‘You seem as surprised as we are, Prior Cuan,’ observed Eadulf.
‘I have only been Abbot Segdae’s deputy for a short period,’ Prior Cuan replied quietly, ‘yet it is the first time that I have heard of any compromise on this matter. Abbot Segdae and I discussed this topic several times together, as well as in the opening debate with Abbot Nannid. He was prepared to stand against the use of the Penitentials outside any religious community. Furthermore, he was even against their use within a community in which the entire fine or family of the community had not freely accepted them. I will have to tackle the subject further with Brother Tuaman. The fellow has an exaggerated idea of his own self-importance, as you may have noticed. It seems inconceivable that the abbot would reveal this change of attitude to him and not to me.’
‘Do you know much about your steward’s background?’ Fidelma asked.
‘About Brother Tuaman? Only that he has not been steward for very long. In fact, he arrived at Imleach shortly before me. He presented himself with good credentials, being well educated at the abbey on the island in Loch Lein. After Brother Madagan’s betrayal, which you know about, the abbot was desperate for a good steward and Brother Tuaman seemed well qualified.’
Fidelma smiled ruefully. ‘He is that. However, I shall look forward to learning what you find out about Abbot Segdae’s views and whether they had changed. It is an interesting point that the steward makes though,’ she added thoughtfully.
Prior Cuan asked: ‘Which point?’
‘If Abbot Segdae was about to make such a momentous decision with regard to accepting the rule of the Penitentials and bringing them into Imleach, then his sudden demise would seem providential to those arguing against them.’
Prior Cuan’s face went pale, and an expression of anger flashed across his usually benign features.
‘Are you accusing me of welcoming the death of the abbot!’ he said hoarsely.
Fidelma held up a protesting hand, palm outwards.
‘Forgive me, Prior Cuan. Eadulf here will tell you that I sometimes think aloud.’
Eadulf contrived to examine the floor for he knew that Fidelma’s ‘thinking aloud’ was often designed to bring forth a reaction.
‘I have a fault,’ she continued, ‘which is to examine matters from other points of view. If you look at all possibilities, no matter how ill conceived and odious they may be to one, then by either storing them in the mind or discarding them, one may well come to a better perspective.’
Prior Cuan stared at her for a moment, then gave a sound like an exclamation of disgust and limped off.
She stood for a moment before turning to Eadulf and commenting: ‘Interesting. I’d like to find out a little more about the background of this prior.’
‘So what now?’
‘Now there are some things that I have neglected, having been sidetracked by Brother Tuaman. To accomplish them, we must return to the guest-hostel where Segdae was killed.’
Eadulf’s eyes brightened suddenly. ‘You mean that even now, you have not completely condemned Gorman as guilty?’
‘There are other ways of interpreting his flight from this fortress,’ she said.
‘Then you feel that there might be a way into Abbot Segdae’s chamber through which a killer could have entered in the manner Gorman claimed?’
‘Not as such, but it behoves us to take a look.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
There was no one about in the guest-hostel, not even a guard outside, when Fidelma and Eadulf entered. She paused and called loudly, just in case Brother Tuaman was in his room on the next floor. Before climbing the wooden stairs she took advantage of everyone’s absence to glance quickly into the rooms on the ground floor where the two scribes had their quarters. It took only a few moments to see that they contained nothing of interest. Having checked, she ascended to the next floor with Eadulf behind her. To his surprise she went directly to Brother Tuaman’s room and tapped on the door. There was no answer and so she tried the handle. It was locked.
‘He seems to be a cautious man,’ observed Eadulf.
‘He might have reason to be,’ Fidelma replied enigmatically. ‘He said he was returning to transcribe some notes. He is certainly not doing so here.’
She turned and moved along to Prior Cuan’s room, and again she paused to knock before entering. Nothing appeared to have changed since their earlier visit. Fidelma went to the table, picked up the book she had noticed previously, and opened it to glance at the title page. She gave a gasp of surprise.
‘It seems he reads Greek, for there is an inscription in it. Ah – and guess what this is a copy of?’
‘I am afraid that construing Greek is beyond me,’ Eadulf said. ‘I sometimes even struggle with the Latin in which the ancients put down their wisdom. I can cope with the colloquial form better.’
‘The text is in Latin but another hand has written an inscription in Greek,’ Fidelma pointed out.
‘So why the surprise?’
‘Firstly, the book is Paenitentiaele Theodori.’
‘What? You mean Theodore of Tarsus? Has he written a book of Penitentials?’ Eadulf asked.
‘It is some years since you escorted Theodore the Greek from Rome to the Kentish kingdom where he was installed as eighth archbishop and claimed jurisdiction of all the churches of the Jutes, Angles, Saxons and also the Britons – even though the Britons rejected him. He was an ambitious cleric because he also started sending deputations to the Irish abbots to claim jurisdiction over them. Here his ambition met with stronger resistance.’
Eadulf remembered the tall ascetic Greek appointed by Vitalian, Bishop of Rome, to succeed Wighard, who had been murdered in Rome. His murder had been solved by Fidelma and Eadulf. Eadulf had then been appointed to escort Wighard’s successor, Theodore, to his new seat in the town of the Cantware, as the people of Kent were called. He had never been comfortable with the man, who seemed to consider all the western churches as outlanders who should be brought firmly under his control.
‘That was six or seven years ago,’ reflected Eadulf. ‘Thankfully, Theodore, to my good fortune, sent me here to bring messages to Abbot Segdae of Imleach, which led to our being reunited and …’
But Fidelma was still peering at the volume. ‘It doesn’t surprise me that Theodore of Tarsus would support the adoption of the Penitentials, but it is an interesting choice of reading for our frugal prior in the circumstances.’
‘Do you mean because he claims to stand against the Penitentials? Well, reading such a book is not incompatible to his views. Remember the saying of the Romans? Nosce hostem tuum – know your enemy.’
Fidelma gave an irritated shake of her head. ‘A good point, Eadulf, but that is not what I am reading from the Greek inscription here.’
‘As I said, my Greek is not good enough to construe it. What does it say?’
‘It says – “Theodore, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to my faithful brother in Christ, Cuan, scholar of Cluain Eidnech, since we rejoice in your faith in Christ Jesus and the word of truth”.’ Then she paused and added, ‘The phonetics of the Irish names are spelled in Greek form but they are clear as to the meaning of the names.’
Eadulf was shocked. ‘Then how did Prior Cuan come by such a book? He must have been known to Theodore of Tarsus to have deserved such an inscription, but how …?’
‘A personal gift,’ Fidelma mused. ‘I knew Cluain Eidnach had a reputation for its scholarship but I did not think it extended far, even within the Five Kingdoms. I can recall only one Cuan named as a meritorious scholar but he was an abbot of Lios Mor. He died when I was a child.’
‘Prior Cuan may have been on a mission to the kingdom of the Cantware,’ suggested Eadulf. ‘You know how many of your countrymen still take the word of the Faith to the kingdoms of the Angles and the Saxons?’