Paul Doherty

The Peacock's Cry

‘You hanged four men yesterday at the Sycamores, Sir Hugh?’

‘No, Your Grace. I hanged four outlaws, wolfsheads, on the gallows close to the crossroads known as the Sycamores. In fact I hanged five such criminals, although one of them was already dead. I killed him when he tried to escape. I thought he should join his fellow malignants in death as he had been with them in life.’

‘We passed their naked corpses dangling by the neck. We only counted four.’

‘First, Your Grace, they weren’t naked when I hanged them, but times are hard. I suspect they were stripped before their flesh turned cold. As for the fifth corpse, well, as you know, wandering magicians and cunning men like to sell the various parts of a hanged man for medicinal purposes, though,’ Corbett added wryly, ‘I’ve never purchased such a thing myself.’

Edward, King of England, scratched his nose and stared at his companion, Piers Gaveston, whom he called his ‘beloved brother’. Indeed, the king loved Gaveston so much, he had created him Earl of Cornwall, married him to a royal princess and appointed him leader of the Council. Because of Gaveston, Edward had told the great earls of the kingdom, led by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the king’s own cousin, to go hang themselves, as he would never give up his Gascon favourite. The great nobles thought otherwise and they fiercely resented being ignored, both publicly and in private, in preference to Gaveston. Wiping the sweat from his face, Edward wondered how much of this was known to the man he and Piers were visiting, or had this enigmatic manor lord cut himself off from all gossip of the court?

‘You remember Sir Hugh Corbett, Piers?’

‘I certainly do.’ The royal favourite grinned and stretched out his goblet for Corbett to refill with the delicious Bordeaux specially broached to mark the king’s surprise visit to Corbett’s manor of Leighton in the great forest of Epping. Gaveston noticed how Corbett’s hand was steady as he poured. The manor lord seemed calm and poised, not flustered by the unexpected arrival of the royal entourage: a horde of men-at-arms, clerks and other retainers of the king’s household, resplendent in their blue, gold and blood-red tabards. In fact, Corbett reminded Gaveston of a monk, with his inscrutable dark face, deep-set eyes and firm chin and mouth, his raven-black hair streaked with grey as closely cropped as any cleric’s. Corbett was not a man for ostentation; his jerkin and hose were of black fustian, the only concession to fashion being the pure white cambric shirt with its stiff collar, as well as the high-heeled Castilian riding boots and the metal-studded war belt, now looped over the newel of a leather-backed chair.

Gaveston raised his goblet in silent toast as the former royal clerk, once Keeper of the Secret Seal, turned to fill the king’s cup. He took the opportunity to stare around Corbett’s chancery chamber, the clerk’s secret room, closeted and sealed away at the heart of his spacious stately mansion, a place that even on a summer’s day was full of shifting shadows. The walls were covered in elm-wood panelling, the wood polished to a shine so it reflected the dancing, tongue-like flames of the beeswax candles. The purest turkey rugs on the floor deadened all sound. In the centre of the room stood a broad writing desk with a high-backed chair, on either side a quilted leather stool and a stack of small coffers and caskets. Gaveston noticed how all of these were both bolted and locked, and hid his smile. As ever, Corbett was a master of secrets.

‘I certainly do remember Sir Hugh,’ he repeated, ‘as do you, Your Grace,’ he added teasingly. ‘Indeed, you remember him every day. Sir Hugh?’ Gaveston gestured at Corbett. ‘His Grace the king needs you. He wants you to kiss hands and accept the seals of high office. During the reign of his father, Edward I of blessed memory, you were Keeper of the Secret Seal. According to the old king, you held that office because you were the only man he ever trusted. In that he was right. He trusted you, I trust you and the king trusts you. Surely the wishes of both the king and myself matter?’

‘Of course.’ Corbett cradled his own goblet and kept his face impassive. The former royal clerk had expected this visit, but not so swift, so unannounced. The king’s party, pennants and banners fluttering, had thundered through the manor gates, scattering Corbett’s retainers as they returned home after hearing Mass in the nearby chapel. They had arrived bristling with self-importance, but Corbett was determined not to be cowed or outfaced. He was well versed in the temper tantrums of the royal family. Edward I, the king’s father, had been notorious for his ferocious anger; implacable and, if sorely baited, highly dangerous. Not a day passed when Corbett did not recall the old king’s rugged warrior’s face, sharp black eyes full of fury, fingers constantly rapping the table or falling to caress the hilt of his sword or dagger.

Corbett had kept himself informed in his own secret way of the doings of the court. He knew all about the recent war in Scotland. How Edward I had swept through that country with fire and sword, proclaiming himself God’s anger incarnate against the Scots. Now the old king was dead. Four years earlier, in July 1307, suffering from a virulent disease of the bowel, he had risen from his bed, given a soul-wrenching cry and fallen back into the arms of his retainers. Edward of Caernarvon, his son and heir, had immediately recalled his troops out of Scotland and brought back his favourite, Gaveston, from exile. Corbett knew that things had changed, and he wondered if they were going to change yet again.

‘What do they say about us?’ Edward stretched out a booted foot to softly kick Corbett’s leg.

‘The truth, Your Grace?’ Corbett gently kicked back.

‘The truth,’ Gaveston declared.

‘There you have it.’ Corbett grinned.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I ask the king a question, and you’ – Corbett pointed at Gaveston – ‘answer it. Your Grace, my lord, that’s proof enough. You are inseparable. You are of one mind and one will, that’s what people say about you.’

Corbett needed to move. As he rose to his feet, so did the king, though Gaveston remained seated. Corbett glanced swiftly at the door, then at his war belt looped over the chair. He did not fully trust the king. Edward II was over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, with the long legs of a born horse rider and the wiry arms of a swordsman. He was handsome-faced, slightly olive-skinned, a striking contrast to his golden hair and neatly clipped beard and moustache. He had heavy-lidded blue eyes, the right one slightly drooping, which made him look as if he mistrusted the whole world, an impression heightened by the wry twist to his mouth. A strong man, a warrior and, in truth, very dangerous. Corbett recognised this and was highly wary of this weathercock prince, whose mood could change at the twirl of a coin. If obstructed, Edward could give vent to the most violent tantrums, lashing out and kicking whoever opposed him.

The king now had his back to Corbett and was communicating secretly with Gaveston, using the sign language learnt from Cistercian monks, a code, a cipher only the king and his reputed lover understood. Gaveston, Corbett reflected, studying the favourite closely, was easier to deal with. A truly beautiful man, elegantly dressed; even his hunting clothes exuded the most delicate perfume. As tall as Edward, with dark hair and fair smooth-shaven skin, he appeared golden-faced, soft-eyed and fair-lipped. At first glance he could be regarded as rather delicate, but this was an illusion. Gaveston was a born fighter, a skilled swordsman and a champion in the tournament.

‘Why did you hang those men?’ Edward turned, cocking his head at the sound of two of his jesters, Maud Make-joy and Magote the Ape, shrieking with laughter as they entertained Lady Maeve, Corbett’s wife, and their two children, Edward and Eleanor.

‘Griscote,’ Corbett replied. ‘A charcoal burner. He had a cottage with workings deep in Leighton woods. A good man, married to Dulcia, a pretty-faced girl who had great skill in the gathering and distilling of herbs. Griscote and Dulcia were at home when the outlaws struck. They savagely cut Griscote, opening another mouth in his throat. They then raped Dulcia repeatedly before smashing her skull with a mallet. A woodcutter chanced to be passing and hid in the bushes. He witnessed the murders and fled here, shouting, “Harrow! Harrow!” and raising the hue and cry.’ Corbett walked across to his sword belt and tapped the scabbard. ‘I am the lord of the manor, with the power of axe, tumbril and gallows.’

‘And a justice of oyer and terminer,’ added the king.

‘True. So I summoned up the posse, my comitatus, and hunted those malefactors down. One resisted, so I killed him. The rest surrendered. I set up summary court in a forest glade. They confessed, so I hanged them at the Sycamores.’ Corbett spread his hands. ‘But my lords, that’s not why you are here, is it? I hanged those malefactors and you passed their rotting corpses. There is more, isn’t there? You want me to return to royal service, yes? I will not play the reluctant maiden. I am sympathetic to any logical plea, but,’ he jabbed the air with his hand, ‘this is my manor, my house, my life, my family. Don’t threaten me or hint at threat, but speak plainly. Your Grace, my lord, what is it you want?’

So it was that Hugh Corbett, recently appointed Keeper of the Secret Seal and Master of the Royal Chancery, found himself staring down at the pallid face of the murdered maiden Elizabeth Buchan. Eighteen summers old and a novice of the order of Benedictine nuns at their convent at Godstow in Oxfordshire, Elizabeth had been in life a great beauty, with her fiery red hair and snow-white skin. Now, in death, placed in her coffin casket packed with melting ice, she still showed vestiges of her former beauty. Dame Imelda, the infirmarian, had undoubtedly done her best to repair the young woman’s face, ravaged by the small crossbow bolt that had smashed into her lily-white forehead. Now washed, embalmed and garbed, her soul gone to judgement, she was ready to be sealed into her corpse casket before being returned to the Buchan demesne in Gloucestershire.

Corbett glanced at Ranulf Atte-Newgate, principal clerk in the Chancery of the Green Wax. Ranulf sat morosely on a bench against the far wall in the corpse chamber. Corbett crossed himself and went to stand over his former comrade. ‘Ranulf,’ he pleaded softly, ‘in God’s name, what happened here? Do you realise the danger you are in? You wish, you pray, you plead to be admitted into the service of the Chancery of the Secret Seal, yet when given a task like this, you fail miserably. Not only that, you stand accused of having an improper relationship with a novice nun, the daughter of a powerful lord with even more powerful kinsmen. Now that young woman has been found foully raped and barbarously slain at the centre of a maze, her face smashed by a crossbow quarrel very similar to the ones you carry. That is not all.’ Corbett decided to be both remorseless and ruthless. ‘You were sent here in the first place to investigate the disappearance of Margaret Beaumont, another royal ward. You failed to resolve that and are now involved in this.’

‘Master.’ Ranulf beat the gauntlets clenched in his right hand against the mortuary wall. He glanced up. ‘Old Master Long Face’, as he secretly called Corbett, was almost beside himself with rage.

‘Master what?’ Corbett mimicked back.

‘You are like a master in the schools and I some errant scholar.’

‘For God’s sake, don’t whine.’ Corbett drew a deep breath and sat down beside Ranulf. The clerk slouched with his head tilted back. His face was smooth-shaven and pale as moonlight, which only emphasised his fiery red hair, pulled back and tied in a queue behind his head. He blinked his cat-like green eyes, trying to hide the tears of sheer fury at the trap he had so stupidly blundered into. He undid his black leather jerkin, eased off his war belt and placed this between his booted feet, along with the metal-studded gauntlets, then leaned forward.

‘Last time we met – when was it, Twelfth Night? I visited Leighton – you mentioned over a cup of posset that you might return to royal service, and so you have, but why now?’

Corbett narrowed his eyes as he stared across at Elizabeth’s Buchan’s coffin casket.

‘You are still engrossed with your beekeeping?’ Ranulf tried to lighten the mood.

‘Absorbed as ever, Ranulf. Bees are God’s great creation; they teach you so much and have an order and harmony which is fascinating. Strange, you can even get murder amongst bees. Anyway, the king brought me a gift, a copy of a rare manuscript on beekeeping. He had other inducements too. Lady Maeve’s kinsfolk in Wales have become involved in costly and rather nasty litigation with Neath Abbey. The king offered to help, saying he would do all he could to assist.’

‘In other words, if you didn’t return to royal service, he would help Neath Abbey?’

‘Possibly, but Lady Maeve was very worried. She had been asking me for some time to intervene, as these kinsmen are hot-headed. They don’t like the monks of Neath and they could take the law into their own hands, which would lead to their excommunication with bell, book and candle.’ Corbett shrugged. ‘Of course, there are other reasons. I miss the intrigue at court, and above all, the relentless hunt for a murderer, the pursuit of the secret assassin.’ He paused and pointed across to the coffin casket. ‘The trapping and bringing to justice of the brood of Cain, men and women who believe they can murder, wipe out a life, dispatch a soul unprepared for judgement and not be brought to account.’

‘But there is more to it than that?’

‘There certainly is.’ Corbett edged a little closer. ‘Ranulf, our present king is not like his father. He is totally dominated by Gaveston, now Earl of Cornwall, the Gascon parvenu who mocks the great earls with nicknames. Henry of Lincoln is “Burst Belly”; Lancaster “the Churl”; Pembroke “the Jew”. However, the barons who oppose Edward and Gaveston are no better, especially Lancaster, their leader. He is haughty, treacherous and as vicious as a viper, more lecherous than a sparrow on heat. He has defiled a great multitude of high-born ladies and gentle wenches. Little wonder that his own wife hates him with a passion beyond all understanding. She is now living with the Earl of Surrey whilst petitioning the Pope for an annulment. But,’ Corbett lowered his voice, ‘Lancaster is also asking Pope Clement to annul the marriage. Hot-eyed and greedy, our noble earl is already casting about for a new wife.’

‘Ah yes,’ Ranulf interrupted. ‘I have heard of this.’

