Fidelma decided not to pursue the matter.
‘Why did Abbess Fainder pretend not to know your husband? Why was that? Did she not like her brother-in-law?’
‘We agreed that things were best kept from people until Fainder was settled firmly in her office. You see, she had only returned from Rome three or four months ago to become abbess. That was why she rode covertly each day to meet with me. This was where we both grew up. Luckily, she had been away for so long that many people had forgotten her. We thought it better that way until she had established her position.’
‘Are you saying that Fainder was fearful that she would lose her authority as abbess if it were known that you were her sister?’
Deog hesitated, embarrassed at the truth, then raised her head defiantly.
‘It is not so unusual, is it? If you sit on the council of the kingdom with the King, then the fact that your sister’s husband is merely a watchman could undermine your authority.’ Then: ‘Fainder was too long in Rome, perhaps. She had adopted their ways and not our ways,’ confessed Deog. ‘I am told that the great lords do not mix with peasants there, nor do the great church-leaders come from the peasant people. Apparently it is the position of the family which dictates what a child will be in those lands. Alas, Fainder has become imbued with that snobbery.’
‘But not so much that she turned her back on you.’
Deog smiled cynically. ‘There is an old saying. The thing which grows in the bones is hard to drive out of the flesh.’
‘Tell me about your sister.’
‘You should ask her such a question.’
‘You are her older sister. You will know her best.’
For a moment Deog’s expression softened.
‘It’s true. I am five years older than Fainder. When I was fifteen our father was killed in one of the wars against the Uí Néill and soon after my mother died of grief. I was of the age of choice then and took charge of this cabin and the little bit of land. Fainder remained with me until she reached the age of choice and then she went into the abbey at Taghmon to become a religieuse. I did not see her until she was eighteen years old when she came to me and said she was going away. She was joining a party of religious who were going to Bobbio where Columbanus had built his religious house.’
‘A bird flies away from every brood,’ quoted Fidelma.
‘A fine saying, although there is another; a bird had little affection that deserts its own brood.’
‘Go on. You felt that Fainder had little affection for her home and family?’
‘When she left, it was the last that I heard of Fainder until a few months ago. Then she came riding up to my door and announced that she had returned and that she was Abbess of Fearna.’
‘You had not seen her since she was eighteen years old?’
Deog smiled sadly. ‘She had been ten years at Bobbio and then moved south to Rome. It was at Rome that she attracted the attention of Abbot Noé who happened to be on a pilgrimage there. It was he whoinvited her back to Fearna and persuaded her to become the abbess.’
Fidelma was perplexed. ‘Abbot Noé actually persuaded Fainder to return to Laigin to become abbess in charge of the abbey in his stead?’
‘So she told me and so I tell you.’
‘I believed that Noé was of the creed of Colmcille but Fainder seems to have adopted many of the ways of Rome.’
‘She has become zealous for Rome,’ agreed Deog. ‘She has adopted the austere, high and mighty ways of the Roman clerics. But, I think, that is only on the exterior. She is certainly zealously committed to bringing the ways of our church into communion with the rules of Rome.’
‘Are these executions a manifestation of that determination?’
Deog looked unhappy and did not reply.
‘She seems to have exerted her will over Bishop Forbassach and over the King in his turn,’ observed Fidelma after a while. ‘She has persuaded them that the kingdom should adopt the Penitentials.’
‘She has become a very powerful person,’ agreed Deog. ‘I do wish, however …’
‘Yes?’ prompted Fidelma.
‘This harshness, it can be too excessive. Many people — and I have tried to warn her about this — many people are becoming afraid of the abbey of Fearna. That a Brother of the Faith has been executed there, and the punishments that we have heard of …’
‘Punishments?’
‘There was a Brother who was flogged there a few weeks ago.’
‘Flogged?’
‘It is claimed that he lied and so Fainder had him stripped to the waist and flogged with birch rods. I, too, find it hard to believe.’
‘Do you know the name of the Brother who was flogged?’
Deog replied with a shake of her head.
‘You say that people are becoming afraid of the abbey. What are they saying?’
‘They say the abbey has become evil. Have you noticed the statuette, the one of the angel, outside the main abbey door? It is the one that the Blessed Máedóc is said to have made with his own hands.’
Fidelma replied that she had.
‘That used to be called our Lady of Light, and people would make offerings before it. Now it is called by another name.’
‘Which is?’ Fidelma asked.
‘Our Lady of Darkness.’
‘Have you spoken to your sister about the things people are saying?’
‘Oh yes.’ Deog was bitter. ‘She told me to tend to my garden and that I should not speak about religious matters which I did not understand.’
‘Does she not realise that she is causing alarm among the people? Does she not realise the harm she is doing to the Faith?’ pressed Fidelma.
‘I do not think so. She is so used to the ways she learnt abroad, particularly the pitiless forms of punishment and unremitting harshness of life there, that she thinks that it is we, here, who are at fault; who are lax and living without morals. She is determined to impose the rule of the Penitentials over us all.’
‘And the innocent must suffer with the guilty?’
‘Do you believe Brother Ibar was innocent?’
‘Didn’t your husband, Daig, think so?’
‘Daig had his reservations. He felt that there were questions which needed to be asked.’
‘And Daig died before he could ask them at the trial.’
For a moment Deog turned two large shocked eyes on Fidelma.
‘What are you saying?’ she whispered. ‘That Daig … that Bishop Forbassach, the Brehon …?’ She raised a hand to cover her mouth.
Fidelma said swiftly, ‘I am not drawing any conclusions, I am only making an observation on the facts. It seems that Gabrán has some questions to answer. Why didn’t Forbassach ask them?’
‘Bishop Forbassach will do what Fainder tells him to,’ the woman said softly.
Fidelma examined her cautiously.
‘Is there a particular reason why Bishop Forbassach meets with Fainder in your cabin?’
Deog laughed bitterly. ‘Do you really think my haughty and powerful sister comes here most days simply to visit humble little me?’
Fidelma was quiet. She had begun to suspect something of the sort but she wanted Deog to spell it out.
‘My cabin is no more than a convenient place for their assignations.’
‘Did your husband know while he was alive?’
Deog shook her head. ‘I was sworn to secrecy on pain of my immortal soul, by Fainder. Now I see the path that she is intent on, I realise that it is not my immortal soul that is imperilled.’
‘There should be no need for secrets. It is not an offence for religiousto live together and marry, at least not yet, although there is a faction in Rome who argue for celibacy. Was it such people Fainder was scared of?’
‘It was Bishop Forbassach, not Fainder, who demanded secrecy. He is already married,’ Deog admitted. It suddenly occurred to her just how far the conversation had gone. ‘I thought that you had come here to free the Saxon? Fainder told me that you were attempting to prove him innocent but he showed his guilt by escaping last night. Why are you asking me all these questions about Daig, Fainder and Bishop Forbassach?’