While Bishop Gynewell questioned de Wetherset about his preliminary conclusions on the six chalices – the ex-Chancellor had managed to eliminate two – Bartholomew and Michael left the priory. They had taken no more than a few steps towards the city when Bartholomew saw Sabina Herl kneeling by the Eleanor Cross, opposite the Gilbertines’ main gate. It was a cold place to pray, and he supposed it was some sort of penance. Michael went to find out.
‘Your prayerfulness does you credit, madam,’ he said softly, ‘but beware of telling lies to God. He is no bumbling monk, to be deceived by claims of false repentance.’
She gazed at him. ‘I do not know what you are talking about.’
‘Then let me enlighten you. You said you had broken away from Miller, but you leapt at the opportunity to tend Chapman. You are no more a good Christian woman than I am.’
Her expression was rueful. ‘What Langar said was right, although I would never admit it to him: I have been associated with the Commonalty too long, so I am considered a viable target by the Guild. Thus I do need Miller’s protection, and I intend to have it until the current crisis is over. And then I shall continue with my fresh start.’
Michael frowned. ‘And you have elected to atone for past sins because … ?’
‘Because of Shirlok, Brother,’ said Bartholomew. He watched the surprise on her face that he should know. ‘I suspect she was uncomfortable with what happened in Cambridge twenty years ago, but she put it behind her, as did everyone else. Then, a month ago, Shirlok appeared in Lincoln – alive.’
She lowered her head. ‘It was a terrible shock. Unlike Langar, Chapman and Miller, I did not hear the rumours about his miraculous resurrection. I thought he was a ghost, come to haunt me, but he was flesh and blood, and he was demanding reparation. We had let him take sole blame for the crimes we all committed, and he wanted us to make it right.’
‘How did he know you were here?’ asked Michael.
‘He fled to Essex after his trial, where he eventually settled. Then his family died in the plague and he took to wandering; by chance, his travels brought him here. He wanted to be paid for not telling his side of the story to the city where his co-accused are now fine, upstanding citizens.’
‘Did Miller kill him?’ asked Bartholomew, not pointing out that no one would be overly shocked to learn the Commonalty had criminal pasts.
‘I learned yesterday that it was Bunoun. He was one of the ten people Shirlok named, and he had more to lose from Shirlok’s blabbering than the rest of us. Who will hire a surgeon with a dubious ethical history? Anyway, suffice to say that Shirlok died with a noose around his neck.’
‘Bunoun?’ asked Bartholomew in astonishment. ‘But de Wetherset said that, of the ten accused, two had died in prison, and two were taken by fever … ’
‘That is what Miller tells everyone. I suppose de Wetherset believed him, although Father Simon did not die in prison, and Bunoun did not die of a falling pox.’
‘And Shirlok is why you broke with the Commonalty?’ asked Michael.
She gave him a pained smile. ‘I was always uncomfortable with Miller’s activities, but when I met Shirlok a month ago, and I heard what he intended to do, I decided to distance myself from them. Then Lora told me – just yesterday, when I was tending Chapman – that Shirlok was no longer a problem.’
‘That is partly true,’ said Bartholomew, ‘but your good intentions coincide with the reappearance of the Hugh Chalice, which was irrelevant to you, but very important to someone else: Aylmer. The cup’s return, along with Suttone’s unexpected invitation to be his Vicar Choral, made him rethink his life. He decided to revert to the cleric he once was, and you saw he would never be with you.’
‘I was married to Nicholas. I could not have been with him anyway.’
‘Your marriage to Nicholas was a sham, because his real love was Langar,’ said Bartholomew. ‘Perhaps you married Nicholas to shock Aylmer into taking you more seriously, but found yourself trapped when it did not work. Then, when the chalice reappeared and Aylmer began to collaborate with his fraternity to see it in the cathedral, you saw it was finally time to give up on him.’
‘All right,’ she agreed cautiously. ‘That is true. So what?’
‘Were you really caught kissing him behind the stables?’ Michael answered his own question. ‘No. Your “penance” was an excuse to be inside the Gilbertine Priory, near Aylmer. You were eager to know what had happened to the man you loved – and I do not mean your husband.’
She gazed at the ground. ‘Yes, I wanted answers. Aylmer’s rebirth was genuine, and I never believed he was trying to steal the Hugh Chalice when some vile killer stabbed him in the back. And although Nicholas and I were not man and wife in the proper sense, we were friends; I do not want him buried in unconsecrated ground without good reason.’
‘Again, that is partly true,’ said Bartholomew. ‘There is also the fact that anything you learn about Nicholas’s death will annoy Langar.’
