clenched my eyes shut as another vision stirred in the corner of my mind’s eye, of Alice embracing me instead of him. All the time I could hear Mark’s breathing, which had deepened into sleep.
 
I prayed that God might lead my actions into a true and just path; a path such as Christ might have followed. Then I must have slept for the next thing I knew I had started awake and was staring at a dead fire. Hours must have passed; my back ached and I was chilled to the bone. I rose painfully from the chair, undressed and climbed wearily into bed.

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