‘I am sure you have. Now, two young noble ladies caught Lancaster’s eye. Margaret Beaumont, kinswoman of Lord Henry Beaumont, who is first cousin to Queen Isabella; and Elizabeth Buchan, related very closely to Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester. Both families were flattered but apprehensive. If Lancaster were to marry one of them, being free to do so, all would be well. However, both families became alarmed at the constant rumours that the earl was, in his own words, thirsty enough to broach both casks and sample the wine for himself.’

‘Yes, yes.’ Ranulf half smiled. ‘Elizabeth Buchan told me the same: how both she and Margaret Beaumont had been cloistered here as novices at the behest of the king.’

‘So, Ranulf, what happened?’

‘Well …’ Ranulf broke from his self-pitying mood, deeply relieved that his mentor, patron and friend had now joined him. He could take Old Master Long Face’s tongue-lashing, for the clerk was genuinely afraid. Deep in his heart, he knew it would be easy enough to indict him for the murder of Elizabeth Buchan.

‘Ranulf?’

‘Master, today is the feast of Zeno of Verona: the twelfth of April, the Year of Our Lord 1311, almost seven years to the day since you surrendered your seals of office and left the chancery. Never once did you look back.’

‘I was tired, Ranulf, very tired.’ Corbett smiled. ‘Now I am not, so I have returned.’

‘They knew you would.’ Ranulf shifted on the bench. ‘The old king and his son never appointed a successor to the keepership of the Secret Seal. Both hoped you would return. Only if you died would they move to appoint a new successor.’

‘Would that be you?’ Corbett teased. ‘You did excellent work resolving those hideous murders in Southampton, tavern wenches whose gutted corpses littered the alleyways down to the quayside; and those mysterious deaths in the Priory of the Holy Cross …’

‘Oh, I was rewarded,’ Ranulf retorted, ‘but I am not Sir Hugh Corbett.’ The Clerk of the Green Wax fought to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

‘You were talking about dates, Ranulf?’

‘Yes, today is April the twelfth. Precisely one week ago, the feast of St Isidore of Seville, Elizabeth Buchan, God rest her, was found near the Creeping Cross at the centre of the great maze.’ Ranulf gestured towards the casket. ‘I understand that her robes and undergarments were in disarray, her groin bloodied. Apparently she had been raped, ravished, and then brutally slain, a crossbow bolt piercing her skull. Now, I had arrived here just after the feast of the Annunciation to investigate the disappearance of another novice, Margaret Beaumont, last seen three weeks earlier.’

‘You certainly thrust your hand into a busy beehive,’ Corbett murmured. ‘And that is what worries me, Ranulf. Indeed, it is one of the reasons why I kissed the royal hand, accepted the Secret Seal and rode as fast as Chanson and I could to this ancient venerable convent. Look around you. All is peaceful here. However, beyond the walls of Godstow, Edward and Gaveston manoeuvre like swordsmen against the great barons, led by Lancaster the lecher, who lusted after both those young women. The king offered them his protection, but, like so much our Edward does, this crumbled into disastrous failure. One noble family now mourns the mysterious disappearance of their kinswoman, whilst another grieves for a daughter, violated and barbarously murdered. Lancaster is brought short in his lechery and acts the grieving lovelorn lord who holds the king ultimately responsible for what has happened. Of course, Edward turns on you, Ranulf, a royal clerk dispatched to Godstow to discover the truth about Beaumont. You failed, and were here when Buchan was found murdered. Worse, they accuse you of flirting with this novice, and of course there is the question of one of your crossbow quarrels being discovered embedded in that young woman’s skull. In a word, you could become the scapegoat, an ideal one, a royal clerk who has failed his masters.’

‘And if you fail?’ Ranulf retorted.

‘Then we both go down, my friend. And talking of friends, there is one final strand, which stretches back into the distant past. Lady Joan Mortimer, our noble abbess?’

‘What about her?’ Ranulf challenged. ‘I heard you knew her decades ago …’

‘An eternity ago,’ Corbett whispered. ‘Oh yes, the Lady Joan Mortimer! Small, pretty-faced, yet when she wanted to, Joan could fill a hall with her presence. Steel and silk, Ranulf; resolute, determined, but she could also act the weak captive lady in the tower. Men fought to wear her colours at the tournament. One glance from those strange violet eyes and she would have the most ascetic cleric quaking at the knees.’ Corbett laughed. ‘This was years ago, when I was a callow clerk in the chancery office. I used to follow my master Burnel to all the king’s festivities, banquets and hosting. Joan was always there. A time of splendour before good Queen Eleanor died and our old king’s soul died with her. Anyway, do not tell the Lady Maeve, but I was deeply smitten by the Lady Joan, fair of form and fair of face. One priest called her temptation incarnate.’ Corbett shook his head. ‘A true beauty.’

‘Yet now she is a nun vowed to chastity, a lady abbess no less.’

‘Oh that’s my Joan,’ Corbett replied. ‘La damoiselle sans pitie. She was merciless, she broke heart after heart. I once asked her … yes, I remember this. We were at Windsor, I was about to leave for France; I was distraught at being deprived of her company. I asked her what she really wanted from life. She replied, “Everything.” When I returned to court, Joan Mortimer, for reasons best known to herself, had retired from public life and entered the Benedictine nunnery at Oswestry on the Welsh march – and so the years passed. I wager you have crossed swords with her, Ranulf?’

‘More than you-’

Ranulf paused as the door was flung open and Chanson, Corbett’s clerk of the stables, his principal horseman, entered, still hobbling after dropping a dagger on his exposed foot just before they left Leighton. Ranulf had laughed when he learnt of this, the only time he had done so since Corbett had arrived in Godstow. Chanson had taken such mockery as good-humouredly as he always did. Corbett secretly wondered if the cast in Chanson’s left eye was responsible for the man’s utter incompetence with any kind of sword or dagger. Indeed, Chanson’s lack of skill in weaponry was only equalled by his total inability to sing a correct note. As he approached, the clerk of the stables’ round face was weathered in a smile, hair shorn to a bob, the brisk work of Lady Maeve before they left Leighton.

‘Chanson?’

‘The lady abbess’s messenger has arrived, came marching up as if he was the king himself. Ranulf, your man Vicomte stopped him. He-’

Corbett abruptly rose at the shouting outside the death chamber. The door was flung open and a man in the brown and blue livery of Godstow nunnery pushed Vicomte, Ranulf’s principal clerk, into the chamber. Corbett had already met Vicomte, a ragged-haired, thin-faced man with a wispy beard and moustache, watery eyes and a constantly dripping nose. He was hardly a dagger man, but Corbett knew he was shrewd, subtle and very skilled in unlocking ciphers and secret codes. Vicomte was trying to block the Godstow retainer, who, Corbett suspected from the war belt strapped ostentatiously around his waist, the close-cropped hair, moustache and beard, his face weathered to the colour of fresh leather, was the nunnery’s man-at-arms. A common enough custom – a serjeant retired from the royal array and given a lifelong corrody or pension in return for light military duties.

‘Enough!’ Corbett shouted, drawing his sword and clattering it against the pink-plastered wall so violently he disturbed two of the triptychs extolling the virtues of St Benedict and that holy man’s saintly sister Scholastica. ‘Enough,’ he repeated. The two men drew apart.

‘Right, sir.’ Corbett pointed his sword at the man-at-arms. ‘Who are you?’

‘Fulbert Fitzosbert, serjeant-at-arms.’ The man walked forward. ‘Formerly of the garrison at the Tower. Do you remember me, Sir Hugh? You brought me home when the old king sent you north to ransom me and the other prisoners from the Scots.’

‘Of course.’ Corbett clasped Fulbert’s outstretched hand. ‘You were with Cressingham, Edward I’s treasurer in Scotland. He was ambushed and killed by the rebel William Wallace.’

‘Who skinned Cressingham’s body and fashioned his pelt into a belt. I, a mere soldier, was given gentler treatment, held prisoner until I was ransomed. I was also with you on the gallows platform at Smithfield when the executioners tore Wallace apart.’

Corbett nodded and re-sheathed his sword. ‘So, Master Fulbert?’

‘The lady abbess apologises that she was not here when you arrived. She now wishes to rectify this. She awaits you in her parlour, the Magdalena chamber, along with other members of her household.’ Fulbert glowered at Vicomte and Chanson. ‘That’s all what I wanted to say, but your henchman-’

‘No one is allowed admission to the king’s envoy,’ Chanson intoned lugubriously, ‘without his permission.’

‘Well he has it now,’ Corbett briskly declared. ‘Master Fulbert, lead on.’

The man-at-arms took them from the death house behind the nunnery’s infirmary. They first crossed Godstow’s pleasure gardens. Corbett asked for the whereabouts of the maze. Ranulf replied that it lay on the far side of the nunnery, occupying the great meadow that stretched to the dense copses and woods surrounding Godstow.

Corbett was relieved to be out of the death house. The day was proving beautiful, the sun gathering strength to burn off the morning mist, dance in the clinging dew and glitter in the gurgling brooks and rivulets. Fulbert explained how these had been specially built into the garden to soak the fertile black soil and feed the lily-fringed carp ponds as well as the various hatcheries, fountains, flower beds and herb plots. The Great Garden, as he described it, was divided into three: the physic, where medicinal herbs and shrubs were carefully tended; the kitchen garden; and the orchard garden with its plum, pear and apple trees. Corbett considered it a veritable Eden, an exquisitely laid-out pleasance of flower beds, rose-covered arbours and green-topped turf seats and benches. The air was perfumed with the cloying scent of the flowers now coming to full bloom. A rich, almost opulent place, which emphasised the wealth of the Godstow nunnery. A house of prayer perhaps, but certainly the most luxurious refuge for high-born ladies who wished to flee the world but not its comforts.

‘And that would be Lady Joan,’ Corbett murmured to himself.

They entered the main convent buildings, a sprawl of beautiful stonework; the bricks, hewn out of the honey-toned Cotswold stone, seemed to possess a light and warmth of their own. A serene, harmonious place where the good sisters, in their brown habits, blue veils and starched white wimples, padded softly here and there. Plainchant carried, the voice of a choir raised in praise. Corbett paused for a while to listen, promising himself that he would see if he could indulge his passion for a many-voiced choir chanting the psalms. They passed kitchens, butteries and cook rooms, where the savoury smells of the meals being prepared curled out to tease the palate and delight the stomach. They crossed the great cloisters, where the nuns who scribed and chronicled sat at their sloping desks, taking advantage of the sunlight. Here the air was scented with the smell of beeswax, ink, freshly scrubbed vellum and the delicate paints used in the jewel-like illuminations. At last they went through a small garden, under a cavernous porchway and into the abbess’s lodgings.

Fulbert knocked on an imposing door, a voice answered and the man-at-arms ushered Corbett and his party into the Magdalena chamber, a beautiful, spacious room with three oriel windows at the far end. The coloured glass was positioned to catch the light, which shimmered in the finely carved oak and elm-wood furniture: a long oval council table polished to a sheen, finely wrought leather-backed chairs, cushioned stools, coffers and caskets. The walls were decorated with brilliantly hued cloths, the floor of black-and-white lozenge-shaped tiles scrubbed to gleaming.

A woman seated at the far end of the table rose and walked quickly towards Corbett, who had to shield his eyes against the light. Lady Joan Mortimer did not stand on ceremony, but welcomed Corbett with open arms, standing on tiptoe to kiss him passionately on lips and cheeks.

‘Oh Hugh,’ she whispered, ‘so long and so good to see you.’

Slightly embarrassed, Corbett hugged her close, feeling her full breasts against his chest, his arms circling that lovely slim waist. Then he gently held her away and stared down at this woman who had once dominated and tormented his every waking moment.

‘Alluring as ever,’ he murmured. ‘That’s the truth.’

Despite the veil and wimple and the passage of the years, Lady Joan Mortimer had retained her singularly striking good looks: those strange, beautiful eyes, constantly watching, slightly crinkled as if she was secretly amused by life and everything around her; lips parted ready to laugh; and skin that still retained that alabaster hue that needed no paint or powder to enhance its beauty. A small woman, yet perfectly formed, with delicate, feminine movements. Corbett watched fascinated as introductions were made and pleasantries exchanged. Chanson and Vicomte withdrew. The abbess ushered Corbett and Ranulf to their seats as she beckoned over Dame Catherine, the novice mistress, and Father Norbert, the nunnery chaplain, a most handsome young man with raven-black hair neatly tonsured, his smooth, shaved face richly oiled. Fulbert, the man-at-arms was also instructed to stay.

The kitchener knocked and entered, accompanied by servants who laid platters of diced fresh fruit and soft bread and goblets of chilled white wine before each of the guests. Corbett sat on the abbess’s right and tried to answer her spate of questions about his life, Lady Maeve and Leighton manor. A bell tolled. Lady Joan abruptly paused; only then did Corbett glimpse the change in the mask. Joan Mortimer became very much the lady abbess, a tightening of the mouth, a darting look around the chamber, her long, delicate white fingers beating impatiently against the leather chancery wallet on the table before her. Corbett glanced about him. The others were still sipping their wine or eating the diced fruit.

‘Shall we begin?’ The abbess’s voice echoed sharply. Silence ensued. Corbett sat fascinated. Lady Joan now seemed highly distracted, breathing swiftly and swallowing hard.

‘My lady?’

