something, but silence had to be kept between the washing of hands and the blessing over the meal, so he was forced to bite his tongue until Isaac had finished mumbling the prayer. Then he burst out, ‘But what if Aaron’s been murdered, too?’
Isaac glanced uneasily at his sister. ‘We’ve no proof that Nathan is dead. Judith was probably mistaken in what she saw. It’s very dark in the study chamber.’
‘I know exactly what I saw,’ Judith blurted out furiously. ‘I’m not a child.’
Benedict held up his hands. ‘We believe you, don’t we, Isaac?’ he said, kicking his friend hard under the table. ‘The point is,’ he continued hastily, ‘both Nathan and Aaron have vanished. What if they were both killed in that room and the murderer had time only to move one of the bodies before Judith arrived?’
Isaac pushed his bowl aside. ‘Look, just suppose that my sister is right and Nathan has been killed. Then the murderer would have to be the same bastard who killed Jacob, but he’d not have been able to take the two of them. Aaron never left the house without a knife. No, most likely when Aaron got home, his father blistered his ears over that business on Erev Shavuoth and Aaron stormed off. He’s just lying low somewhere until the old man calms down.’
Benedict shook his head. ‘I spoke to Rabbi Elias and he said he hadn’t seen Aaron since he told him to go home that night. Anyone can tell he’s worried sick about his son.’
Judith nodded and turned to her brother. ‘If you’re so sure that Aaron isn’t dead, then he must have run off for some other reason, and why would he do that unless he’d killed Nathan?’
Isaac sprang to his feet. ‘No, if Nathan is dead then this is the work of the Christians.’
‘And what would Christians want with a stone?’ Benedict asked quietly. ‘The stone is missing — or have you forgotten?’
‘The stone is here,’ a shaky voice whispered from the doorway.
All three of them turned around. Aaron was standing in the low doorway, one hand clinging to the door frame as if he feared he would fall if he didn’t hold on to something. His face was pale, a dark bruise stained his cheek and one of the seams of his cloak had been ripped open, but in his right hand he held the sacred stone. Judith knew she should go to help him, but she couldn’t move.
‘I killed him,’ Aaron said, almost in wonder. ‘I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t let him take it… you understand that. He was a traitor, a blasphemer. I couldn’t let him take this stone from us, too. You would have done the same, wouldn’t you, Isaac? Benedict?’ he begged desperately.
He staggered forward and would have fallen had Benedict not caught him in his arms and lowered him gently on to the bench.
Judith hurried across the room to the flagon of wine they kept for the Shabbat meal on Friday evening and swiftly returned with a large measure. Benedict gently prised the stone from Aaron’s fingers and laid it on the table before clasping the man’s stiff fingers around the beaker of wine. Aaron stared at it as if he couldn’t understand what he was holding, then he lifted it and drank so fast Benedict had to pull it away from him to stop him choking.
Isaac opened his mouth as if he was going to speak, but no words came out.
Judith could contain herself no longer. ‘What did Nathan do to betray us? He couldn’t, not Nathan. He was such a gentle, honest man.’
Aaron turned to her, his gaze unfocused. ‘What do you mean, Nathan? Nathan’s a bloody fool at times, but he’s no traitor.’
‘But you said you killed him.’
Aaron buried his head in his hands. ‘I told you, I didn’t mean it. They’ll hang me. Worse than that. Who knows what they’d do to a Jew who killed a man in holy orders. You have to help me get out of Norwich before they find me.’
Judith knelt down on the rush-strewn floor and stroked his arm gently. She could feel his whole body shaking. ‘What happened, Aaron? Just tell us from the beginning.’
