The Awful Secret

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The Awful Secret Page 20

by Bernard Knight


  As he spoke, de Wolfe studied him from close quarters. Whereas Gilbert had been a handsome, elegant man, this southern Frenchman was a blunt, tough fellow with a direct, almost pugnacious manner. A few years younger than John, he had a square face, dark brown hair and thick eyebrows. The upper part of his features was tanned but his chin and lips were pale where he had recently shaved off the obligatory Templar beard and moustache. De Wolfe suspected that he was far more enthusiastic about matters of faith than de Ridefort had been, perhaps even to the point of obsession.

  ‘They will kill us both if they can,’ he said finally, having finished his food and pushed aside the trencher to take up his pot of ale. ‘Now that Gilbert is silenced, I will be the next target. But I care not for them, this secret must be told, to dispel the myth that has plagued the world for a thousand years!’ An evangelical tone had crept into his voice, though he kept it low and accompanied his words with furtive glances about the room. There were only a few other customers in the Bush at that early hour, all locals whom de Wolfe recognised as tradesmen and merchants.

  ‘Are you going to tell us what this mystery is?’ he demanded. ‘De Ridefort seemed reluctant to divulge what was at issue – even though it seems to have cost him his life.’

  ‘I will indeed – and that very soon. But I want to do it in a way that cannot be smothered by the forces against me.’

  Though John frankly had little interest in whatever theological revelations these Templars wished to make, his clerk Thomas was hanging on every word. Crouched at the end of the table, his peaky face was fixed on de Blanchefort and his mouth was hanging open with expectation. ‘Does this concern the Cathars and the Albigensian diversion from the holy teachings?’ he squeaked, clutching his small cup of cider tightly as if to hang on to some remnant of security in the face of burgeoning heresy.

  ‘It is not unconnected, but compared with those beliefs, it is as massive as the Alps compared with a molehill,’ proclaimed de Blanchefort ominously. This sent Thomas into a paroxysm of crossing himself, as if to ward off the devil himself.

  ‘So why have you come to Devon – and what are you going to do now that you are here?’ enquired the ever-practical coroner, whose priority was still the discovery of Gilbert de Ridefort’s killer.

  ‘Like Gilbert, I come in flight, to escape the wrath of the established Church. I have no particular desire to be a martyr as I enjoy the only life I am likely to have. But if I need to die for the truth, as de Ridefort did, then so be it. We both sought to escape to a land more tolerant of revised beliefs, such as Scotland. He suggested that we made our way there from France, which is so dangerous for anyone who diverts from the rigid dictates of Rome.’

  ‘So why Devon? This is a backwater in the mainstream of Europe.’

  ‘Gilbert suggested it as a route to Scotland, perhaps via Ireland. To reach that northern land direct from France would be very hazardous with the full length of England between, containing many Templar Preceptories and endless Roman dioceses stretching the length of the country. And he remembered you for a fair-minded man and had heard that you were from Devonshire. Like him, I trust that you can see your way to helping me.’

  ‘What is it you want from me?’ asked de Wolfe, rather suspiciously. His attempts to help de Ridefort had ended in disaster and he was not keen to repeat the process.

  ‘I came here only with the intention of procuring assistance to journey onwards. I wanted to know how best to go about getting a passage from the many ports you have along these coasts, in an area where I fondly thought the long arm of the Order and the Inquisition would be unlikely to reach. But obviously I was wrong. Somehow, they must have discovered where Gilbert was heading, possibly by torturing some poor wretch in Paris to whom he had mentioned his destination.’

  De Wolfe’s great beak of a nose came closer to Bernardus’ face. ‘You put all those words in the past, as if you now have different desires?’ he rumbled.

  The former Templar shrugged. ‘I still wish to save my skin if I can – mainly to stay alive and active to help my message on its way. There are others of our Order still in France, and elsewhere, who are unhappy with the status quo, but they do not yet seem ready to come out into the open as Gilbert and I have done.’

  He stopped for a long sup at his ale pot, then continued. ‘But now that Gilbert de Ridefort is not with me, I am willing to risk proclaiming this secret to all who will hear it and be damned to the consequences,’ he declared harshly.

