The Lost Abbot (24 page)

‘How did he die, Father Prior?’ called someone from the body of the hall. ‘Only there have been rumours…’

‘I am sure there have,’ said Yvo curtly. ‘But the truth is this: Welbyrn went to St Leonard’s well in the dark, but the steps are slippery, and he fell. A tragic mishap.’

‘And I would remind you all that idle gossip is a sin and should be beneath you,’ added Nonton sternly, casting a cool but bleary eye around the gathering that had more than one monk blushing in shame.

‘Welbyrn will be missed,’ declared Yvo, scowling at the cellarer for voicing something he wished he had said himself. ‘God rest his soul.’

‘What about his replacement?’ asked Ramseye.

Bartholomew was surprised by the almoner’s dispassionate response to the death of a man he had known all his life – and who had been backing his bid to be Abbot into the bargain. Henry shook his head in silent disapproval at the question, and there were raised eyebrows and grimaces from the other monks, although it was impossible to tell whether they thought like Henry, or felt relief that a more stable man could now be appointed to the post.

‘Appletre will be treasurer,’ announced Yvo. ‘He can start today.’

He glanced at Lullington, who nodded encouragingly. The knight was resplendent in another set of new clothes, and had doused himself so liberally with perfume that he had attracted flies. Meanwhile, Appletre was gazing at the Prior in horror.

‘But I do not know anything about money,’ he objected. ‘There must be a better choice than me. For example, Henry, who is—’

‘I have made my decision,’ interrupted Yvo. ‘You will be our new treasurer, and I shall take over the precentor’s duties myself, concurrently with being Prior.’

‘But you cannot sing!’ cried Appletre, appalled.

‘Nonsense,’ snapped Yvo. ‘I have a beautiful voice, and it is time it was heard.’

‘No!’ Appletre was becoming tearful again. ‘I cannot, not so soon after Welbyrn. It is not right. Please! Let us have time to mourn.’

‘We will mourn,’ said Yvo coolly. ‘However, an abbey’s finances wait for no man, so you will assume your duties with immediate effect.’

‘Do as he says, Appletre,’ advised Ramseye. ‘It will only be for three days, because the new Abbot
will
rescind this decision.’

Appletre smiled gratefully in response to his meaningful look, and Bartholomew supposed it was one way of securing a vote. Not everyone was impressed, however.

‘You intend the election to go ahead?’ asked Henry, for once forgetting himself and speaking without due deference. ‘Even though two high-ranking officers now lie dead? Surely it is now even more important to wait for the Bishop’s Commissioners to—’

‘Welbyrn’s death is irrelevant to who becomes Abbot,’ interrupted Lullington.

‘But Father Prior,’ objected Henry, standing up and glancing at his fellow monks as he did so. All were nodding their support. ‘I do not feel this is right.’

He had ignored the corrodian, but it was Lullington who replied anyway. ‘These are uncertain times, and we need an
abbot
to lead us. A prior does not carry the same authority, and we cannot afford to be perceived as weak.’

‘That is right,’ agreed Yvo. ‘Now sit down, Henry, before I make you spend the rest of the year in the vegetable garden.’

Henry sat abruptly.

‘We had better inspect Welbyrn’s body,’ said Michael, in the silence that followed. ‘The Bishop will want to know exactly what happened to him. Did you leave everything as you found it, as I asked, so I may draw upon the expertise of my Corpse Examiner?’

‘We did,’ said Ramseye in distaste. ‘Although I cannot see why such unpleasantness is necessary. Must Bartholomew be given licence to paw Welbyrn’s mortal remains?’

‘He will be able to tell whether there has been foul play,’ said Michael coldly. ‘I cannot begin to count the number of killers we have caught with his skills and my wits. No wicked villain has ever gained the better of us. And none ever will.’

His words echoed around the refectory like a challenge, and Bartholomew closed his eyes. Such hubris was asking for someone to make another assault on their lives.

‘You will find nothing amiss,’ growled Nonton irritably. ‘As Prior Yvo just told you, it was an accident.’

‘If so, then Matt will confirm it,’ said Michael, kicking Bartholomew under the table when the physician started to say that he might be able to do nothing of the kind.

‘Very well,’ said Ramseye. ‘Shall we go now? The bedesmen are eager to open their chapel to pilgrims, but they cannot do it with a corpse bobbing in their healing well.’

‘You left Welbyrn
in
the water?’ Bartholomew was shocked.

