sister?’
Reluctantly, Sister Brónach fell in step with Fidelma, moving slowly across the flagged courtyard towards the guests’ hostel.
‘What do you wish of me, sister?’
‘The answers to a few questions.’
‘I am always at your service. I did not have the chance to thank you for what you have done for Sister Berrach.’
‘Why should you thank me?’
Sister Brónach grimaced defensively.
‘Is it wrong to thank someone for saving the life of a friend?’
‘I only did what was right and what all members of the Faith should do. Though some sisters here appear to be easily swayed by emotion.’
‘By Abbess Draigen, you mean?’
‘I did not say that.’
‘Nevertheless,’ went on Sister Brónach confidently, ‘that is what you meant. You may have noticed that all the sisters here are young? Sister Comnat, our librarian, and I are the oldest among them. There is no one else, except the abbess, over the age of twenty-one.’
‘Yes, I have noticed the youth of the acolytes of this abbey,’ Fidelma acknowledged. ‘That I have found most strange for the idea of a community is that the young may learn from the experience and knowledge of the old.’
Sister Brónach’s voice held a bitter tone.
‘There is a reason for it. The abbess dislikes to be with anyone who does not accept her total authority. She can manipulate young people but often older people can see her errors and are frequently more knowledgeable than she is. She can never forget that she was a poor farmer’s daughter with no education before she came here.’
‘Do you censure the abbess, then?’
Sister Brónach halted outside the hostel door and anxiously looked round as if to check that they were unobserved. Then she pointed inside.
‘It will be easier to talk in here.’
She led the way in and along a corridor to a small cell which she used in the manner of an office, where she conducted the business of doorkeeper and attendant of the hostel.
‘Be seated, sister,’ she said, seating herself in one of the two wooden chairs that were in the tiny room. ‘Now what was it that you were asking?’
Fidelma seated herself.
‘I was asking whether you censured Abbess Draigen in gathering such a young, inexperienced community around her? It was obvious that she used the youth and inexperience of Sister Lerben to threaten Sister Berrach. Do you censure her attitude towards Berrach?’
Sister Brónach pulled a face to demonstrate her disgust.
‘Any rational person would censure such action as proposed by the abbess, although I am willing to concede that it was not entirely Draigen’s fault.’
‘Not her fault?’
‘I would imagine that Sister Lerben has something to do with the matter.’
Fidelma was perplexed.
‘My understanding is that Sister Lerben was entirely under the influence of Draigen. She is too young to be anything but a pawn in this game. Someone has told me that there is a close relationship between the abbess and Lerben and that, you’ll forgive my candour, sister, Lerben sometimes shares the bed of the abbess. That same person told me that you could vouch for this.’
The doleful religieuse started to chuckle. It was an expression of genuine mirth. Fidelma had never seen mirth on Brónach’s solemn features before.
‘Of course Sister Lerben has been known to share the bed of the abbess! You have been in this abbey for two days and yet you do not know that Lerben is the daughter of the abbess?’
Fidelma was thunderstruck.
‘I thought that Lerben …’ Fidelma blurted in surprise and then snapped her mouth shut.
Sister Brónach continued to smile with amusement. It transformed the usually sad face of the
‘You thought that Lerben was her lover? Ah, you have been listening to evil stories.’
Fidelma leant towards the elder woman, trying to work out the new information.
‘Was Sister Síomha never the lover of Draigen?’
‘Not to my knowledge. And to my knowledge Draigen is not the sort of woman who would choose such carnal relationships. Draigen is a moody woman. Capricious, is abetter word. She is a misanthrope, one who distrusts men and avoids them. She surrounds herself with young women, in order to intellectually dominate them, but that does not mean there is any sexual connotation to it.’
Fidelma was thinking rapidly. If this were so, then the motive put forward by Adnár and Brother Febal, which had seemed so plausible, was now invalid. It changed her thoughts about the situation entirely.
‘I have heard much gossip and speculation about Draigen. Are you saying that all those stories are untrue?’
‘I have no cause to love the abbess. But I would have to say that I have no experience or knowledge in this field. Abbess Draigen simply likes to surround herself with young girls because they will not question her knowledge or her authority. There is no other reason.’
‘You say that she distrusts and hates all men and yet she was married to Brother Febal.’
‘Febal? A marriage that lasted less than a year. I think that they deserved one another. If the truth were known he was a misogynist balanced against Draigen’s misanthropy. They both hated each other.’
‘You knew Febal when he was at the abbey?’
‘Oh yes,’ Brónach’s face was grim. ‘I knew Febal well.’ For a moment or two her eyes glinted. ‘I knew Febal before Draigen came to this abbey.’
‘Why did they marry if they hated each other?’
Sister Brónach shrugged.
‘You will have to ask them that question.’
‘Did the old abbess, Abbess Marga, approve of this relationship?’
‘This was then a mixed house at that time with several married couples rearing their children in the service of the Christ. Marga was old-fashioned in her ideas. She encouraged marriages between the members of the community. Perhaps this was the main reason why Draigen married, in order to curry favour with her. Draigen was a calculating woman.’
‘You disapprove of her and yet you remain in this abbey. Why?’
Fidelma was watching Sister Brónach’s expression carefully. The religieuse blinked and there seemed a momentary expression of pain and alienation on her features.
‘I remain here because I need to remain here,’ she said resentfully.
‘But you dislike Draigen?’
‘She is my abbess.’
‘That is not an answer.’
‘I cannot answer in any other way.’
‘Then let me help you. Did you know Draigen when she was young?’
Sister Brónach glanced furtively at Fidelma. A quick glance of assessment.
‘I knew her,’ she admitted cautiously.
‘And did your mother know her?’
Sister Brónach breathed deeply, slowly and suddenly painfully.
‘So? You have heard that story? There are so many chattering mouths in this land.’
‘I would like to hear the story from your own lips, Sister Brónach.’
There was a pause before she answered.
