'As well as the death of the commissioner I now have to investigate the death of a young girl.' I told him whose body was found in the pond. 'Your name was given, among others, as one who had behaved improperly towards her.'
He sat down at the desk, bowing his head so I could not see his face. 'Celibacy is hard,' he said quietly. 'D-do not think I relish the urges that come over me, as some do. I hate these d-devilish passions. They tear down the edifice of a holy life it takes such labour to build. Yes, sir, I w-wanted the girl. It is as w-well I am a timid man: each time she gave me harsh words I went away. But I would come back. She seemed to tempt me just as the lust for glory tempts men to war.'
'She tempted you?'
'She could not do otherwise. She was a woman, and what are women on earth for if not to tempt men?' He took a deep breath. 'D-did she kill herself?'
'No. Her neck was broken.'
He shook his head. 'Sh-she should n-never have been allowed here. Women are the D-Devil's instruments.'
'Brother Edwig,' I said quietly. 'You may call yourself timid, but I think perhaps you are the hardest man here. And now I will leave you, you will have figuring to do.'
===OO=OOO=OO===
I stood outside on the landing, collecting my thoughts. I had been certain Gabriel was the murderer and had killed in hot passion. But if the book I had found was the same one Singleton had uncovered then Brother Edwig had a clear motive for my predecessor's death. Yet Singleton had been killed in a passion, and I could see no passion in the bursar save for figuring and money, though a fraud he almost certainly was. And he had not been at Scarnsea that night.
As I turned to the stairs, a light on the marsh caught my attention. I made out two yellow flickers, far out on the mire they seemed. I remembered reflecting there would be half a chestful of gold in those land sales, and that Brother Edwig had come upon me the day I went out on the marsh. And if one wanted to move gold, who better to turn to than professional smugglers? I caught my breath and hurried back to the infirmary.
===OO=OOO=OO===
Alice was seated in the prior's kitchen, cutting the roots from some herb. She looked at me with sharp hostility for a second, then forced her features into a smile.
'Preparing one of Brother Guy's potions?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Is Master Mark returned?'
'In your room, sir.'
The hostility in her aloof courtesy saddened me. Mark, then, had told her what I had said to him.
'I have been at the counting house. I saw lights out on the marsh from an upper window. I wondered whether the smugglers may be busy again.'
'I do not know, sir.'
'You told Master Mark you would show us the trackways.'
'Yes, sir.' Her voice was wary.
'I would be interested to see them. I wonder if you would take me tomorrow.'
She hesitated. 'I have duties for Brother Guy, sir.'
'If I were to speak to him?'
'As you instruct.'
'And — there are one or two matters I would like to talk to you about, Alice. I would be your friend, you know.'
She looked away. 'If Brother Guy says I should accompany you, then of course I will.'
'Then I will ask him,' I replied in a tone as cold as hers. I felt hurt and angry as I went along the corridor to our room, where Mark stood looking gloomily out of the window.
'I have asked Alice to show me the paths through the marsh,' I said without preliminary. 'I saw lights there just now. I see from her manner you have told her what I said about leaving her alone.'
'I have told her you think it unseemly that we associate.'
I took off my coat and flung myself into the chair. 'So it is,' I said. 'Have you given the abbot my orders?'
'Commissioner Singleton's grave will be cleaned tomorrow and then the pond drained.'
'I would like you there. I will go out on the marsh with Alice alone. And before you say something you might regret, I have asked her to do this because I think those smugglers may matter to our enquiry after all. And then I am going to the town, to see Copynger.' I told him what I had found in Brother Edwig's office.
'I wish I were among ordinary people again,' he said, avoiding my eye. 'Everywhere you turn here you seem to find a rogue or a thief.'