Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne Read Free Book Online

hard to understand.’
    Étain sighed.
    ‘He is a young man, but one who leads the Rome faction here in Northumbria. I believe he is the son of some noble. By all accounts he has a sharp temper. He has been to Rome and Canterbury and was taken into the faith by Agilbert, who ordained him as a priest. He was given the monastery of Ripon by the petty king of the area, who threw out two of our own brethren, Eata and Cuthbert, who were joint abbots there. This Wilfred seems to be our fiercest enemy, a passionate advocate of the Roman liturgy. Alas, I fear we have many enemies here.’
    Sister Fidelma found herself suddenly visualising the face of the young Saxon monk whom she had just bumped into.
    ‘Yet surely not all those who support Rome are our enemies?’
    The abbess smiled meditatively.

    ‘Maybe you are right, Fidelma. And maybe I am simply nervous after all.’
    ‘A lot depends on your opening arguments tomorrow,’ agreed Fidelma.
    ‘There is something more, though—’ Étain was hesitant.
    Fidelma waited patiently, watching the expression on the abbess’s face. It seemed that Étain found it difficult to formulate what she had in mind.
    ‘Fidelma,’ she said with a sudden rush, ‘I am disposed to take a husband.’
    Fidelma’s eyes widened but she said nothing. Clergy, even bishops, took spouses; even the religious of houses, whether mixed or not, could have wives and husbands, under Brehon law and custom. But the position of an abbot and abbess was in a different category for they were usually bound to celibacy. Such was the rule at Kildare. It was the Irish custom that the coarb, or successor to the founder of an abbey, should always be chosen in the kindred of the founder. Since abbots and abbesses were not expected to have direct issue, the successor was chosen from a collateral branch. But if, in the collateral branches, no religious was found fit to be elected to such a position, then a secular member of the family of the coarb was elected as lay abbot or abbess. Étain claimed relation to the family of Brigit of Kildare.
    ‘It would mean giving up Kildare and returning to being an ordinary religieuse,’ Fidelma pointed out eventually when Étain made no further comment.
    Étain nodded. ‘I have thought of this long and hard on my journey here. To cohabit with a stranger will be difficult, especially after one has been alone for so long. Yet when I arrived here, I realised that my mind was made up. I have
exchanged the traditional betrothal gifts. The matter is now decided.’
    Instinctively Fidelma reached out a hand, caught Étain’s slim one and squeezed it.
    ‘Then I am happy for you, Étain; happy in your certainty. Who is your stranger?’
    Étain smiled shyly.
    ‘If I felt able to tell only one person, it would be you, Fidelma. But I feel that it should be my secret, and his, until after this debate. When this great assembly is over, then you shall know, for I will announce my resignation from Kildare.’
    They were distracted by a growing noise of shouting from beyond the window of the cubiculum.
    ‘What on earth is that?’ demanded Sister Fidelma, frowning at the raucous tones. ‘There seems some sort of scuffle taking place beneath the abbey wall.’
    Abbess Étain sighed.
    ‘I have seen so many scuffles between our religious and the brethren of Rome since I came here. I presume it is another such. Grown men resorting to personal insults and punches simply because they disagree with each other over the interpretation of the Word of God. It is sad that men, and women, of the cloth become as spiteful children when they cannot agree.’
    Sister Fidelma went to the window and leant forward.
    A little way off a beggar was surrounded by a crowd of people, mostly peasants so far as she could tell from their dress, although a few wore the brown habit of the brethren. They seemed to be taunting and deriding a poorly dressed man, presumably a beggar from his clothes, whose voice was raised in