The poisoned chalice srs-2

by Paul Doherty

  'I'm hungry,' I moaned, 'thirsty and tired.'

  Benjamin's smile faded. He came close and pushed his long face into mine. 'Roger, I tell you this: if we are not successful in these matters, we'll have more to worry about than meat or drink!'

  Well, you know me, put like that I had little choice. I re-saddled my horse and within the hour we'd slipped through a postern gate, following the path round the lee of the hill and down to the church of Maubisson village. Cure Ricard was not pleased to see us. The poor fellow had scarcely recovered from the fright of Vauban's visits. Oh, he invited us in, but only the sound of Benjamin's clinking purse made him a more genial host. His housekeeper served us bowls of pottage, liberally garnished with peppers and peas, and watery beer he must have made himself.

  'I suppose,' the yellow-skinned priest began, 'there's no crime in talking to people who patronise our church?' 'What do you mean?'

  'Well, the English envoys, Sir John Dacourt and Sir Robert Clinton, often came here to watch the Abbe Gerard celebrate Mass. They gave him gifts and the old priest liked to hear the gossip of the English court.'

  'Did they ever ask about His Majesty's book?'

  'You mean St Augustine's work On Chastity! No, they did not.'

  'But Vauban has?'

  'Well, yes,' Ricard stammered. 'He has, but I tell you, masters, it can't be found. I say again the same to you as I have to them. The Abbe Gerard claimed he would take it to heaven, that it would be with him in Paradise.'

  The priest looked nervously over his shoulder at the silent girl who crouched before the hearth as if carved from stone.

  'The abbe was like that,' he continued in a half-whisper. 'He was always making little jokes.'

  'What did the abbe do?' I asked curiously. 'I mean, he had the care of souls, the duties of this parish, but what was he interested in? After all,' I glanced slyly at the girl, 'everyone needs some respite from the tedium of life.'

  Ricard sniffed and pointed to huge copies of the Bible which lay chained to a heavy lectern in the far corner.

  'He studied scripture. He claims to have heard the lectures of Erasmus and Coelet. He was forever translating different passages from the Gospels.'

  'Was he a Lutheran?'

  'Of course not!' Ricard snorted. 'But he had his theories.'

  'About what?'

  'About miracles. He was fascinated by the miracles of Christ and speculated whether Jesus performed them because he was God or because he was a perfect man.'

  'May I have a look?' Benjamin asked and, without waiting for an answer, rose and went over to open the great Bible.

  'The New Testament,' Ricard called out. 'He was forever studying the New Testament.'

  Benjamin nodded and found the place easily enough; the pages were worn by many thumb prints. For a while he stood and studied the book in silence, then he smiled and waved me closer.

  'Look,' he whispered.

  Benjamin was studying a chapter from St Matthew's gospel, where Christ walked on the waters during the storm on Galilee Lake. Now, my master was a biblical scholar, hence his speed and dexterity in finding the place, but he'd been helped by the Abbe Gerard who'd carefully underlined each word and scribbled his own commentary in the margin. Benjamin peered at this and translated it for me.

  'Did Jesus really walk on water?' the abbe had written. 'Or did the sea of Galilee have shallows?' 'What does it mean?' I asked.

  Benjamin made a face. 'There are some scholars,' he whispered, turning his back so Ricard, who was craning his neck, couldn't hear him, 'who maintain that certain of the miracles in the New Testament can be explained by natural phenomena. Now Jesus walking on the waves is one of these: they claim the Sea of Galilee is very shallow and what the apostles thought was Christ walking on the waters was really Christ walking along some sand bank.'

  'Very interesting,' I answered. 'But do they explain how Jesus stilled the storm? And can you tell me, master, what this has got to do with our present problem?'

  Benjamin smiled and closed the Bible. 'Master Ricard, may we look at your carp pond again?'

  The cure waved his hand airily. 'You know where it is. By all means.'

  We went out. In the late afternoon sunshine the overgrown garden hummed with the buzz of hunting bees. Benjamin led me to the edge of the carp pond.

  'Isn't it strange?' he mused. 'Poor Giles Falconer was interested in birds and their flight and he falls from a tower. The Abbe Gerard was interested in miracles, particularly the one about Christ walking on the water, and he drowns. Waldegrave was keen on horses, and he is pounded to death by a horse's hooves. Do you see the connection, Roger?'

