This time it was Abbess Audofleda who interrupted.
‘Freeborn you might have been, but you are a foreigner and that negates such law. If you were abducted by slave traders, then bring them before us.’
‘You are right to make that distinction between freeborn and foreigners,’ replied Fidelma calmly. ‘However, many freeborn Burgunds and Franks, members of your own community, have been abducted from your care and were being sold into slavery. You demand that the slave traders should be brought here. They are here already.’
‘A lie! A lie!’ cried Sister Radegund, coming forward to the abbess’s side, her voice rising above the hubbub that had broken out.
‘It is no lie, and there stands Sister Valretrade who was one of the freeborn women of this city, who served in your community, who was betrayed and abducted. She shared my peril in our escape from Beretrude’s villa.’
Clotaire was regarding the abbatissa grimly.
‘Before you call it a lie, Abbess Audofleda, let me also tell you that some of my warriors encountered a barge on the Aturavos yesterday evening. There were thirty religieuse mainly from your abbey and their children being transported under the care of a merchant called Verbas of Peqini. They were all manacled and, had their journey continued, they would have been taken to the southern seaports to be sold in the slave markets. Sadly, for Vebras of Peqini, he and his men tried to dispute with the authority of my warriors. They are all dead but I am pleased to say that the women and their children have been escorted back to Autun where they stand ready to give an account of their capture and imprisonment.’
Abbess Audofleda was shaking her head in apparent bewilderment.
‘I don’t understand. These women all left of their own free will,’ she protested feebly.
‘It is true,’ declared Sister Radegund defensively. ‘You cannot blame the abbess for what happened to these women after they left the protection of the abbey.’
‘Oh, but they were taken captive within the abbey,’ stated Fidelma. ‘And they will doubtless tell you so if it is necessary for them to give testimony.’
‘But it is impossible!’ gasped Sister Radegund, looking at Abbess Audofleda who was white faced and shocked, as though she could not believe what she was hearing.
‘Explain to your niece and her abbess how it is possible, Beretrude.’ Fidelma’s voice cut like ice across the gathering.
‘Slavery is not illegal!’ snapped Lady Beretrude, raising her head defiantly.
‘You claim that you have a right to take women and children captive and sell them?’
‘I am-’
‘We know who you are, Beretrude, and now we know what you are,’ snapped back Fidelma. ‘You have arranged this trade in slaves with Verbas of Peqini.’
‘I do not deny it. It is not against the law.’
‘I shall be the judge of that,’ interrupted Clotaire in a heavy voice.
‘How long have you known Verbas of Peqini?’ went on Fidelma.
‘He came as a trader to Nebirnum several weeks ago. He was going south to rejoin his ship to sail for eastern ports. I was in Nebirnum and persuaded him to return here to Autun to trade.’
‘To trade in slaves that you could supply him with. You had in mind the married women and children who were in the Domus Femini. Since Bishop Leodegar had segregated the abbey and forced those married religious to separate, to divorce their wives and reject their children, you felt that they would have no protection from the Church if they were abducted and sold. You knew that Abbess Audofleda, with her attitudes, would not protect them.’
Lady Beretrude was silent but she made no denial. It was Abbess Audofleda who protested once more.
‘I am innocent of this,’ she said again. ‘I did not know the women and their children had been abducted.’
‘Nor I, nor I,’ wailed Sister Radegund. ‘They left notes, they quitted the community in the night.’
‘But you were pleased to be rid of them and did not question where they had gone nor why,’ Fidelma said harshly. ‘You, Abbess Audofleda, had the responsibility for their well-being. They were all freeborn.’
‘I serve in the abbey under Bishop Leodegar,’ replied the abbess, desperately trying to shift the blame. ‘His is the ultimate authority.’
‘I declare that I had no knowledge of what was happening in the Domus Femini,’ Bishop Leodegar stated. ‘Anyway, I do not see that any crime has been committed here. Even if these women and their offspring were seized to be sold as slaves, their union with the religious is against our Rule and the communities of this abbey have accepted this. Their removal from the female community could be seen as a worthwhile work. It was a…a cleansing of the abbey.’
Fidelma glared at him, her face tight with anger.
Clotaire saw the muscles around her mouth working and intervened before she could speak, saying in a quiet tone: ‘Remember that it is not your place to utter judgement on the matter nor speak of morals to the bishop, Fidelma of Cashel. We will accept that the women were abducted from the Domus Femini and that it was Beretrude who entered into an agreement with Verbas of Peqini in this trade. The crime seems to lie in the fact that they were freeborn. I will also bear in mind, when it comes to the judgements that I shall give, that you, a distinguished guest, were also abducted.’
‘I am innocent of having knowledge or conspiring in this matter!’ wailed Abbess Audofleda.
Fidelma glanced at her without pity.
‘As a matter of fact, I believe you,’ she replied, to the surprise of everyone. ‘I even believe that Sister Radegund was not privy to the plot of her aunt. But I shall come to that matter in a moment.’
‘Indeed!’ snapped Bishop Leodegar. ‘This is time wasted on a matter unrelated to the killing of Abbot Dabhóc. It was that matter, and that matter only, which Sister Fidelma was supposed to investigate. Surely, Sire,’ he turned to Clotaire, ‘there is a limit to our patience?’
‘I will say when my patience is ended, Leodegar,’ replied the young King.
Fidelma ignored the intervention.
‘I thought I had made it clear that these matters were related?’ she said coldly. ‘And if the selling of the religieuse and their children, freeborn or not, as slaves is not a crime according to the laws of this land, then we will come to the reason why Beretrude was raising money by the selling of slaves. That reason was not merely for personal gain.’
Beretrude raised her head suddenly; the whiteness and strain in her features seemed to increase. There was utter silence now in the chapel. Clotaire bent eagerly forward in his chair, watching Fidelma expectantly while Ebroin had taken a step forward as if in anticipation.
‘Beretrude was raising money for an insurrection; a rising of the Burgunds against Clotaire and his Franks.’
There was an audible gasp. It echoed through the chapel.
Two of Clotaire’s warriors moved closer to Lord Guntram, hands on the hilts of their swords. The young Guntram was staring at his mother, his blue eyes wide, his mouth working but no sound would come.
‘Do you, Guntram, aspire to lead this revolt?’ breathed Ebroin. ‘The Burgunds would never follow a woman.’
‘It’s a lie!’ The cry was wrenched from the young man’s throat as Clotaire turned an accusing gaze upon him. ‘I have never conspired in such a plot! I swear it.’
‘Clotaire,’ Fidelma called, ‘Guntram is as you see him. A young man who spends his life drinking, hunting and pursuing women. He is not interested in leading revolts.’
‘Then who else could claim the allegiance of the Burgunds against us?’ demanded Ebroin. ‘The Burgunds would only follow a male heir of their former kings.’