‘Michael said nothing should be moved,’ replied Ramseye blandly. ‘So nothing was. Far be it from us to disobey the Bishop’s Commissioner.’

Michael glared at him. ‘You know I did not mean you to leave Welbyrn soaking! It was the rest of the chapel that I wanted left as it was found.’

‘Then you should have made yourself clear. We did exactly as you ordered.’

‘We did,’ smirked Lullington. ‘After all,
we
do not want to be accused of murder.’

‘As you accused Matt?’ asked Michael archly. ‘Even though he was insensible at the time, and incapable of doing anything?’

‘He was an obvious suspect, given their past antipathies,’ argued Lullington.

‘Welbyrn was far more likely to have murdered Matthew than the other way around,’ said Ramseye. ‘
He
was the one who bore the grudge. It is a pity you can no longer ask him whether he acted on it by sending a gift of poison.’

A sizeable deputation accompanied the two scholars to St Leonard’s Hospital. Michael led the way, Yvo and Lullington hard on his heels, both regaling him with theories about how Welbyrn might have come to fall. The monk’s face was expressionless, but he was wondering why they were so determined that Welbyrn’s demise should be deemed an accident.

Bartholomew was next, with Ramseye, Henry and Appletre. Nonton was behind them, stopping occasionally to take a swig from the flask he had hidden in his sleeve. A flock of monks, lay brethren and townsfolk followed, while the bedeswomen brought up the rear, gleeful that they were not the only ones to suffer the inconvenience of a corpse in their holy places.

Bartholomew was now marginally more alert, although his spirits were low – a combination of hurt that Matilde had not waited to speak to him, a residual vexation with Michael that he suspected would take a while to wear off, and sadness that Cynric would no longer play such a large role in his life.

‘Are you sure you are recovered, Matt?’ asked Henry kindly. ‘You are oddly quiet.’

‘Just tired.’ Bartholomew knew Henry would be a sympathetic confidant, but his feelings were too raw to be shared with anyone else just yet.

‘I do not want to be treasurer,’ said Appletre miserably. ‘I am a musician, not a financier. I shall have the abbey in debt within a month.’

‘You only need do it for three days,’ Ramseye reminded him. ‘At which point, the new Abbot will appoint someone else. It is high time we had a treasurer who knew what he was doing, anyway. Welbyrn did his best, but he was out of his depth.’

‘Do not speak ill of the dead,’ said Henry sharply, not seeming to care that he was berating a superior. ‘He was meticulous and honest.’

‘And mean,’ added Ramseye. ‘Which is what he will be remembered for.’

Henry opened his mouth to argue, but apparently could think of nothing to refute the remark, so he closed it again without speaking.

‘He was unquestionably loyal to Robert, though,’ said Appletre.

‘Yes,’ acknowledged Ramseye with a weary sigh. ‘Including his ridiculous assertion that my uncle is still in the land of the living.’

‘Perhaps he is,’ sniffed Appletre. ‘I cannot believe that God would deprive us of treasurer, Abbot
and
physician within a few weeks. Maybe Robert and Pyk are kidnapped, not dead.’

‘If that were true, a ransom demand would have been received by now,’ said Ramseye. ‘Or perhaps one was, but someone decided not to pay it.’

Appletre regarded him in horror. ‘Then we must search for them at once! I will—’

‘Search the Fens?’ Ramseye’s voice was scathing. ‘How do you propose we do that?’

‘But who would do such a wicked thing?’ asked Henry doubtfully. ‘If the letter is not acknowledged, the kidnappers may harm their victims. Or even kill them.’

‘Quite,’ said Ramseye pointedly. ‘Which brings me back to my original contention – that my uncle is dead. We need another abbot in post as quickly as possible, and the sooner I am elected, the sooner I can begin to put things right.’

‘Do you really think you will win?’ asked Henry wonderingly.

Ramseye regarded him haughtily. ‘When the alternative is Yvo? Of course! He has been Acting Abbot since Robert disappeared, but look at what has happened during his reign: a bedeswoman murdered, our treasurer dead in a sacred well, and the Bishop’s Commissioners probing our affairs. May I count on your support?’

‘Yes,’ nodded Appletre eagerly. ‘So I can be precentor again.’

‘And you shall be my almoner, Henry,’ said Ramseye when the other monk remained silent. ‘Just think of how much you could do for hungry beggars if you held such a post.’

Bartholomew was appalled, sure Ramseye was saying that the poor might suffer if Henry did not do as he was told. Appletre changed the subject, and Henry shot him a grateful glance that he would not be pressed for an answer there and then.

