Catastrophe in a Cloister

by Fiona Grace

  She scurried out of the pharmacy, shoving the paper bag as deeply into her purse as it would go.

  Then she trotted down the road toward where her car was parked, jumped in the passenger seat, and slung her purse onto the back seat beside Chester.

  “Right,” she said to Brother Benedict. “Let’s go. We’ve got a scepter to analyze.”

  As she turned on the ignition, she noticed Brother Benedict in the passenger seat glance over at her bag on the back seat. He was obviously curious about what was inside, and the purpose of Lacey’s detour to the pharmacy. But of course, he didn’t say a word. For the first time, Lacey was very grateful for his vow of silence. It was a relief to know he wouldn’t ask any prying questions.

  As she drove the final short distance to the store, Lacey made a decision. She’d take the test just as soon as she got a chance, but whatever the outcome, she’d wait until evening to speak to Tom about it. If it was negative, she could put the whole thing behind her and move on with her life without anyone being any the wiser. If it was positive, well, that would be a whole different kettle of fish. They’d need to have a conversation, a proper one, and neither her antiques store nor his patisserie would be an appropriate location to do it. So whatever the outcome, she’d have her scepter work to keep her nice and busy and occupied. For now she would just put it all out of her mind and get on with her work.

  She parked in her usual side alleyway.

  “My store is just around the corner,” she told Brother Benedict as they exited the vehicle.

  She leaned back in and collected her purse and the wooden crate containing the scepter. But as she emerged back onto the sidewalk, she became suddenly aware of a figure approaching. She swirled on the spot.

  It was Tom!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Lacey immediately felt flustered. Though the pregnancy test was zipped out of sight in her purse, it felt far too close for comfort, almost like she expected Tom to suddenly have X-ray vision and see inside. She awkwardly shifted her purse behind her arm in an attempt to conceal it.

  “Lacey,” Tom said, beaming as he jogged up to her. “How did your meeting go?”

  Lacey was relieved by the line of questioning and grasped hold of it. “Great,” she said, sounding perhaps a little too overenthusiastic. She held up the wooden box containing the scepter. “I have a very interesting project!”

  “And a monk…” Tom queried, frowning as he looked over to Brother Benedict standing patiently beside the car.

  “Oh yes,” Lacey chuckled. “And a monk! This is Brother Benedict. He’s come to oversee the work. He doesn’t speak. Brother Benedict, this is my fiancé, Tom.”

  “Hi, nice to meet you,” Tom said, offering his hand to shake.

  Brother Benedict smiled and bowed his head as he took Tom’s hand in both of his. It was less of a handshake and more of a gesture of blessing. Tom’s gaze darted quickly to Lacey, before Brother Benedict raised his head again and released his hand.

  They turned and headed toward the high street together.

  “Do you need a hand with that?” Tom asked, looking at Lacey as she fumbled with the big wooden box and her purse.

  “No, no,” she said, rapidly, moving her purse as far away from him as she could. “I’ve got it.”

  As they joined the flow of pedestrians and shoppers on the main street, Lacey couldn’t help but feel on edge about the pregnancy test in her purse, and the monk in a gown who was drawing several stares. With her nerves mounting, she mis-stepped and stumbled on a cobblestone. She staggered. Her purse swung off her shoulder and smacked into the wooden crate, which she almost dropped.

  “Let me,” Tom said, leaping to her rescue.

  He motioned for the crate, but Brother Benedict stepped forward and shook his head.

  “Oh,” Tom said. “I’m not allowed to touch it? I’m sorry.” He grabbed Lacey’s purse instead.

  Lacey managed to right herself and allowed Tom to maneuver the purse off her shoulder. Heat started rising in her cheeks and her heartbeat raced. It was just far too close for comfort!

  She clutched the wooden box and quickened her pace, marching as fast as she could. So fast, in fact, Tom had to hop-skip to keep up. Brother Benedict, her monastic escort, floated silently along behind her like some kind of specter.

  They reached the store and Lacey drew to an abrupt halt. At last she’d made it to the safety of her store, where she could put these worrisome thoughts out of her mind.

