Phil Rickman - The Fabric of Sin

‘What about the history generally ? You know much about that?’

‘Only that it used to be very important, apparently, when the Newtons first came. We have an old … hang on, I’ll show you. Won’t be a minute.’

Roxanne put down her toast and got up, brushing crumbs from her fleece, vanishing through a door. Merrily looked out of the bay window. It had been dark when she left, and the early sun was still muffled. She couldn’t see any landmark that she recognized, not the church, nor the top of the hill with its radio mast. Certainly not the Master House.

It was as if the Newtons had sought out a spot without any prominent landscape features, somewhere with no visible history.

When Roxanne returned, she was carried a wedge of dark wood a couple of feet long and a paperback book. She put the book on the table and held the piece of wood up for Merrily. It was a plaque, gilt-edged. It said:

HONOUR THE MASTER

CARE FOR THE CUSTOMS

Roxanne leaned the plaque against the table.

‘My family, when they moved in, there was a maiden aunt who threw herself into researching the history. We’ve still got a box of her papers – we keep being told we ought to have it all published as a book, but it would take a lot of work. But this aunt – Aunt Fliss – said it was important for the family to realize that we hadn’t just bought a farm, we’d taken on a very powerful piece of history that one day would come into its own.’

‘What did she mean by that?’

‘Don’t think she ever worked it out fully, but it was obviously about the Grand Master of the Templars. People think it’s called the Master House because it was the main farm, but it’s because the Grand Master stayed here when he came to Garway. Aunt Fliss had had this thing made to put up over the fireplace, so future generations wouldn’t forget. My mum and dad brought it with them when they moved out. We still have it hung in the hall. Sentimental value, I suppose.’

‘But is there any actual evidence that de Molay came to Garway?’

‘It’s here.’ Roxanne put the book in front of Merrily. Knights Templar and Hospitaller in Herefordshire by Audrey Tapper. ‘You read this one?’

‘Not had time to read anything much, to be honest. This has all happened very quickly.’

‘Well, there you are.’ Roxanne opened out the book and flattened its spine. ‘This is the bit. This is when Edward II started imprisoning English Templars after they were closed down in France, accused of all this heresy and stuff. One of them was called John Stoke, who’d only been a Templar for about a year and he came to Garway, and he made this confession about what they made him do.’

The account of it, Merrily read, had come from the St John Historical Society, presumably linked to the Hospitallers who had taken over Garway from the Templars.

He was in Garway during the visit there by Grand Master Jacques de Molay. Stoke’s deposition when the Templars were arrested was that he had been called to the Grand Master’s bedchamber at Garway and in front of two other foreign knights he was asked to make proof of his obedience and to seat himself on a small stool at the foot of the Grand Master’s bed .

‘So de Molay’s bedchamber … was that definitely at the Master House?’

‘That’s what we were told,’ Roxanne said. ‘He was a bit of a boy, wasn’t he, old Jacques?’

De Molay then sent to the Church for a crucifix and then two other Templars placed themselves at either side of the door with their swords drawn. Stoke said that he was asked to deny ‘Him whom the image represents’ but he replied ‘Far be it for me to deny my Saviour.’ The Grand Master ordered him to do so, otherwise he would be put in a sack and carried to a place ‘by no means agreeable’. Through fear of death he denied Christ, ‘but with his tongue and not his heart .’

‘Makes you think, doesn’t it?’ Roxanne said. ‘I like that bit where the poor guy’s threatened with being put in a sack if he didn’t renounce Jesus Christ. Toss him in the Monnow, you reckon, or just the nearest slurry pit. So, I mean, were the Templars Christians, or were they into something a bit off-colour? It’s interesting, really. Wish I had time to go into it.’

‘Or the confession could be fabricated. After the suppression of the Templars, it was easier to slag off Jacques de Molay than go into some dungeon.’

‘That’s what Aunt Fliss used to say, apparently. She said he was a good man. But then, who wants to think they’re living in the house where some psycho was holding court?’

‘Roxanne, can I ask you …? I mean, you probably won’t have an answer to this under the circumstances … But how do the Gwilyms tie in? I mean, they’re supposed to have been in that house since the Middle Ages, is that right?’

‘So they say .’

‘So are they claiming to be descended from the Templars or what?’

‘I don’t know. I mean, yeah, it was their house and they were pretty pissed off about losing it to us. But I thought it was just about money and land. But then I’ve never had anything to do with them – I was being told not to from a very early age. And then I learned the sort of things they did and what a shit Sycharth was. I mean, there’s got to be something, hasn’t there, but he’s clever. When he learned about Paul, he was like, “Look, I know the fix you’re in and why don’t I take it off your hands?” Oh yeah, like I want my dad and my grandad turning in their graves.’

‘You weren’t ever tempted?’

‘No … and he blew it anyway, didn’t he? I mean, yeah, the Master House was falling into ruins and nobody in their right mind was going to want to rent it now. So the only option was to get rid of it. And, like, when we had another approach, six or seven months later, from a chap in Abergavenny, we did start negotiations … until we found out he was a proxy bidder for Sycharth.’

‘Devious.’

‘No more than you’d expect. Then Paul was reading about Harewood Park and all the property the Duchy of Cornwall was buying in Herefordshire and we thought, what’s to lose? So we took a lot of photos and printed up stuff on the history and posted it off. Couldn’t really believe it when they went for it, but … well, good things happen sometimes. And it meant the Gwilyms were stuffed. So maybe old Jacques was on our side.’

‘Getting de Molay on your side.’ Merrily nodded at the plaque. ‘That’s what this is about? I mean, the caring for customs bit … you – the Newtons – clearly went out of your way to observe local traditions. The Watch Night?’

‘Not in my time.’ Roxanne put on a shudder. ‘Thank God. But there was always a feeling – and I do feel that way myself sometimes – that either a place is working for you or it’s working against you. It’s very much a thing you get with farms.’

‘And the Master?’

‘I wouldn’t go that far, but then we’re not in the house. That’s Prince Charles’s problem now. Did … did Mrs Morningwood tell you about Naomi Newton?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Thought not. That’s the one she doesn’t tell. The lovely Naomi … she was the youngest sister of my great-grandmother – and of Aunt Fliss. All daughters of John Newton, who bought the farm off Mrs Gwilym. Naomi … she was the beauty. Well, this was during World War One, and there weren’t many men around – all off getting killed in France. Except for Madog Gwilym – can’t remember how he avoided it. Running the farm or a club-foot … something.’

‘They all had very distinguished-sounding Welsh names, didn’t they?’

‘Pretentious gits. Anyway, Madog Gwilym didn’t go to war and he fancied his chances with Naomi. This was before the feud set in – all the anger was on the Gwilym side until this happened. Maybe Madog suggested Naomi owed him one for the way the Newtons got the farm, I don’t know. But he had a go and she wasn’t having any, and she actually called him a coward. In public. In church, actually.’