Peter Tremayne - Badger's Moon

‘I will find the person responsible,’ Fidelma replied gently. ‘On that account you should have no fear.’

They remounted and retraced their route back to the main path.

‘Are we still seeking out Liag?’ asked Eadulf after they had ridden some way in silence.

She nodded absently, apparently lost in thought. Eadulf did not interrupt her and they rode on without speaking. They came to the spot where they had seen the two boys panning for gold on the previous day. At first they thought the river and its banks were empty, but a loud plop caused them to glance to where a rock overhung the riverbank.

A small boy was sitting on the rock and had obviously just thrown a stone into the water for he held another in his hand. At first they thought that it was one of the boys they had seen on the previous day. He was about twelve years old with fair hair and small limbs, and his clothing was not dissimilar to the other boys’. Some passing thought in the back of her mind caused Fidelma to ease her horse to a halt where the track passed close to the overhang. Eadulf looked at her in surprise and also halted.

‘A pleasant day, boy,’ she called.

The boy stirred and seemed to notice them for the first time. His expression was morose.

‘The day may be pleasant but not so all that passes in it,’ he replied sullenly.

Fidelma’s eyes widened a little and she chuckled in appreciation at the other’s words. ‘You sound like a philosopher, my boy.’

He put down his stone and put his arms round his knees. ‘I have heard the old ones say it when things go wrong for them.’

‘And what is going wrong for you on this bright day?’

‘Gobnuid made fun of me.’

‘Gobnuid the smith?’ Fidelma frowned.

The boy nodded. ‘I brought him something I thought valuable and he laughed at me.’

‘Is your name Síoda?’

The boy scowled immediately.

‘What do you know of me?’ he demanded defensively. ‘Has Gobnuid been spreading the story-’

‘I heard from your friends that you had discovered some metal,’ Fidelma interrupted.

‘I thought it was gold,’ the boy affirmed, his mood swinging again to gloom. ‘Gobnuid said it wasn’t. He gave me a coin for it but I thought I would be really wealthy.’

‘ Ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora ,’ said Eadulf.

The boy glanced at him as if he were stupid. ‘He’s a foreigner, isn’t he?’ he asked Fidelma.

Fidelma smiled.

‘It is a Latin saying that eggs today are better than chicken tomorrow,’ she explained. ‘In other words, a coin in your pocket is better than the promise of riches to come. It’s good advice.’

The boy sniffed. ‘I was sure that the metal was gold.’

‘Did you find it in this river?’ Fidelma asked.

‘I did not.’

‘I saw two other boys panning for gold here yesterday. They seemed to believe that you had found the gold in the river here.’

The boy laughed bitterly. ‘I told them that I had found it in the river when I thought it was valuable. I didn’t want them to find out where I had really discovered it. Now I don’t care. I am not going to be wealthy.’

‘So you did not find the metal in the river?’ Fidelma sought clarification.

The boy shook his head. ‘I found it on the Thicket of Pigs. There are old mines there.’

‘The Thicket of Pigs?’ Fidelma’s brow creased a moment.

The boy pointed across to the hill in front of them. ‘It is really the wooded area on top of that hill, but the entire hill is now called by that name.’ He confirmed the knowledge they already had.

‘Should you be in the mines at your age?’ demanded Eadulf. ‘Surely it is dangerous?’

The boy regarded him with a frown.

‘There are many metal workings around here,’ he said. ‘My father worked in them when he was not much older than I am. They are abandoned now. We all play in them. The boys from the area, that is.’

‘So, you were playing in the mines on the Thicket of Pigs when you found the metal?’

The boy sniffed.

‘I was not playing but exploring,’ he corrected grandly.

Fidelma smiled briefly. ‘Even so, you should have a care. My companion is right. It is very dangerous to play…to explore disused mine workings.’

The boy sniffed again and returned to his contemplation of the river. Fidelma bade him farewell but he did not bother to respond and so she and Eadulf rode off.

‘Why were you interested in where the boy picked up his fool’s gold?’ asked Eadulf, in a reproving tone, after they had ridden some distance. ‘We should be concentrating on other matters.’

Fidelma glanced at him. ‘I am interested in the fact that the piece of metal which Gobnuid showed me, the piece he said the boy had found, and which he assured me was fool’s gold, was real gold. I have handled both metals before and know the difference. I tested the nugget at Gobnuid’s forge. It was gold.’

Eadulf stared at her for a moment before replying. ‘You mean that this smith, Gobnuid, cheated the boy?’

‘Certainly he told him an untruth.’

‘Why would he do that? Just to make some money?’

Fidelma did not reply for a moment. Then she said, ‘That is what I would like to find out. The girls met their deaths at the Thicket of Pigs. Could there be a connection?’

A silence fell between them again before Eadulf finally said: ‘How long do you think we will remain here?’

Fidelma’s eyebrows rose quickly. Her eyes widened. ‘Here? In these woods?’

‘No, at Rath Raithlen, away from Cashel.’

‘When we have been asked to investigate a matter such as this, do we not usually remain until we have a resolution, Eadulf?’ she asked, puzzled.

‘Before there was not a little one awaiting our return,’ he replied. ‘You have not mentioned Alchú once since we left Cashel.’

The corners of Fidelma’s mouth suddenly tightened.

‘Because my son’s name is not always on my lips, it does not mean to say that he is not in my thoughts,’ she snapped. Her sudden anger was born of guilt that until that very morning Alchú had actually been entirely out of her thoughts.

‘We have not discussed our son since we left Cashel.’ Eadulf spoke softly but with emphasis on the change of personal pronoun.

Fidelma flushed guiltly. She knew that Eadulf was justified but, in her guilt, she became more defensive.

‘Is there need to discuss him? He is safe at Cashel with Sárait. We have other more pressing business to attend to.’

Eadulf’s jaw was determined. ‘He is barely a month old. You have already given him up to a wet nurse. I learnt enough about such matters, when I studied at the great medical school of Tuam Brecain, to know that allowing the baby to suckle at your breast returns the mother’s body to health and helps the love develop between the child and the mother instead of-’

‘This is not the time nor place to criticse my ability as a mother, Eadulf,’ she snapped.

Eadulf controlled a spasm of anger. ‘I am not sure that I understand your moods, Fidelma. Ever since the child was born you have become a changed person.’

‘Are we not allowed to change, then?’ She knew well what he meant for she had been questioning her motivations of late. ‘Some people would be better off for a change!’ She was growing irritable and the irritation lay in the knowledge that she was in the wrong and Eadulf had every right to discuss the matter. ‘If you are so worried about the child, why don’t you ride back to Cashel and leave me here to resolve this problem?’

Eadulf blinked a little and then he shrugged.

‘A verbis ad verbera ,’ he sighed. The Latin quotation meant ‘from words to blows’ and described a discussion that spilled into anger.