Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne Page A

discharge of my duties. There is a need to clean the dormitoria and the cubicula, to prepare beds and assure ourselves that the needs of prominent visitors have been met. So I am often in the hostel area ensuring that our tasks are carried out. But when I am in my officium I cannot help but observe who passes to and fro to the guests’ quarters.’
    Fidelma smiled in mollification. ‘And it is good luck for us that you do so.’
    ‘Would you take oath, sister,’ pressed Eadulf a little aggressively, ‘that no one else visited Abbess Étain before her body was discovered?’
    Sister Athelswith brought her chin up stubbornly.
    ‘Of course not. As I said at the beginning, we are free to enter when and how we please. I am only sure that the people that I have named entered the Abbess of Kildare’s cubiculum.’
    ‘And when was the body discovered and who by?’

    ‘I, myself, discovered the body at half past the hour of five o’clock this afternoon.’
    Fidelma was astonished and showed it.
    ‘How can you be so certain of the hour?’
    Sister Athelswith swelled with visible pride.
    ‘Among the duties of the domina of the domus hospitale of Streoneshalh is that of time-keeper. It is my task to ensure that our clepsydra functions accurately.’
    Brother Eadulf was bewildered.
    ‘Your … what?’
    ‘Clepsydra is a Greek word,’ Fidelma explained, allowing a slight patronising tone to enter her voice.
    ‘One of our brethren brought it back from the east,’ Sister Athelswith said proudly. ‘It is a mechanism by which time is measured by the discharge of water.’
    ‘And exactly how did you note the time of discovery?’ pressed Eadulf.
    ‘I had just made my check on the clepsydra when a messenger from the sacrarium came to inform me that the assembly had opened but there was no sign of the Abbess of Kildare. I went to her cubiculum to summon her. That is when I found her and sent the messenger straight away to Abbess Hilda. By our clepsydra, the time was lacking a half hour to the sounding of the evening Angelus bell, which task I also have to oversee as time-keeper of Streoneshalh.’
    ‘That certainly agrees with the time that the messenger arrived in the assembly hall and informed the Abbess Hilda,’ Eadulf confirmed.
    ‘I was there also,’ Fidelma agreed. ‘And you, Sister Athelswith, you disturbed nothing? All was left exactly as you found it in Étain’s cell?’

    The domina of the domus hospitale nodded emphatically.
    ‘I disturbed nothing.’
    Sister Fidelma bit her lip thoughtfully.
    ‘Well, the shadows are lengthening. I think we should retrace our footsteps to the abbey,’ she said, after a moment’s pause. ‘We should continue by seeking out this priest, Agatho, and seeing what he has to say.’
    A figure was hurrying towards them through the gloom from the direction of the abbey gates. It was one of the brethren, a thick-set, moon-faced young man.
    ‘Ah, brother, sisters. The Abbess Hilda has sent me in great haste to search for you.’
    He paused a moment to recover his wheezy breath.
    ‘Well?’ demanded Fidelma.
    ‘I have to tell you that the murderer of the Abbess Étain has been discovered and is even now under lock and key within the abbey.’

Chapter Eight
    Fidelma entered Abbess Hilda’s chamber, closely followed by Eadulf. The abbess was seated while before her stood a tall young man with blond hair and a scar on his face. Fidelma recognized him immediately as the man Brother Taran had identified in the sacrarium as Oswy’s eldest son, Alhfrith. She had an immediate impression, observing him close up, that the scar suited him well, for his features, though handsome, gave an indefinable impression of cruelty – perhaps because the lips were thin and sneering and the eyes ice-blue, cold and lifeless as if they were the eyes of a corpse.
    ‘This is Alhfrith of Deira,’ announced the abbess.
    Brother Eadulf immediately bowed low in the manner of the Saxons when greeting their