  'Not yet,' I snarled. 'But give me another decade and I will!'

  Benjamin nudged me gently. 'Come,' he said. 'Let's see the abbe's church. Perhaps that will yield a few secrets.'

  The cure was only too willing to show us around. The church was large and lonely, surrounded and shaded by great elms which dominated the cemetery, extending their majestic branches in benediction over the sleeping dead. The large, low porch was guarded by a Norman doorway, heavy and oaken and studded with nails. Ricard unlocked this and we followed him inside. Despite the sunshine it was gloomy and the cure had to light some of the sconce torches. We stood and gazed around. Heavy arches rose into the darkness and between them arrow-slit windows, without glass or horn, dazzled white in the sunlight. At the far end was the chancel where the windows were of rich glass; the sunlight illuminated their noble colouring and lit up the black oak of the altar and other sanctuary furniture. It was a simple church. The walls were unpainted; the rood screen, uncarved, was nothing more than a wooden panel. Ricard pointed out the church's two notable features: the stone, sculpted baptismal font and the ornately carved choir screen above our heads. Benjamin looked at everything carefully as if trying to search out the Abbe Gerard's hiding-place.

  'He can't have hidden his book here,' I said. 'This is scarcely Paradise.' I shivered. 'The place would frighten a ghost.'

  Benjamin smiled absent-mindedly and stared up at the choir loft.

  'A fine church,' he murmured. 'And the Abbe Gerard is buried where?'

  'I told you,' Ricard answered crossly. 'In the churchyard, under one of the yew trees.'

  We followed him back into the warm sunlight along the coffin wall and across the overgrown grass where a simple, white headstone, marked with the cross of Lorraine, stood next to a stunted yew tree. We studied the simple inscription. Benjamin made pleasant conversation, then prepared to leave. We shook Ricard's hand, collected our horses, and made what I thought was our way back to the chateau. Outside the village, however, Benjamin suddenly left the track, pushing his reluctant horse in amongst the trees.

  'Master, have you left your senses?' I called.

  Benjamin just waved me forward and I followed him into the forest darkness. God knows the place must not have changed in a thousand years. It was like entering some vast, green cathedral: trees stood like pillars and their rich foliage spanned out to hide the summer sun. Only when we entered a small glade, silent except for the bubbling of a brook which snaked through the green darkness, did Benjamin dismount and unhook the heavy saddle-bags he had swung across his horse's neck.

  'In sweet God's name!' I murmured, almost frightened to raise my voice and break the stillness. 'Have you lost your wits, master?'

  Benjamin stretched and gazed around.

  'I found this spot when you were in Paris,' he remarked. 'It's secluded, near the road, and there's water to drink.'

  'So?'

  'So, Roger, we stay here until darkness. Then we go back to Abbe Gerard's grave. The coffin won't be buried deep. We'll disinter it and see what secrets the grave reveals.'

  'Master, you're insane!' I yelped. 'This is France. Vauban's men are everywhere and the sentence for grave robbing is, I presume, the same as in England. Death by hanging!'

  'Tush, Roger, we won't be seen.'

  'And what are we supposed to use?' I shouted. 'Our h
ands and teeth?'

  Benjamin kicked one of the sacks.

  'There are small spades and mattocks here. They'll suffice.'

  Now my master was like that; once he'd decided on the course of action, and that long face became resolute and those soft eyes hard, there was no turning him. We would stay in that damned forest and dig up poor, bloody Abbe Gerard whatever the outcome. He'd brought some food, bread and fruit, and we drank from the brook as we waited for the sun to set. The hours seemed to drag by. Benjamin gave me a lecture on the different types of trees and plants around us until I nodded off to sleep.

  When I awoke, the sun was setting and Benjamin was staring at the bubbling waters of the brook and muttering something about men who walk on water. We both fell silent as the sun finally set and the forest became a different place; the silence became more oppressive, broken only by the rustling of animals in the undergrowth, the hoot of hunting owls and the blood-tingling screams of the bats which flitted amongst the trees. A hunter's moon rose, slipping in between the white wisps of clouds, bathing everything in a ghostly light. I sat and softly cursed those princes and prelates who had brought me to this haunted woodland to lurk like some animal whilst preparing to rob a grave.

