The Fabric of Sin

‘Maybe one more.’ The darkness of the inglenook, the crackle of bird bones, the face. She took a hit of the coffee. ‘Possibly.’

‘Well, I never lived there, obviously.’ Roxanne crunched toast. ‘My parents’d been over here for some years when I was born, so this is the only home I’ve ever known. But I know my mother was glad to move out of the place.’

‘You know why?’

‘Not really. When I was a kid, the times it was empty — between tenants — I always wanted to get inside, it looked so mysterious, like an old castle or something. But it was always kept locked up, and my mum told us it was dangerous. I mean falling slates and stuff. Then it would be let again, to some family — people with horses once — but they never stayed long. I remember one couple, the Rogersons, banging on the door one morning and the woman yelling, “You should’ve told us! Should’ve told us about it, we’d never have taken it.”’

‘You ever find out what had happened to them?’

‘Nope.’ Roxanne shook her head. ‘Wasn’t talked about in front of us kids. Any more than I’d talk about it in front of mine.’

‘They didn’t want to sell it?’

‘No, they didn’t. I suppose the farm was doing well, and it was an asset. Also, the Master House is in the centre of the land, and they didn’t want to sell any land. So there’d be access to organize, a road to put in, rights of way … and the Gwilyms were always hovering. They’d bought another farm — the one Sycharth has now — and the Master House was between us and them, and even if we’d sold it to someone else, what was to stop them selling it on to the Gwilyms?’

‘What’s to stop the Duchy doing the same?’

‘I don’t think they would. He doesn’t give up on things, the Prince, what I’ve heard.’

‘I wouldn’t really know. Was much said about what happened when it was leased to a commune?’

‘That was before my time, but I’ve heard there was a lot of drugs and wild parties. Oh … and I also remember, when I was little, some chap with a big beard coming to the house, saying he was researching a history of … I think it must’ve been the Templars, and could he have a look around the Master House? And my dad was quite rude. He said, “No, bugger off, we’ve had enough of all that.”’

‘So you heard that they were into the Templars. The commune.’

‘Must have.’

‘Did you ever hear any stories about treasure?’

‘What?’

‘Treasure being hidden at the Master House?’

‘Treasure?’ Roxanne laughed, pushing fingers through her curls. ‘If there was any suggestion of treasure at the Master House, you don’t think we’d’ve ripped the place apart to try and find it? The only thing they ever found, my dad used to say, was a priest’s hole, when he was a boy — there was a lot of persecution of Catholics around Garway. But that was completely empty, so they blocked it up again.’

‘What about the history generally? You know much about that?’

‘Only that it used to be very important, apparently, when the Newtons first came. We have an old … hang on, I’ll show you. Won’t be a minute.’

Roxanne put down her toast and got up, brushing crumbs from her fleece, vanishing through a door. Merrily looked out of the bay window. It had been dark when she left, and the early sun was still muffled. She couldn’t see any landmark that she recognized, not the church, nor the top of the hill with its radio mast. Certainly not the Master House.

It was as if the Newtons had sought out a spot without any prominent landscape features, somewhere with no visible history.

When Roxanne returned, she was carried a wedge of dark wood a couple of feet long and a paperback book. She put the book on the table and held the piece of wood up for Merrily. It was a plaque, gilt-edged. It said:

HONOUR THE MASTER

CARE FOR THE CUSTOMS

Roxanne leaned the plaque against the table.

‘My family, when they moved in, there was a maiden aunt who threw herself into researching the history. We’ve still got a box of her papers — we keep being told we ought to have it all published as a book, but it would take a lot of work. But this aunt — Aunt Fliss — said it was important for the family to realize that we hadn’t just bought a farm, we’d taken on a very powerful piece of history that one day would come into its own.’

‘What did she mean by that?’

‘Don’t think she ever worked it out fully, but it was obviously about the Grand Master of the Templars. People think it’s called the Master House because it was the main farm, but it’s because the Grand Master stayed here when he came to Garway. Aunt Fliss had had this thing made to put up over the fireplace, so future generations wouldn’t forget. My mum and dad brought it with them when they moved out. We still have it hung in the hall. Sentimental value, I suppose.’

‘But is there any actual evidence that de Molay came to Garway?’

‘It’s here.’ Roxanne put the book in front of Merrily. Knights Templar and Hospitaller in Herefordshire by Audrey Tapper. ‘You read this one?’

‘Not had time to read anything much, to be honest. This has all happened very quickly.’

‘Well, there you are.’ Roxanne opened out the book and flattened its spine. ‘This is the bit. This is when Edward II started imprisoning English Templars after they were closed down in France, accused of all this heresy and stuff. One of them was called John Stoke, who’d only been a Templar for about a year and he came to Garway, and he made this confession about what they made him do.’

The account of it, Merrily read, had come from the St John Historical Society, presumably linked to the Hospitallers who had taken over Garway from the Templars.

He was in Garway during the visit there by Grand Master Jacques de Molay. Stoke’s deposition when the Templars were arrested was that he had been called to the Grand Master’s bedchamber at Garway and in front of two other foreign knights he was asked to make proof of his obedience and to seat himself on a small stool at the foot of the Grand Master’s bed.

‘So de Molay’s bedchamber … was that definitely at the Master House?’

‘That’s what we were told,’ Roxanne said. ‘He was a bit of a boy, wasn’t he, old Jacques?’

De Molay then sent to the Church for a crucifix and then two other Templars placed themselves at either side of the door with their swords drawn. Stoke said that he was asked to deny ‘Him whom the image represents’ but he replied ‘Far be it for me to deny my Saviour.’ The Grand Master ordered him to do so, otherwise he would be put in a sack and carried to a place ‘by no means agreeable’. Through fear of death he denied Christ, ‘but with his tongue and not his heart.’

‘Makes you think, doesn’t it?’ Roxanne said. ‘I like that bit where the poor guy’s threatened with being put in a sack if he didn’t renounce Jesus Christ. Toss him in the Monnow, you reckon, or just the nearest slurry pit. So, I mean, were the Templars Christians, or were they into something a bit off-colour? It’s interesting, really. Wish I had time to go into it.’

‘Or the confession could be fabricated. After the suppression of the Templars, it was easier to slag off Jacques de Molay than go into some dungeon.’

‘That’s what Aunt Fliss used to say, apparently. She said he was a good man. But then, who wants to think they’re living in the house where some psycho was holding court?’

‘Roxanne, can I ask you …? I mean, you probably won’t have an answer to this under the circumstances … But how do the Gwilyms tie in? I mean, they’re supposed to have been in that house since the Middle Ages, is that right?’

‘So they say.’