The Faithful Dead — Alys Clare

An elderly pilgrim dies in Hawkenlye Vale. There's nothing suspicious about that: he was gravely ill when he arrived.

Meanwhile Josse d'Acquin has a visit from Prince John, accompanied by his seer, and urgently seeking news of a mysterious stranger. Hurrying to Hawkenlye Abbey to enlist the Abbess Helewise's help, Josse finds that she has a problem of her own: a decomposing body has been discovered. Naked, and killed by an expert hand.

Then Josse's brother Yves arrives; a visitor has been asking for the brothers' father, dead these many years. Josse,Yves and the Abbess are hurled into a mystery whose roots stretch back much further than the Second Crusade. And watching them all the while with his strange dark eyes is the enigmatic figure of the Prince's Magister...