He took another gulp of wine and sat staring at the table. ‘I.. I went back to the study chamber on Erev Shavuoth after we parted. I wanted to try the meditation again on my own. Just as I got there, I saw someone hurrying down the stairs. I could see it wasn’t one of you. The figure was too tall, walking all hunched over, and he was wearing a long robe, though I couldn’t make out its colour in the dark. So I hid, but just as he drew level with me Nathan came staggering out of the chamber holding the side of his head. He was standing at the top of the stairs yelling, “Thief, thief.” The man took to his heels. I chased after him and managed to grab him on the corner of Little Orford Street. As soon as I turned him round, I realized he was a friar, a Black Friar, and he was trying to stuff the stone into his scrip. I told him to give it back and I’d let him go, but he just laughed. He said he’d rather destroy it than let a Jew have it. The whole story burst out of him like pus from a boil.
‘Apparently, the Black Friar had heard rumours about the stone in Exeter. A pedlar was spreading the word among the Jews, wanted to sell it to the highest bidder so that he could buy passage on a boat. The friar arrived just an hour too late. The pedlar told him that Jacob had already bought it and was on his way home. The friar knew that Jacob wouldn’t sell it to him, but he thought that once Jacob was home he could talk his way into his house and steal it.’
‘Jacob would never have allowed a friar across his threshold, not unless he had soldiers with him,’ Isaac said.
‘That’s what I told him, but he said Jacob would let him in if he thought he was a Jew. I laughed. That’s when the little weasel told me.
‘He said, “Do you think I’ve always looked like this? I was born one of you, a Jew. My fool of a father scraped a living from the leavings of the Gentiles all his life and still they spat on him in the street. You think I wanted to spend the rest of my life being kicked out of the way and treated like pigswill? I knew there was only one way out: if you can’t beat them, become one of them. So I converted to the true faith and joined the order as soon as I was twelve. They were pleased to have me at first, a convert plucked from the burning, but that didn’t last long. They were never going to let me forget I was born a Jew. But if I bring them the stone they’ll have to accept me. We’ll destroy it and then we’ll destroy the rest of you vermin. When there isn’t a Jew left in England, then they will forget I’m one of the accused tribe.” ’
Aaron clenched his fists. ‘I pulled my knife. I didn’t mean to use it, just to threaten him, but he wouldn’t listen. He wouldn’t give up. He just kept taunting me. There was a struggle. The ground was slippery from the rain. I don’t know if I pushed the knife into him or if he fell on it, but the next thing I knew he was dead.
‘I didn’t know what to do. I was about to run off when it occurred to me that if I stripped him, it might take longer for them to work out who he was and buy me a little more time. Besides,’ he added savagely, ‘I wasn’t going to let them find a Jew in a friar’s robes.’
Tuesday 28 May, the tenth day of Sivan
Judith stood in the doorway of their house, throwing the crumbs from the morning bread to the squabbling chickens in the yard. The pale primrose light gave promise of a fine day to come, which was as well for she needed to tend the synagogue garden. Weeds were sprouting everywhere after all the rain.
As if he could read her thoughts, Isaac paused in the act of pulling on his worn leather shoes. ‘Promise me you’ll stay out of the study chamber today. I don’t want you going back in there until I’ve had a chance to straighten it. We don’t want you imagining any more bodies or demons, do we?’
Judith rounded on him furiously. ‘I didn’t imagine it and Nathan is still missing, isn’t he? And his poor mother’s going out of her mind with worry.’
Isaac raised his eyes to heaven. ‘Give me patience. You heard Aaron last night. He said Nathan was standing on the stairs yelling, “Thief.” So the Black Friar can’t have killed him when he stole the stone. And before you start accusing him again, Aaron couldn’t have done it either; he was too busy chasing after the friar. Look, little sister, I didn’t want to tell you this, but Nathan has been seeing a girl, Eleanor. He’s besotted with her, but she’s a Christian, so they have to meet in secret. Nathan’s mother would kill herself if she found out about it.’
‘You think they’ve run off together?’
Isaac shrugged. ‘It’s more than possible, especially if the girl’s father got wind of it. He’d hardly give the couple his blessing, now, would he? But I can’t tell Nathan’s mother that. So be a good girl and stay out of that room. I don’t want you upset again. We’ve enough to worry about with a real body, without worrying about imaginary ones. If the authorities realize that corpse was a friar, not a Jew, they’ll turn this town upside down looking for his killer.’
