of Gaulish coins. Eadulf is blessed with a good memory for detail and when he noticed that Cuan was wearing such a bracelet, he told me his suspicion. It was easy to get Cuan to confess how he had really come by it.’
Brehon Sedna sat back. ‘You have argued that Cnucha was the mistress of Sechnussach, and Cnucha’s actions here have now betrayed her. But what was her motive in killing the High King, her lover?’
‘A motive as old as the mountains, Brehon Sedna,’ replied Fidelma. ‘Love and hate can be two sides of the same coin. Perhaps Cnucha would like to explain?’
But the girl had relapsed into silence.
After waiting a moment, Fidelma turned back to the Brehon.
‘While Sechnussach saw Cnucha as merely a girl to have his way with, a timid thing whom he could summon to his bed at will and who would make no demands on him, like some pet dog to come at his beck and call, Cnucha truly loved him. Perhaps Sechnussach made her promises. He certainly gave her this valuable bracelet of Gaulish coins. Maybe one of those promises was that he would marry her, if only he was able to.
‘Then Cnucha probably learned, how does not matter, that Gormflaith was divorcing Sechnussach. She went to him, fully expecting him to say that he would marry her. He-’
‘Laughed at me!’ came Cnucha’s cold voice. ‘Laughed at the very idea of marriage to me … a mere servant. I could go to bed with him but I could not appear in public with him. That was when I took the knife fromthe kitchen and, after he had had his way with me, as he lay sleeping, I stabbed him in the heart. The pig will betray no one else again.’
After the tumult that greeted this declaration had died down and everyone was leaving the chamber, Eadulf turned to Fidelma and said privately, ‘I have to say, she was the last person I would have suspected. So quiet, so outwardly shy. You would hardly notice her in company. I felt sorry for her — I still do. It’s hard to think that she could rise to such passion that would make her into a killer.’
‘You should remember the old Roman saying —
‘The deepest rivers flow with the least sound,’ translated Eadulf.
‘However, you are right,’ she continued. ‘In a way, you must feel sorry for her. Sechnussach abused her. Yet I admired Sechnussach as High King. Indeed, I helped him come to the throne some years ago. We all have our faults, but his was a grievous fault in his attitude to women.’
‘What will happen to her?’
‘To Cnucha?’
Eadulf nodded.
‘She will be charged with
‘And if found guilty, as she will be?’
‘She or her family will have to pay Sechnussach’s honour price. That is twenty-one
‘And if they can’t?’
‘At best, she will be consigned into service more or less as she is now, serving as a maid until the debt is paid or until she dies.’
‘At worst?’
‘At worst, and it rarely happens, she could be put into a boat with one paddle, food and water for a day and set adrift on an offshore wind. But I think a good defence will point out the circumstances of her case and how she was driven to her action. I will speak to Brehon Sedna and ensure she is well represented. The honour price could be greatly reduced in the circumstances, but she will have to pay or serve until such time she has paid off the debt.’
EPILOGUE
‘
Brehon Sedna smiled indulgently. ‘If the end is good, everything will be good,’ he repeated, translating the Latin saying. ‘Yet it was truly a complicated matter and one that might well have led to bloodshed and war, or even brought about the devastation of the five kingdoms. You both are owed much. You have but to ask.’
‘All we wish is to return to our child and the peace of Cashel,’ replied Fidelma gravely.
‘We cannot tempt you to remain in Tara? There is much work here for a keen and alert legal mind.’
Fidelma glanced at Eadulf and they both uttered the negative in such positive unison that Brehon Sedna burst out laughing.
‘Is it really so bad here?’ he protested.
Fidelma gave him an answering smile. ‘It is just that it is so much better in Cashel because … ’ she was about to say, ‘because it is my home,’ but, glancing again at Eadulf, she altered it to ‘because our son is there.’
‘I understand,’ Brehon Sedna replied solemnly. ‘I have children of my own.’
‘Which reminds me,’ Eadulf said. ‘What of the boy, Assid?’
‘Yes — what will happen to him?’ Fidelma added. ‘I will argue his case, if need be, before we return to Cashel.’
‘Ah, poor child. He has had an evil star to guide him. As you know, Verbas of Peqini has sailed from our shores without contesting what he claimed to be the theft of his property. While one could say that this matter of slavery was his culture, that it was the custom of his people,and therefore it is hard to lay our moral blame on him when his people did not share our morality, he was, nevertheless, a rather vain and cruel man. As for the law, it was quite clear that you and Fidelma were entirely correct in granting the boy sanctuary when he fled into your arms.’
‘We did not doubt it,’ agreed Fidelma. ‘So what will be his fate?’
‘I have discussed it with both Bishop Luachan and Brother Rogallach, and they have come up with an excellent suggestion. Do you know of Abbot Tírechán?’
Fidelma answered at once. ‘Tírechán of Ard Breacan? He who wrote lives of both the Blessed Patrick and of Brigid of Cill Dara? That is an excellent idea.’
‘I do not know of him,’ protested Eadulf. ‘What is an excellent idea?’
‘He is abbot and bishop of a community not far to the north of here,’ explained Brehon Sedna. ‘The place is called the Height of Breacan after a blessed teacher who established a community of Christ there. When Brecain died, Ultán succeeded him as abbot.’
‘Not Ultán …?’ began Eadulf, remembering their investigation of the murder of Abbot Ultán of Cill Ria.6
‘There are many who are called Ultán,’ Fidelma reminded him. ‘It just means a man from Ulaidh.’
‘During the scourge of the Yellow Plague in this land,’ went on Brehon Sedna, ‘there were many young ones left without father, mother or even any kith or kin to care for them. It was one of the great horrors of that deadly pestilence. Ultán and members of his community went out and gathered these poor mites together, the crying, hungry babies and wandering children. They brought them to their community and cared for them, educated them and thus they were able to survive.’
‘Abbot Ultán died ten years ago,’ added Fidelma, ‘so Tírechán succeeded him as abbot and bishop there. He continues this great work of caring for orphans.’
Brehon Sedna nodded in agreement.
‘Both Bishop Luachan and Brother Rogallach suggested that the boy, Assid, would find a home there until he reached the age of choice and decided what he should do in life. The boy is intelligent and speaks three languages and also reads and writes them. While he has no clear memories of his origins, those he does have seem to confirm what you already deduced — that he was on a pilgrim ship from one of the five kingdoms,perhaps
