The Secret Dead: A Novella

I lowered my eyes. We both knew it was an empty threat; I had given him better cause to report me before this and he had not done so. But he wanted me to know that he was angry.

‘Forgive me, Brother,’ I murmured. ‘I was restless and needed a walk. When I saw you, I thought only to offer my assistance. I want every chance to learn. Is one of the servants ill? I could fetch and carry for you, if you let me observe the treatment.’

He did not reply immediately; only watched me with an unreadable expression, narrowed eyes glinting in the flame of the lantern. ‘You wish to learn, huh?’ He appeared to be weighing something up. After a moment, he stepped forward and gripped my upper arm so hard that I flinched away. His face loomed inches from mine, oddly intent; I could smell on his breath the ginger root he chewed to settle his stomach. ‘There is much you might learn tonight, and I could use another pair of hands. But listen to me, Fra Giordano. I have been good to you, have I not?’

I nodded eagerly, unsure where this was tending.

‘There are words you have spoken in my dispensary that anyone else would have reported instantly to the prior. Words that would lead you straight before the Father Inquisitor. I have let them pass, because I recognise in you a spirit of enquiry that, while yet undisciplined, is born not of rebellion but of a true desire for knowledge.’ He paused and sighed, passing the flat of his hand over his cropped hair. ‘In that you remind me of myself. That is why I have not reported you for voicing opinions that to others would fall barely short of heresy.’

I bowed my head. ‘And I am grateful for it. But—’

He held up a hand to pre-empt me and lowered his voice. ‘Then we are both agreed you owe me a debt of confidence. You could assist me tonight, but you must first swear that you will never speak of what you see to anyone, inside or outside these walls.’

My gut tightened with excitement as my thoughts raced ahead, trying to imagine what kind of medical emergency would demand such a level of secrecy. I stared at him.

‘I swear it. On my life.’

He peered into my face with that same fierce scrutiny, still holding my arm so tight that the next morning I would find a ring of violet bruises. Eventually it seemed he was satisfied. He gave a single curt nod and released his grip.

‘Wait here, then. I must go to the dispensary to collect my instruments and heat some water. If anyone should come by, make sure they don’t see you.’

‘Why don’t I come with you?’ I offered. ‘We could carry twice as much between us. Or, better still, they will surely have a fire in the servants’ dormitory – could we not heat a pail of water there? It would make sense to be closer to the patient.’

He made an aggressive gesture for me to be quiet. ‘The patient is not in there,’ he said, dropping his voice until I had to strain forward to catch his words. ‘If you are to work with me tonight, Bruno, there are two rules. You obey my every instruction, to the letter. And you ask no questions. Is that clear?’

I nodded. ‘But why can’t I come with you?’

‘Madonna santa!’ He threw up his hands and stooped to gather his pail. ‘Because, as far as anyone knows, you are tucked up in your bed dreaming of saints and angels. Now do as I ask.’

He disappeared into the dark, until all I could see was the small spark of his lantern bobbing across the garden in the direction of the convent buildings. Silence fell around me, punctuated only by familiar night sounds: the snort and stamp of a sleeping horse, the drawn-out cry of an owl, the relentless, one-note song of the cicadas. Further off, a whoop, followed by a gale of raucous laughter from the streets beyond the wall. I pressed myself into the shadows of the outbuildings and waited. Where was this mysterious patient, then, if not in the servants’ quarters? I glanced across to the door Fra Gennaro had locked behind him. In the storehouse? Why could he not be treated in the infirmary, like any other …

A sudden understanding flashed through me, flooding my veins with cold. This man must be an enemy of the state, someone it would not be politic for us to be seen helping. San Domenico had a reputation for fomenting resistance against the kingdom’s Spanish rulers; it was well known that the more rebellious among the Neapolitan barons met regularly in the convent’s great hall to discuss the form of that resistance, with the ready involvement of some eminent Dominicans. Perhaps this secret patient was a conspirator who had been wounded in the course of action against the Spanish. That would explain Fra Gennaro’s insistence that I ask no questions. Pleased by my own reasoning, I bunched my hands into fists beneath my robe and slid down against the wall of the storehouse to squat on my heels, bouncing with anticipation.

I recited psalms and sonnets to measure the time; another twenty minutes passed before Gennaro returned, with a bundle tied over his shoulder and carrying the full pail of water, steam rising from the cracks in its lid. I leapt up and hurried to take it from him; he nodded and paused to check all around before fitting the key to the padlock. As soon as we were inside, he secured the door again behind us.