  “Here,” Tom said, holding up her purse. “Good luck!”

  Lacey’s heart skipped a beat. “Good luck?” she queried as she grabbed it. “What would I need good luck for?” She nervously giggled.

  “With the mysterious job, of course,” Tom replied, grinning.

  He leaned in to give her a kiss. But just as their lips met, Lacey spotted a very familiar figure walking along the sidewalk on the other side of the road. Dark brown skin. Tall and lithe. It was Emmanuel.

  Tom’s assistant spotted them right away. “Careful, Tom!” he called jovially across the road. “You don’t want to catch Lacey’s cold!”

  Lacey’s stomach plummeted. She’d been so close! Now she’d have to fib again. And this time in the presence of a man of God!

  Tom drew back from her and gazed at her with concern. “Are you getting sick?” he asked, worried, placing the back of his hand on her forehead as if feeling for a fever.

  “Maybe,” Lacey said rapidly, swiping his hand away awkwardly. “I don’t know. It’s just a headache. Probably stress. Don’t worry. Anyway…” She looked at Brother Benedict. “I don’t want to leave our guest standing out here in the cold. I’ll see you later!” She turned from Tom and opened the door, making the bell tinkle loudly. “Bye!” She hurried inside before Tom even had a chance to reply.

  Perhaps keeping the results of her pregnancy test from him all day wasn’t prudent after all. If she saw two pink lines, it would be far too much of a burden to bear. She’d have to wait until evening to take the test.

  “You’re alive!” Gina exclaimed, before Lacey was even halfway inside her store.

  Chester nudged past her legs and raced over to greet Boudica.

  Lacey stepped fully inside. “I told you nothing bad would happen.”

  But as she moved aside to allow Brother Benedict to enter in behind her, Gina jumped a mile.

  “A ghost!” Gina cried.

  “No, Gina,” Lacey said. “This is Brother Benedict. Abbot Weeks sent him to oversee the antique work they’d like me to do for them.”

  Gina stared at the monk nervously as he followed Lacey inside the store, his ever-placid expression plastered to his face.

  “Are you sure?” she queried. “He’s … floating.”

  Brother Benedict smiled at that.

  “He’s just very calm and tranquil,” Lacey replied. “Maybe you should take a leaf out of his book.” She addressed Brother Benedict. “Gina is our resident stress pot.”

  Again, he smiled.

  “Lacey,” Gina said. “I really think he might be a ghost. Why isn’t he saying anything?”

  Brother Benedict actually laughed aloud at that. Presumably expressions of joy were not forbidden during his ten-day silent prayer. Lacey was just glad he wasn’t offended by Gina’s rude questions, or the way she was speaking about him as if he wasn’t actually present.

  “He’s in the middle of a prayerful silence,” Lacey explained. “Ten days. And he’ll be spending most of his time in the back room with me while I work on this.” She gestured to the wooden box under her arm.

  “What is it?” Gina said.

  Lacey was about to explain when Brother Benedict gently laid a hand on her arm to stop her. She remembered Abbot Weeks’s instructions to keep the work a secret. She’d assumed it would be all right to explain it to her colleague, but evidently not.

  “Sorry,” she said to Gina. “It’s top secret.”

  Gina pouted. She hated to be left out of the loop. “Well,
fine. But don’t you go getting all obsessed with whatever it is and forget about your wedding. I know what you’re like. There’s still the itinerary to go through, and we have to make confirmation calls to all the vendors.”

  Lacey sighed. None of Gina’s tasks actually had to happen. It was all just extra work Gina had made up to fuss and stress over. And Lacey was supposed to be the obsessive one?

  “Gina, please relax,” Lacey said. “Everything will be fine.”

  Gina narrowed her eyes. “That monk’s rubbing off on you. Since when were you so Zen about everything?”

  Lacey gave her shoulder a small shrug and smiled at the calming presence of Brother Benedict. “I guess he is rubbing off on me,” she agreed. She gestured to the box under her arm. “Shall we?”

  Brother Benedict nodded, and they headed off to the small back office to begin work.

