Song of a Dark Angel

throat.
    'Keep still, my lady!' Father Augustine murmured.
    'Don't be a fool!' Corbett shouted.
    'Don't be a fool!' Father Augustine mocked. 'You stupid, miserable-faced clerk! You can tell that bastard' – he nodded towards Ranulf – 'to put his hands on the table. Come on!'
    He pressed the point of the dagger against Alice's neck. A small prick of blood seeped out. Alice moaned. She tried to force her neck away but the priest held her fast.
    'Gently, Ranulf!' Corbett snapped. 'He'll kill!'
    'Yes, I'll kill!' the priest said. His eyes darted around like those of a trapped animal. 'You don't understand. None of you do. That treasure is mine. It has been since the first day I heard about it. It was like a demon inside me. I thought I could forget it. I became a priest.' Father Augustine tapped the side of his head. 'But the voices kept telling me. The ghosts of my ancestors, chattering away, like a tune you hear and never forget. I tried to forget it.'
    Ranulf moved but the priest pressed the dagger harder against Alice's throat.
    'For God's sake!' Gurney hissed, glaring at Ranulf.
    Corbett gazed despairingly at Alice's face. Grey with fear, she was on the verge of fainting. The priest's dagger shifted towards her windpipe, leaving a red mark and a small bubble of blood where her throat had been nicked. Father Augustine was now talking as if to himself.
    'I tried,' he muttered. 'I really did try to stop the voices. I thought the love of a woman would help but she betrayed me, she became pregnant.' He raised his head and his lips curled. 'The stupid bitch wanted me to leave the priesthood.' He gazed at the hapless baker. 'You were welcome to the stupid sow!'
    'I loved her!' Fourbour whispered. 'You wicked, evil man! I really loved her!'
    Corbett pressed Fourbour back into his seat. He shook his head imperceptibly at Ranulf and Catchpole, both of whom were tense, waiting for his signal. The priest glanced at Selditch, but the physician's trembling and sweat-soaked face showed he was no fighting man.
    'Leave the woman!' Corbett pleaded.
    'Oh, I will!' The priest smiled. 'We'll go together, Corbett. Perhaps you deserve some of the treasure? Like me, you may have discovered its whereabouts, but I found it first.' His voice sounded like that of a spoilt child. 'Yes, I found it first. Those stupid, fat nuns! One day at Mass I couldn't believe my eyes. I stood at the altar and I saw a chalice from the treasure of King John!' He gazed round-eyed at Corbett as if expecting his approval. 'I knew then that my voices were correct. God was showing me, in His own way, that the treasure was really mine. My fingers itched to take that cup. I began my searches – of graves, of the Hermitage. And then that bastard Monck arrived! He thought he was so perceptive, but it was his servant I feared. The man went to Mass at the convent. He saw the chalice.'
    Alice – her eyes becoming glazed, the muscles of her face tense – was motionless with terror.
    'Release the woman, please!' Corbett begged.
    'I'll soon be finished and then I'll be gone,' Father Augustine told him. 'You see, Cerdic saw the chalice and he babbled like a child. He wanted to please his master, so he came to see me. He wanted to know more about the chalice and the voices told me to do it. I slit his throat. Whish!' The priest drew his finger across his throat. 'And what did I do then, clerk?'
    'I suppose you bundled the body on a horse and took it to a cove where there was a small boat and rowed down the coast to the beach beneath Hunstanton. You cut off the head and stuck it on a pole and slung the body on the beach just below the high-tide mark. The rising tide washed away your footprints and any sign that a boat had been beached.'
    Father Augustine nodded. 'Ingenious,' he murmured. 'I left the head upon a pole. I thought the Pastoureaux would take the blame. I climbed into the boat and rowed a little way out, watching the incoming sea smooth out the shingle and remove any signs that I had been there – though most of Cerdic's body remained dry.' He pointed at Corbett with his free hand. 'You should have died there. I watched you go out to the Hermitage. I heard how that rogue Master Joseph had taunted you. I took Amelia's perfume.' Father Augustine blinked. 'But we are wasting time. Come here, Sir Hugh, quickly! I'll soon let this bitch go!'
    Corbett walked around the table, touching Ranulf gently on the shoulders as a sign to stay still. The priest, however, saw