‘Sir Hugh, let us commence.’ The abbess’s voice was harsh, peremptory.

Corbett had already prepared his schedule of questions. He would not write, transcribe or record any answers; that would have to wait till later.

‘Margaret Beaumont,’ he began. ‘We know why she came here.’ He waved a hand. ‘I do not want to discuss that, but she has disappeared. How? Where? Why?’ He let his questions hang like nooses from a scaffold. He was impatient. The courtesies had been observed; now it was down to business. ‘Margaret Beaumont was a novice here. She vanished about a month ago, and her belongings with her. Everything gone, from psalter to slipper.’

A chorus of agreement confirmed his words.

‘Did anyone see her leave?’

‘Sir Hugh, she had a small, narrow chamber off the petty cloisters,’ replied Dame Catherine, the harsh-faced novice mistress, hook-like fingers emphasising her words. ‘Compline had finished. The novices gathered in their refectory for a collation of bread, fruit and ale, then they retired. Master Fulbert and his assistant, the gardener Rainald, patrolled the grounds with lantern horn and weaponry. Myself and the sacristan do a similar night watch along the cloisters and elsewhere.’

‘Nothing,’ Lady Joan intervened. ‘Nothing untoward occurred that night. No alarm was raised. Yet when the matins bell tolled two hours after midnight, Margaret Beaumont did not appear in the choir stalls of our church. At first we thought she might have been ill or have overslept, so I sent our novice mistress to check.’

‘And?’ Corbett turned to Dame Catherine.

‘Her chamber was empty, swept clean. Not a trace or the slightest vestige remained of Margaret Beaumont’s presence. Nothing to indicate her leaving or where she might have gone. We searched the nunnery, scoured the grounds, sent our couriers along the dusty roads enquiring at taverns, ale houses and hostels.’ Dame Catherine pulled a face. ‘Margaret Beaumont had vanished like the summer’s dew at daybreak.’

‘And her companions, her friends?’

‘Margaret’s only friend was Elizabeth Buchan. They knew each other from court; I think they were slightly related. They arrived here at the same time, not so long ago.’

‘How long?’

‘Around Twelfth Night and the Feast of the Epiphany.’

‘Of course,’ Lady Joan added archly, ‘they realised they were here for the same reason.’ She smiled thinly. ‘Sheltering from the harsh world of men.’

‘So Margaret’s only confidante …’ Corbett paused at the shrill shrieking of the peacocks.

‘They always draw closer around this hour,’ murmured Lady Joan. ‘It’s time I fed them.’

Corbett nodded. He knew that he would remember those shrieks, the way they shattered the harmony of this serene place. ‘So Margaret Beaumont’s only confidante was Elizabeth Buchan?’

‘And Elizabeth, despite her closeness to Margaret, claimed to know nothing about her good friend’s disappearance, as I am sure your colleague’ – Lady Joan gestured to Ranulf, sitting next to Corbett – ‘will inform you in due course. He and Elizabeth had numerous conversations.’ Ranulf stiffened at the implied criticism in the abbess’s voice. Corbett gently nudged his companion, a silent warning to remain calm.

‘So nobody here knows anything about Margaret Beaumont’s disappearance. But surely,’ Corbett turned to Father Norbert, ‘she sought advice from you? Did you shrive her?’

‘If I did,’ the chaplain retorted sharply, ‘such matters are-’

‘Covered by the seal of confession.’ Corbett finished his sentence. ‘Father, I know my canon law. I am simply asking for help. A young woman has disappeared. Rest assured, we will talk again. Lady Joan, Dame Catherine, was Margaret Beaumont happy here?’

‘She was sent to Godstow.’ The abbess folded back the cuffs of her pure wool robe. Corbett hid his amusement as he glimpsed the quilted satin underlay and recalled the rich gowns the young Joan Mortimer loved to display at court. In truth, little had changed. ‘She was sent here,’ the abbess repeated, ‘against her will, but for her own protection. She balked at that. After all, she was a pretty young woman with a host of admirers in London.’ The abbess shook her head. ‘More than that I cannot say.’

‘What was she like? I mean in character.’

‘She was of good heart,’ Dame Catherine replied. ‘High-spirited, mischievous. She and Elizabeth teased each other and loved practical jokes. They both found it difficult to keep silent. They would giggle in church, chatter in the schoolroom and be all restless in the library.’

‘So Margaret disappeared that night after compline. She took her collation in the refectory and retired to what you, Dame Catherine, called her narrow chamber?’

‘Yes, though Rainald the gardener claims to have glimpsed her close to the entrance to the maze.’

‘Ah yes!’ Corbett exclaimed. ‘The maze. I need to see that, and to thread it.’

‘I would advise against that, Hugh,’ the abbess declared. ‘Well, at least until we have Rosamund’s twine played out.’

‘Rosamund’s twine?’ Corbett leaned his elbows on the table. ‘I know something about the history of this house, but apparently not enough.’

‘Godstow nunnery,’ Lady Joan began, ‘is an ancient foundation. There was a convent here long before the Conquest. Anyway, over a hundred and fifty years ago, during the reign of Henry II, it became the refuge of one of that king’s most beautiful and notorious mistresses, Rosamund Clifford. Henry’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, plotted furiously to kill Rosamund; she sent assassins here, dagger men, the brotherhood of the knife, the fraternity of the garrotte, professional killers. Henry, alarmed and wishing to protect the beautiful Rosamund, hired the most skilled architects and gardeners to lay out the maze that now occupies most of the great meadow. At its centre was a bower, where Rosamund could shelter against danger.

‘Rest assured, Sir Hugh, I will show you the maze. It is easy to become lost in that labyrinth of high, prickly hedges and tortuous tangle of narrow paths that turn and twist, a true defence against attackers and insurgents. Stories abound of people losing their way then losing their wits, collapsing from hunger, thirst, exhaustion and the sheer terror of not being able to escape. You have to thread your way most carefully, or you could die there.’ Lady Joan sat back in her chair.

‘It can be a truly dreadful place,’ Dame Catherine murmured. ‘Dark and narrow. You believe that those hedges towering either side of you are closing in to crush you, choke off your breath.’

‘To thread the maze correctly can take hours,’ Lady Joan shook her head, ‘even days if you become lost. Once I heard of your imminent arrival, I ordered Rosamund’s twine to be unrolled from the centre. A scarlet cord that runs from the bower along the correct paths to the one and only entrance. If you follow this cord, threading the maze becomes easy enough.’

‘A maze built for a whore!’ Ranulf exclaimed. ‘Should Godstow nunnery entertain such a place?’

‘Oh, Rosamund’s bower may be at the centre,’ the abbess replied. ‘But now there is also the Creeping Cross: those who are unable to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem may instead, by papal indulgence, creep through the maze on their hands and knees to worship before the cross and the pieta that stands close to the bower.’

Corbett nodded his understanding. Such practices, encouraged by papal indulgence and episcopal licence, were becoming increasingly widespread. A private penance being accorded the same spiritual benefits as a public pilgrimage. Due to wars in the east, travelling to certain shrines, such as the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Virgin’s house in Ephesus or the Sacred Cloths at Oviedo in Moorish Spain, had become increasingly difficult. In turn, this had led to the spiritual enhancement of places like the Sacred Blood of Hailes, the Thorn of Glastonbury and the Holy Family House at Walsingham.

‘So,’ he sipped from his goblet, ‘Margaret Beaumont simply disappeared. Are you sure no belongings were found?’

‘None,’ the abbess replied.

‘So she must have taken them with her?’

‘Undoubtedly.’

He placed his goblet down. ‘So a young woman flees this nunnery in the dead of night with all her possessions. I do find that strange. I mean, she wanted to get away from here; that, presumably, was why she fled. So why be so meticulous in ensuring she took everything, even scraps of clothing? In my experience, people who flee normally leave traces, but she didn’t. My next question is: where would she go? Her family, her kin, those young men of the court who sighed for her favour? Yet nobody – and I repeat, nobody – has seen Margaret Beaumont or knows anything about her since that evening here after compline. We can make no further progress; that path is completely blocked.’

Corbett was half speaking to himself, trying to hide his frustration. He glanced up quickly. Ranulf looked as if he sympathised with his master’s difficulties, a fair reflection of what he himself had experienced since his arrival at Godstow. Corbett decided he must take no nonsense. The king and Gaveston wanted a swift resolution to these mysteries. Of course he would be blocked, impeded, obstructed, but he would not give up.

‘Elizabeth Buchan,’ he began, ‘Beaumont’s friend. I have asked this before and I ask it again. Did Elizabeth shed any light at all on the dark mystery of her friend’s disappearance?’

‘She was distraught,’ Dame Catherine murmured. ‘Worried, but she said nothing to me.’

‘Or me,’ the chaplain added swiftly.

‘Lady Abbess?’

‘Sir Hugh, Elizabeth Buchan was clothed in the habit of a Benedictine novice at Godstow. A young woman. I had very little to do with her.’

‘And according to all of you, she said little if anything about Beaumont’s disappearance?’ Corbett glanced across at Ranulf, who refused to meet his eye. He promised himself that he would closely question the Clerk of the Green Wax at his first opportunity. In the meantime, his gaze swept the chamber. It was time to shake the tree.

‘So,’ he declared, ‘Margaret Beaumont disappears, yes? Was Elizabeth Buchan alarmed at first?’

‘No.’ Fulbert, the man-at-arms, spoke up, whilst Chaplain Norbert nodded in agreement.

‘I see.’ Corbett measured his words. ‘You should be more precise in your replies. Elizabeth Buchan did become concerned, but not at first?’

‘We all thought Margaret was just being foolish and would return,’ declared Dame Catherine. ‘When she didn’t, we thought she might have received outside help …’

‘Or fled to some distant, welcoming kinsman,’ the lady abbess added.

‘And when it became clear that she hadn’t?’

‘Well, we became highly anxious. I sent messages to the court, where Margaret’s family was also becoming agitated. The next thing,’ the abbess gestured at Ranulf, ‘a royal clerk appeared to assist, to investigate.’ Lady Joan’s voice, tinged with sarcasm, trailed off. Corbett glanced at Ranulf and caught the clerk’s look of pure hatred. He coughed, and Ranulf lowered his head.

‘Elizabeth Buchan,’ Corbett continued. ‘Is there anything that would explain why that young woman was violated and cruelly murdered, anything at all?’

‘She became quieter, more withdrawn in the last few days before her death,’ Dame Catherine declared. ‘On the morning before she was killed, I asked her what was wrong. She just clutched her psalter, smiled as she always did and walked away.’

‘Was she friendly with any particular novice or other members of your community?’

‘No. Margaret Beaumont was her only friend.’

‘On the day Elizabeth disappeared, who saw her last?’

‘As far as we know,’ the abbess replied, ‘our gardener Rainald.’

‘In which case, he should join us.’ Corbett’s tone was blunt, brooking no opposition. The abbess ordered Fulbert to fetch the gardener. Corbett indicated that Ranulf join him in the far corner of the parlour. Once he was certain they were out of earshot, he gently turned Ranulf so they had their backs to the others.

‘Ranulf,’ Corbett whispered, ‘you knew Elizabeth. Am I being told the truth?’

‘There is more to be said,’ the clerk replied evasively. ‘I suspect much more. We need to go back to Dame Imelda, the infirmarian, and check more closely on the state of the dead woman’s corpse …’

‘Murdered,’ Corbett reminded him. ‘Elizabeth Buchan was foully murdered. But I agree with you. It’s a pity I didn’t see the corpse as it was first found …’

‘Sir Hugh?’ the abbess called.

Fulbert had returned, Rainald the gardener dancing from foot to foot beside him. The newcomer was a short, wiry man with greasy spiked hair, a ruddy face and popping blue eyes. Strong and capable-looking, he was garbed in a dark-brown woollen jerkin with hose of the same colour pushed into thick soiled boots. The broad leather belt strapped around his waist carried a sheathed dagger, garden gauntlets, a set of small shears and a trowel all hanging from belt hooks. Fulbert mumbled the introductions. Corbett strode across and, to Rainald’s surprise, shook the gardener’s hand and pulled him close.

‘You, sir, were the last to see Elizabeth Buchan alive.’

‘Aye, apparently so.’ Rainald’s voice betrayed a thick country burr.

‘And you and Fulbert found her corpse the next morning?’

‘Aye, we did.’

Without another word, Corbett ushered Rainald to a chair and returned to his own seat, satisfied that his blunt introduction had caught people unawares. He was certain that lies were being peddled as thick as flies on a turd. He was determined to change this.

‘Master Rainald, when did you last see Mistress Buchan?’

‘Oh, late afternoon. Divine office had been sung, the day was a clear one. I saw her near the entrance to the maze. I don’t know what she had been doing there, but she hurried across to the convent building.’

‘Did anyone else see her after that?’

A chorus of denials answered his question. ‘So,’ he gestured at the abbess, ‘what then?’

‘Elizabeth was missed the following morning at matins, and at the first meal of the day in the refectory. At first we thought she might have gone out looking for Margaret. Then I became concerned, worried that she had followed her friend and fled. I ordered a thorough search of the nunnery and the grounds beyond. Rainald told me what he had seen, so I decided the maze should also be searched. I asked Fulbert and Rainald to do that. They are most skilled in threading that labyrinth.’

‘Why is that?’ Corbett asked.