  'It's wrong,' I piously announced.

  'No, it's not,' Benjamin replied. 'All sin, my dear Roger, lies in the will. I have nothing but the greatest respect and reverence for the Abbe Gerard but the king requires that book.'

  'Why?' I snapped. 'Why the bloody hell does the fat bastard want it?'

  'If I find it, I'll tell you,' Benjamin promised. 'Come, it's time we moved.'

  We tethered and hobbled our horses, removed the spades and mattocks from the sacks and crept back on to the track. Every step we took only increased my fear as the twigs cracked like thunder under our booted feet and the night birds screeched horribly at our unwarranted intrusion. We found the path back to the church, crept over the wall, and froze as we heard the howl of a dog. We checked the priest's house. No lights burned so we returned to the graveyard, following the line of the church, jumping and starting when birds nestling in the eaves stirred and rustled their wings. We crept across the cemetery and stopped as a heavy-feathered owl swooped low to seize its shrieking victim in the long grass. At last, we reached the abbe's headstone and I began to dig like some demented mole.

  'The sooner we finish our ghastly task,' I reasoned, 'the sooner I get back to my warm bed!'

  Now and again Benjamin struck a tinder to ensure all was going well. At last my shovel scraped the coffin lid. I pressed again and heard the welcoming thud of metal on wood.

  'We don't want it out,' Benjamin whispered.

  So we continued digging around, clearing the earth on either side of the long, oblong coffin. Then both Benjamin and I, one of us working each side, bent down and began releasing the wooden pegs which screeched like ghosts protesting at their eternal dream being disturbed. I quietly cursed. The sound seemed so strident I was sure they could hear it in Maubisson. The pegs were removed more quickly than I had expected.

  'Let's see,' Benjamin said. 'Let's see. I wonder…?'

  'What's the matter?' I asked.

  'Nothing,' he murmured. 'Lift the lid.'

  It came away easily and Benjamin's suspicions were confirmed. We were not the first ones to open this coffin. Despite the summer heat the soil had been loose, the coffin pegs easily removed. Inside, the decaying, garish skeleton was lying haphazardly; the head and neck, to which pieces of dried flesh still hung, were skewed to one side whilst the rotting, white gauze which had once covered the corpse had been pulled back and bundled at the bottom of the coffin.

  'Vauban,' Benjamin whispered. 'The bastard has been here before us.' He poked around in the coffin, softly exclaiming as his fingers touched rotting pieces of flesh. He tapped the bottom and sides. 'Nothing,' he concluded. 'But let us at least pay the abbe some last courtesy.'

  Despite my protests, Benjamin insisted that we rearrange the skeleton in a more reverent position and that we say the Requiem.

  Lord, I could have cursed! Here we were at the dead of night in a lonely cemetery in France, disturbing the remains of a dead priest, only to make sure his skeleton was comfortable and say a prayer for his soul. Yet my master was like that. I'll be honest: given half a chance I'd have left the grave as it was, jumped over the wall and run like a whippet back to Maubisson. Nonetheless, I helped. We re-sealed the coffin, ploughed the earth back in, flattening it carefully though anyone with half a brain could see it had been disturbed. We then left to collect our horses in the forest.

  Oh Lord, I was relieved to see them. We put our spades back in the sack, mounted, and were about to leave the forest when a twig cracked behind us. I froze like a statue.

  'Monsieur Daunbey! Monsieur Shallot!' the voice purred from the darkness around us. 'What a waste of time. You'll never find that book!'

  Chapter 10

  I just kicked my horse into a gallop, leaving Benjamin no choice but to follow. I tell you this, if that had been a race against the speediest horses in King Henry's stable, I would have won by a length and a half! I didn't rein in until my horse clattered over the wooden drawbridge of the chateau and I yelled at the guards to let us through. Of course, our dramatic arrival caused a little fuss but Benjamin smoothed things over with Dacourt and the captain of the guard. Then he hustled me up to our chamber.

  'Who was that?' I whispered hoarsely.

  I was squatting on my bed, wiping the sweat from my face and neck. Benjamin pushed a brimming cup of wine into my trembling hands.

