Blood Moon Read Free

also that this was not where she kept her most highly prized secrets of all.
    She took from her belt a ring of iron keys to undo the three heavy locks on the chest. ‘Turn around,’ she said to me.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘So that you can’t see which key fits which lock, of course. Now don’t be tiresome Walter, do as I ask. Turn around and close your eyes.’
    I didn’t turn around. Instead, I reached over to an obscure object standing in shadow on a shelf just above the oak chest. It was an unattractive and seemingly valueless old crucifix affixed to a plain wooden stand - something that no self-respecting thief would look at twice. Even so it was a holy rood, a representation of Christ’s passion on the cross and I kissed my fingers before touching it. Then with a deft twist of the wrist I turned the upright of the cross to the left which produced a click in the stand at the bottom from where a drawer popped out on a spring. Without hesitating, I reached inside the secret compartment and withdrew the contents.
    I must say I did enjoy the look of surprise on that shrivelled old face of hers – or as much of it as I could see behind the wimple. She looked like she was chewing a particularly tough piece of gristle.
    ‘If you are going to disparage the one true religion, mummy dear,’ I explained in answer to her unspoken question, ‘you would do better than to have its symbol so prominently displayed. In this room - with you - it’s incongruous. Besides, Joseph and I have known about your secret hiding place ever since we were children. It’s where you always hid our presents and where you stored the love letters from my father when he was courting you.’
    ‘They weren’t love letters,’ she growled. ‘They were marital negotiations.’
    ‘They were love letters. I read them.’
    ‘Then you shouldn’t have.’
    ‘Then you shouldn’t leave them where I can find them .’
    She snatched at the item I was holding but not before I’d taken note what it was. It was a letter made of thick vellum folded much smaller than is normal and heavily embossed with the Ixworth seal. She stood turning it over in her hands for a minute thinking. Then just as suddenly she thrust it back into my hand again.
    ‘Here, take it.’
    ‘What is it?’ I said with surprise feeling its thick, luxuriant richness in my fingers.
    ‘Since you’re so clever,’ she smirked, ‘divine it for yourself.’
    I shook my head. The parchment was too thick to hazard a guess as to what it contained. It could be anything. There was no point in trying to guess.
    ‘What am I supposed to do with it?’
    ‘You are to deliver it to the new abbot.’
    ‘To Hugh?’ I said with astonishment. ‘Is that why you’ve brought me here, to be your messenger?’
    ‘There’s no-one else I could trust.’ She squinted warily up at me. ‘ Can I trust you?’
    ‘Clearly not enough to tell me what’s in it.’
    ‘Hm,’ she grunted, but still she wouldn’t be drawn. ‘Into Hugh’s hands, mind, and no-one else’s. Do I have your oath on it?’
    ‘Mother, you astonish me. I -’
    She grabbed my arm. ‘Your oath. Do I have it?’
    I looked at her gnarled face. Something in those old eyes told me she was in earnest. ‘You do,’ I sighed. ‘But its deliverance may have to wait a while. Hugh is not even in the country at the moment.’
    ‘ Don’t you think I know that? He’s with the king in France still trying to persuade him he’s the right man to be abbot.’ She saw me fingering the seal. ‘Oh, don’t bother trying to open it. Hugh will know if you do. And more importantly, so will I.’
    I reluctantly placed the letter in my belt pouch while she hobbled over to the window and looked out into the gathering dusk. Already the moon was rising, big and full in the night sky illuminating my mother’s face with its stark cold light.
    ‘What month is it?’
    ‘October – as you very well know.’
    She nodded. ‘That’s a Hunter’s Moon up there