‘I am the head gardener,’ Rainald declared. ‘I have to maintain it. It’s taken me some time, but I can find my way through it easily now.’

‘Whilst I,’ Fulbert confessed, ‘have so little to do here. After all, Godstow is hardly a castle along the Scottish march. Over the years, I have discovered the secrets of the maze, the different turnings.’

‘How long does it take you to walk from the entrance to the centre? Oh, by the way, there is only one entrance, yes?’

Rainald nodded.

‘From the entrance to Rosamund’s bower and the Creeping Cross,’ Fulbert declared, ‘I would say about half a circle on an hour candle. I have tested it. If I walk quickly, or run, it’s even less.’

‘And that morning?’

‘Rainald and I entered. We walked swiftly enough.’

‘Did you, on your journey, notice anything untoward?’

‘Nothing.’

‘And when you reached the centre?’

‘Silence. No birdsong.’ Fulbert drew a deep breath. ‘Just Elizabeth Buchan’s body, her robe and the kirtle beneath pushed back.’ He swallowed hard. ‘You could see the great bloodstain in her groin between her legs,’ he indicated with his hands, ‘and across her thighs, and here.’ He patted his stomach. ‘Her head lay twisted to one side, her face caked with blood from the crossbow bolt embedded in her skull. God have mercy on her, Sir Hugh, her face was all torn.’

‘Do you think the bolt was loosed close to her?’

‘Yes, it must have been. It was sunk deep, a jagged quarrel with stiffened flight feathers.’

‘And the arbalest itself?’

‘A small hand-held one, I suspect, though we did not find it.’

‘You still have that quarrel, the barb?’

Fulbert gestured at Ranulf.

‘It was one of mine,’ the clerk spoke up, ‘stolen from my belongings here.’ He did not meet Corbett’s eye. Others in the chamber moved restlessly.

‘I shall certainly return to that,’ Corbett declared. ‘So the poor woman was violently killed by a bolt to the head?’

‘Yes,’ both Fulbert and Rainald agreed.

‘And the blood?’

‘Congealed.’

‘The flesh, the woman’s skin?’

‘Cold as ice, the limbs turning rigid,’ Fulbert declared. ‘I have moved enough corpses on battlefields to know that Elizabeth Buchan had been dead for some hours.’

‘Ravished, raped and killed in the dark?’

‘Yes.’

‘Which makes me wonder.’ Corbett turned back to the abbess. ‘Elizabeth Buchan was certainly not skilled in threading that maze. She would have had little if no chance of reaching the centre by herself.’

‘That is correct,’ murmured the abbess.

‘Yet on that night, when darkness had fallen, she apparently found her way to the centre of the maze. Which makes me ask how and why. Was she taken there, and by whom?’ Corbett fiddled with his gauntlets. ‘One other matter. Both Margaret and Elizabeth were last seen close to the entrance of the maze. Why the coincidence?’

‘It is no coincidence,’ Dame Catherine replied quickly. ‘The two of them used to meet within the entrance, where they could talk or just sit in silence. They seemed to like being there.’ She shrugged. ‘It meant they could gossip and giggle and not be overheard.’

‘Both young ladies seemed fascinated by the maze,’ Fulbert declared. ‘They regarded it as a great novelty and were often seen nearby.’ Others murmured their agreement to this.

‘Very well.’ Corbett rose to his feet. ‘This may be a convent, a nunnery dedicated to God, protected by Holy Mother Church and lavishly supported by the Crown. But,’ he held up a hand, ‘it is also a place of murder, sacrilege and blasphemous abuse. I shall continue my investigation. None of you must leave Godstow, and you must all hold yourselves ready for further questioning. Now,’ he lowered his hand and smiled at Lady Joan, ‘madam, if you could show me this maze. Master Fulbert, Rainald and Chaplain Norbert, please accompany us.’ He picked up his gauntlets from the table and thrust them into his war belt. ‘Before we go, has anything else occurred, anything untoward: visitors who have now left, disturbances, trespassers?’

‘Rosamund’s ghost,’ the novice mistress declared, then laughed self-consciously.

‘Rosamund’s ghost?’

‘An ancient legend.’ The abbess rose to her feet. ‘Every so often there are sightings. After all, Rosamund’s body does lie buried under its own shrine in our principal chapel.’

‘And the time of these hauntings?’

‘Oh, some weeks ago there were fairly constant sightings at dusk and dawn, the grey time when ghosts return to walk amongst the living.’

‘Can you describe them?’

‘Quite eerie. A figure in brilliant white,’ Fulbert declared. ‘I glimpsed it one evening from a window. It had no face, nothing to distinguish it, a white column from head to toe. Whiter than the purest chalk. The light seemed to dazzle in it before disappearing into the gathering murk.’

‘And others saw this?’

The rest murmured that they had.

‘Then the hauntings stopped as abruptly as they had begun?’

‘Indeed,’ the abbess replied.

‘But ghosts don’t really walk, do they?’ Corbett tapped the side of his head. ‘They only walk here, where the living and the dead throng noisily.’

‘True,’ Lady Joan teased back, her face softening, ‘that’s where the true ghosts lurk. Nevertheless, Sir Hugh, Rosamund’s ghost seems real enough. The chronicles of this house mention its appearance over the last hundred years. Some maintain that high-spirited, perhaps even bored young ladies with plenty of time on their hands helped such a legend to grow. Others believe a ghost truly walks both the maze and the priory. But come, Sir Hugh, you wish to see Rosamund’s maze. First let me show you where she lies buried.’

The abbess extended her hand for Corbett to take, squeezing his fingers and leading him out of the Magdalena chamber along beautiful stone passageways to the east of the nunnery. The main chapel stood separate from the rest of the convent buildings in a hollow surrounded by ancient beech and oak trees, their gleaming trunks and the mass of interlacing greenery giving the church a romantic allure, like some forest-circled shrine housing the Holy Grail in the legends of Arthur. For a while they paused as a line of novices in their light-blue headdresses and brown robes filed two by two out of the chapel, eyes down, hands joined, under the watchful scrutiny of senior nuns. Corbett studied these intently whilst he recalled certain remarks and observations, promising himself to challenge what he had been told regarding a number of matters. Once the novices were gone, he followed Lady Joan down a set of steps and in through the main door of the convent church.

He was immediately struck by the sheer beauty of the place. Undoubtedly of Norman origin, with its rounded, dog-tooth-framed arches, the church had been both extended and enhanced over the years. The Cotswold stone glowed gold, whilst the tiled floor was exquisitely decorated with eye-catching motifs of green men of the forest with vines sprouting from their mouths, their wild, twisted hair festooned with yellow broom, the insignia of Henry II, the first Plantagenet. The walls, rounded pillars, arches, capitals and bosses were decorated with a profusion of wild creatures and exotic plants, the constant theme of this artistry being a profusion of roses, a tribute to the long-dead royal mistress, Rosamund. The nave was breathtaking, with its soaring roof and a large window at the far end full of painted glass, which turned the sunlight into a range of brilliant colours to gleam and dazzle in the oaken rood screen dominated by the Cross of Subiaco, with life-size figures of St Benedict and Scholastica either side.

Through the door of the rood screen, Corbett glimpsed the majestic sanctuary with its high altar of snow-white stone, its scarlet and gold carpets and silver-chased crucifixes, pyxes, candlesticks and other sacred objects. The northern transept was filled with small chantry chapels, each enclosed behind a trellised wooden screen. The south transept, however, held memorials to the dead, the most resplendent being that of Rosamund, a table tomb of Purbeck marble with a life-size effigy of a young woman portrayed as a beautiful wanton. The artist had conveyed this in his carving of her flowing hair, the languorous poise of her body and the way her long, slender legs and firm breasts were clearly emphasised. An oriel window above the tomb filled with brilliantly hued stained glass depicted Rosamund kneeling, hands extended, as she venerated a blazing cross. Corbett peered up at this, entranced by its beauty. The cross was Celtic in form, its centrepiece being a large roundel full of cryptic symbols. A similar cross had also been carved in the stonework beneath the window and just above the tomb. The end of this cross was rounded, whilst the footrest carved for the crucified Christ’s feet jutted out.

‘Strange designs,’ Corbett murmured.

‘Rosamund Clifford was Welsh, like the Lady Maeve.’ The abbess squeezed his fingers. Corbett withdrew his hand to concentrate on the inscription written in a scrolled motto beneath the carving and in the actual window painting itself.

‘Clavis secreto Rosamundi – the key to Rosamund’s secret.’ He turned to the abbess. ‘What is that?’

‘If I told you,’ she laughed, ‘it wouldn’t be a secret. In truth, I don’t really know. They say it is passed from one abbess to another, but,’ she smiled, ‘that too could be a secret.’

Corbett realised that the lady abbess had decided to be as enigmatic as possible, so he walked around the tomb into the gap between Rosamund’s sepulchre and the outside wall in order to scrutinise both carving and painting more closely. The others joined them.

‘Sir Hugh, you have read about the so-called secret?’ Vicomte called out. ‘I have studied the Godstow chronicle. This has always been an ancient, mysterious place.’

Corbett came back from around the tomb and beckoned Vicomte out of the shadows. The chancery clerk blinked and wetted his lips as Corbett studied those clever eyes in the furrowed face. A young man in an old man’s body, he concluded, shrewd and astute. Very skilled at what he did.

‘You said this place was ancient?’

‘Very ancient, Sir Hugh. There have been churches here since the Romans left. After all, it’s an ideal place, richly wooded and well watered. One chronicler called it a true refuge from the world.’

‘And Rosamund’s secret?’

Vicomte grinned. ‘If there is a secret, why proclaim its existence? That has always fascinated me.’

‘So how do we know there is one?’

‘According to tradition …’ The abbess smiled, gesturing at Vicomte, who took up the story.

‘When Rosamund was dying, she demanded that all the other nuns leave the death chamber except her successor, as she wished to impart a great secret.’ Vicomte tapped the tomb. ‘Ever since then, rumours have persisted. Most people think this church houses the secret, but so far no one has discovered it.’

‘And what could it be?’

‘Speculation runs rife,’ Vicomte replied. ‘Some claim Rosamund had a treasure trove, a chest crammed with precious objects and the most sacred relics. But I don’t know.’ He laughed. ‘Such riddles, puzzles and conundrums fascinate me.’

‘Why?’

‘No matter how complex or complicated the actual mystery may be, the solution is usually breathtakingly simple.’

‘Sir Hugh, the hour is drawing on,’ Lady Joan declared. ‘You wish to see the maze?’

‘Of course.’

The abbess grasped his hand once more and led him out through the devil’s door. They followed a pebble-dashed path that wound around the buildings to what should have been the great common meadow to the east of the convent. Corbett stopped in amazement. The entire grassland, at least a square mile in acreage, was occupied by a maze, a soaring block of towering green hedge. For a while he just stood staring.

‘Daedalus,’ he murmured at last, breaking free from his reverie. He let go of the abbess’s hand and walked towards the maze. ‘Daedalus,’ he called over his shoulder. ‘He built a great maze on Crete for King Minos’s hideous monster, the Minotaur. What monsters does this maze conceal, I wonder?’

He stood shaking his head in astonishment at the sheer wall of green rising at least three yards into the air. The abbess came and joined him.

‘It’s kept fresh by rich soil and being open to the rain and snow. They also talk about underground springs and rivulets. I understand it was first planted with hornbeam, but other species were included: whitehorn, privet, holly, sycamore and yew. These help to thicken and repair the walls.’

Corbett looked back at the others trailing behind, all deep in conversation.

‘Come, Sir Hugh,’ said the abbess.

‘Into the maze?’

‘There was a time,’ she teased, ‘when you vowed you would follow me into hell itself and fight Satan and all his liveried retainers.’ She paused. ‘I see you blush. We won’t go deep into the maze, just-’

‘I was a mailed clerk,’ Corbett replied, ‘a rash youth when I swore such an oath.’

‘Full of passion,’ the abbess replied as she led him into the entrance of the labyrinth.

Corbett fell silent. This was a different world, eerie and strange, the close-packed hedges rising either side to tower over him. He stared at the pathways that broke off in different directions to wind even deeper into this mesh of greenery. A brooding, silent place. No birdsong, no sound, no movement. Nothing but a brooding stillness. He felt as though the maze was suffocating him, stifling, closing in on either side. He pressed against the hedge, and it bent to receive his weight.

‘Like a ship’s sail,’ he murmured, ‘billowing in the wind.’ He attempted to climb, but could find no secure hold for foot or hand. He turned at the abbess’s laugh.

‘Hugh, it’s impossible.’

‘Could ladders be used?’

‘It’s been tried, but as you say, it would be like resting a ladder against a billowing sail.’

Corbett walked further down the pathway.

‘Be careful,’ she called. ‘Do not turn to the right or left.’

Corbett paused. He could hear the murmured conversation of his companions and the strident calls of the peacocks. He turned and walked back to join the abbess, who was sitting on a turf seat just inside the entrance.

‘Why did you leave the court?’ he asked abruptly. He still didn’t have the measure of this woman who had, an eternity ago, dominated his every waking moment before disappearing so swiftly from his life.