  ‘What do you mean by that?’ asked de Wolfe, apprehensive that this determined hothead was likely to make more trouble for the law officers of the county.

  ‘The time has come to stop skulking about the country with this knowledge. I intend proclaiming it as publicly as possible – and the best place to do so would be on the cathedral steps tomorrow morning!’

  Even Gwyn stopped in mid-swallow at this – and Thomas looked if he was going to faint. Of all of them, apart from Bernardus, the little ex-priest knew best the gravity of what the latter was proposing, if it had any connection at all with the heresy rampant in the Languedoc of southern France. Just as Gilbert had lectured Evelyn on the day of his death, Thomas knew of the rising concern of Rome against those who held gnostic views of Christianity and was aware of the increasing wrath of the ecclesiastical establishment against the Cathars and others in the French lands.

  ‘A sermon on the cathedral steps!’ barked de Wolfe, incredulously. ‘The bishop will have some views on that – or he would have, if he was in the city.’ He thought that the archdeacons and the other senior canons would more than compensate for the absence of Henry Marshal when it came to the prospect of a renegade monk preaching heresy from the West Front of the cathedral.

  ‘Who d’you think would come to listen to you?’ grunted the agnostic Gwyn.

  ‘I shall wait until the end of Nones, Terce and High Mass to catch the congregation as they come out of the building,’ said Bernardus, a joyful glee in his bright brown eyes that, in spite of his earlier protestations, suggested to John a willingness for martyrdom.

  ‘You wouldn’t last five minutes,’ he objected. ‘The canons would soon have the proctors on you.’

  ‘Five minutes would be all I need to sow the seeds of doubt – and maybe the ears of the cathedral priests would be more fertile soil than those of the common people.’

  De Wolfe was beginning to think that this man was mad, but the fact that Gilbert de Ridefort had had the same convictions – and de Blanchefort claimed that there were others still in France and even the Holy Land who agreed with them – weighed against this being some individual mental abberation. As he thought about de Blanchefort’s plan for a heretical sermon, it occurred to him that this might be a way to smoke out de Ridefort’s killers. If the former Templar tried to go ahead with this crazy idea, then similar means could be tried to silence him and the perpetrators might be unmasked.

  As the man began some earnest theological debate across the table with the apprehensive Thomas, the coroner weighed up the risk of getting him killed with the chances of identifying the killers. He decided that if the damned fool wanted to stick his head into a noose – or more likely get burned at the stake – then that was his affair, but to reduce the likelihood somewhat, it would help if his intention to preach heresy was bandied about in advance. Then the opposition might take action before de Blanchefort committed some fatal indiscretion.

  ‘You will be assured of a bigger audience if it is known about beforehand,’ he said, with wily insincerity. ‘We can put about the news quite readily. Thomas here is especially well placed to noise it abroad amongst the clergy and all those in the cathedral Close.’ He looked at Gwyn with a lop-sided grin. ‘And my officer here could broadcast it in almost every alehouse in Exeter, although maybe the patrons of taverns are not too concerned with new concepts of religion.’

  De Blanchefort accepted this advice with a readiness that almost made de Wolfe ashamed at his own duplicity, but he salved
his conscience with the thought that he might be saving the man’s life, if not his liberty, in ensuring that he would be arrested before he committed some ecclesiastical treason.

  Now de Wolfe changed the subject. ‘These three Templars you saw at St Bartholomew’s – do you know them?’

  ‘Godfrey Capra is a stranger to me,’ answered Bernardus. ‘But I certainly know the other two. Roland de Ver was prominent in the Paris headquarters until a year ago. I think he was sent to the new Temple in London to stiffen their sinews with the same discipline demanded by the Master in France. And Brian de Falaise is also known to me from Outremer, where I knew him for a courageous, if reckless warrior.’

  ‘They claimed to me to be in this part of England only to seek new estates for the Templars.’

  ‘I find that very hard to accept,’ said Bernardus scornfully. ‘That’s a task either for old members well past their fighting age – or, even more likely, for their sergeants. It is ludicrous to believe that three senior knights would be sent on such a mundane mission.’

