‘I remember that as I was walking past the gate, the bushes were swaying in the wind. The ground underfoot was slippery, icy, that’s how I heard him. I heard the ice crack and turned just in time.’
‘Did he speak?’
‘No, apart from gasps and groans, he said nothing.’ Perditus looked woebegone and scratched his close-cropped hair. ‘I had the impression he was waiting there for anyone.’
Corbett moved away and closed the door.
‘That would make sense,’ he declared, coming back. ‘The night is dark and cold. You had your cowl up?’
Perditus agreed.
‘And, of course, you would be walking slightly hunched against the cold. He might have mistaken you for one of the older brothers, realised his mistake and fled?’
Corbett was about to continue when a bell began to clang noisily. Perditus sprang to his feet, so quickly he became unsteady. Ranulf caught him and urged him to sit down again. Corbett walked to the door and threw it open.
‘That’s the tocsin!’ Perditus gasped. ‘The alarm! Something has happened in the abbey! I must. .’ He tried to rise.
‘No, you go to your chamber.’ Corbett grasped him by the arm. ‘I mean that, Brother, lie down on your bed. I’ll tell Aelfric to come and see to you. You have no other wound or bruise?’
Perditus winced and held his left side.
‘The attacker hit me here but. .’
He was distracted by the tocsin, its tolling echoed across the abbey. Corbett escorted Perditus along the passageway to his own chamber, which was smaller and starker than the Abbot’s. Corbett made him sit on the side of his bed and told him to stay there. Ranulf lit candles from an oil lamp. Corbett picked up some of the books lying on the floor and placed them on the table. The tocsin continued to toll.
‘Stay there!’ Corbett ordered.
Followed by Ranulf, the clerk hastened from the chamber and down the stairs. Once they were outside, the source of the crisis was obvious. The cold night air brought the smell of burning and, glancing up, Corbett saw the glow against the night sky from the far end of the abbey.
‘A fire,’ he declared. ‘I wager a shilling to a pound, Ranulf, it’s not an accident.’
The whole abbey was now roused. Monks, breaking off from their different duties, hastened across the abbey grounds. Corbett and Ranulf followed. The smell of burning grew stronger and thick tendrils of smoke curled around them. They came round the abbey church, across the cemetery and through a line of trees. Corbett and Ranulf paused. One of the abbey’s main storehouses, a timber and plaster building on a red-bricked base, was ablaze from end to end. Flames leapt out of the windows, the plaster was cracking and buckling. Even as they looked, a part of the roof caved in with a crash and the flames roared up to the sky. Prior Cuthbert hadn’t arrived but Richard the almoner was busy organising the community to fetch slopping buckets of water from a nearby well. Some of the monks who’d been working there already had blackened faces and hands, their robes stained with dust and ash.
‘It’s impossible.’ The almoner came over, mopping his face with a wet rag. ‘Wouldn’t you agree, Sir Hugh?’
Corbett stared at the building. Although ablaze from end to end, at least it stood alone with little danger of the fire spreading.
‘I would advise, Brother, to let it burn: the real danger is when it collapses.’
The almoner agreed. He hurried off, calling out to the monks to stop their fruitless efforts with the water. Burning plaster and wood were now falling away from the building and the heat, wafted by the night breeze, became searing. Corbett stood with the monks, watching the fire totally destroy the building.
‘What was in there?’ Corbett asked.
‘Wine, corn, flour, some vellum, charcoal and oil.’ Brother Richard listed the stores.
‘But none of the brothers?’
‘No, no, it’s a very dark building inside. In autumn and winter the doors are secured late in the afternoon.’
‘It could have been an accident.’ Aelfric had now joined them.
Corbett shook his head. ‘I doubt it,’ he replied. ‘The fire took hold quickly, yes? There was no reason for candlelight or a fire within?’
Brother Richard agreed. ‘Like any house we are most vigilant. I agree, Sir Hugh, our assassin has struck again.’
‘But how?’ Ranulf demanded.
‘Perhaps a fire arrow through the window.’
Corbett watched the flames as they began to die and coughed as a swirl of smoke gusted towards them.
‘Yes, a fire arrow or a lighted torch thrown through a window would have started such a blaze, particularly if it landed near the oil.’
Prior Cuthbert came hastening up. In the glow from the fire he still looked pallid-faced and red-eyed. The almoner told him what had happened as Prior Cuthbert stood, eyes half closed.
‘I am sorry,’ he apologised. ‘I was in a deep sleep.’
He walked away to organise the brothers. Some were just sitting on the frozen ground staring helplessly at this fire which had consumed an entire building. The walls and roof had now collapsed, and only the red brick base remained, but flames still leapt up, licking hungrily at blackened timbers. The breeze brought grey and black ash towards them and, occasionally, the sweet smell of the spices stored inside. Prior Cuthbert set up a system of watches and the community began to drift away. Corbett could tell the monks also believed the fire was deliberate: an act of terror by the assassin lurking within their community. Corbett watched the fire as if fascinated.
How could it have happened, he wondered? Who was responsible?
Perditus had been with him for some time before the tocsin began, but what about the rest? Richard and Dunstan had been present. Aelfric had joined them later but the Prior had claimed he had slept through all the commotion.
‘Why?’ Ranulf asked, standing behind Corbett.
Chanson had already left to make sure his precious horses were safe.
‘All men are terrified of fire.’ Corbett whispered. ‘Sudden and fierce, it wreaks havoc and instils terror: that’s what our assassin wanted to do. He’s aping the wicked Lord Mandeville who liked nothing better than to see a monastery burn beneath God’s own sky. He was probably frustrated that the attacks on Perditus and Dunstan had failed so he lashed out. He doesn’t want these monks to forget his presence. Corpses, sacrilege in church, fire arrows and now the destruction of one of their main storehouses.’
‘Sir Hugh?’ Aelfric hurried through the darkness. ‘Sir Hugh, you’d best come!’
‘I know why, Aelfric. The corpses in the death house — Hamo and Brother Francis. Both have been branded, haven’t they?’
Aelfric pushed his hands up the sleeves of his gown and stifled a sob.
‘The tocsin rang and the guard left his post, as did we all,’ he explained. ‘When I returned the sheets were ripped back.’ Aelfric pulled out his hand and tapped his forehead. ‘Both bear the brand marks. The killer has claimed his own.’
Aelfric gazed bleakly at the dying fire, then round at the snow-capped buildings as if he was seeing this abbey for the first time.
‘This is my home, Sir Hugh, yet it’s becoming a place of hideous terrors. We are being punished for our sins.’
He walked off into the darkness. Corbett told Ranulf to bring some food from the abbey kitchens and returned to the guesthouse. He met Wallasby on the stairs.
‘You’ve heard of the fire, Archdeacon?’
‘Yes, Sir Hugh, I have, but I will not leave my chamber except for food.’
And, brushing by the clerk, he clattered down the stairs. Corbett went into his own chamber, checked all was well and sat at his writing desk. Ranulf brought across food. Chanson joined them for a meal of pike with galentyne sauce, buttered vegetables, dates and spiced wine. Corbett chewed his food absentmindedly. Once finished, he crossed to his desk and wrote down all that had happened. Ranulf asked questions but he ignored him. Corbett went and lay down on his bed, plucking the coverlet over him. He tried to think of Maeve: how much he loved her, the poetry he would recite to her. He recalled that enigmatic name, Heloise Argenteuil. Corbett sat up so quickly he startled Ranulf.