Barbara Cleverly - Strange Images of Death

He tore his eyes away from the stone shards and resumed: ‘Aliénore’s husband employed the very best talent to carve her likeness, I would say the work of an artist brought in from Italy. A man whose style makes the leap from Gothic to modern before his time. The workmanship was worthy of a man of the calibre of Giovanni Pisano, the Tuscan artist. If you ever looked on the stately beauty of his Madonnas you would see the same sweetness and humour, the same human individuality. I made myself an expert on medieval carving, the better to appreciate her quality. I can tell you that the second figure, that of Sir Hugues himself, was done by a different and less skilled hand. I am assuming that the lady was portrayed by someone who knew her well in life. Or possibly someone who was allowed to work for his initial sketches from the sight of her dead body.

‘My yearning to know more about her led me to study the Latin inscription running around the three sides of the tomb. Here.’ He pointed. All three men nodded.

‘I was puzzled. I followed the words around and came up with uxor sua -his wife — and stopped, disappointed. No date of death. No flattering phrase. Was there more hidden away around the back?

‘Gentlemen, there was.

‘I had the stone shelving, which sat awkwardly, like an afterthought, between the tomb and the wall, hacked away and, when I’d viewed and copied down the rest of the accursed lettering, unseen for centuries, I had this wooden structure built on to replace it and prevent anyone else from seeing the shameful truth.’

With a wave of his hand, he invited them to inspect the rear of the marble tomb. By leaning over in turn, at a neckbreaking angle, they could just make out the two remaining words of tribute from Sir Hugues to his wife.

‘It says et meretrix, ’ Joe, the last man to inspect, read out. ‘And harlot. Aliénore, wife and harlot.’

‘Harlot? What kind of man carves that word on his wife’s tomb?’ Jacquemin asked.

‘A man betrayed by the woman he loved?’ said Silmont. ‘Once I had read the shocking word and accepted that the effigy I adored was flawed, other things began to fall into place.’

‘Ah! The hair! I had wondered,’ said Joe. ‘My knowledge of medieval church sculpture-Provençal or otherwise-is sketchy but, from what I’ve seen, this hairdo strikes me as being a bit out of the ordinary. I’ve never seen a lady with her hair spread all about like this. Aren’t they normally tightly coiffed … you know … every lock swept up into a headdress?’

‘Quite right, young man!’ said the lord. ‘There are very few who remark on that. It’s been forgotten over the years. In the Middle Ages, all married ladies wore their hair under a coiffe. It was the mark of a virtuous wife. Which would lead one to wonder what on earth the lady Aliénore is doing lying on display with her golden hair spread all about her pillow, looking for all the world like a Venetian woman of easy virtue.’

‘It would seem a heartless sort of tribute to pay to your dead wife, sir,’ Joe commented since he seemed to be waiting for a response. ‘And double-edged, since any onlooker of the day would have known exactly how to interpret it. Her husband was, thereby, shaming himself into the bargain. And it was uncomfortable to have the horns of the cuckold pinned on you by public opinion in those days.’

‘The tomb would have been assembled here after his death. It’s my theory that he no longer cared about his own reputation in his determination to ruin hers for ever more,’ the lord suggested. ‘Perhaps he left the whole image behind as an awful warning. To future generations. Here’s the just reward for infidelity-an early death.’

‘How did she die?’ Jacquemin asked. ‘Is it known?’

‘Not for certain. It’s said she died in childbirth. Nothing unusual in that, many women of the time did. But her husband was a crusader. Here history deserts us and we must speculate. If he returned from two or three years’ absence in the Holy Land to find his wife in a delicate condition … Well, you can imagine. Neither she nor the child would have survived his wrath. And there would have been few to blame him. It was of paramount importance to keep the line of descent pure. A man could keep mistresses openly under his own roof and produce illegitimate children by the score but his wife had to be of proven virtue, her offspring undeniably those of her husband.’

He shrugged with sudden impatience. ‘But this is very ancient history. What concerns me is the fate of this poor creature who has been persuaded? — inveigled? — forced? — into mocking the effigy of Aliénore and suffering her death. All over again … All over again,’ he muttered. ‘It never ends. Why would it? The poisoned chalice is constantly refilled and always overflowing. And always men are seduced by the gilded beauty of the container and swallow down the noxious contents with a smile of gratitude.’

Silmont began to breathe raggedly. Fatigue and dejection seemed to be overcoming his determination to be of assistance. He bit his lips, fighting a shaft of pain. He ran his right hand through his sparse hair and patted his forehead with a handkerchief. But it was to the trembling left hand that Joe’s sharp eyes were drawn. The whole arm from shoulder to fingers was beginning to shake and Silmont made a clumsy attempt to push the offending hand into his pocket to keep it still. A palsy? Epilepsy? Or the warning sign of something more serious? He was showing all the symptoms of a heart condition.

It was Jacquemin who offered release. Suddenly alarmed, he clicked into action. He suggested that he should accompany the lord over to the main body of the castle, make a few telephone calls to alert the police in Avignon and have the morgue arrange for the corpse to be collected for post-mortem examination. Following these procedures, he would check the armoury for the missing dagger. He would leave Joe and Martineau to replace the wooden skirting around the tomb and take a further look at the scene in case something had been missed … a fingerprint … a footprint in the dust …

‘Look, Jacquemin,’ said Joe apologetically, ‘I’m hardly prepared for this. In London, I always have my murder bag with me … gloves … fingerprint kit … I’m on holiday, halfway down south to the coast. I haven’t-’

‘Nor I! I’m halfway up north to Brittany,’ snapped Jacquemin, uneasy at being caught out. ‘Um … Martineau?’

‘Yes, sir. Of course, sir. I put one on the back seat. Never travel without, Commander. I think the contents will be familiar to you … we use graphite powder and camel hair-’

Their professional murmurs were interrupted by an uncontrolled shriek.

‘Get on with it, man!’ screamed Silmont. ‘Fools! Numb-skulls!’ he raved. ‘While you’re all on your knees in the mouse-droppings, playing with your fingerprint dust, the man behind this goes about his business laughing at you! Can’t you see beyond the dots and the brushstrokes? Get the whole picture in focus? This trollop spent some hours here, befouling the last resting place of my ancestor-but in whose bed did she spend her last night alive?’

He stood, shaking with rage, his charge of electric energy directed at Jacquemin.

To Joe’s surprise, Jacquemin did not draw his gun or click his fingers for the handcuffs but returned a soft answer. ‘Sir, you are unwell. Is there someone you would like me to summon?’

Silmont uttered a shout of mocking laughter. ‘Yes. There is someone you could well bestir yourself to get hold of. If it’s not too much trouble. My steward. Guy de Pacy.’

When the lord and Jacquemin had left, Joe took the other end of the woodwork and asked conversationally: ‘Tell me, Martineau … when I came in, you mentioned that you had three victims but I think you also referred to two-was it two? — suspects?’