‘Perhaps we could find a more comfortable place to talk, or is the custom of hospitality absent in this part of the world?’
Marban stared angrily at her for a moment and then pointed to some large sheds to which some of the workers were hurrying as the misty rain turned into heavier drops.
‘Your … escort,’ he indicated Gormán, ‘can shelter your horses in the stable there. We can speak in the mill.’
Eadulf turned and hurried back to Gormán with the instruction before rejoining Fidelma and the miller in the interior of the mill. It was gloomy but warm and the atmosphere was heavy with the dust of ground corn. The miller indicated a bench for them to be seated on before he perched himself on the bottom of a stairway that led to an upper floor.
‘Escmug is dead,’ he repeated heavily. ‘What would you want to know about him?’
‘You were related to him, so I am told.’
‘Since you know, why ask?’
‘I ask in order to confirm it. We can either make this easy or spend the day, longer if you like, extracting replies.’ Suddenly Fidelma’s voice had grown brittle, threatening. ‘You know the penalties for not answering the questions of a dálaigh or for not answering them truthfully? Now, is it so?’
The miller shifted his body uncomfortably. ‘It is. He was my elder brother. I was not close to him, nor did I ever want to be. If you must know, I hated him. He only saw me when he needed help, and I grew tired of giving it to him.’
‘Didn’t he have a good business on the river?’
‘When he was sober enough, which was hardly ever. He was a brute of a man. He beat his wife and his child and neglected them both. When they were alive, it was the only reason that I offered to help him – for their sakes.’
‘You speak of his wife and child as dead.’
‘They are all dead now. Escmug’s body was found in the river.’
‘And his wife?’
‘Liamuin? She had run away from his ill-treatment and was reported dead. Why she ever consented to wed him, I don’t know.’
‘Tell me something about her.’
‘Her father was Ledbán, who was the stableman to the lord Codlata at the Ford of Flagstones which is just north of here. When Ledbán’s wife died of the Yellow Plague he entered the Abbey of Mungairit where his son was the physician.’
‘So Brother Lennán was brother to Liamuin?’
It was now Marban’s turn to look surprised. ‘You know the story?’
‘We were at Mungairit a few days ago. We saw Ledbán. He died while we were there.’
Marban let out a long sigh. ‘He was old and made older by the fate of his family. His wife died of the Yellow Plague, his son was slain at Cnoc Áine while nursing the wounded, and his daughter … his daughter married a beast like Escmug. No wonder Ledbán sought tranquillity in Mungairit. If gossip is to be believed, I think his lord, Codlata, also sought refuge there.’
‘Why would Codlata seek refuge in Mungairit?’ asked Eadulf, intrigued.
‘He was a nephew and steward to Prince Eoganán, and commanded a company of his warriors at Cnoc Áine,’ replied the miller. ‘Many of Eoganán’s family sought ways of protecting themselves after the defeat.’
Eadulf cast a thoughtful glance at Fidelma but she was concentrating on other matters.
‘Tell me more about Liamuin.’
‘She was an attractive girl. I could not believe that she would be fascinated by such a beast as Escmug, even though he was my own brother.’
‘The attraction between a man and woman is one of the great mysteries of the world,’ Eadulf remarked.
The miller nodded. ‘Is it not an old saying that the three most incomprehensible things in the world are the labour of bees, the ebb and flow of the tide and the mind of a woman – begging your pardon, lady.’
‘So the wedding did not meet with the approval of Liamuin’s family?’
‘Everyone was unhappy. They all hated Escmug.’
‘But Escmug was your own brother.’
‘In every litter there is usually one who turns out bad.’
‘And that was Escmug? But he and Liamuin had a child.’
‘Aibell? A sad child, indeed. When Liamuin left Escmug, and not before time, the poor girl had to endure her father’s wrath until finally, she too disappeared.’
‘So what happened to Escmug?’
‘His body was found lodged in a beaver dam on the river.’
‘We have heard that he might have been murdered,’ Eadulf said.
Marban gave another of his eloquent shrugs. ‘Some thought that being the man he was, perhaps he was helped to depart to the Otherworld,’ he said. ‘If so, no one mourned his passing.’