‘The world of men,’ she whispered, ‘drove me away. Oh, there was the flirting and the coy glances. I’d give some young knight or mailed clerk my colours to wear at a tournament. Now chivalry is all well enough, but the real world, the harsh realities of life? Tied to some lord who might beat me and reduce me to no more than a brood mare?’ Face all severe, she watched Corbett, then, as the clerk made to protest, burst out laughing and clasped his wrist. ‘I tease and mock you. Hugh, you were always courteous and gentle. If I could have married any man, it would have been you. But forget the world of men. I found my vocation, I discovered I had a calling.’

She shrugged prettily and rose to her feet, tugging at Corbett’s hand so he would follow her. They left the maze and strolled back towards the others. Corbett stopped, turned and looked back at the labyrinth, a massy, ominous presence, like some monster frozen by a magician’s spell. He half expected it to erupt into life, spring forward and devour everything in its path. He’d felt threatened along that narrow path cutting between walls of greenery that seemed as hard as any castle bulwark yet, when pushed, billowed into nothingness.

‘Do not enter,’ the abbess commanded. ‘Do not enter the maze until Rosamund’s twine has been fully laid out. Hugh, heed my warning.’ She walked back to join him.

‘Oh, I do,’ Corbett retorted. ‘That truly is a place of murder.’

A short while later, Corbett convened a meeting in the small guest-house refectory. For a while he just sat listening to the sounds of the nunnery: the tolling of bells, the patter of sandalled feet, the occasional refrain of a psalm or hymn, the barking of dogs in their distant kennels, the neigh of horses, and above them all, the piercing shriek of the peacocks. He smiled even as he mentally beat his breast. In many ways he felt a hypocrite, a liar, a sinner. He had closeted himself at Leighton Manor, locked in his love for Maeve and their children, absorbed in studying bees, but now, as he quietly confessed to himself, he was back to what he enjoyed most: the hunting of a murderer, the unmasking of a killer.

‘Master? What are you thinking? What are your suspicions?’

‘Ranulf, my friend, as God made little apples, Elizabeth Buchan was murdered and so was Margaret Beaumont. I am sure of it. Now,’ Corbett clapped his hands softly, ‘let us begin. Vicomte, Chanson, perhaps you could stand on guard outside whilst I converse with my learned friend here.’ Both men left. ‘Ranulf, I haven’t seen you since Twelfth Night past. You are my brother, my comrade. You have a weakness for a pretty face, yet you possess a good heart and, if you could control your lust, a logical mind and sharp wits. So, my friend, shall we use those?’ Ranulf nodded his agreement. ‘Good.’ Corbett sat down at the table, indicating that Ranulf sit next to him. ‘First,’ he leaned closer, ‘did you have intercourse with Elizabeth Buchan?’

‘No. She protested when I tried to kiss her, claiming she was a virgin.’

‘Second, was she killed by a bolt from your crossbow?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you claim that was stolen from your chamber here at Godstow?’

‘Yes. I protested, but-’

‘But that was a lie, wasn’t it, Ranulf? You are very careful, most prudent about your weapons.’ Corbett sighed. ‘Well, except for the one hanging between your legs.’ Ranulf coloured. ‘The truth?’ Corbett insisted. ‘Your crossbow bolts can only be loosed by your arbalest. That wasn’t stolen. You gave it to her, didn’t you?’

‘Yes, yes, I did.’ Ranulf rubbed his hands together. ‘I arrived here all important, I began my investigation. The lady abbess was neither friendly nor cooperative, Margaret Beaumont being dismissed as an empty-headed noddle-pate. The rest of the nunnery, her coven, her household,’ Ranulf sneered, ‘followed their abbess’s example, except for Elizabeth Buchan.’ His face softened. ‘Sir Hugh, she was truly beautiful, with the devil in her eyes, her wits honed sharp for mischief. She was friendly, very friendly. I admit I was flattered. I also used her to discover more about Margaret Beaumont.

‘Now, my arrival marked a significant change on this issue. I had been sent to Godstow because Beaumont’s kin had no knowledge of her whatsoever. The accepted story was that she hadn’t fled but disappeared. I was here for about a week before Elizabeth was murdered, and in that week she changed. She confided to me that she always thought her friend had eloped from Godstow to meet some secret admirer. Indeed, she informed me that Margaret might have been helped to escape by someone here.’

‘By someone in Godstow?’

‘So she claimed. However, after Margaret disappeared, she never once communicated with Elizabeth. The Beaumont faction were asking questions, and my arrival here simply precipitated matters.’

‘In what way?’

‘Elizabeth Buchan came to believe that Margaret Beaumont had not fled, eloped or escaped but had been murdered. I asked her why, and she said something about Margaret seeing or knowing something singular here at Godstow. I asked her what, but of course I was a relative stranger, and Elizabeth was reluctant to speak. She was fearful, apprehensive. On the one hand, I think she wanted to confide in me; perhaps she was preparing to do so when she was murdered.’

‘And the crossbow?’

‘I gave Elizabeth both the arbalest and a quiver of bolts; they certainly weren’t stolen.’

‘I thought as much. Why?’

‘She asked for protection. She said that if what she knew was true, it placed her in great danger. She also claimed that she was being watched. How one night the door to her bedchamber was opened and a figure stood there. She cried out and the apparition, or whatever it was, disappeared.’

‘Anything else?’

Ranulf shook his head. ‘I am sorry, master,’ he sighed. ‘Elizabeth Buchan was truly beautiful. I was attracted to her, but I was also trying to win her confidence …’

Ranulf’s voice faltered. He rose and walked across to the arrow-slit window as if to study the dust motes dancing in the ray of sunlight piercing it. Corbett went to speak, but paused at a knock on the door. Fulbert entered.

‘Sir Hugh, a message from the lady abbess. Rosamund’s twine is laid out. If you wish to enter the maze …’

A short while later, Corbett led Ranulf and Vicomte into the maze. Fulbert and Rainald went ahead of them, following the scarlet cord that lay twisted along the paths. Corbett had insisted that both men who had discovered Buchan’s corpse should accompany him. Despite the brilliant sunshine and the warm breeze perfumed by the rich garden plots, he felt a deep unease, as if they were being swallowed alive by that sinister labyrinth. A sombre place that dulled the soul yet agitated the mind with its constantly twisting sameness. No birdsong, no scurrying or rustling, just those walls of greenery rising either side of them. Corbett tried to curb his imagination, yet he sensed a malevolent, brooding presence. Sometimes he felt as if they were being followed, watched by something he was unable to detect. Fulbert noticed this and walked back.

‘A fearsome place, Sir Hugh.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Let me warn you, your eyes will play tricks, as happens in the marshlands where will-o’-the-wisps take on a life of their own.’

Corbett heeded the warning as he walked on, trying to ignore the suspicion that he had glimpsed someone, the swirl of the cloak or a fluttering shadow. Vicomte and Ranulf were equally agitated. Corbett forced himself to relax, to concentrate and reflect on what he had learnt, heard and seen since his arrival at Godstow. Certain suspicions were already forming. The mysteries that confronted them were confined to a certain space and time. Accordingly, the explanations might not be based on evidence or eyewitnesses but on reaching the only logical conclusion possible. He felt confident that the solution to these murderous mysteries must lie within Godstow itself, particularly this maze. If so, that must eventually lead to the unmasking of Elizabeth Buchan and Margaret Beaumont’s assassin. He was almost certain that the latter had been murdered by the same killer who had slaughtered her friend.

‘Sir Hugh?’ Corbett glanced up. Ranulf and Vicomte had stopped.

‘We are not far,’ the gardener called from ahead. ‘We must keep to the right.’ They turned and turned again, following the scarlet cord, and Corbett hid his surprise as they entered the oval centre of the maze. The ground was paved in coloured stone. On the right rose the Creeping Cross and a pieta – a huge, soaring black stone sculpture at the top of three steps. On each side of the Cross stood life-sized statues: the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of her crucified son, and a mournful St John stooped in a gesture of deep grief. Across the pavement from this was a chapel-like building with a porch leading into a small nave, a bell hung in a bell-cote on the gable.

Corbett genuflected towards the pieta, crossed himself, then entered the chapel, pushing back the heavy oaken door. He stopped to inspect this, noticing how the inside of the door boasted a sturdy lock with bolts at top and bottom. Then he strolled into what must be Rosamund’s bower. It was a pleasant enough chamber: braziers stood prepared for firing, and rolled-up turkey rugs were stored in recesses at the bottom of the wall, ready to be spread out. There was an alcove for a bed to be laid, and good oaken furniture – stools, two chairs and a table. A small buttery and kitchen led off from the main chamber. Coloured cloths decorated the walls, most of them extolling the theme of pilgrimage. In all, a homely, comfortable place, the honey-coloured Cotswold stone filling the refuge with lightness and warmth.

‘They say,’ Vicomte spoke up, ‘how this bower was built for Rosamund to hide in when Eleanor loosed her assassins against her.’

‘And Elizabeth Buchan was found where?’ Corbett demanded.

‘Outside.’ Fulbert led him back through the porch and across to the steps of the pieta. ‘She was lying here.’ He gestured. ‘Arms and legs out, head to one side, robe and kirtle all pulled up. Such a beautiful young woman! So high-spirited.’ He laughed abruptly. ‘She and Margaret called our abbess the Gargoyle.’

Corbett crouched to study the steps and the paving stones beneath. He fished in his wallet and drew out a precious piece of thickened concave glass, a gift from a grateful London jeweller. He often used this to study faded manuscripts where the script was too difficult to read; it was also helpful for inspecting the inside of a beehive or the creatures themselves. Now he peered through it at the spot where Buchan’s corpse had been found.

‘Has this place been cleaned?’ he asked.

‘No,’ Rainald replied. ‘Only by spring showers, and they have been both rare and light.’

‘Buchan’s blood was dried.’

‘Thick, dark red, a congealed mess.’

‘So she had been dead for some time?’

‘Undoubtedly.’

‘And possibly-’ Corbett cut himself short. For the time being he would keep his suspicions to himself. ‘Very well.’ He smiled at the two men. ‘I and my clerks will stay here for a while. Rosamund’s twine is still laid out?’

‘And will be until you leave.’

‘Good, good.’ Corbett rose to his feet, putting the glass away and rubbing his hands. ‘Tell me, before you go. Elizabeth Buchan’s clothes were thrown back, she suffered a rape wound when her virginity was violated and a death blow to her skull caused by the crossbow bolt. Anything else?’

‘What else could there be?’

‘Wounds to her hands, legs or knees?’

‘You must see the infirmarian, Dame Imelda.’

Corbett said he would. Both men asked if he wanted them to stay, warning that despite Rosamund’s twine, the maze was still a place where one could easily become distracted and lost. Corbett assured them that he would heed their words. Once the two men had left, Ranulf and Vicomte drifted across.

‘Master?’

‘Most curious,’ Corbett remarked. ‘Most curious indeed. First, what was Elizabeth Buchan doing in the centre of this maze in the dead of night? How did she get here after dark? Who followed her in, and why?’ Corbett breathed out noisily. ‘She certainly wasn’t killed here. I need to talk to the infirmarian who dressed the corpse. But for the moment …’

Corbett and his two companions spent at least another hour examining Rosamund’s bower, the Creeping Cross and the pieta. Corbett sat for a while on the steps leading up to the cross, deep in thought. He was roused now and again by various sounds: soft scraping, the crack of a twig, the rustle of the hedge in the breeze. Were they alone? He got to his feet. He felt anxious, wary, as he used to during those days when he served as a mailed clerk along the marches of Scotland and Wales. Ranulf had also picked up this unease.

‘Let us return,’ Corbett declared. ‘It’s time.’

They left the centre of the maze, going down one of the narrow pathways. Vicomte went first, holding the red twine, letting it slip through his fingers as if threading a set of Ave beads. They rounded a corner. Vicomte stopped and turned. The red twine had been severed.

‘In God’s name!’ Ranulf exclaimed. Corbett stared down the path. There was no sign of the twine or the person who’d cut it.

‘Master?’

Corbett stared up at the cloudless sky. ‘You have a tinder, Ranulf?’

‘Yes.’

He pointed to the dry grass, twigs and leaves lying at the foot of the hedge.

‘Collect that,’ he ordered. ‘Light a fire, create as much smoke as possible. Then start shouting the alarm.’

Ranulf hastened to obey. Vicomte confessed his voice was reedy, so Ranulf raised the alarm whilst Vicomte assembled a miniature pyre of twigs, dry leaves and bark. A flame was struck. Vicomte lightly wetted the debris with spittle, and puffs of dark smoke rose whilst Ranulf continued to bellow. Corbett relaxed as he heard the sound of voices.

‘Sir Hugh?’

He whirled round. Vicomte was pointing down the pathway. ‘What in God’s-’

The figure standing there knelt abruptly, and before Corbett could react, a crossbow bolt whirled through the air. It hit Vicomte full in the chest, sending him staggering back into the hedge. Corbett yelled a warning at Ranulf, and both men fell flat on their faces as another bolt whirled above them. The sound of voices drew nearer. Corbett glanced up. The assassin had disappeared; pursuit was impossible. He crawled over to join Ranulf, who was tending Vicomte, yet there was nothing to be done. Blood dripped through the clerk’s half-opened lips; his eyes were already dulling, a weak death rattle in his throat. Ranulf fingered the feathered bolt embedded deep in Vicomte’s chest and groaned.

‘It is yours?’