  ‘And what of this Italian abbot? Do you know of him?’

  De Blanchefort banged his empty mug on the table and Edwin hurried to refill it from a large jug. ‘Cosimo of Modena? Yes, I know him – who in France does not? He is a creature of Rome, though based at a priory near Paris. He has a roving commission to spy out heresy, supposedly being a servant of Hugh, Bishop of Auxerre, and William of the White Hands, Archbishop of Reims, who have taken it upon themselves to root out any form of dissension against Catholic orthodoxy. But he is widely thought to answer only to Rome itself.’

  De Wolfe glanced at Thomas, who leeredback smugly, to confirm that this was what he had already discovered.

  ‘And who is the most dangerous of all these?’ persisted the coroner, doggedly seeking the likely killer of de Ridefort.

  ‘Cosimo is most poisonous of them all, though I doubt that physically he is dangerous. That is why he travels with those two retainers who can protect his skin from the thousands who would like to flay it from his miserable bones – and to carry out any mischief he orders.’

  ‘And the Templars?’

  ‘Most of our Order are honourable men, unaware of the great secret that the Poor Knights of Christ have guarded for three-quarters of a century. Only recently has there been some leakage of the truth that is beginning to unsettle the consciences of a few knights such as myself.’ He paused for a drink. ‘These three are probably blind adherents to the Rule, who will carry out any mission directed by the Masters of a country or Commanders of Houses. This Roland de Ver ranks as a Commander of Knights, a step higher in the hierarchy of the Order, which again makes it ridiculous to think that he is on a mission to buy land.’

  A distant bell tolled from the cathedral and de Wolfe downed the last of his ale and rose to his feet. ‘If you are set on this rash sermon of yours, you have a day to prepare, but I suggest you keep out of sight in the city, as did Gilbert de Ridefort when he was here. You could stay at this inn – it is far better than the Saracen.’

  De Blanchefort looked around the big ale-room of the Bush, but shook his head. ‘I agree it is superior, but my horse is in their stable and my saddle bags in their loft. Also, I think it may be a less obvious place to find me, as I understand this is well known as the best inn in Exeter.’

  Nesta beamed at this compliment, even though it meant that she lost a few pence in trade.

  John murmured to her as they left, ‘Get Edwin and the maids to put it about that there will be a revelation on the cathedral steps after the morning services tomorrow – I want the news to get around.’

  The Saracen tavern was only a few yards away, on Stepcote Hill leading down to the river. At the end of Idle Lane, de Wolfe waited until he saw the figure of Bernardus reach the door safely, his floppy hat pulled well down over his face.

  Then he gave instructions to Gwyn, and especially Thomas, to spend the rest of the day advertising de Blanchefort’s proposed sermon, before walking back to his own house. He considered telling his friend the archdeacon of the man’s intentions, but could not bring himself to commit such obvious treachery against him, even though it might conceivably save his life.

  However, when he arrived home he did tell Matilda. He found her in a subdued mood after the funeral and had no idea how she would take the news that yet another heretic had arrived in town. She listened in silence from her usual cowled chair by the hearth.

  ‘Sir Gilbert told us he was coming,’ she said, in a dull monotone. ‘Is he to suffer the same fate?’

  When de Wolfe described how the new arrival intended to give a public declaration of the Templars’ awful secret, she roused herself from her apathy and became increasingly incensed. ‘Though I thought so highly of Gilbert de Ridefort, I have to accept now that it was God’s will that caused him to be struck down for his blasphemous thoughts – but at least he kept them to himself. Now this other man comes, full of the devil’s intentions. What is the world coming to, John? Is the anti-Christ now on earth and are we soon to witness Armageddon?’ Her voice rose stridently as her anger gathered pace. Her infatuation with Gilbert seemed to have died with him. As usual, she turned her sharp tongue in the direction of her husband. ‘You have been an instrument in this, John,’ she chided, leaning forward in her chair to bristle at him. ‘You should have sent de Ridefort packing from the county as soon as you realised that he was possessed of such heresy. The devil must have been within him, too, to make me feel warmly towards him, when all the time he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.’

