Phil Rickman - The Fabric of Sin

‘Ah,’ Teddy said. ‘That old tale.’

‘You don’t believe it?’

‘Confessions could be extracted without too much difficulty in those days.’

‘Not so easy now.’

‘No?’

‘To get someone to confess,’ Merrily said. ‘Not so easy.’

Wondering how quickly she could get out of here, if necessary. How fast she could run. Wearing a skirt.

But then all she had to do was open the door and scream for Lol, and he’d be down here in seconds, ready to face Teddy.

And his crowbar.

And Jane … Merrily flinched at an image of Jane’s soft face raked across by the sharp end of a crowbar wielded like a weapon of war. Like a Templar’s …

She straightened up. Patted some red dust off her best dark blue woollen jacket.

‘You know what, Teddy?’ she said. ‘ I think you’ve been misleading us all.’

‘This is so weird.’

Jane and Lol had got out of the car. The night wind was blowing Jane’s hair back. She faced into it.

‘I can’t believe she did that, Lol. Can’t believe how much she’s changed … even this past year Or you, come to that. Never used to notice people changing.’

‘No.’

‘Scary, really.’

‘Yes.’

She didn’t think he’d taken his eyes off the front of that farmhouse once since Mum had gone in. He was like Roscoe, sitting upright on the grass between them, Jane resting a hand on the dog’s neck, feeling a quiver there.

‘When we came here – I mean to Ledwardine – I had no respect for Mum. I despised her. For being a priest. For making me watch her … pray and stuff. How could she, you know? How could she put me through that?’

‘That’s normal,’ Lol said. ‘Oh God, Jane, I forgot. Eirion rang.’

‘Irene?’

It was out before she could stop it.

‘He, um … he said you hadn’t been returning his calls.’

‘Did he?’

She looked at Lol’s shape in the darkness, tense. He used to look very boyish, in a wispy kind of way. Even just a couple of years ago. There was grey in his hair now and he had an air of faint regret. Maybe the wasted years. And there was still anxiety. Not so much about his career as a fear of losing Mum. And how to handle a priest.

‘He said he must’ve rung about twenty times,’ Lol said. ‘He sounded pretty upset. He thinks, um … he thinks you’re having an affair with a married man.’

‘Coops.’

‘That would be the guy, yes.’

‘It’s over,’ Jane said.

‘What?’

‘He’s given me what I need.’

Lol took his stare off the house for nearly a second.

‘The best places to apply for courses in archaeology.’

‘Jane …?’

‘I was thinking, well, if I hate the idea of the future so much, like the way the world’s going, why not just like … immerse myself in the way it used to be.’

‘You told your mum about this?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I wasn’t certain. Coops took me on a field walk. You just, like, walk a line through a … field. And pick things up … bits of stone, bits of pottery, and it’s like you’re peeling away the layers. It was amazing. Unexpectedly amazing. The feeling of … I dunno … contact .’

‘That’s … fantastic, Jane. You’ve found it? At last?’

‘Yeah. Maybe. I’d have to get accepted somewhere first. How did he sound?’

‘Who?’

‘Eirion.’

‘Seriously pissed-off.’

‘Oh God. Sometimes I can’t believe what a total bitch I am.’ Jane looked down at the long stone house. ‘What do you think they’re talking about in there?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t like the feel of this, Jane.’

‘You think Mrs Morningwood is … I mean, we know nothing about her, really. What are we going to do? About Mum.’

‘I don’t know. I’m not her … boss.’

‘Yeah, but you love her. Trouble is,’ Jane said, ‘she thinks the boss does, too.’

‘Which …? Oh.’

‘She’s inclined to trust the bugger too much, if you ask me. Faith doesn’t always win through. Look at all the good people He … Good people who get shafted. Destroyed. Happens all the time.’

She had to stay with this. Nobody else was going to find out. She sank her hands into her jacket pockets for warmth.

Misleading everybody. Not really. Teddy could have been standing up in various pulpits for thirty years and preaching from the Gnostic gospels and nobody would notice. Faith was flaccid. People no longer heard. Congregations didn’t listen .

‘I meant the Templars, that’s all.’ Merrily keeping her voice light. ‘You like to pretend you have only a cursory knowledge, but the first time we met you said you were a historian by inclination, and it’s just not possible for a historian to live in a place like this without getting …’

‘Obsessed?’

‘Totally immersed, I was going to say. I bet you were so excited when you found The Ridge. Like your … like your whole life had been moving towards Garway.’

Teddy looked up, first in surprise. And then, maybe, in suspicion, his eyes sullen in the lamplight.

‘Yes. I suppose so. I applied several times for this parish. Always went to someone else. I suppose the time wasn’t right. And, as a team minister, with the other parishes, I wouldn’t have had the space I have now. This has been a happy coincidence. A time to be seized.’

‘You knew a lot about them before you came? The Templars?’

‘Yes, I suppose I studied quite a bit. A good bit.’

‘Before theological college.’

‘Yes. Theology was … an interesting tangent. I grew up at a time when you could follow your …’

‘Stars.’ Merrily found a smile. ‘As it were.’

‘I was born in Hertfordshire. There’s always been a lot of Templar activity around Hertford itself.’

‘Hertfordshire to Herefordshire?’

‘Interesting. One letter and almost the whole width of a country away. In Hertford itself, there’ve always been rumours of tunnels under the town, connected to the Knights Templar, the Holy Grail. There’s still an organization there. An Order.’

‘Of Templars?’

‘It didn’t go away.’

‘Secret?’

‘To an extent. But enough on the surface for them to call on the Vatican to apologize for the inquisition of 1307.’

‘You think the Vatican should apologize, Teddy?’

‘It would just be a token gesture. The Templars never needed tokenism. They dug out their own heritage. Literally.’

‘From the site of Solomon’s Temple. Or is that a metaphor?’

‘It’s both. Like Garway. This place is as important as Solomon’s Temple now. More important.’

‘Because it hasn’t altered? Apart from the odd radio mast, much the same now as it was in the thirteenth century.’

‘And even the mast is symbolic. Like the hill itself, it communicates information that not everyone can receive.’

‘As above, so below.’

He shrugged.

‘You get periods of great activity and illumination,’ he said. ‘Periods of urgency.’

‘And this is one?’

‘The only one we’ll know in our lifetime. We have to … do the right thing. Exactly the right thing. Just to survive.’

‘We?’

‘The Templars.’

‘That’s a state of mind, is it?’

‘It’s a state of being. Seven centuries ago, they were the greatest combination of spiritual and physical power the Western world has ever known. It’s probably hard for a woman to understand.’

‘Probably, yes.’

‘A mocking tone, Merrily?’

‘Hell, no. I believe it. I believe if you immerse yourself in something, it creates within you enough of an illusion of power to … to be power. It’s likely to be a destructive power, of course, but that’s what the Templars did, isn’t it? They destroyed. Violent guys. Killed the infidel.’