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on the subject of celibacy. I think he never revealed that Ellen
was the murderer because he saw the act as just retribution. My
vision of Fridaye de Schipedham just brought all that to the fore
of my mind finally. He reminded me of the temptations of the
flesh, and I saw an image of de Langetoft and Ellen.
Ann asked him if he believed that Fridaye de Schipedham had
actually been present, or if it had been an apparition. He smiled.
 I shall never know. Did he project his body across the bay to
put me on the right track? Or did I conjure him up in my own
imagination from facts that were already hidden there? My vanity
says the latter, but &  He shook his head.  I am used to dealing
with truths, and logic. Everyone up there seemed contaminated
with a sense of the unreal. I mean, how could Ellen kill someone
she loved so easily?
Ann gritted her teeth, stared at her exasperating companion,
and muttered that she would find it quite simple. If Falconer
heard and understood, he feigned not to have done so. She began
to raise the question of her own logical powers, but William cut
her off again.
 I hear that Nicholas de Ewelme has been appointed chancellor
of the university. I am not surprised that Henry de Cicestre did
not last long  de Cantilupe ran rings round him over that business
at Christmas.
Falconer was referring to Thomas de Cantilupe s recent
subterfuge in sending the then chancellor on a wild goose chase
after a sick relative. A ruse which left the former chancellor de
Cantilupe in a position to benefit personally from the arrival of
the King in Oxford for the Christmas festivities. De Cantilupe
had engineered his own advancement, despite being tangled up
in a murder that had taken place before the very eyes of the
King.
 I was fond of de Cantilupe  he was a worthy adversary. I wonder
if de Ewelme can replace him?
Ann s patience gave way at last. Subsiding under a deluge of
tender blows from her fists, Falconer wondered what he had done
wrong. Did not ladies prefer a diet of tittle-tattle? Rather than
losing her temper anew, Ann decided to play up to William s view
of women, and in a pretty, simpering tone pandered to his vanity.
 I have a little puzzle that you should find simple to solve.
173
He raised a quizzical eyebrow. Was there any doubt that he
could solve it easily, and he the Regent Master in Aristotelian
Logic? So she told him of the murder in the locked nunnery of
Godstow. How she had at first been led to believe it was the
abbess in a fit of religious fervour who had killed Sister Eleanor.
But then she had learned the gatekeeper was up to his old tricks
of letting people into the nunnery for money. And that one of
those visitors had been a sister Eleanor did not have. That had
put a different complexion on things. Before she could finish,
Falconer cut in.
 Ah, I see. The  sister that visited her was really Eleanor s
former lover, this Thomas & 
 Thubbs.
 Thubbs. And he killed her because she had rejected him.
Ann clapped her hands with glee. She had defeated the great
William Falconer after all.
 No, no. Why should Thomas kill her? He had found her again,
and had visited her several times in the guise of her sister. He
was a slim and peach-faced boy, so it was easy for him to
dissemble. Especially as the gatekeeper is as purblind as a regent
master of my acquaintance. Falconer winced.  I know he had
visited her often, because the same gatekeeper admitted so.
Though he still thought it was a girl he was admitting, and no
harm done.
 No, Eleanor did not reject him. It was Gilda who was rejected.
The poor misguided child interpreted Eleanor s friendliness as
more than what it was. When she caught Eleanor with Thomas,
she was devastated, waited until he had gone, and accosted
Eleanor in the cloister. I am told Eleanor could be quite haughty,
and no doubt her response to Gilda s professions of affection
drove Gilda to the same extreme action as Ellen Shokburn. She
drowned her in a few inches of water.
Falconer sadly shook his head.  And what is to become of her?
 I don t know. When I told the abbess what I believed had
happened, she closed up as tight as the gates of the nunnery. I
left as fast as I could or I might be there still, and Peter cannot
now gain entry. The Church will resolve its own affairs in its own
way, no doubt.
There was a long silence as both pondered on the fate of the
unhappy Sister Gilda. Ann was the first to break it.
 By the way. You never explained how the attacks on you fitted
with Ellen s being the murderer. You said she could not have
174
attacked you the night the hermit came to your rescue, because
she was at the ironworks despatching the camerarius. But could
she have loosened the stopper on the furnace?
 She could have, but it must have been the same person both
times  I don t have all that many enemies.
He grinned at his feeble joke. But suddenly Ann thought of her
husband s long absence, his sense of failure, and his refusal to
talk of where he had been, and her face paled.
175
COMPLINE
Strike dumb the lying lips,
Which speak with contempt against the righteous,
In pride and arrogance.
Psalm 31
Epilogue
enry Ussher, his ambition spent, resigned his post of prior
Hof Conishead and eked out his last days in a solitary cell in
Northumberland, far from the place he had so poorly run. John
Whitehed also revoked his position as sacrist, and did penance
for his misdeed by labouring beside the lay brothers in the fields.
Ralph Westerdale was unanimously elected prior, and under his
governance the priory prospered. There were no more visitors to
the rather depleted library.
Thady Lamport garnered a reputation as a seer due to his wild
pronouncements. His sustenance was provided by grateful, if
perhaps gullible, pilgrims to his cave. One day, someone visited
his cave to find him gone. Locally, it is said that a cloud-ship
took him up into the sky.
John Shokburn continued his work as guide across Lancaster
Bay  a tradition that continues to this day.
In Oxford, nothing is recorded of Ann Segrim s life. She no
doubt lived many years in happy obscurity. Godstow Nunnery
was again the subject of a severe revision of its conduct by Bishop
Gary in 1434, and did not survive the Dissolution of the
Monasteries.
Peter Bullock died a warrior s death as he might have wished.
His soldier s instinct deserted him for once, and he stepped in
the way of a rusty sword wielded by a student in the midst of a
pitched battle between northern and Welsh clerks. But not before
he was involved in many more mysteries unravelled by his friend
Regent Master William Falconer.
William Falconer was to have many further adventures,
occasioned by his insatiable curiosity. He is said to have returned
to travelling later in life, reaching as far as Cathay. He did finally
make contact again with his lifelong friend and mentor, Friar
Roger Bacon. He always regretted never recovering Bishop
Grosseteste s texts, especially De infinitate lucis, of which there
was no other mention in the records.
177
Other Medieval Mysteries from Ostara Publishing
Edward Marston The Wolves of Savernake
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Edward Marston The Ravens of Blackwater
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Edward Marston The Dragons of Archenfield
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Edward Marston The Lions of the North
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Edward Marston The Serpents of Harbledown
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Edward Marston The Stallions of Woodstock
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Edward Marston The Hawks of Delamere
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Edward Marston The Wildcats of Exeter
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Edward Marston The Owls of Gloucester
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Edward Marston The Elephants of Norwich
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Ian Morson Falconer s Crusade
ISBN: 978-1-906288-50-1
Ian Morson Falconer s Judgement
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