‘Her body was never recovered?’
‘No. Liamuin was never seen again.’
‘And did Escmug and Liamuin have any children?’
‘There was a girl, as I recall. Liamuin abandoned her, which supported the idea that her husband killed her, for it takes a strange woman to abandon her daughter. For a short time the girl lived with Escmug. He was a brute of a man and worked the girl from morning to sunset until one day, she suddenly took off. Some time later, Escmug’s body was found upriver from here. Again, there were rumours and stories. No one ever saw the girl again.’
‘Was it thought that the daughter had murdered her father?’ asked Fidelma.
‘Who would have blamed her, if she had? Whoever did it had made a mess of his head, or so the locals say. The daughter vanished as surely as the mother.’
‘Does any of Escmug’s family remain here?’
‘None that I can recall. But I will ask around …’ A bell interrupted him and he smiled at them. ‘That signifies that the waters in the dabach have been heated for your baths. So we will continue this conversation at the evening meal.’
It was some while later that Fidelma and Eadulf sat in the guest chamber they had been allotted. They had both bathed and changed and were awaiting the bell that would summon them to the feasting hall for the evening meal.
Eadulf was reflective. ‘So far as I can see, we have not learned much more than we knew before we started out. The girl, Aibell, seems to have told us the truth – except that she could have killed her father.’
‘I don’t believe she did. The father seems to have been killed just after he had taken the girl to sell her to Fidaig of the Luachra. Therefore, she was not free to do so.’
Eadulf acknowledged the point. ‘Yet there is a curious pattern emerging. We have learned that Ledbán had two children. One was Brother Lennán and the other one was Liamuin. Someone calling themselves Lennán attempts to kill your brother, shouting, “Remember Liamuin!” – the name of the real Lennán’s sister. Then Aibell, the daughter of Liamuin, finds herself in the hut used by the so-called Brother Lennán. Then the father of the real Brother Lennán and Liamuin is, so we think, smothered to stop him talking to us about his daughter. Then there is the matter of Ordan the merchant and his activities with the mysterious Adamrae. I have never encountered such confusion before.’
‘It is a puzzle, right enough,’ replied Fidelma calmly. ‘There is a relationship between all these matters, of that I am sure. The question is finding the common thread.’
A distant bell sounded and Eadulf rose to his feet. ‘Let’s hope the quality of the food in this place is good.’
There was a tap on the door and it swung open to admit a female servant. She was young, not more than twenty years, with fair skin, dark hair and pretty features.
‘I am to escort you to the feasting hall,’ she announced.
Eadulf was about to remark that they could have found the way, unaided, but Fidelma interrupted.
‘What is your name?’
‘Ciarnat, lady.’
‘How long have you served here, Ciarnat?’
‘Since I reached the age of choice at fourteen years, but my mother was one of the coic of this household so I have known no other place but Dún Eochair Mháigh.’
A coic was one of the professional cooks who served in the households of the nobles.
‘So you know this township well?’
‘I do, lady. I was born and raised here.’
‘Do you remember a girl called Aibell, the daughter of Escmug? You look about the same age.’
A troubled look crossed the girl’s features. ‘I knew her,’ she said quietly. ‘She was my best friend, once.’
‘Once?’
‘She and her father left here and never came back. Her father was found murdered. I fear she might have killed him.’
‘What makes you think so?’ asked Fidelma.
‘Her father was a wicked man who used to beat her. He also beat her mother before she ran away. The local people say that he killed her mother.’
The bell rang again with more persistence and the girl raised her head with a fearful look.
‘The evening meal, lady. I will get into trouble unless I take you there at once.’
‘That’s all right, Ciarnat,’ Fidelma reassured her. ‘We will come with you. But tell me, is there any of Aibell’s family still living in these parts?’
The girl hesitated then said, ‘Her uncle is Marban – he is a saer-muilinn.’
‘A millwright?’ asked Eadulf. ‘Where would we find him?’