  Chester decided to come with Lacey, rather than guard the main store. He must have felt she needed supervising from the strange robed man. Which amused Lacey, since the strange robed man was supervising the scepter. It was like a very bizarre set of Russian dolls.

  “Please take a seat,” Lacey said to Brother Benedict, as she lowered herself in the office swivel chair and placed the wooden box on her desk.

  Brother Benedict looked at the spare chair, then shook his head, before moving to stand in the corner of the room just as he had done back in Abbot Weeks’s office. Clearly, the cheap plastic office chair was still too comfortable for his tastes, and despite how disconcerting it felt having him lurking in the corner, Lacey wasn’t going to question it.

  She got to work, opening up the lid of the box and marveling once again at the scepter inside. Then she put on medical gloves and fetched her loupe.

  As she peered at the scepter through the magnifying glass of the loupe, she noticed a phrase inscribed on it. But it was so dirty, she could only make out some of the letters. It didn’t seem to be in English. Latin perhaps.

  She began to carefully clean the scepter, working in gentle, minute movements to brush away the loose layers of dirt and dust. But even after her surface-level cleaning, the inscription was no clearer.

  Lacey didn’t feel comfortable doing a deeper clean just yet. She didn’t want to damage or scratch the scepter in the process.

  “Brother Benedict,” she said to the monk poised like a statue in the corner. “I’m going to need to contact a specialist. I know Abbot Weeks wants this to be a secret, but there’s no way I can do this without support. Should I call him first to discuss it, or can you approve it?”

  Brother Benedict smiled and nodded, and Lacey took that to mean he was okay with her reaching out to a specialist.

  She swirled in her chair to her computer and went online, tapping at her keyboard as she scoured the internet for some local religious scholars. She found a forum for an archaeological society, and found a scholar in the vicinity named Crispin Noble. Beneath an icon of the local Exeter College emblem, his bio line read: Professor of Archeology, Latin Geek, Proud Hufflepuff. She couldn’t help but chuckle at the Harry Potter reference.

  There were several icons next to the emblem: quotes marks, an envelope, an ear with a line through. She guessed the envelope would be the way to DM him, and clicked it. A bubble popped up on the screen with an accompanying noise.

  “Dear Professor Noble,” she typed, “I’m writing with regards to a scepter, possibly dating back to 1087. There appears to be a Latin inscription on it. I would love to arrange a meeting with you, perhaps here at my antiques store on Wilfordshire High Street? Please let me know asap, as this work is quite urgent.”

  She hit send and the bubble disappeared with a ding. Then she swirled in her chair to face Brother Benedict.

  “All done,” she said as she spun. “I’ve contacted a specialist. Let’s hope it’s not too long before they get back to me. I know you’re eager for this work to be done as quickly as possible.”

  But when she stopped turning to face Brother Benedict in the corner, she was surprised to see Chester had fallen asleep on his feet. Yet the monk had not moved a muscle or made a sound.

  “I’m so sorry!” Lacey exclaimed, hopping up from her chair. “Chester, boy, come on now, off the nice man’s feet.”

  Her canine companion grumbled as, pink-cheeked, she guided him to the space beneath her desk.

  *

  Knock-knock-knock.

  Lacey turned to face her office door.

  “Come in!” she called.

  As the door creaked open, she suddenly realized it would be Gina trying to snoop at the scepter, and quickly covered it with a sheet.

  “It’s home time,” Gina said, poking her head around the door. Her gaze roved over to the monk in the corner. She visibly shuddered.

  Surprised, Lacey looked over to the clock on the wall. It was already half past five. “Oh! Is that the time? I got totally distracted by my work.”

  “Are you coming?” Gina asked.

  “Actually,” Lacey said, thinking of the pregnancy test in her bag that she’d promised she’d take this evening, and suddenly wanting to avoid it, “there’s a bit more I want to get done here first.” She looked at Brother Benedict. “Would you like Gina to drive you to the Lodge?”

  Behind the door, Gina’s eyes widened, and she started vigorously shaking her head. Clearly she did not want to give a lift to the monk she suspected was in fact a ghost.