‘Yes, Sir Hugh, it is. God punish the bastard, it is one of mine.’

Vicomte shuddered, legs flailing, then his head fell to one side and he lay still. Corbett intoned a ‘Miserere’ and rose as Lady Joan, Fulbert, Rainald and others hastened up.

‘How?’ he asked. ‘How in hell’s name?’ He flailed a hand and walked away. He must wait, watch and learn.

He stood listening to the exclamations and prayers of the others. Two garden labourers brought a stretcher and a canvas sheet. Vicomte’s corpse was placed on this and taken out of the maze by Fulbert and Rainald, with Corbett and Lady Joan following behind, whispering prayers. At last they were free of the maze. Corbett had a quiet word with Ranulf, then beckoned the abbess away. He stared down at her severe but still beautiful face.

‘Joan,’ he whispered, bending down to kiss her brow, ‘what possessed those two young ladies to call you the Gargoyle?’

‘I have been named worse.’ She grinned impishly.

‘Lovely of face,’ he murmured, ‘lovely of form. Tell me now, how could anyone enter that maze and not be seen?’ He stood back. ‘After all, Vicomte created that fire, yes?’

‘We saw the smoke.’

‘So you and the others were alerted by the alarm. You hurried to the entrance and threaded the labyrinth, yet you saw no one else?’

‘No, Hugh, we did not, and those who came with me stayed with me.’

‘I have asked Ranulf to remain on guard at the entrance for anyone coming out after us.’

‘I do wonder …’ the abbess began.

‘What?’

‘Has Margaret Beaumont truly disappeared? Was she murdered?’ She suppressed a shiver. ‘Or is she still with us?’

‘A young maiden with an arbalest?’

‘You and Ranulf may be skilled in that weapon,’ the abbess replied, ‘but so are we war maidens – myself, Lady Maeve. We women have had to fight for ourselves and what is ours. The Welsh march is no nunnery. I have manned castle walls along with my father’s soldiers.’

‘True.’ Corbett smiled. ‘Well, my little shield maiden.’ He bowed. ‘I must leave and see to poor Vicomte.’

Dame Imelda had already stripped Vicomte’s corpse, helped by the novice mistress, who had brought two of her charges with her to educate them, as she proclaimed, in that great corporal work of mercy, the care of the dead.

‘We are here to prepare for death and our own eternal destiny. So the death of others should come as no great surprise,’ she explained to Corbett, then gestured at the two whey-faced novices, ill at ease yet morbidly fascinated by the bloodied corpse on the slightly sloping mortuary table. Corbett grunted his agreement as he studied the hard-faced, wiry novice mistress. Lady Joan was correct, he conceded: the likes of Dame Catherine and Dame Imelda were tough, resolute women used to violence and tending to corpses.

He wandered away across the chamber, its limewashed walls decorated with painted cloths extolling the lives of the saints – or more precisely their deaths. He studied these before sitting down on a bench. He watched as Dame Imelda finished washing Vicomte’s corpse, pulling a canvas sheet soaked in pine juice across it then lighting the small incense bowls at head and foot. He would make enquiries about Vicomte’s family, but given the heat, it might be best if the unfortunate clerk were buried here in Godstow. Ranulf slipped in, whispering how no one had come out of the maze after them.

‘My condolences,’ Corbett grasped Ranulf’s hand, ‘on the death of your comrade. A good man?’

‘A good man,’ Ranulf agreed. ‘A bachelor, a skilled clerk. He had not been with me very long. He deserved a better death.’ Ranulf’s fingers fell to the hilt of his dagger and Corbett glimpsed the roaring boy, the riffler whom he had taken under his wing so many years ago. He felt a deep stab of pity at the sorrow Ranulf was trying to hide behind that cold white face and cat-like eyes.

‘I promise you,’ he whispered, ‘we will hunt Vicomte’s killer and trap whoever it is. The hunt must go on. Dame Imelda,’ he called out. The infirmarian hurried across; the novice mistress came with her, but Corbett decided not to object.

‘Sir Hugh?’

‘Dame Imelda, you dressed Elizabeth Buchan’s body for burial?’ He gestured at the beautiful casket now resting on purple-draped trestles in the far corner of the corpse chamber.

‘You know I did,’ she replied tartly.

‘And her wounds?’

‘Master Ranulf saw them. The deep death wound in the forehead and the violation here,’ Dame Imelda pointed to her own groin, ‘the result of the ravishment and rape.’

‘And you had to tend to other wounds and abrasions?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Cuts and scratches to her hands. You know what I mean?’

‘Follow his logic, Imelda.’ The novice mistress grabbed the infirmarian’s arm. ‘Poor Elizabeth must have resisted, surely? Marks on her hands as she defended herself? Scrapes to the back of her head or further down as she lay on the ground resisting her attacker?’

Corbett smiled and bowed. ‘Very good, Dame Catherine, very good indeed. Dame Imelda, you did not find any such wounds?’

‘No, I didn’t, not at all.’

‘I thought as much.’ Corbett got to his feet. ‘Ladies, I thank you and bid you adieu.’

Ranulf paused in polishing the blade of his knife and stared across the chamber, where Old Master Long Face lay stretched out on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, hands behind his head. Ranulf had learnt that this was Corbett’s favourite resting pose: as a boy, he used to lie like that in the great meadow of his father’s farm whilst meditating and reflecting on whatever caught his fancy. He had been occupied like that for hours, lost in his own thoughts. The sun had set, the nunnery bells tolling for this and that, a servant had brought food and wine, yet Corbett had ignored all of these. Ranulf returned to his dagger.

‘Ghosts, Ranulf! Ghosts!’ Corbett swung his legs off the bed, pulled on his boots, seized his war belt and swiftly strapped it on, ordering Ranulf to do likewise.

‘Master?’

Corbett, however, was striding down the stairs and into the warm star-studded dusk. Here he paused and came back to Ranulf, standing so close the clerk could smell the crushed mint on his breath.

‘Ghosts don’t walk here, Ranulf, but demons might. The ghost of Rosamund was often seen, yes? However, these fresh sightings took place after the arrival of Beaumont and Buchan. Of course,’ he hurried on, ‘the ghost was the work of those two high-spirited young ladies, bored, resentful and ripe for mischief.’

‘But-’

‘No, Ranulf.’ Corbett gestured at his companion to follow, plucking at his sleeve to draw him close. ‘This ghost does not really concern us, but rather what it looked like: pure white, eye-catching in the moonlight.’

‘But where would they get such robes?’

‘Precisely,’ Corbett replied. ‘Everything at Godstow is brown or blue. Where on earth would two young girls, with virtually no status or authority here, find such gleaming apparel? I think I know: follow me.’

Corbett and Ranulf left the guest-house precincts, pausing only to give Chanson an errand before hurrying through the main door of the church, up the darkening nave and into the sacristy: a warm, comfortable chamber smelling of beeswax and candle smoke. The sacristan, Dame Alice, a close-faced woman with watchful eyes and a mouth ready to pontificate on anything and everything, immediately confronted them, demanding their business. Corbett was equally abrupt, showing her his seal of office and chancery signet ring as well as asking whether she would like to test his authority before the king’s own Council at Woodstock. Dame Alice immediately became compliant and opened the huge aumbries built against the outside wall that held the copes, chasubles, albs and stoles as well as a veritable sea of richly coloured vestments: gold, scarlet, purple and green for the major liturgical seasons and high feasts of the Church.

‘Can I help you?’

Corbett turned to greet the handsome-faced Chaplain Norbert. He was clothed in a dark green robe, a cambric shirt beneath displaying a starched white collar. On his feet were slippers of light blue with gold and silver buckles. He bowed in a slightly mocking way before strolling towards them.

‘Father, I would like to see one of your albs, and’ – Corbett held up a hand – ‘tell me is there any other robe, cloak or tunic in this convent that is white from head to toe?’

Norbert’s hand went to his mouth as he made to answer the question. Corbett immediately noticed that the priest was wearing doe-skinned gloves and asked why.

‘I was working in the chantry chapels checking the parchment of certain missals and psalters. Some of these are old, precious, and need real care. Now, Sir Hugh, as far as I can recollect, the alb is the only item of clothing in Godstow that would fit your description. Let me see.’ He crossed to an aumbry, pulled back the heavy curtain and took out a long garment of pure white linen with hood and close-fitting sleeves. It was ornamented across the back with six small pieces of cloth of gold. Ranulf exclaimed in pleasure as Corbett closely examined the alb before handing it back.

‘White from head to toe,’ he murmured. ‘With pieces sewn on to provide a shimmer of light.’

‘What is this?’ Dame Alice demanded. ‘Why are albs so important?’

‘You have two missing?’ Corbett enquired.

‘Why, yes, how did you know?’ asked the sacristan in surprise. ‘They have been missing for some time. I informed Chaplain Norbert.’

‘And I told the lady abbess.’

‘Who would steal two albs?’

‘Sir Hugh, some people would steal anything.’

Corbett murmured his agreement and went back into the church. Norbert followed. The postern gate in the main door opened and Dame Catherine stepped through, sweeping up the nave like a war cog under full sail.

‘Your clerk of the stables said you wanted to see me here.’

Aware of Father Norbert behind him, Corbett walked down to meet the novice mistress, then stopped between the gleaming choir stalls.

‘Dame Catherine, you claim that Elizabeth Buchan and Margaret Beaumont were often reprimanded for laughing, whispering,’ he shrugged, ‘gossiping during divine service?’

‘Yes, yes they certainly were,’ she replied pettishly.

‘Which were their stalls? I understand that each member of this community, as in most religious houses, is given a particular place so that those in authority know immediately who is absent, or distracted or falling asleep instead of participating in the divine office.’

‘Here.’ Dame Catherine crossed to the lowest row of stalls on the gospel side of the sanctuary. She indicated two seats at the far end, close to the sanctuary steps. Corbett went in. He lowered the movable stall and sat down. He felt under the seat, and his fingers touched the misericord, the usual grotesque carving. He got up, crouched down and raised the sedilia of the two stalls occupied by Beaumont and Buchan. There was a carving or misericord on each. The first depicted an ale wife being carried off by demons to be tossed into hell’s mouth. The second showed a pig with tonsured hair and dressed in monkish robes being birched by a devil.

Corbett lowered both seats and sat down. He stared at similar carvings on the bench rail in front of him and smiled: those two novices would have had to stare at such images five or six times a day. He glanced up. Chaplain Norbert and the two nuns stood in the sacristy door, gaping curiously across at him. He hid his satisfaction at what he had seen. He rose, thanked them for their help, genuflected towards the pyx and left the church, followed by Ranulf.

‘Master, what was all that about?’

Corbett stopped and pressed his forefinger gently against Ranulf’s mouth. ‘My friend, soon,’ he whispered. ‘For the moment let us proceed circumspecte agatis – with great care, prudence and cunning.’

For most of the next week, Corbett remained closeted in his thoughts. He attended the midday Mass, after which he would light tapers before the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham in its shrine to the left of the high altar. Occasionally he returned to sit in the stalls, and he also took to wandering the precincts of the nunnery: its cloisters, outhouses, yards, baileys and gardens. He stayed well clear of the maze, murmuring that it was a mansion of murder and the abode of sin.

Four days after the slaying of Vicomte, the clerk was buried in God’s Acre in Godstow, following a simple Requiem Mass. Once they had finished dining on the funeral collation in the refectory, Corbett, lost in a deep reverie, plucked at Ranulf’s sleeve.

‘Let us adjourn,’ he declared, ‘and you be scribe for my thoughts.’

Corbett locked the door to his guest-house chamber. Ranulf laid out his writing instruments on the chancery desk, then sat on the chair with Corbett close beside him on a stool.

‘Muri aures hic habent,’ whispered Corbett. ‘The very walls here have ears. So, as we begin, let us be most prudent and expedient. Let us not repeat what is well known, but list my conclusions.’

Ranulf dipped his quill pen in the ink pot carved in the shape of a grinning babewyn, and smoothed out the long piece of creamy-coloured vellum held down by small chancery weights.

‘First,’ Corbett began, his voice hardly above a whisper, ‘Elizabeth Buchan and Margaret Beaumont steal two albs and pretend to be ghosts, a mummer’s game often played out during the season of All Hallows. However, in their nightly hauntings, did they see something highly suspicious here in Godstow? Elizabeth Buchan mentioned as much to you, Ranulf, but never elaborated. Second, Margaret Beaumont wants to escape. She hints to her friend that someone here in the nunnery will help her. Beaumont also insinuates that she’s the one who knows about something very irregular happening at Godstow.

‘Beaumont disappears completely, she and all her possessions. However, her great friend Elizabeth Buchan is not concerned until she realises that Margaret truly has vanished. Her kin know nothing of her; they appeal to the king, and you, Ranulf, are dispatched here to investigate. Third, Elizabeth Buchan now changes. She becomes fearful about her friend and wary for her own safety. She believes she is being threatened by great danger. She borrows that arbalest from you, Ranulf.’ Corbett paused abruptly. ‘Of course,’ he whispered, ‘now that was a mistake, using it to attack us.’

‘Master?’