  De Wolfe failed to follow her logic but wisely kept silent as she continued to vent her spleen on him. ‘And as for this new intruder, you should denounce him to the Church at once – and to my brother. He should be arrested and turned over to those who can close his blasphemous mouth.’

  Her husband thought that Matilda would make the perfect candidate for leading the Inquisition in the west of England, but again kept his peace and instead went along with her mood. ‘That’s just what I am doing, in a way,’ he said artfully. ‘I am deliberately spreading the news of his intended revelations so that by the morning the cathedral authorities will know of his intentions. If they take him at all seriously, they will prevent him from speaking – and, no doubt, either these Templars or that abbot from the Inquisition will persuade him to leave the city. But neither your brother nor I has any jurisdiction over him. He is intending to commit no secular offence.’

  Matilda was far from mollified. ‘He should be hanged, John. If anyone speaks against your precious king, you are outraged and instantly cry, “Traitor,” but you seem unconcerned with this greater treachery against our Heavenly King!’

  He bit back his desire to argue with her about the different jurisdictions of the ecclesiastical and civil powers: when it came to matters of faith, Matilda’s arguments were based mainly on the loudness of her voice and her conviction of the infallibility of the priesthood and the Gospels. ‘Well, I’ve done what I can in the matter. I’m the coroner, not the bishop. It’s really none of my business – except that the killer of de Ridefort remains my concern, in spite of Richard’s warning for me not to get involved.’

  Matilda became morose and uncommunicative again, which John found more unnerving than when she was ranting at him. After a while, the silence became oppressive and he left for his chamber in Rougemont, with the excuse that he must make arrangements for his journey to Barnstaple in little over a day. That fanned the smouldering embers of her bad temper into flames again, as she upbraided him for leaving her alone for so long: the expedition to Lundy would take at least five days. The only factor in his favour this time was that the foray had been suggested and organised by her own brother, which de Wolfe was at pains to point out when he retaliated to her complaints about the endless neglect he showed her.

  With a sigh of relief, he stalked out of the hall, grabbing his grey cloak to ward off the thin drizzle that was again falling on the city.

  CHAPTER
TWELVE

  In which Crowner John witnesses an arrest

  John de Wolfe spent a quiet couple of hours in his small, bleak room at the top of the gatehouse. Even the damp cold of the unheated chamber was preferable to the frigid company of his wife. He used the time to practise his reading of Latin, running a finger slowly along the lines of Thomas’s perfect penmanship and forming the words silently with his lips.

  The text was on the rolls that his clerk had written for current cases, pale cream parchment stitched together in long lengths, which would be presented to the king’s justices when they eventually came to Exeter for the next Eyre of Assize. They were long overdue, but rumour had it that they were in Dorchester and might perambulate as far as Devon in the next month or two to hear any civil disputes and serious cases of crime that de Wolfe had managed to wrest from the sheriff’s Shire Court.

  John’s ability to read the rolls was improving weekly, and now he stumbled through a recent case of rape to refresh his memory. The woman, a young widow, claimed to have been waylaid in the backyard of her own house in Goldsmith Street. She had been allegedly beaten and ravished, and had produced a bloodstained rag, the almost obligatory evidence required to substantiate such a charge. Certainly when examined by de Wolfe, she had had bruised cheeks and arms, a black eye and a couple of loose teeth. There was no doubt about the assailant, a local carter who had been living with her for some months. The bailiff to the burgesses and one of his constables were called by the woman and her sister, who had raised the hue and cry, though in fact the man needed no chasing, as he was sitting in the house drinking ale when the bailiff arrived. On the accusation of the two women, the carter was arrested on the spot and dragged away to the gaol in the tower of the South Gate. If de Wolfe had not been notified by the bailiff, the carter would then have been hauled off to the sheriff’s fortnightly court and would most likely have been hanged, even though he loudly insisted that all he had done was give the widow a thrashing because she had stolen some money from his pouch when he was sleeping. As for the coupling, he claimed that that had been at least a daily event and had been enthusiastically received!

 

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