‘Praying,’ replied Simon, relaxing slightly when he saw Bunoun had gone. ‘I had second thoughts about your invitation to the tavern, and realised I should not alienate new colleagues by being aloof. I slipped in at the back, where a lady called Agnes came to greet me. She said it was customary for new patrons to please her with gifts, and showed me the kind of thing she accepted.’
‘A cup,’ surmised Bartholomew. ‘A Hugh Chalice?’
Simon nodded weakly. ‘And she said her friends had similar ones. I grew alarmed for my own, so I hurried back to the priory and took it from the chapel. I did not want the Gilbertines to know I was in an agony of doubt over its authenticity, so I slipped in and out without being seen. Then I went to the minster, hoping St Hugh would send a sign to let me know I had the real one. I do not want to present the cathedral with a fake, not after all these years of waiting.’
‘No one saw you,’ said Michael doubtfully. ‘And people have been looking everywhere.’
‘The cathedral was too noisy, too distracting, so I went to St Margaret’s in the Close instead.’
‘Claypole searched for you there,’ said Michael. ‘He said it was empty.’
‘No one came, not even St Hugh, who chose not to answer my prayers. So I wrote to Chapman, and asked him to meet me here. I was going to demand the truth about how he came by the cup.’
‘All these years of waiting,’ echoed Bartholomew suddenly, leaning forward to push Simon’s habit from his shoulder. The mark was fainter than it had been on Aylmer, as though it had been etched tentatively, but was clear, nonetheless. ‘You are a member of this fraternity. You said you were not.’
Simon grimaced. ‘I knew if I offered to remove my clothes to “prove” I was free of symbols Michael would stop me. He knows the dangers of cold air on a singer’s throat. We took a vow, you see, to keep our group a secret.’
Michael did not say he had demurred because he had not liked the look of the priest’s scaly legs. ‘Is it still a secret, or can you tell me now?’
Simon gave a mirthless smile. ‘I know we sound an unlikely alliance – me, Aylmer, Chapman, Flaxfleete, Herl and many others – but we all swore a sacred oath to see the Hugh Chalice in the minster one day. There were two score of us – guildsmen, Commonalty, clerics, weavers, all with the mark. But then Canon Hodelston was poisoned, and some members began to think the feud was more important than their duty to the saint. Friends became enemies, and only a few of us remain faithful.’
‘You should rest now, Father,’ said Bartholomew gently. ‘Save your strength for–’
‘No!’ Simon gripped his hand, to prevent him from leaving. ‘I want to talk, and there are things you should know. I feel no pain anyway, just a great weariness of body and spirit.’
‘Are you sure?’ asked Michael. The priest nodded. ‘Then I do not think Chapman sold you the chalice, as you claimed. I think he gave it to you, so you could present it to the cathedral in a ceremony that would venerate it. I imagine that is why Flaxfleete returned it to Chapman after the incident with the dean: Flaxfleete could donate it to the cathedral, but you could make it part of a major rite.’
Simon coughed weakly. ‘It was why I agreed to be installed as a canon.’
Bartholomew had also been thinking. ‘Aylmer was dishonest and he was in Cambridge two decades ago. I think he was one of the friars charged to bring the cup from London – I recall thinking at the trial that he looked like a fallen priest. He was weak and corrupt, and he sold the chalice for twenty shillings, a paltry sum for such a venerable object. The friars were not murdered by robbers or struck down by an angry St Hugh on their way home. They just began new lives in another place.’
‘No,’ breathed Simon. ‘Shirlok stole it from Aylmer. Aylmer told me so himself.’
Michael frowned. ‘Shirlok always denied taking the chalice, although he admitted to making off with the other items. I think Matt is right: Aylmer sold the chalice to Geddynge for fast money. And he lied to you about it – lied to you, Simon, because you were the other friar.’
‘Of course!’ exclaimed Bartholomew, seeing the priest’s expression of resignation. ‘It makes sense now. You came to Lincoln because you had nowhere else to go. You could not return to London, given that you had failed to deliver the relic. And you felt guilty about losing it, so you decided to live here, where you could dedicate your life to the saint whose chalice you had mislaid. Plus there is the fact that Miller is your brother. Cynric was right: Adam and Simon Molendinarius were named by Shirlok as his accomplices.’
‘You doubtless stayed with your brother in Cambridge on your journey north,’ Michael continued, when the priest said nothing to indicate they were wrong. ‘You told him about the sacred task with which you were entrusted. The rest is obvious. Miller helped Aylmer sell the chalice to a gullible priest – Geddynge was chosen because it is a safe distance from Cambridge, making it more difficult for the crime to be linked to him – and Shirlok was charged to get it back again. But Shirlok was caught, and the whole miserable tribe was in trouble.’
‘Adam and I are half-brothers,’ whispered Simon. ‘Neither of us had anything to do with removing the chalice from Geddynge, though. I was terrified when we were ordered to appear at Cambridge castle. It was a dreadful day.’
‘I do not remember you,’ said Bartholomew. ‘And Miller said his brother died in prison.’
‘I do not remember you, either, but that is no surprise after all this time.’ Simon closed his eyes for a moment, rallying his strength, then began to speak again. ‘When we arrived here, Adam and I decided to conceal our relationship until we had found our feet: he was to say his brother was dead and no one ever asks about a priest’s family. Later, we maintained the pretence, because I do not want to be associated with criminal activities, and he finds it embarrassing to have kin in holy orders.’
Michael was puzzled. ‘Why did you elect to live in the same place, if you then denied knowing each other? What could be gained from that?’
‘I came here because St Hugh appeared to me in a dream, and said I could make amends by serving as parish priest to Holy Cross. When the chalice finally reappeared and I was nominated as a canon, I knew he had forgiven me at last.’
‘And your brother?’
‘He liked the sound of the place when I described it to him, and he had nowhere else to go. So, I was the other courier, Brother, but Aylmer and I were robbed. We did not sell the Hugh Chalice. We have lived with the shame of losing it for twenty years. Aylmer’s sorrow led him to a libertine life, but he retook his priestly vows when the cup arrived in Lincoln recently.’
‘You credit him with too much decency,’ said Michael. ‘He was never anything but a felon.’
Simon did not seem to hear him. ‘I founded the “fraternity”, as you call it, to look for the chalice, and we have been searching ever since. Chapman and Adam found it four weeks ago.’
‘Adam is not a member,’ said Bartholomew, not mentioning that Miller had probably known for the best part of two decades that his brother’s holy grail was not lost at all. ‘Why not?’
‘Because that would have put us too much in each other’s company, and I did not want him to reveal our relationship in a moment of carelessness. You may have noticed that his wits are not the sharpest in the town. Poor Aylmer. He died trying to protect the chalice … ’
‘You said he was trying to steal it,’ said Michael.
‘No, I did not. Others did, but I said we should give him the benefit of the doubt. I never believed he was acting dishonestly. I have no idea who killed him, though. Did Chapman shoot me? He must have done, because no one else knew I would be here. I paid young Hugh a silver penny to deliver him a letter, asking him to come.’