Priscilla Royal - Justice for the Damned

"Continue," Eleanor said, hoping her expression suggested encouragement, not the amusement she felt.

"Brother Jerome thought someone had been injured when he heard the cry so he shouted that help was coming. As he approached the building, he saw a monstrous black shape hovering about the door. The creature had no face, only eyes licked by flames." The boy gulped. "Then the stench of Hell struck his nostrils, and he felt his soul grow weak. Quickly he prayed for God's protection from the great Fiend. It was this timely plea, he says, that must have saved him from Brother Baeda's fate. Although he immediately lost all consciousness, he soon awoke, still in this world and lying on the ground. The damned soul was gone. My lady, I beg pardon for saying so, but Brother Jerome claims the creature matched all descriptions of the ghost. Although he had never seen any mortal man quite so huge, he believed it wore a woman's robes. I only repeat…" The boy fell to his knees, shaking like a lone leaf in winter's first storm.

Beatrice spread her arms as if to hug the boy. "Like a man, you have bravely reported the events, and I thank you for that. Fear not. I do bark but rarely bite-or at least rarely bite the innocent. Go to the kitchen and ask for ale and cheese on my orders." She shook her head. "You need filling out, lad. You could pass for a ghost yourself."

The boy stumbled to his feet and ran as if afraid the novice mistress might change her mind and chew on him despite her words to the contrary. He was in such a rush that he would have knocked over Sister Anne as she entered the room if Brother Thomas had not been immediately behind her.

"Two people of calm and reason," Beatrice sighed to her niece. "Are we not grateful after the tales we have just heard?"

"Did the poor corpse provide any hints to the cause of his death?" Eleanor asked.

"A sad sight," Anne replied. "He was choked with such strength that the cord was still embedded in his neck. We left the body in the infirmary where Brother Jerome is now praying for his soul."

"Our librarian was a modest man in life." Beatrice's voice was edged with weariness. "God will surely keep his spirit but little time in Purgatory."

"This second murder should not have happened." Eleanor's grey eyes turned to an ashen dark as she looked at her aunt. "I have failed you."

"Cast those thoughts from your mind now."

"But I…"

"Hear me out on this. Our priory has only the wits God gave us to bring the vile murderer of these men to justice. As I did after Wulfstan's death, I will send word to the sheriff. As he did then, he will insist that ghosts are outside his authority, especially one that kills within a priory, and his hunting companions will hear much about our presumption in troubling him with this matter!"

"But I am doing…"

"… more than he. At least you and Brother Thomas are asking questions while Sister Anne brings her knowledge and acute observations to our aid." She glanced at Thomas. "Now is the time to tell us what more you have discovered."

The monk repeated the gist of his conversations with Mistress Drifa and Master Bernard, although he continued to omit what he had heard from the dead librarian about the roofer's interest in the Psalter.

"So it would seem that Sayer, our man of many talents, is a possible suspect?" Beatrice raised a cautioning finger. "I am not condemning Wulfstan's son on such weak evidence, but that is more than the representative of King Henry's justice would have discovered even if he had bothered to try. Let us see where our combined knowledge might lead us."

"Did you find anything else of note when you examined the librarian's body?" Eleanor asked Anne.

"Nothing on the body itself, my lady, but the position of the corpse might be of interest. The body was lying on top of a Psalter, a most magnificent work if I can judge from the depiction of Jacob's dream that lay open."

"That could only be the one sent by Prioress Ida for repair," Beatrice suggested. "We have no others with such remarkable images."

"That was what Brother Jerome said. He was quite distraught when he saw it under the corpse but waited until I was done to see if the work had suffered damage."

"Brother Jerome waited? A minor miracle," Beatrice muttered.

"From the way his body lay, the librarian was kneeling or bending over when he died. I could not tell if he had been holding the Psalter, and then dropped it, or was retrieving it from the floor when the killer struck."

Thomas' eyes narrowed. "Was the Psalter damaged?"

"Apparently not. When he examined it, Brother Jerome expressed relief that there were no bloodstains."

"I find it odd that the Psalter was not stored safely away until the monk came to do repairs," Beatrice said.

Thomas cleared his throat. "I might be at fault for that, Sister. When I came to give an account of my evening at the inn, Brother Porter told me that Prioress Eleanor had left the priory. Since I had heard your monks speak of this wondrous Psalter, I went to the library to see it. Brother Baeda was kind enough to show me the work."

Eleanor frowned. "Yet you and I met together later in the afternoon. There was time to put the Psalter in the manuscript chest afterward. Had Brother Baeda grown so careless about the works under his care? I remember him as a most meticulous man."

"He had not changed. Our brother loved the books like a father might his children." Beatrice turned with a wry smile to Thomas. "He must have been pleased at your unexpected interest."

Thomas met her gaze. For a moment they studied each other, and then he nodded as if conceding some private debate. "The Psalter was open on the table when I entered the library. Brother Baeda mentioned that word of its presence there must have spread, for I was the second to beg leave to see the book of late. Perhaps a third came later, and the brother did not have time to return the treasure to a less public place."

"Or else the first returned?" Eleanor suggested. "Who was this person?"

Thomas looked down at the floor and worried the rushes with his foot. "Sayer."

"Did Brother Baeda say what sort of interest our roofer showed?" Beatrice asked.

"Sayer expressed delight with the work itself and asked how such a valuable item was stored to protect it from accidental damage."

"Wulfstan's son showed a most commendable concern for the safety of our holy works." Beatrice's eyes revealed no shaded meaning in that simple statement.

"A worry that I share," Eleanor cried out. "Dearest Aunt, I know you believe Sayer to be a harmless rogue, but the direction of all we have learned deeply troubles me. May I have permission to present my concerns?"

"I wish to hear them."

"We know that man led weak-fleshed monks into sin for coin. His own father had ties to lawless men when he himself was younger." She turned toward Thomas and Anne. "Today, my aunt and I saw toeholds in the wall Prioress Ida had asked Wulfstan to repair, gouges in the mortar that would allow someone to enter and exit this priory. Even if he was innocent of that foul treachery, someone who helped him was not. I must ask if Sayer was his assistant."

"A question easily and soon answered. Please continue, my child."

"A moment ago, we learned that this son, who has followed his father's example of dishonest behavior, asked pointed questions about this priory's treasured Psalter. Soon after, an unknown is seen escaping from the library after slaying a monk, the body found lying on this same book. Why was the killer there? Might these violent deeds be related in some way to the Psalter? Theft of relics and fine works done in God's name is not unusual. Maybe Sayer and his father found a way to benefit from the theft of this manuscript, quarreled over some detail, and the son killed his father as he publicly threatened he would? Now he has killed Brother Baeda who happened upon him while he was attempting to take the Psalter."