He held up the lantern and turned slowly to reveal only an unremarkable room with stone walls and a paved floor. Wooden crates lined one wall; barrels were stacked against the back. A sound of scurrying overhead made me jump; I looked up and a fine dust filtered through between the planks that had been laid over the roof beams to partition the eaves into a loft space. A ladder led up to a closed hatch.

‘Only rats,’ Gennaro muttered. ‘Keep that light over here where I can see it.’

He gestured towards the furthest end of the room. At first I could not make out what he meant to show me, but as I drew closer with the lantern, I saw a wooden hatch set into the floor, the stones at the edges scraped clean where the crates concealing it had been moved away. The hatch was also held fast with a padlock. Gennaro selected another key from his belt, knelt and unfastened it. He paused with one hand on the iron ring and looked up at me, his eyes large and earnest in the flickering light.

‘Your oath, Bruno, that whatever you witness here will remain sealed in your heart as long as you breathe.’

I could have taken offence that my oath was not good enough the first time; instead I was too impatient to see what lay beneath the door. Goosebumps prickled along my arms. I swore again, on my life and all I held sacred, my right hand pressed over my heart. Fra Gennaro studied me for a long moment, then lifted the hatch and led the way down a flight of stone steps into an underground chamber.

The air was cooler here, with a taint of damp. Though I could see little at first, on peering harder I made out an arched ceiling and walls lined with stone. No sound came from the dense shadows further in, none of the jagged breathing you would expect from an injured man. A cold dread touched me: suppose the patient had died while Gennaro was fetching his instruments and I was waiting uselessly outside? But the infirmarian showed no sign of panic. He closed the hatch and slid a bolt across so that we could not be disturbed. Next he unwrapped an oil lamp from the pack he had brought and lit it carefully from the lantern. In the brighter glow I saw that the chamber was dominated by a sturdy table draped with a thick shroud, under which was laid the unmistakable outline of a human figure.

A strange fear took hold of me, somewhere under my ribs, constricting my breath. Gennaro removed his cloak and hung it on the back of the door, indicating that I should do the same. In its place he shrugged on a rough hessian smock, such as the servants wear, and over this a wide leather apron. Then he rolled up his sleeves, dipped his hands into the steaming water and rubbed them clean before opening the bag he had brought with him. In the lamplight I caught the flash of silver blades. The last item he extracted was a large hourglass, which he set upright on a box beside the table to allow the sand to settle. When he had assembled all the equipment to his satisfaction, he took one corner of the shroud in his hand and glanced at me.

‘Ready?’

I tried to swallow, but my throat had dried. I managed a nod, and he pulled back the sheet covering the body.

In the stillness I heard myself gasp aloud, though I had the presence of mind not to cry out. Stretched out on the table was the body of a young woman, about my own age, unmoving as a marble tomb. Her flesh was so unblemished that it seemed at first she might be merely sleeping; indeed, I dared to hope as much for the space of a heartbeat, until I looked more closely and saw in her face the unmistakable contortions of strangulation. It was clear, despite the bulging eyes, the protruding tongue and the discolouration of the face, that she must have been unusually beautiful, not very long ago. Her skin was pale and smooth, her dark hair flowed around her shoulders and her waist was small and neat, her hips narrow and her breasts full. Ripe bruises like shadow fingers formed a ring around her white throat.

‘By my reckoning,’ Gennaro said, turning over the hourglass, now brusque and businesslike, ‘we have about two and a half hours until Matins. There is no time to waste.’

So saying, he took a broad-bladed knife and slit the girl’s shift lengthways in one swift movement, from hem to neck, leaving the fabric to fall away either side. I tried to avert my eyes from the dark thatch of hair on her pubic mound, but it was difficult; I had not seen a woman’s body in three years. If Gennaro noticed my confusion and the colour rising to my cheeks, he was discreet enough not to mention it.

‘Who is she?’ I whispered, fixing my gaze on her feet. The soles were bare and dirty.

‘Beggar. Homeless. Come, hold that lantern closer.’ His reply came just a fraction too quick.

‘But – how does she come to be here?’ I blurted, forgetting my earlier promise.

‘She was found in the street by one of the night patrols and brought to me. They thought they might be in time to save her. Alas, they arrived too late.’