Justice for the Damned

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Sayer lay in the monks' infirmary, his face pale and one arm bound to his chest.

"Does your shoulder hurt?" Bernard asked with frank concern.

"Brother Infirmarian pushed the bone back in quickly enough." Sayer's expression spoke more of indifference than any relief. "I am weak and may not move this arm. That is all."

"When we pulled you back onto the scaffolding, I wept for your pain." The glover wrung his hands and glanced over at the monk beside him. "Had Brother Thomas not been with me, you would have died. I did not have the strength to save you by myself."

"I should thank you both for that," the roofer said, "but I heal only to face the hangman. You should have let me fall to my death and saved the cost of a rope."

"You have killed no one," Brother Thomas replied.

"If I had not agreed to play a ghost to keep everyone inside at night so the vintner might steal the manuscript, my father would have lived. Although I did not strike the blow, I still murdered my father with my greed and wicked foolishness."

"God wants to forgive, and your actions tonight will do much to assuage the evil you have done in the past," Thomas replied, touching the binding around his head without thinking. He winced. "You did not know that my prioress had a plan to catch the guilty, yet you had already plotted to expose both killer and thief."

"Then only my hand will be cut off for my own part in attempting to steal the Psalter? I would rather kill myself than become a further burden to my mother."

Bernard gasped. "Your mother loves you as does Alys. Why make them suffer by committing that cruel and sinful act?"

"When the sheriff chops off the hand, I may die anyway. Satan will get a fine jester when he receives my soul."

"Justice will not be a secular one," Thomas said. "Your sheriff has proclaimed, in front of witnesses, that Church law rules in the matter of ghosts. Since you were the ghost, the priory will decide your punishment."

"Have I not profited from leading monks to sin? Did I not agree to help steal a holy work? Surely the Church would say that I am to blame for the death of my father and Brother Baeda, a most virtuous monk who joyfully shared the Psalter's sacred beauty with this wicked man." He turned his face away. "The Church will love me even less than King Henry's men."

"You conspired to catch Master Herbert in the theft and arranged for me to witness his confession of murder." Bernard folded his arms. "Does that not show repentance for any past sins?

"Repentance?" Sayer laughed. "I but wanted you and Alys to marry! Once the vintner's crimes were exposed and your courage in catching him out was told, my aunt would accept your suit."

"More is involved, I think," Thomas added.

"Consider the advantage to me if Bernard heard the vintner's confession. It absolves me of killing my father. When he was murdered on the path outside the priory, I suspected who had done it. Only Master Herbert knew about the toeholds I had gouged into the mortar when I finished repairing the wall for my father. When I confronted the man, he did admit the deed, claiming my sire had to die because he recognized him escaping from the priory after a monk cried out in fear."

"If he confessed, why did you not report it?"

"He reminded me that many had heard how my father and I quarreled and the threat I made in the heat of it to kill him. It would be easy to make sure I was arrested for my father's murder."

"A threat most did not believe you meant," Thomas added.

"Dear cousin, why do you continue to cover your soul with foulness? Admit your honest deeds."

Sayer raised an eyebrow. "Cousin? You should not stain your honor by adding me to your family."

"As Alys' beloved cousin, you are mine as well." Bernard raised his chin. "If you insist on confessing your evil deeds, at least add how you planned to trap the man."

"And failed to do so before a kind monk was killed." The roofer's mouth trembled. "Since the vintner had not asked my help in his first attempt to steal the Psalter, I should have known he did not trust me, or else had grown impatient with greed. Once again and without my knowledge, he climbed the wall and managed to slip into the library. Brother Baeda caught him and died. For that, I grieve."

Thomas shook his head. "Yet you came for the Psalter last night. How did you regain the man's trust?"

"I squirmed on my knees and beseeched him for coin, a longing he well understood. Since he had failed twice, I convinced him to let me try. I knew the building best, having reached the scaffolding to the roof from inside the library." Sayer shrugged, then winced with the pain. "When he agreed, I knew he would probably follow, hoping to kill me as soon as he could get the manuscript in hand."

"Surely the ghost could only be accused of so much violence before someone suspected a human hand. How dare he chance another corpse?"

"Queen Elfrida would be blamed for only two murders. Need I remind you how cleverly he disguised his wife's death, Brother? He was most confident, and, although I think his guilty soul may have really wanted hers to seem an accident, he would have had no scruples about making mine look like suicide."

"From guilt because you sold women's flesh? London would be bereft of whoremongers if men were so conscience-stricken."

"This is Amesbury, Brother. Some here would most certainly conclude I had killed myself over sins of the flesh." Sayer's smile was fleeting.

"Might no one have asked if his travel to Gascony was connected to the disappearance of the Psalter?"

"Why? The man was a respected merchant. Even honest men see only what they are led to believe if the telling is cunning enough. Consider how quickly all decided the verdict on Mistress Eda's death because a few were most persuasive."

