A Psalm for Falconer by Ian Morson

Author:Ian Morson [Morson, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Ostara Publishing
Published: 2012-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

When Ralph Westerdale returned to the chapel, he was a little surprised to find the Oxford master still there. He had imagined that his insatiable curiosity would have driven him to sneak a look at Brother Adam's room. But here he was, sitting quietly by the side of the body as though maintaining a vigil. Fortunately a cloth had been drawn over the battered head, or Ralph would not have been able to approach. When he told Falconer that the prior had given permission for him to enter the camerarius's room, he was once again surprised by the master's response.

‘What? Oh, never mind that now. We have a much older mystery to solve, and I am convinced it has to do with the losses from your library.’ He took Ralph Westerdale by the shoulder, and propelled him out of the church. ‘Come, let's see what's missing from your catalogue.’

The monk, who had thought Falconer distracted from this task, reluctantly allowed himself to be guided round the perimeter of the cloister to his room. Falconer did not even give Lutt's chamber a glance as they passed the dorter stairs. Ralph fumbled with the key to his room, and dropped it on the floor. Falconer merely furnished him with an amused look, stooped and, inserting the key in the lock himself, turned it. The room still stood as it had done when they left it to attend Mass. So much had happened in the short interval that the monk could almost have convinced himself that the return of all the books had never taken place. But the piles of musty leather-bound texts on his table were all too real. It now remained to tally the books here and in the book presses with the catalogue to see what was missing.

Falconer sat at the table and pulled the big ledger towards him. He motioned the monk, who still hovered in the doorway, to go to the books. ‘If you read off the title and its catalogue number, I will find it and mark it down as not missing. Is that all right?’

Ralph nodded dumbly and watched as Falconer drew a fresh quill from the pot on the desk. Then, with trepidation, he picked up the first book and read out its title. ‘The Life of St Milburga. Item number seventy-three.’

Ann Segrim was finding it extremely difficult to talk to the rest of the nuns who made up Sister Eleanor's small household on the north range of the cloister. Besides the fearful Gilda, there were five others. But whenever Ann tried to talk to them as they went about their daily tasks, her footsteps were dogged by the persistent and ancient Sister Hildegard. Her sour, wrinkled face silently reprimanded each sister as she opened her mouth to speak to Ann. With Sister Mary, it was near the fishponds. Ann had just asked the young nun if she knew Eleanor's family when Hildegard popped up out of nowhere and shook her head in censure. Mary scowled, but lowered her eyes, and tightened her lips.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.