‘No, no.’ Corbett raised a hand. ‘Let us continue. Elizabeth Buchan is seen near the maze, then she too disappears. The following morning she is found, raped and murdered, slain by a crossbow bolt to the brain.’ He paused. ‘We must challenge this version of her death.’ He emphasised his points on his fingers. ‘Elizabeth Buchan was a virgin, a young woman. She would have fought her attacker. Vigorous and strong, she would have resisted intensely. Moreover, there should be signs of this not only on her clothing but, more importantly, on her body itself: bruises and scrapes, wounds on her hands, knees and elsewhere. If she was raped, she was taken violently, and again some part of her would have been seriously bruised. But again, nothing.

‘Elizabeth Buchan was allegedly killed in the maze near the steps to the Creeping Cross. However, I could detect no blood there. In addition, according to all the evidence, she died silently. Listen.’ Corbett held up a hand as the shriek of a peacock carried across the nunnery. ‘A peacock cries and is clearly heard. A young woman is raped at the centre of a maze, let us say at dead of night, but not a sound is heard. No real wound to the body to testify to such an assault. Nothing but a bolt to the head and a bloodied groin. No, Ranulf, Elizabeth Buchan was killed elsewhere, swiftly, silently and up close.’

‘And the rape?’

‘I don’t think she was raped, certainly not when she was alive. As I’ve said, there are no defence wounds.’

‘I have,’ Ranulf chose his words carefully, ‘heard of men abusing a woman’s corpse.’

‘No, that is not the case here, I am sure of it. Elizabeth Buchan was not killed in that maze but elsewhere, and her corpse was abused not for some filthy pleasure but to make it look as if she had been ravished. Other evidence also makes me conclude that the accepted story is a farrago of deception. How could she have entered that maze and threaded its treacherous paths to reach the centre, a herculean task during the light of day, surely an impossible one when darkness had fallen? No, no, she was taken there by someone else.’

‘Vicomte believed there was an easy way to thread the maze. He argued that somewhere there must be a map that would demonstrate this.’

‘Did he now?’

‘Yes, some secret entrance hidden in the outer wall of hedge.’

‘Vicomte said something more interesting when we were discussing the secret of Rosamund,’ Corbett declared. ‘He argued how mysteries and riddles, complex and complicated though they might be, often have a simple solution.’ Corbett rubbed his chin. ‘I wonder,’ he mused. ‘I wonder if he was right. We should explore such a possibility, would you agree?’

‘Master, of course. Oh, by the way, why were you so interested in those choir stalls?’

Corbett laughed softly and rose to his feet. ‘Ranulf, a seed of deep suspicion has been sown and is ready to come to flower. First, though, send Chanson to the sheriff, Sir Miles Stapleton, at Oxford Castle. On the king’s authority he is to raise the shire’s posse, his own comitatus, and bring them here. They should be prepared to camp close by. This matter is urgent …’

Once again Corbett withdrew into himself, making lists and wandering the precincts of the nunnery, excusing himself from invitations to this or that. Four days after Vicomte’s funeral, the Sheriff of Oxford, Sir Miles Stapleton, a balding, sour-faced man, rode into Godstow with a comitatus of thirty soldiers. Corbett was there to greet him. He and Stapleton knew each other from years previously. Lady Joan and the senior nuns of the convent protested at this incursion of armed men. Corbett, who had given them prior warning, ignored their objections and immediately ordered the comitatus to probe the entire hedge wall of the maze under the sharp watch of Sheriff Stapleton and Ranulf. The search lasted a full day. Nothing was found, so Corbett ordered it to be repeated, but they found the same: there was only one entrance to the maze, with no secret path or passage in.

‘Does this,’ Ranulf asked as they sat in a guest-house chamber, ‘hinder your conclusions?’

‘No, no, far from it. Though,’ Corbett tapped the side of his head, ‘one tantalising mystery remains.’

‘Which is?’

‘Elizabeth Buchan was murdered. Margaret Beaumont was also led like a lamb to the slaughter, but her corpse has not yet been found. So, Ranulf, ask our good friend Sheriff Stapleton and his comitatus to do a thorough sweep of the woods around Godstow, no more than a mile from the walls. Then I will take action.’

After two further days, Stapleton reported that they had scrupulously searched the copses and woods looking for freshly dug earth, any sign of a makeshift grave. They’d found nothing. Corbett listened carefully.

‘Very well,’ he murmured. ‘Beaumont’s corpse must be hidden here in Godstow. So, Ranulf, Sir Miles, I am now ready to spring the trap I have prepared, but,’ he smiled thinly, ‘one thing at a time. These murders are going to be resolved not as in some cases before the King’s Bench or the justices of oyer and terminer. Oh no, they will be settled by bluff, trickery and deception. We were led into a maze of deep conceit, and deep conceit will lead us out. Now, these are my instructions …’

After the Jesus Mass the following morning, Corbett, followed by Ranulf and Sir Miles, walked into the sacristy, where Chaplain Norbert was divesting assisted by Dame Alice.

‘You are well, Father?’

‘Yes, and blessings on you too, Sir Hugh.’

Corbett took the alb the chaplain had just taken off and passed it to Dame Alice.

‘Sir Hugh?’

‘Your hands, Chaplain Norbert, may I see them?’

Norbert swallowed hard and extended both hands, turning them so Corbett could inspect them closely.

‘Sir Hugh, what is this?’

‘Nothing, nothing.’ Corbett walked towards the door leading from the sacristy into God’s Acre.

‘Tell me, Chaplain,’ he turned back, ‘what is your greatest fear? There is a heroic Saxon poem called Beowulf …’

‘I have heard of it.’

‘A member of the warrior Beowulf’s shield ring claims that each person – you, me, Sir Miles, Ranulf, even Dame Alice here – nourishes one great fear. For Ranulf it might be constriction around the throat, for me heights, for Sir Miles thunder and lightning. So what is yours? I am curious following a discussion with my learned colleague Ranulf. Tell me and I will be gone.’

‘Water. Drowning! As a boy I fell into a millpond and almost died. The miller’s son saved me.’

‘Saved you for what, Father Norbert?’ Corbett smiled. ‘I will be gone. You and Dame Alice are to be escorted back to your respective chambers and detained there.’

‘You cannot-’ they chorused.

‘Oh yes I can, and yes I will.’ He paused as Chanson knocked on the door and almost fell into the sacristy.

‘Sir Hugh, Sir Hugh,’ he gasped. ‘Rosamund’s twine has been laid out. Fulbert has taken the posse to the centre of the maze and they have begun their work.’

Corbett ignored the exclamations from both chaplain and sacristan.

‘Good, Chanson. Go back. Now that the twine had been laid, all will be well. Remember, you are to concentrate on the bower and the Creeping Cross. The ground is to be scrupulously searched. Sir Miles,’ Corbett turned back to the sheriff, ‘once our two worthies here are locked away, I would be grateful if you would join your posse in the maze.’

‘What are we searching for?’

‘You will know when you find it. I doubt if it will take long. Tell me immediately. Ranulf, stay with our good chaplain here.’

‘And you, Sir Hugh?’

‘I am going to light tapers in front of the Lady Chapel. One for you and me, Ranulf, one for the Lady Maeve and my children, and one,’ Corbett stared directly at Father Norbert and Dame Alice, ‘for the grace to help trap a murderer.’

Corbett stayed for some time on the prie-dieu before the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. Chanson came and went with various messages. Lady Joan, using all her authority, demanded that she and Corbett meet in the Magdalena chamber. Corbett ignored the peremptory summons and remained deep in thought.

The hours of the nunnery were rung, the community filed into church. Corbett retreated to his own quarters in the guest house, lying on the bed half asleep until Chanson crept in and whispered what Stapleton and his comitatus had found in Rosamund’s bower. On hearing this, Corbett swung his legs off the bed, splashed some cold water on his face at the lavarium and strolled out to meet the lady abbess in the Magdalena chamber. She was alone, and rose, her mouth full of protests. Corbett pushed her back into her chair and took a stool to sit beside her.

‘You love peacocks, Joan Mortimer, because you are one, you always have been. You preen, you strut, and the years haven’t changed you.’

‘How dare you!’ she exclaimed, her face suffused with rage.

‘I dare as you dare as we dare,’ Corbett mocked. ‘You are a murderess, Joan Mortimer; you are also guilty of fornication with Chaplain Norbert. Your secret sin was discovered by Margaret Beaumont, so you killed her and then Elizabeth Buchan.’ He paused. His adversary’s face seemed to crumple, showing her age as well as the terror that must have sparked inside her narrow, selfish soul. ‘Good.’ His voice was almost soothing. ‘Now I shall tell you who you really are. A woman who, in her own words, wanted everything, much more than being the bride of some lord or the mother of a brood of children. No, you wanted power, status, luxury and protection. Holy Mother Church provided that, and so you eventually entered this beautiful Eden, the ancient nunnery of Godstow. A royal appointment to one of the most comfortable sinecures in the kingdom. You are in all things the Domina, the true lady of the manor, the chatelaine of the great castle, one of the lords spiritual. You live in an atmosphere of luxury and the most comfortable piety. Your word here is law. You have all the delicacies of the table as well as the opportunity to wield real power and make your presence felt.’

‘I had a vocation,’ she protested.

‘So did Judas,’ Corbett countered. ‘You had all the pleasures and all the trimmings of life, but the cowl doesn’t make the monk nor the veil the nun. You always did admire a good-looking man. You have almost an insatiable hunger for flattery and praise. Years ago, when I used to talk to you – and I remember this well – you would listen but your eyes would wander, and if they really liked what they saw, you would make your hasty excuses so as to pursue your new quarry, whoever or whatever had caught your fancy.’

‘You are resentful, prejudiced,’ she spat back.

‘I am truthful. Norbert became your chaplain here. A handsome young man. Possibly a former soldier. Lean, strong and educated, with more than a dash of courtly courtesy. I wonder if he was the first; I doubt it. You became lovers. The abbess and her chaplain, a fairly common occurrence. We even have mummer’s plays mocking such a relationship. However, you can only mock what you know. All was well until the arrival of Margaret Beaumont and Elizabeth Buchan. Two headstrong, wily and wilful young ladies. I doubt you liked them, and I suggest they responded in kind. They decided to stir the placid pond that was Godstow.’ Corbett watched the abbess closely. He sensed he was correct. He just hoped the sheer logic of his argument and the traps he had prepared would prove sufficient to bring this woman and her accomplice to justice.

‘Elizabeth and Margaret,’ he continued, ‘stole two white albs and pretended to be the ghost of Rosamund, or some such nonsense. They acted the part, going to various places, Margaret here, Elizabeth there. They would flit around, energetic young women who could race away and escape pursuit. Now I admit,’ Corbett spread his hands, ‘this is only conjecture for the moment. However, Margaret Beaumont, on one of her hauntings, stumbled on a great secret: the scandalous relationship between the lady abbess and her chaplain. God knows what she saw, where, when and how, but I have my suspicions.

‘I suggest she whispered some of what she knew to her boon companion Elizabeth, who perhaps did not believe it. Margaret also pointed out how along a bench in front of their choir stall was a misericord, a gargoyle carving in the usual grotesque fashion.’ He pointed at the abbess. ‘You know the kind. They can be found in churches up and down the kingdom. They mock conventional piety, they remind us how we are all sinners. Carvings such as a pig garbed as a prelate, a cat being a cardinal. In this case, a priest mounting a woman like a stallion would a mare. Elizabeth and Margaret thought this was very apposite; hence their mocking name for you: “Gargoyle”.’

Lady Joan flinched, though her face remained impassive, her eyes sharp and watchful. She was recovering from the shock, desperately seeking a way out of the closing trap.

‘I am not sure if Elizabeth really believed her friend or truly cared if the lady abbess was being swived by her chaplain. Margaret, I suspect, was of a different heart. She had also discovered how you met at the centre of the maze in Rosamund’s bower.’

‘Nonsense!’

‘Oh yes, we have uncovered the secret passageway that runs beneath Rosamund’s bower. A paving stone in the corner of the buttery can be lifted to reveal steps leading down.’

Lady Joan closed her eyes and sighed as if she had been struck. Corbett almost felt sorry for this murderous and arrogant woman whose world was being violently turned upside down.

‘They found wine, goblets, a lantern, a thick swan-down mattress, blankets of the softest wool and comfortable feather-filled bolsters.’ Corbett made a face. ‘They also discovered that part of the tunnel that probably continued on beneath the convent walls had been blocked by the recent collapse of some of its pillars, struts and beams, which brought down a cascade of rubble. I shall return to that later.’

‘I do not know anything of this,’ interjected the abbess. Corbett, however, glimpsed the sweat on her brow, the trembling of her hands, her swift and shallow breaths.

‘Of course you do. It’s Rosamund’s secret, passed from one abbess to another. Some wouldn’t care about it; you certainly did. Remember the inscription in the church above Rosamund’s tomb? If you study that emblem carefully, it looks like a key pointing to the ground. It is in fact hinting at an underground passageway, and where else would that be but beneath the maze? Why should the abbess have to thread the maze like common sinners? Moreover, if danger ever truly threatened, such a passageway provided swift escape and sure refuge. Poor Vicomte,’ Corbett continued, ‘he argued that no matter how complex or baffling a riddle might appear, the solution was usually very simple. In this he was correct.’