Bernard slammed a fist into his other hand. "The theft would have been the perfect crime, had you not arranged for me to witness it." Horror washed over his face. "And you might have died if Brother Thomas had not been there! Surely you realized.

Sayer winked at the monk. "Mayhap I would not have fallen."

"Mayhap," Thomas replied, doubt coloring his voice.

"I have long wondered why Master Herbert claimed you had bedded his wife," Bernard said softly. "Surely there was no truth to that?"

"Never! I fear the reason for his wife's murder and that accusation are found in the same tale. As our monk here may not know, Alys grieved over Mistress Eda's painful illness. Knowing me to be a merry rogue, she asked that I spend an hour playing the fool to make the lady laugh. Instead, Eda burst into tears when she saw me. When I sought to comfort her, she confessed her sorrow. She had overheard her husband's proposal to me about the theft of the Psalter one night when we thought she was deep in sleep. Although she could not quite believe her husband would plan such a blasphemous act, she feared she was not mistaken. My heart broke, and I confirmed that what she had heard was true."

"Why had he planned the theft? Was he not wealthy enough?" Thomas asked.

"His show of wealth was false. Before her illness, she found proof that he had sold his vineyards. When she questioned him, he insisted she did not understand what she had seen, that he had sold but a portion to pay debts left by his father. Although the vintner could be most persuasive in his lies, she was suspicious and looked further, discovering that he had followed his father's example in acquiring debts beyond his ability to pay. Soon after, she fell ill and began to draw away from any interest in those worldly cares, although the blasphemy in stealing the Psalter deeply troubled her pious soul. Nonetheless, he feared her knowledge. When he overheard us talk about the Psalter, he decided she knew too much and killed her."

"That does not explain how he decided you had cuckolded him," Bernard replied.

Sayer snorted with contempt. "He knew that to be untrue. While I was holding his wife, attempting to stop her tears, the vintner came upon us. He flew into a feigned rage, swearing to expose us as adulterers."

"You could have countered the charge with the tale of the theft and repented of your agreement with him."

"With some, Brother, any accusation has the whiff of truth. Were either of us to speak of her discoveries or the theft, the vintner would have claimed we were trying to hide our sin with lies. Mistress Eda was an honest wife. I did not want her honor soiled on my account."

"Why would any man put horns on his own head? He himself told the tale of adultery to the woolmonger and I overheard it. Others must have as well," Bernard said.

"The sharpness of a cuckold's horns may be dulled by cleverness. First, he made sure my reputation grew darker by suggesting the adultery might have been rape. His pride, therefore, suffered a lesser wound. Next, he showed Christian charity by defending the soul of his dishonorable wife. Can you not hear the crowds exclaiming, 'What a noble man'? You see what a crafty teller of tales he was."

Bernard smiled. "You may paint yourself with the Devil's colors, Sayer, but he does not have your conscience."

"My selfishness has brought about two deaths. I will say nothing in my defense and shall go to my hanging without protest."

"What self-interest was involved in getting the vintner to confess in front of half the priory that Mistress Eda was innocent of both self-murder and adultery?" Thomas asked. "Nor did you have any reason to save my life. When Herbert wanted to finish the task of killing me in the library, you drew him away. You knew I was still alive."

Sayer said nothing.

Bernard sat on a stool next to the bed. "I beg you to admit the good you have done and save yourself. Like many, you have done no more than loan your soul to Satan."

"Let me be."

"Sayer needs the advice of a confessor, Master Bernard. Would you leave us?"

The glover blinked, then quickly rose. "I will be walking in the gardens outside."

Thomas took the vacant seat.

"Leave me in peace, monk. I have no longing for any priest."

"Your guilt over your father's death and that of the librarian troubles you deeply, but you have other reasons for wanting to join Satan in Hell."

Sayer put his uninjured hand lightly on the monk's knee. "Do you blame me?" he asked softly.

"Yes."

"I have no wish to take a vow of celibacy," Sayer replied. "I will continue to dance with the Devil."

"Dance with a wife. Beget children. Bring the joy of grandchildren to your mother."

"And thus God will forgive me?" Sayer's laugh was bitter.

Thomas nodded gravely.

"Yet the Church will surely condemn me for the theft…"

"Bernard will tell Sister Beatrice how you plotted to save the Psalter and expose a killer at the risk of your own life. I will swear that you saved my life and confirm the vintner's confession to the murder of both Brother Baeda and Wulfstan. Brother Infirmarian and several lay brothers heard Herbert confess to his wife's killing. Prioress Ida may even count it a blessing that you frightened vow-breaking monks back into their solitary beds."

"My father…"

"… was killed because Herbert grew greedy and tried to steal the Psalter without paying for your help."

"The librarian's death.

"…is on your conscience. His soul needs your prayers. I repeat: those are not your most troubling sins."

"For all my sins, monk, name my punishment."

"Marry, take on a man's responsibilities, and find joy in that."

Sayer drew back his hand. "Did you find your own answer in God's arms, Brother?"

Thomas closed his eyes and turned away.