‘You mean she is ill treating the children?’
Under the law of the Brehons, ill treatment of children was not merely condemned but punishable. Until the age of their maturity, the honour price of children was placed, under the laws, as the honour price of a chieftain or a bishop no matter who their parents were-that was seven cumals, the value of twenty-one cows. So such a thing seemed impossible.
‘As I have said, Eadulf, we are in a different culture here, but nonetheless I indeed to pursue this and discover the truth, even though I have recourse to no local law or authority.’
‘I can’t see how you are going to do that,’ he rejoined. ‘There is no returning through that door.’
‘Then I will have to find another way inside,’ Fidelma replied calmly.
‘You are not going back on your own.’
Fidelma was amused. ‘I hardly think you will be able to fade into the background in a house of women, Eadulf.’
He suddenly stiffened and drew her back into the shadow of the arched recess.
‘What…?’ she began to protest.
He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, ‘Sister Radegund has just left the Domus Femini. Look…but carefully!’
The tall woman was moving rapidly across the courtyard, heading towards the main square. In fact, she was moving so quickly that she was almost running, with her head-dress and robes flowing out behind her. The two watchers pressed back in the shadows, waiting until she had passed them. She had already crossed the square by the time they had emerged, and they saw her disappearing down a street towards the city buildings.
‘Where is she off to in such a hurry?’ murmured Eadulf.
‘Let’s find out,’ replied Fidelma. ‘Come on. We must not lose her.’
Before he could protest, she had set off across the square, almost trotting to keep up with the woman. There were plenty of people about, but no one seemed interested in them, so Fidelma and Eadulf hurried on down the darkened streets without challenge.
Sister Radegund seemed so intent upon her errand that she did not pause or glance backward once. That was just as well for her followers. She moved through several streets, each one a little more narrow than the last, and soon the odours that had assailed them when they first arrived in the city began to rise around them. Sewerage ran here and there, and thin feral cats and slavering dogs fought over the refuse in the gutters.
Sister Radegund suddenly ducked into a broad street. Along this street were several premises of traders. It was clearly a major thoroughfare. They saw her enter a building where clothes were hanging outside as if on display, as well as a number of animal skins.
‘It looks like a…’ Fidelma paused, trying to find the right word ‘…a place where a seamstress does her work.’
They moved cautiously towards the building and Fidelma took a quick glance through the open door. Sister Radegund was standing with her back to the door and an elderly woman was bending over a bundle of cloth. The old woman’s eyes luckily were not focused on the door. Fidelma gestured to Eadulf to follow her back a few yards to where there was a dark space between the buildings; here they could pause without being seen in the open street.
‘It seems that Sister Radegund is simply on a mission to buy some cloth,’ Fidelma said in disappointment. ‘I have obviously become too suspicious.’ Just then, she heard someone saying something along the street and then the clatter of wooden-soled shoes followed. She chanced another quick look round the corner of the building.
‘Radegund is off again. Her journey is not yet over,’ she said to Eadulf. ‘Let us stay with her.’
Head still slightly downward, Sister Radegund was continuing her journey with the same intensity as when she had left the Domus Femini. They followed at a reasonable distance but there seemed little chance of the stewardess looking back towards them. When she disappeared around the next corner, they followed and found that the broad thoroughfare had opened into a large square. In the centre was yet another ornate fountain, gushing and splashing. A few dogs were lapping around the base.
Fidelma and Eadulf halted at the entrance to the square, sheltering in the corner of a building.
Sister Radegund had hurried across the cobbles straight to the gates in a high wall that fronted a building on the far side. A giant of a man, a warrior armed with sword and spear, stood outside. While he had breast armour, he wore no hat and his head was a tousled mess of blond, almost white, curls that merged into a heavy beard which came to his chest. He nodded pleasantly to Sister Radegund as if he knew her and without a word turned and tapped upon the wooden gate with his free hand. They heard three distinct blows followed by two more rapid ones. The gate opened almost at once and Sister Radegund slipped inside. The gate closed immediately.
There was a rattle of wheels behind them and a man came along the thoroughfare pushing a handcart loaded with various iron goods. He was a heavily built fellow, and by his dress he was a tradesman of sorts. As they stood hesitantly on the corner, unsure of what to do next, he greeted them in a friendly fashion.
‘Are you lost?’ He spoke in the local language that, to Eadulf’s ear, sounded strangely akin to his own Saxon speech, for he seemed to understand the sense of it. He tried a response in Saxon and, to his surprise, the man replied.
‘I spent time among your people. My father was a ship’s captain. Now-are you lost?’
‘We are unsure of where we are,’ Eadulf told him. ‘What is this square?’
‘This is called the Square of Benignus.’
‘Benignus?’ queried Eadulf, thinking he had misheard. ‘You mean “the Square of the Benign”?’
The man set down his cart and flexed his hands as if to help the circulation.
‘No, my friend. Of Benignus,’ he said. ‘You are obviously strangers here. Benignus was a holy martyr who was born in this city before going to spread the word of the Faith in the old city of Divio many centuries ago. The square was named after him for it is said it was on this very square that he lived.’
‘Ask him who that big house belongs to-the one guarded by the warrior,’ Fidelma said to Eadulf.
‘Whose fine villa is that then?’ Eadulf asked the carter. ‘And why is it guarded by a warrior?’
‘That is the villa of the Lady Beretrude, mother of the lord of this territory. She is benefactor to the city and the most powerful person in these parts.’
‘Eadulf!’ interrupted Fidelma with a soft warning. She had just noticed a man exit from the very house they were talking about. He was clad in religious robes and raised a hand in familiar farewell to the warrior. Then he was striding across the square towards them.
It was too late to move. He had seen them.
‘Sister Fidelma! Brother Eadulf!’ he hailed. ‘What are you doing here?’ Brother Budnouen halted before them, smiling broadly.
‘We were lost and this man was giving us directions,’ Eadulf explained hastily.
‘You must be lost, indeed, to be in this area of the city,’ replied the jovial Gaul.
The man with the cart had touched his forehead in salute.
‘I am glad that you have found your friend,’ he said pleasantly. ‘You will be able to get to where you wanted now.’ He heaved his cart up and moved on his way.
‘And where was it you wanted to get to?’ asked Brother Budnouen.
‘Back to the abbey,’ Fidelma said hastily. ‘We had gone for a walk to explore the city and must have taken a wrong turning somewhere.’
‘I forget that you are unused to large towns in your lands. Well, have no concerns for I am going back to the abbey myself.’
‘We don’t want to take you out of your way at all,’ Eadulf said. ‘We looked for you in the abbey but have not seen you there.’