Devil's Acre (25 page)
Authors: Stephen Wheeler
‘You
say you knew Dom Walter?’
‘Briefly, a long time ago. I had hoped to see him before he passed on.’
‘You have missed him by a few days, I’m afraid. He died on All Fools’ Day.’
‘Indeed? He would have enjoyed that. Dom Walter had a good sense of humour.’
‘Have you come far, brother? From your accent I’m guessing you are not local.’
‘
Yorkshire.’
‘I didn’t know Dom Walter had acquaintances so far away. Funny he never mentioned you. In the six months he was here I heard practically his entire life story.’
‘You took care of him in his final days, Brother...?’
‘Gerard. I am the infirmarer here at the abbey. I tended
Dom Walter daily.’
‘Ah yes.’
‘You have heard of me?’
‘Dom Walter spoke of you in his letters.’
‘He wrote letters? I can’t think how he could have got them out without going through me. He didn’t happen to send you anything else?’
‘Such as?’
‘Any notes perhaps? He was very particular about his notes. I shouldn’t like to think of them getting into the wrong hands.’
‘Who am I likely to tell in the fastnesses of the north?’
‘Quite so. Yorkshire is indeed remote. But you are not a Cistercian, I think.’
‘We are Cluniacs, brother.’
‘That would account for your robe. And the name of your house?’
‘You won’t have heard of it.’
‘No, perhaps not. Well, I’m sorry you’ve had a wasted journey, brother. However, you may wish to visit his grave before you go. It’s not marked of course, but I could identify it for you.’
‘That would be a kindness. I wonder, though, before we do that if I could make a contribution to the abbey? In payment for all you did for Dom Walter in his last days.
And in his memory. I am sure he would not disapprove.’
‘A contribution you say?’
‘Not money, unfortunately - we are a poor community. But perhaps I could give you this.’
‘What is it?’
‘
A miraculous potion. It has great medicinal properties. Being a physician Dom Walter knew of it and its properties.’
‘
Interesting bottle. It’s quite heavy for something so small. What’s this strange writing engraved on the side?’
‘Nothing that can harm a good Christian.’
‘It smells faintly of almonds. How does it work?’
‘
It is a libation. A very powerful one. Just the smallest sip is all that’s needed.’
‘And what does it cure?’
‘All manner of things. The ague, cramp, warts.’
‘It sounds almost miraculous.’
‘Some have said so.’
‘I do have a slight headache.
Will it cure that?’
‘In a trice.’
‘Just sip it you say?’
‘
Just one, and all your troubles will be over. One sip, Brother Gerard. Just one
pirrip
sip...’
Many of the characters in this novel were real people: Abbot Samson existed as did Brother Walter, Countess Isabel de Warenne, Earl Hamelin, Ladies Maud, Isabel, Adela and Lord William de Warenne, Richard Fitz Roy, Prior Maynus of Acre and Prior Peter Vincent of Thetford. Everyone else is fictitious.
As far as is possible the historical facts mentioned are also accurate: Samson of Tottington did indeed go to
Rome in 1160 and as a result was exiled in Acre priory. At that time Countess Isabel de Warenne was a young widow her first husband, William of Blois, having been killed at the Battle of Toulouse in October 1159. Isabel’s second husband and father of her four children, Hamelin Plantagenet, married her in 1164 and died in April 1202 of unknown causes. King John did have an illegitimate son by his cousin Adela de Warenne whom he named Richard Fitz Roy. As Baron of Chilham in Kent, Richard was made constable of Wallingford Castle, married, had three children and died in June 1246 aged fifty-eight.
CASTLE ACRE
Castle Acre today is a pretty English village which boasts the substantial twin ruins of a medieval castle and priory. But this romantic image belies its military past. It stands astride a strategically important crossing point of the ancient Roman route of
Peddars Way and the Nar valley from where it could dominate the surrounding country. Little is known about the village before the Norman Conquest but by Domesday it had become the country retreat of the Warenne earls of Surrey who turned it into a fortified town. Unlike other East Anglian fortresses such as Thetford, Eye and New Buckenham, Castle Acre retained its castle which remained occupied until the fourteenth century. The priory was added in 1089.
SAMSON’S BIRTHPLACE
Tottington
is a village locked in time. It lies approximately eight miles north of Thetford in the Brecklands of Norfolk but try to go there today and you will fail. The village was evacuated along with five others in 1944 for the army to practice for the D-Day landings and they have held the place ever since. Now all roads to the village are blocked and the nearest you can get to it is Peddars Way which runs a little under a mile to the east of Saint Andrew’s church glimpsed tantalisingly through the trees. This is not the church that Samson and Walter would have seen but its fourteenth century replacement albeit with a special bomb-proof roof to protect it from the activities of its present custodians. From the air little can be seen of Samson’s birthplace other than the ghostly outlines of former buildings.
SWW December 2013
May 1199. Richard the Lionheart is dead and his brother John has just been crowned King of England.
John travels to St Edmund’s abbey in
Suffolk to give thanks for his accession. His visit coincides with the murder of a twelve-year-old boy whose mutilated body bears the marks of ritual sacrifice and martyrdom. This isn’t the first time such a thing has happened. Eighteen years earlier another child was murdered in the town in similar circumstances.
Abbot Samson needs to find out if this is indeed another martyrdom or just an ordinary murder and appoints the abbey’s physician, Master Walter, to investigate. Walter discovers a web of intrigue and corruption involving some of the highest in the land but unbeknown to him his own past holds a secret which will put his life in danger before the final terrible solution is revealed.
“Wheeler engages the reader’s interest from page one and doesn’t let go...A book which will appeal to historical novel fans...”
Eastern Daily Press
November 1214. King John has returned to
England having lost his empire to King Philip of France. Humiliated and desperate for support, he again travels to Bury St Edmunds where Abbot Samson has died and a battle is raging among the monks over who will be his successor.
In the midst of this there arrives in the town a seemingly inconsequential young couple and their maid. The wife is heavily pregnant and gives birth in the night to a baby daughter.
But then the maid is mysteriously murdered and it is soon apparent that the family is not all that it appears. With rebellion looming, abbey physician Walter of Ixworth is drawn once again into investigating a murder and a conspiracy that threatens to engulf the country in civil war and ultimately leads to the final nemesis that is Runnymede and Magna Carta.