‘Inges has been telling everyone that Welbyrn was murdered.’ The precentor shook his head slowly. ‘But I cannot believe it. Who would want to kill Welbyrn?’

‘A great many people,’ replied Ramseye. ‘He had become something of a bully recently, so there are many who will be pleased that he is no longer with us.’

‘Including you?’ asked Bartholomew, before he could stop himself.

Ramseye raised his eyebrows. ‘Me? I wanted him alive. He and Nonton were going to help me win the election, and his death is a blow to my cause. I am deeply sorry he is gone.’

But there was something in his voice that set alarm bells ringing in Bartholomew’s mind. He stared at his old tutor, struggling to read his bland expression, but then Appletre started to talk about the music he thought would be suitable for Welbyrn’s requiem mass, and the moment was gone.

There was a delay before the deputation could enter St Leonard’s, because the bedesmen called out that they were praying. Hagar snorted in disbelief, but Yvo declared that such an activity could not possibly be interrupted, grinning his triumph when several monks nodded approval of his pious decision. While they waited for the bedesmen to finish their devotions – although clunks and scrapes from inside suggested rather that a hasty spring-clean was in progress – Yvo began to inform the onlookers that he had always admired the bedesfolk’s DED_Dedication_text to their religious duties. Ramseye did not demean himself with brazen electioneering, though he did not object when Nonton did it for him.

Bartholomew had no wish to listen, so he went to stare along the road that led to Torpe, wondering what had happened to the two men who had ridden along it on St Swithin’s Day. His thoughts were still annoyingly sluggish, and he took several deep breaths in an effort to clear them. He stifled a groan when Ramseye came to stand next to him.

‘If your work as a Corpse Examiner entails dissections, you might be wise to restrain yourself while you are here,’ the almoner warned. ‘The townsfolk are unlikely to be very understanding of such practices, and you may find yourself decried as a warlock.’

Bartholomew’s immediate assumption was that an uneasy conscience had prompted the advice – that Ramseye was worried about what clues might have been left on Welbyrn’s body.

‘I am not an anatomist,’ he said, then smiled, aiming to disconcert. ‘But such techniques are rarely necessary, because the evidence is usually obvious.’

‘Is it?’ Ramseye’s expression was closed, and Bartholomew could read nothing in it. ‘The things you know, Matthew! It has certainly been an experience meeting you again.’

‘And you,’ said Bartholomew, a little deflated that his ploy had not worked.

‘You sound tired.’ Ramseye studied him closely. ‘Not fully recovered from your brush with death. I never touch cakes, personally. I have always held them to be dangerous.’

Bartholomew glanced sharply at him. Had
he
poisoned the Lombard slices? Ramseye regarded him with a hurt expression, guessing exactly what he was thinking.

‘I have nothing to fear from the Bishop’s Commissioners, and nor do I have any desire to see them dead. However, if you will accept perilous missions, like investigating missing abbots, then you must expect attempts on your life.’

Bartholomew frowned. Had he and his colleagues just been threatened? This time, if Ramseye knew what he was thinking, he did not acknowledge it.

‘You owe me your thanks, by the way,’ the almoner said with a smile. ‘When fingers started pointing in your direction blaming you for Welbyrn’s demise, it was I who defended you.’

‘Yes, I heard.’ Bartholomew forced himself to sound grateful, although in reality the discussion was reminding him of why he had so detested Ramseye’s classes and had done his best to disrupt them. ‘Thank you.’

Ramseye shrugged. ‘It was the truth. None of you left the guest house last night.’

Bartholomew was puzzled. ‘Were you watching us? Why?’

‘Honestly? Because I was worried that your fat friend might accuse me if you succumbed to that toxin – I imagine you told him that I was a less than kindly tutor. Of course, it was a long time ago, and I am a different man now.’

Not so different, thought Bartholomew, taking in the sly eyes and silkily cajoling voice. ‘And Welbyrn? Had he changed as well?’

Ramseye shrugged. ‘I really cannot say. We had very little to do with each other outside the routine course of our duties, and rarely spoke socially.’

‘You just told me that he supported you in your aim to be Abbot,’ Bartholomew pointed out. ‘Along with Nonton.’

‘The Unholy Trinity, as everyone likes to call us,’ sighed Ramseye. ‘I do not associate with them from choice, but because it is expedient. Yvo would be a disastrous ruler, whereas I will be just, generous and enlightened.’