Peter Tremayne - Hemlock at Vespers

“Stay there!” she snapped. There was such a power in her voice that they paused. “I will speak with Cano and Sister Delia first.”

Fidelma turned and took a step into the hut.

“I am Sister Fidelma,” she repeated. “May I attend to Sister Delia?”

“Of course.” The young man seemed bewildered.

Fidelma knelt by his side. He had been trying to cleanse her wounds.

“Lie still,” she said, as she examined the wound of the young religieuse. Sister Delia had been clubbed on the back of the head in the same fashion as Sister Cessair. Unlike the blow delivered to Cessair, it had not broken the bone of the skull. There was, however, a nasty swelling.

“Am I dying, Sister?” The girl’s voice was faint.

“No. In a moment we will get you back to the Abbey so that you may be properly attended. What can you tell me about the attack on Sister Cessair and yourself?”

“Little enough.”

“A little in these circumstances may mean a lot,” encouraged Fidelma.

“Alas, the little is nothing. Sister Cessair and I were bringing the phial of the holy blood of Blessed Gertrude to the Abbey of Fosse. We were walking through the woods. I remember…” She paused and groaned. “I did not hear anyone behind us for we were talking together and …” She held up a hand to her head. “There came a sharp blow and then I can remember nothing until I came to, lying on the path with a blinding pain in my head. I thought I was alone. I could see no one. I began to look around and then, then I saw Cessair….”

She gave a heart-rending sob.

“What then?” prompted Fidelma gently.

“I could do nothing for her, except try to get help. I came here and-”

“You came here?” Fidelma interrupted quickly. “Why come to this woodsman’s hut? Why not go on to the Abbey of Fosse or back to Nivelles?”

“I knew Cano would be here.” The girl groaned again.

“She knew that I had arranged to meet Cessair here on the journey from Nivelles to Fosse,” interrupted Cano defiantly. “I am not ashamed of it.”

Fidelma ignored him and smiled down at the girl.

“Rest awhile. It will not be long before we have you safe and your wound attended.”

Only then did she turned to Cano.

“So you were waiting here for Cessair?”

“Cessair and I loved one another. We often met here because Abbot Heribert was vehement against us.”

“Tell me about it.”

“There is not much to tell. I arrived at Fosse about a month ago to join the community. Although there are several Irish religious here and in Nivelles, it is a strange land. They are more inclined to celibacy than we are in Éireann. They do not have the number of mixed houses that we do. Abbot Heribert was fanatical for the rule of celibacy; even though there is no such proscription in the church, he makes it a rule in his abbey. I think I would have left long ago had I not met Cessair.”

“When did you and Cessair meet?”

“The week after I came here. It was Brother Sinsear who introduced me when we were taking produce from Fosse to Nivelles.”

“Brother Sinsear introduced you?”

“Yes. As a gardener, Sinsear often took produce between the two abbeys. He knew many of the religieuse at Nivelles.”

“Did Cessair have any enemies that you knew of?”

“Only Abbot Heribert, when he discovered our relationship.” Cano’s voice was bitter. From the doorway, Fidelma heard Heri-bert’s expression of anger.

“Why didn’t you leave and move on to a mixed house?”

“We planned to but Abbess Ballgel counseled Cessair against it.”

Fidelma frowned.

“Why would she be against such a plan?”

Cano shrugged.

“She was … protective of Cessair. She felt Cessair was too young.”

“More protective than of her other charges?”

“I do not know. All I know is that we were desperate and planning to leave here.”

Fidelma waited a while. Then she said abruptly:

“Did you kill Cessair?”

The young monk raised a tear-stained face to her and there was a haunted look in his eyes.

“How can you ask such a question?”

“Because I am a dálaigh, an advocate of the law,” replied Fi-delma. “It is my duty to ask.”

“I did not.”

“Tell me what happened this morning, then.”

“I knew that Cessair and Delia were bringing the vial to Fosse for the annual blessing. So we arranged to meet here.”

“Surely that would mean a delay in the bringing of the vial to Fosse? The service was at midday.”

“Cessair was going to persuade Delia to take the phial on to Fosse while she joined me here. We only meant to meet briefly to make some arrangements and then Cessair would hasten after Delia, pretending she had broke her sandal on the road.”

“What arrangements were you going to make?”

“Arrangements to leave this place. Perhaps to go back to Ireland.”

“I see. So you arrived here …?”

“And here I waited. I thought Cessair was late and was about to go down to the main track to see if there was a sign of her when Delia came stumbling into the hut. She was almost hysterical and told me what had happened, then she passed out. I could not leave her alone and have been trying to return her to consciousness ever since. It is only a moment ago that she regained her senses.”

Fidelma turned to Delia.

“Do you agree with this account?”

The girl had raised herself on an elbow, she still looked pale and shaken.

“So far as I am able. I do not remember much at all.”

“Very well. Then I think we should get you to the abbey where you may have the wound tended.” She glanced at Cano who was twisting his hands nervously. Then she remembered something.

“Do you have the vial of blood, Sister Delia? The holy blood of the Blessed Gertrude?”

Delia frowned and shook her head

“Cessair carried it in her marsupium.”

“I see,” replied Fidelma thoughtfully, before turning to the others and waving them forward.

“We will carry Sister Delia to Fosse,” she told them. “There are a few more questions that I wish to ask but we should ensure that Sister Delia gets proper treatment for her wound.”

The church and community of Fosse was not as spectacular as some of the abbeys which Fidelma had encountered in her travels. She reminded herself that it was barely twenty years old. It was not more than a collection of timber houses around a large, rectangular wooden church.

Sister Delia was immediately taken to the infirmary while the Abbot led the Abbess and Fidelma to the refectory for refreshments. Brother Sinsear and Brother Cano were told to go to their cells and await the Abbot’s call.

Abbess Ballgel was the first to break the uneasy silence that had fallen among them. She had seen Fidelma’s work before while they had been together at the Abbey of Kildare.

“Well, Fidelma, do you see a solution to this horror? And where is the holy blood of Gertrude?”

“Let us summarize what we know. We can eliminate certain things. Firstly, the concept that this action was committed by robbers. I have already given one main reason, that is the mutilation of Cessair. That was done from hate. Secondly, we have the testimony from Delia who says that she was walking along talking with Cessair and did not hear or see anything until she was struck from behind.”

“You mean, if there had been robbers waiting in ambush then she would have seen something of them?”

“Just so. The very idea of even a single person creeping unobserved behind someone walking in a forest is, I find, rather a difficult one to accept.”

Abbess Ballgel frowned quickly.

“You claim that Sister Delia is lying?”