  Brother Benedict opened his hands toward the lumpy sheet concealing the scepter, and smiled serenely. Lacey took that to mean that as long as she was working on the scepter, he was happy to remain present.

  “I think we’re both going to stay here actually,” she said to Gina. “I can drive Brother Benedict to the Lodge once I’m finished.”

  By the expression on Gina’s face, this suggestion was even worse than her giving him a lift home herself.

  “How long are you planning on staying?” Gina asked with concern. “It’s already dark.”

  “Gina,” Lacey said with gentle warning. “Everything is fine. You head home, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Gina wrung her hands together, then finally nodded. “Okay, fine. I’ll leave you two to it.” She looked at Chester. “Goodnight, boy. No biting!” She chuckled as she looked up at Brother Benedict. “He might look nice but he has a very vicious side. I’ve seen him take down a grown man double your size. And he’s impossible to outrun.”

  Brother Benedict’s eyes widened.

  “Gina!” Lacey cried. “That’s enough now. He’s harmless,” she assured Brother Benedict.

  “Oh yes, harmless,” Gina replied leadingly. “Just as long as you’re a decent person with good intentions. Chester can sniff out a bad egg better than anyone. Just thought our friend here would like to know.” And with that, she turned on her heel and walked away.

  “I’m so sorry about her,” Lacey said, shaking her head. “She’s under a lot of stress.”

  Brother Benedict smiled. He appeared unfazed.

  Lacey turned back to the scepter and removed the sheet, eagerly getting back to work.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Lacey felt a gentle pressure on her back, a warm, almost comforting feeling. Then she suddenly jerked to sitting as her awareness returned to her. She was in her office, working on the scepter, and had just nodded to sleep in front of her guest! The warm pressure on her back had been Brother Benedict’s hand, gently bringing her back to the land of wakefulness.

  She coughed awkwardly into her fist and let out a nervous laugh. “I should probably take that as a sign that it’s time to finish for the day and lock up.” She quickly wiped the back of her hand across her mouth in case of drool. Luckily, that was one embarrassment she didn’t need to endure. Whether she’d snored during her brief moment of sleep she would never know—though if Tom’s teasing was true, then she certainly had. Heat warmed her cheeks.

  Brother Benedict gave her a kind smile, as if telling her there was no need for embarrassment.

&n
bsp; “Let me show you where the safe is,” Lacey said, rapidly, snatching up the crate.

  As she led Brother Benedict into the back room, Lacey couldn’t help but analyze what had just happened. It wasn’t like her to fall asleep at her desk. Could the fatigue be from stress, or was it another symptom of pregnancy? Her stomach flipped at what felt like yet another unwelcome puzzle piece falling into place.

  She crouched down at the safe, turning the dials of the lock and popping it open. Then she opened the door and placed the scepter inside, nestling it next to a beautiful sapphire necklace hanging from a hook. The necklace was part of Iris Archer’s estate, and was Lacey’s most precious keepsake, since it came from her very first auctioneering job.

  Lacey shut the thick door to the steel safe and put the padlock back on, turning the combination, as she always did, to 0000.

  “Are you happy with that?” she asked Brother Benedict as she straightened up. “With keeping the scepter in a locked safe, inside a locked store?”

  Brother Benedict smiled his agreement.

  Lacey led Brother Benedict and Chester out of the store and into the now frigid, dark evening. Lacey locked up the store, being extra cautious under the ever-watchful eyes of Brother Benedict, and then they walked the short distance to the side street where her car was parked. They got inside, and Lacey slung her purse into the backseat beside Chester, who was once again looking thoroughly displeased to be in the back seat rather than his usual spot up front.

  Lacey turned the ignition and pulled onto the road, driving up the cobblestone street.

  “My family is flying in tomorrow,” she told Brother Benedict as she turned at the pub onto the promenade road and joined the row of cars heading for the hillsides. “And I need to pick them up from the station. So I won’t be doing any work on the scepter until after lunch. I’m not sure what you want to do in that time.”

  Brother Benedict put his hands into prayer position.

  “You’ll pray?” Lacey translated.

  He nodded.