Corbett cleared his throat. His mouth felt dry, yet he did not wish to eat or drink anything in this chamber. ‘Vicomte’s theory of a simple solution appealed to me. I was convinced there was a secret passageway into the centre of the maze. When I established that there wasn’t one above ground, the next logical step was to search for such a passageway beneath the maze. If this existed, so did at least two entrances. Now the one in the nunnery could be anywhere within its walls, but logic dictated that the other entrance must lie at the centre of the maze, a small, enclosed space, the only one available. Such logic proved to be correct.’

Corbett paused. The abbess sat back in her chair. She reminded Corbett of a cat, watchful, ready to spring, and he wondered if she carried a concealed weapon.

‘Margaret Beaumont blackmailed you, didn’t she? She wanted to flee Godstow. She hinted at the secret that she knew. You decided to act all compliant. You can be very charming and persuasive, Joan – I know that to my cost. Somehow you persuaded Margaret to clear her chamber and to come wherever you told her. She was desperate to escape. She had no inkling of who you truly are and what you intended, you and your accomplice, Chaplain Norbert.’ He paused at her sharp intake of breath. ‘Oh, rest assured, your lover is being thoroughly questioned by Ranulf Atte-Newgate.’ He smiled thinly. ‘Ranulf has his own methods of interrogation.’

‘Torture is forbidden under English law. Torture of a priest incurs excommunication.’

‘Ranulf would agree.’ Corbett lowered his head lest this woman, who knew him so well, detect his deceit. ‘But there again, accidents do happen. Chaplain Norbert hates water, doesn’t he? He has a terrible fear of drowning. Now,’ he continued briskly, ‘Margaret Beaumont was flattered to be taken down into the secret passageway. She was in fact going to her death. You and Norbert killed her. God knows how, but I suspect we will find her corpse.’

‘This is all conjecture,’ the abbess replied coolly. ‘No evidence, no proof, nothing but one lie after another, a catalogue of fables.’ Her face twisted in fury. ‘Filthy allegations against a loyal subject of the Crown and a beloved daughter of Holy Mother Church.’

‘Not for long,’ Corbett replied cheerily. ‘Elizabeth Buchan was now alone but unconcerned. She believed that Margaret had fled, probably with the help of someone in Godstow. However, the days passed, weeks came and went. She received no message, no news of her friend. Then the situation turned ugly. Margaret’s kinsfolk were concerned. The king was petitioned and Ranulf Atte-Newgate arrived here. Elizabeth now realised that something dreadful had befallen her friend. She recalled Margaret’s remarks. She did not know who to trust, so she approached you with her anxieties. You must understand, Lady Joan, how difficult it is for anyone to imagine that you of all people are a murdering bitch, your hands stained with the blood of innocents.’ He shook his head as she made to protest. ‘Once again you spun your web and drew an unsuspecting victim into its treacherous tendrils. I cannot say what Elizabeth Buchan knew. Perhaps you showed her the passageway to gain her confidence and she too went down it to her death. I don’t know whether she struggled or not, but her end was swift. A crossbow bolt through her forehead. But then,’ Corbett clicked his tongue, ‘something happened that you and your murderous paramour had not planned for.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You enticed Elizabeth Buchan down there and killed her, intending to take her corpse and bury it as you did Margaret Beaumont’s further down the tunnel, perhaps where it debouched into the woods beyond the walls. Now it may just have been that the tunnel is ancient, or maybe it was an act of God, but that part of it that stretches on from the centre of the maze and out under the walls of the nunnery abruptly collapsed.’ He paused. ‘Oh yes, that’s what I have been told. It is very easy to establish, since the fallen earth has still not hardened. On the night Elizabeth Buchan died, you were left with a choice. Either you could take the corpse back out through the secret entrance somewhere in the nunnery. However, that would be highly dangerous, as it would be to take it through the maze, so you decided to leave her above ground, as if she had wandered there and been raped then killed. Elizabeth Buchan was not ravished when she was alive; her corpse was abused after death to make it look as if she had been. One of Ranulf’s quarrels was used to kill her.’

‘The crossbow was also his.’ Lady Joan sighed and swiftly looked away as she realised the trap she had blundered into.

‘How do you know that? Who told you,’ Corbett pressed the point, ‘that Elizabeth had been given Ranulf’s crossbow? How could you know that unless you met her carrying it and managed to take it off her? You used it to muddy the waters to create a mystery. Ranulf Atte-Newgate might take the blame, certainly for Elizabeth’s death, and neither murder could be placed at your door. However, it’s time I saw to something. You must wait here.’

Ignoring the abbess’s protests, he rose, went to the door and summoned two of the sheriff’s men.

‘Watch her,’ he warned, ‘as hawks would a coney.’

He left the Magdalena chamber. He’d hardly gone far when a breathless Ranulf called his name and hurried up.

‘Sir Hugh, we have found the entrance.’

‘In the lady abbess’s quarters?’

‘No. In the sacristy of the church, beneath one of the aumbries.’

‘I wonder …’ Corbett gasped. ‘Yes, Margaret Beaumont was stealing those albs when she saw the abbess and her lover not only meet in loving embrace but open the secret passageway. She may well have been hiding in the sacristy at the time. Yes, that would be logical.’

‘Master, what is all this?’

Corbett swiftly summarised his indictment. Ranulf listened in astonishment.

‘The great high-born Lady Joan,’ he exclaimed, ‘nothing better than a priest’s whore!’

‘Both will be trapped by deceit,’ Corbett replied. ‘We must now close the trap and seal it. I have left the lady abbess with her thoughts. Now it’s time for Chaplain Norbert.’

They found the priest sitting in his well-furnished, lavishly decorated chamber. All arrogance and hauteur had drained from him. Corbett immediately decided he was the weaker of the two and crouched down beside him.

‘She has confessed,’ he said softly. ‘Listen to what I put to her.’ He then presented his case against the abbess, including details about the entrance to the secret passageway beneath the sacristy. He described how Margaret Beaumont had hidden there and discovered not only his illicit affair with the abbess but where they conducted their lovemaking, hidden from all eyes except God’s.

‘You also used that secret passageway to attack myself and others as we left the maze,’ he continued. ‘You cut the cord and laid an ambush. Easy enough. I suspect you know that labyrinth like the back of your hand. Afterwards, you raced back to the bower and the secret passageway out. You made a mistake, however: you weren’t hunting Vicomte but me. You then made a second mistake. You hastily loosed a second bolt and injured your fingers; that’s why you were wearing those doe-skinned gloves when I met you in the sacristy. You claimed you were wearing them because you had been in the chantry chapels examining missals and psalters with dried, cracked parchment pages, but that was a lie. When I walked up the nave of the church, I saw no one, I heard no one, nor did Ranulf. Moreover, darkness had fallen. Why carry out such a task when the light was so poor? You would have to light many candles, and I didn’t see any …’

The priest sat, head down.

‘I will hand you over to Ranulf,’ Corbett whispered. ‘Vicomte was his friend, his comrade. He will put you to the question. Some of the sheriff’s men will pinion you to the ground. Ranulf will fasten a leather funnel over your face and pour water in, one jug after another, so you think you are drowning. Of course, as I said, your paramour has already confessed. You should do likewise.’ He got to his feet and walked to stare out of the window, as if absorbed by the small enclosed rose garden.

‘I plead benefit of clergy,’ the chaplain declared hoarsely.

Corbett closed his eyes and smiled in satisfaction. ‘I will ensure that is the case,’ he replied over his shoulder. ‘You will not be tried by the secular courts.’

‘It was not my fault. She was mistress in all matters,’ the chaplain sobbed. ‘She told me how dangerous you were, Sir Hugh. How you had to be stopped. She murdered both women. She tricked them into believing our relationship was one of courtly romance, of playing cat’s cradle in Rosamund’s bower. She told them she would show them everything. She promised that each of them would be favoured. She persuaded them of her benevolence. Buchan even handed over the arbalest, but then she panicked and wanted it back.’

‘Where was this?’

‘In the tunnel beneath Rosamund’s bower. Lady Joan had taken her there to wait for me. Anyway, a struggle ensued. The abbess broke free and loosed the bolt, killing her immediately. We intended to take her corpse further down the tunnel, which ends beneath a rocky outcrop deep in the woods.’ The chaplain wetted his lips. ‘Perhaps it was the struggle, the movement, but there was a crack and the tunnel just collapsed.’

‘You had taken Beaumont through there?’

‘Yes, the abbess cracked her skull. We buried her in a pit.’

‘God’s judgement,’ Corbett murmured. ‘I suggest that when you buried Beaumont, you disturbed that tunnel. The situation was worsened by the struggle and murder of your second victim. The soil and earth gave way as the struts and timbers cracked, and of course, you daren’t bury Buchan there. The tunnel is ancient; further disturbance could mean more falls, so you brought the corpse up.’

‘Yes, yes we did.’ The chaplain’s voice faltered. ‘The lady abbess told me to abuse the body. I …’

Corbett stared at this corrupt young man. He curbed his anger; his task was to obtain confessions. Punishment would be left to others. He patted the chaplain on the shoulder and pointed to the chancery desk.

‘I want a full confession. Sit there and write it. Ranulf will stay with you until it is done.’ The chaplain, now sobbing, nodded his agreement.

Secretly elated, Corbett left the chamber. He gave instructions to two of the sheriff’s men, then strolled along the passageways and into the main church. Godstow lay strangely silent; the news of scandal brewing had spread like a mist through the nunnery. The good ladies had retreated to their chambers, shocked, frightened and wary of the sheriff’s comitatus: burly, rough soldiers who seemed to swarm everywhere, secretly amused at the outrage being so vigorously unearthed in this so-called house of prayer.

A few of these soldiers were in the sacristy, guarding the entrance to the passageway. Corbett marvelled how the entrance was so expertly hidden beneath the shelves of the aumbry. The lowest shelf could be lifted by hinges, and the paving stone beneath seemed like all the others except for an indentation at the edge where it met the wall. One of the sheriff’s men showed how this indentation could be used to lift the stone like a trapdoor. Only when he grasped it did Corbett realise it was not stone, but heavy wood finished and painted to pass as paving. Once it was pulled back, he could squeeze his way down on to the narrow steps.

One of the comitatus passed him a sconce torch, whilst another offered to accompany him. Corbett agreed, and carefully went down into the darkness. At the bottom, he lifted the torch, its dancing flame illuminating what looked like an ancient mine shaft – a narrow runnel just over two yards high and about the same across. The floor was of packed dirt, whilst the rock and earth the tunnel cut through was held in place by stout wooden pillars, beams, clasps and crutches. Corbett, his companion following behind, walked quickly forward. The tunnel was hot and reminded him of the maze, with its latent threat to close in on him. Now and again he passed ancient dressed stonework in the walls either side. He stopped to examine this, and his escort murmured how the sheriff, a local man, believed that Godstow was built over an ancient palace used by the Romans.

Corbett hurried on. He felt breathless, sweaty, the tunnel seeming to stretch like an eternity before him. At last he glimpsed torchlight, felt a freshness and heard voices. He called out, announcing himself. Sir Miles replied, telling him to be careful, as both walls and roof were beginning to crumble. Corbett shivered at the light rain of dust in the air. He reached the sheriff’s party clustered at the foot of some steps. Sir Miles explained how they led up to the bower, then pointed to the needle-thin runnel that continued past, stretching into the darkness.

‘We went along there,’ he explained, ‘but it’s now truly blocked.’

‘Let us get out of here,’ Corbett retorted. ‘Enough is enough.’ He climbed the steps and heaved a sigh of relief as he walked through the buttery into the main chamber of the bower, where two of the sheriff’s men stood guarding Lady Joan Mortimer. She looked as if she had aged, her face all stricken. Corbett went up close. She lunged, but the sheriff’s men held her fast. Corbett grasped her face between his hands and squeezed gently.

‘Your accomplice has confessed. Ranulf will read his admission to you soon enough.’

She tried to pull free, gathering spittle in her mouth, but Corbett moved his hands and pressed her lips. ‘This is finished,’ he rasped. ‘We are finished. Remember that …’

Corbett and Ranulf stood in the Magdalena chamber of Godstow nunnery. They had confronted the abbess with Norbert’s confession. She had murmured distractedly how she was not of the secular order and not under the jurisdiction of the king’s court. Corbett heard her out. She made no reference to their earlier friendship, or times in the past. A broken woman, talking to herself, she had joined Norbert in the cart commandeered by the sheriff to take them both to Oxford Castle to await the king’s pleasure.

‘They will plead their benefit,’ Ranulf remarked. ‘Be tried by the church courts, then what, Sir Hugh? Slapped on the face and banished for life to an austere religious house in some desolate place? In truth, both of them should be torn apart at Smithfield.’

‘True, true,’ Corbett agreed. ‘They will be imprisoned on bread and water in some religious house deep in a wasteland of bog and marsh. Nevertheless, before the year is out, Lady Joan will die from a violent fall down some steps, or choke on something she ate, or drown in a pool, and the same will happen to Chaplain Norbert. What makes it more bitter is that they know this. Murder will haunt them, play with them, then strike. The Beaumonts and the Buchans will not rest until this is done, and it is a justice of sorts.’

Corbett paused at the shrieking of a peacock. He clapped his companion on the shoulder. ‘My friend, is that the cry of a bird or the plea of some murdered soul? Believe me, Ranulf, before the month is out, we will hear that cry again.’

Content

Paul Doherty
The Peacock's Cry