Susanna Gregory: A Wicked Deed

Bartholomew sat upright. ‘Stoate? How? He will have fled the country by now!’

‘Apparently not,’ said Michael, infuriatingly smug. ‘According to him, he is sorry for the deceptions he embarked upon, but he knows he did no serious wrong — he still maintains the death of Unwin was a dreadful accident while Norys’s and Mistress Freeman’s desecrated corpses came to no harm, because they were properly buried afterwards. And the tainted mussels that killed them, of course, were not his fault at all.’

‘Of course,’ said Bartholomew. ‘So when did he tell you all this? Where did you meet him?’

‘He sought me out after the signing ceremony today,’ said Michael. ‘I confess I was a little startled to see him in Cambridge, particularly since he was wearing the habit of a Carmelite.’

‘He has become a friar,’ said Bartholomew heavily. ‘So, he escapes justice after all.’

‘I hardly think so, Matt,’ said Michael in a superior tone. ‘Can you imagine what living hell the life of a friar must be? Allowed to own nothing, begging for his food, and at the beck and call of every squalid peasant in the parish.’ He shuddered. ‘Such a life would be Purgatory itself! He is going today to join a community near Grimsby.’ He shuddered again. ‘I barely know where that is, but Stoate assures me that it will be far enough away, so that no one will know him and he can make amends for his mistakes in peace.’

‘Somewhere he can parade as an honest man seeking to devote his life to God, you mean,’ said Bartholomew bitterly. ‘He will be accepted into the Carmelite Order on a deception, and no one will ever know what a lying, cheating, vile desecrator they have in their midst. He may think he has killed no one, but what about all the patients who might have lived had he not prescribed his false cures? What about Norys, who he was happy to see hanged in his place?’

‘He will not be accepted on those terms,’ said Michael, gloating somewhat. ‘As soon as Stoate had gone on his way, I mentioned the matter to my Bishop. He will send a letter to the Prior of the House Stoate intends to join in a month or two, mentioning the fact that he is not all he appears. Your charlatan physician will not be allowed to forget his past crimes — indeed, he will atone for them in ways only a mendicant Order can dream up.’

‘Your Bishop has an astonishingly long arm when it comes to these sorts of things,’ said Bartholomew, rather distastefully. ‘God forbid that I should ever come under the scrutiny of his beady eye, or within reach of his vindictive fingers.’

‘Do not worry about that,’ said Michael with a peaceful sigh. ‘He knows how much you have done for the University and the College over the last few years. My lord the Bishop might not let a wrong go unpunished, but he does not forget those who have helped him, either. If ever you decide to become a Benedictine, Matt, he will find you a pleasantly lucrative position somewhere. Physician-priest to some lord perhaps, or even at the King’s court.’

‘No, thank you,’ said Bartholomew in horror. ‘The University is bad enough for politics and intrigue, but court must be even worse!’

‘I do not think so,’ said Michael with a happy beam of satisfaction. ‘In fact, I know so.’ He took a deep breath of river-tainted air, and settled back against the sun-warmed stones of the orchard wall. ‘And it is good to be back, Matt!’