  'Vauban, I suppose,' he answered. 'Though I didn't stay to find out. I suspect he has been watching us since we left here this afternoon.' He sat on a corner of the rickety table. 'I am tired, Roger,' he continued. 'I am tired of providing Monsieur Vauban with such amusement.'

  'Let's question Millet,' I demanded. 'Let's get the bastard down to the dungeons and apply a few hot irons!'

  Benjamin shook his head. 'What good would that do, Roger? If I was tortured I could confess to being Raphael, to murdering Falconer, Waldegrave and Throgmorton.

  Indeed, I'd confess to anything just to stop the pain.' He grinned sheepishly at me. 'No, Roger, as I sometimes say, three things will solve this. Observation, deduction and proof!'

  'And luck!' I intervened.

  'Yes, Roger,' he replied wearily, dropping his cloak and kicking off his boots. 'Luck or fortune.' He smiled brightly. 'And, of course, our opponents may make a mistake.'

  We spent the next two days considering possible culprits from every point on the compass, but could reach no conclusions. The Clintons? Why should they be traitors? Moreover, Falconer and Abbe Gerard had died whilst they were in England. Dacourt? Again, lack of motive, and the same applied to Peckle, leaving only Millet as a probability. On the whereabouts of Abbe Gerard's famous book we were like hapless gamblers who constantly drew a blank card, yet we still had confidence in our plans to steal King Francis's ring.

  The rest of the household at Maubisson now became involved in frenetic preparations for the French king's visit: rooms were swept, hangings cleaned, fresh rushes laid, whilst servants were sent out to buy supplies of flour, meat, sugar, salt, fresh casks of wine, and the chateau kitchens were thronged with sweating scullions gutting, preparing and roasting what the huntsmen brought in. Of course, Broussac arrived at Maubisson. I could have laughed like a jester: he turned up clean, well shaven, and dressed in the sober garb of a clerk – filched, I suppose, from some poor bastard who made the mistake of drinking in the same tavern as he. His companion was hooded and cloaked. She revealed herself only after Benjamin and I had hurried them up to our chamber. Now, I tell you this, if Broussac was a beast (and he was a veritable hog), his companion was Beauty in warm flesh. She was small, petite, like a miniature Venus. Her hair was silver, or was it gold? I forget now. But I know it shone, glittered in the candlelight of our room. Her figure was perfectly formed and her eyes were violet, or were they green? Good
Lord, my memory's slipping, but her mouth was made for kissing. She had skin like alabaster with a touch of rose in her cheeks and, when she smiled, she had all the merriment of the devil incarnate.

  'Messieurs,' Broussac grandly announced, 'may I introduce Mademoiselle…'he stuttered '… Beatrice. Yes, Beatrice de Cordeliere.'

  'Is that her real name?' I asked.

  'No, it isn't,' the girl replied in perfect English. Those beautiful eyes caught mine. In one glance I knew that I was looking at a kindred spirit, a Shallot in petticoats.

  'My name is my own concern,' she continued evenly. 'And, if you wish to question me, ask me directly. I am here at Monsieur Broussac's request, and because I will be well paid. But if I don't like what I see or hear, then I'll be gone within the hour.'

  Benjamin took the girl's hand, raised it to his lips and kissed it softly. 'Mademoiselle,' he apologised, 'we have been so long without such beautiful company that we forget our manners.' The subtle flatterer threw a sharp glance at me. 'So,' he continued, 'I shall tell you why we invited you here. But first, Monsieur Broussac,' a bag of silver suddenly appeared in my master's hand and disappeared just as quickly up Broussac's sleeve, 'we have no further need to delay you. You are a busy man and Roger will see you safely to the chateau gates.'

  Broussac took the hint, grinned wickedly at the girl and, with me trailing behind, we left the beauty with Benjamin as I hurriedly escorted the beast back to the chateau gates.

  'Where did you find such a woman?' I whispered.

  Broussac tapped the side of his fleshy nose. 'Ask no questions, Master Shallot, and you'll get no lies.'

  And, without a shake of his hand or a backward glance, the old rogue trotted off across the drawbridge. I ran like a greyhound back to our chamber, only pausing outside to regain my breath and resume my usual serene demeanour. Inside, Benjamin and Beatrice were seated on the edge of his bed, quietly conversing in Latin as if they had known each other for years.