Corpus Christi Day by Joyce Lionarons

Author:Joyce Lionarons [Lionarons, Joyce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-11T21:00:00+00:00

The stonemason wiped the sweat and dust from his eyes with the back of his hand and looked across the yard on the right side of the Minster nave, then looked a second time. The unfinished Saint Peter was uncovered, and it had changed. He rose and approached the partially carved slab of marble. Satan’s teeth! Someone had been working on the statue even though the Archdeacon had not yet announced who would be designated to finish the carving. He stepped closer and crossed himself, his eyes widening in horror. Twas as if twere Nyle’s own work – the angle of the chisel, the strokes first tentative, then gaining in confidence. A cold shiver went up his spine. Nay, twas impossible. Nyle could not come back from the dead to carve the Saint Peter.

But someone was carving the statue. Were the new work to continue, in a few more days twould be ruined beyond redemption. Saint Peter’s cathedral would be forever marred by an ethereal, overly-spiritual rendition of its patron saint that lacked any sense that this man was the foundation stone of all Christianity. Twas the nearest thing to blasphemy the stonemason could think of.

And in the meantime he was left working on a leaf-and-stem limestone cornice that would be placed at the top of the wall where none but those with the sharpest eyesight could see it, mere apprentice-work if that, but it must be done. Twas the lad Marcus’s task, not his, but Marcus had been so shaken by Nyle’s murder that he could not hold his chisel steady and had been put to work polishing the finished products of the other masons.

His hands moved over the new carving and he shook his head in disbelief. He had visited the Archdeacon to ask about the fate of the unfinished statue, but Godfrey had dismissed him without an answer. Now someone else had taken the matter quite literally into his own hands. As he examined the stonework a second time, he pushed his initial reaction that twas somehow Nyle himself from his mind. Aye, he knew who twas, there could be no doubt, for no other mason on the site had such skill. Why had the Coroner not had the man apprehended for Nyle’s murder yet? He had left a trail of evidence plain as day for the authorities to follow. Was Cordwainer so stupid he had not yet discovered where the dagger hilt had come from?

Twould be up to him to stop the intruding mason from carving further. May God forgive him, he had at least tried to accomplish his aim without another killing. Twas as if the Archdeacon and Coroner were forcing him to kill again to prove his right to the Saint Peter.

Once again he vowed that he would carve the statue, not for himself, but for the greater glory of God and His saint. The killing, he reminded himself, must not be done in anger, but as an act of homage to the saint himself.

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