about him Eadulf believed Egric to be dead. It is also revealed in the same novel that Eadulf's mother died from ergot poisoning when Eadulf was fifteen and that his father died from the Yellow Plague three years later. In the novel Absolution by Murder, which is set during the Synod of Whitby, Brother Eadulf was part of the deputation from Canterbury to the Synod, where he met Sister Fidelma for the first time. After the Synod's conclusion, both joined a party to Rome. After the events of Shroud for the Archbishop in Rome, Fidelma returned to Ireland while Eadulf remained in Rome as secretary to the new Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore of Tarsus. Later, he was sent to Cashel as Theodore's emissary and was reunited with Fidelma in The Subtle Serpent. After the events of that novel, he returned to Cashel with Fidelma and in subsequent novels they became almost inseparable companions and collaborators. Eadulf and Fidelma's intellectual and personal relationship develops throughout the series, despite another separation in which Eadulf (reluctantly and partly at Fidelma's insistence) intended to return to Canterbury. However, he almost never made it back to Britain, as at the Abbey of Fearna he was charged with rape and murder and almost hanged (a predicament from which it seemed that Fidelma would be unable to rescue him). Eadulf convinced Fidelma to accompany him to Canterbury, and after concluding his business with Archbishop Theodore, he returned to Ireland with Fidelma. In 667, they entered into a trial marriage of a year and a day, during which their son Alchu was born. In February 668, Eadulf and Fidelma celebrated a permanent marriage (see A Prayer for the Damned). Unfortunately, as time passed, Eadulf's devotion to the world of the Faith began to clash with Fidelma's growing ambition to pursue a secular life devoted to the law. A serious emotional and physical breach was made between them when Fidelma announced her decision to renounce her religious vows and Eadulf sadly realized that he could not change her mind (see The Dove of Death and The Chalice of Blood). The Chalice of Blood concluded with Fidelma telling Eadulf that she had made her decision about her future and now he must come to a decision about his own, which he did ... accepting her decision and supporting her, but still remaining a Brother. Tremayne uses Brother Eadulf's status as