well aware that Josse had been very wary of those who stalked the runaway monk. If any of them were lurking nearby, it was better to be safe than sorry.
They moved slowly up the long slope that led to the forest.
The small party set out from Joanna’s hut mid-morning. She had administered another light dose of painkiller and the two men said they were more than capable of carrying their own saddles.
‘Very well,’ Joanna had said, ‘but all the same Meggie and I will come with you to the forest fringes.’
Josse did not want that. The remaining Frankish mercenary was out there somewhere. Even if he had not come near the hut last night, it did not mean he would not attack today. Joanna seemed to have picked up his fear for her safety and she had summoned a friend to care for Meggie.
Josse was relieved. ‘I cannot persuade you to remain here too?’ he said.
She smiled. ‘I know the forest even better than you do, Josse. I’ll take you to the outside world along paths nobody else knows. It’ll be all right.’
There was no changing her mind. He kissed Meggie, told her he would see her soon, nodded a greeting to Joanna’s friend Lora and then they set off.
He regretted the weight of Horace’s saddle and bridle before they had gone a mile, and from the set expression on John Damianos’s face, guessed he felt the same. Joanna was leading the way. Josse recognized that it was a very roundabout route to the Abbey, which must lie over to the north-east. Still, if she kept them safe, then an extra few miles was well worth it, even carrying a saddle.
Presently they came to an area of woodland that he thought he knew and with huge relief he realized they were not much more than half a mile from the open ground where the forest gave way just above the Abbey. He called out softly, ‘Joanna? May we rest?’
She turned round, looking quickly at him and then at John. ‘Of course. I am sorry; I have been pushing the pace and I should have had more consideration for your hurts.’ She handed a water bottle to Josse, who drank deeply and passed it to John. ‘We are almost at the edge of the forest,’ she said encouragingly, ‘and already back on the better-known paths, so we should make haste.’
John gave a grimace as he hefted up his saddle again. Josse caught his eye. ‘Not far. Good news, eh?’
John nodded. Then they fell into step behind Joanna and set off once more.
Helewise and Paradisa had caught up with the lay brothers on the edge of the trees. Augustus was bending down and examining the long grass, Saul beside him. The other brothers were staring ahead into the shadowy forest, cudgels in their hands.
Helewise heard voices.
One was Josse’s; she recognized his deep tones and relief flooded through her. Oh, thank you, thank you! If he was talking, he wasn’t dying.
Thank God!
The other voice was female and belonged to Joanna. Helewise narrowed her eyes and tried to make them out. There appeared to be someone else with them. It was a man, and he wore an enveloping, hooded dark robe. Was it John Damianos? Or was it the runaway monk? With his hood drawn up, she could not see his face and did not know if he was a Westerner or a Saracen.
The trio passed out from the narrow path between the trees and into a clearing. They were close enough now to have seen the search party, had any of them thought to look. Josse and the other man seemed to be carrying saddles and bridles… Of course, she thought; their horses had already had their tack removed when they ran off.
Paradisa was staring intently at the second man. Then, before Helewise could stop her, she had leapt over the low bank that marked the edge of the forest and was running along the track towards the clearing.
The man had seen her. Flinging down the saddle, he raced to meet her. They met in the middle of the clearing and were instantly wound in each other’s arms. A beam of sunshine penetrated the low cloud and shone down into the glade as if its sole purpose was to illuminate them.
That, said Helewise to herself, just has to be Brother Ralf.
Smiling, affected by their evident joy, she walked on into the glade. Josse and Joanna were entering it from the opposite side. In that happy moment danger seemed irrelevant. Helewise had forgotten all about it and so, it seemed, had everyone else.
But danger was still there.
The Frankish mercenary known simply as William was watching. He had an arrow to the bow and the young man in the hooded robe was in his sights. He knew who he was. He knew he had robbed the great Leo Rubenid Anavarza of his bride. William had a mission; he had lost his colleague and his friend but he could not return to his master all those long miles away unless he had the woman with him. He stared at Leo Rubenid’s bride. In order to take her he would have to kill the man.
Slowly he lowered the bow. Even had he killed the young man — and he did not doubt that he could — there was little point, for the big knight who had slain poor Tancred was just behind him. There were also two more women in the clearing, one of them a nun, and six monks armed with stout sticks.
The odds were too great.
Stealthily, he crept away.
Twenty
Helewise did not see Joanna go. One minute she was standing just behind Josse, then when she looked again she had gone. She has been caring for them, Helewise thought. They were wounded and she tended them and sheltered them during the night. She knew that she should be thankful for Joanna’s skill but just then gratitude was not the foremost of her emotions.
She instructed two of the lay brothers to relieve Josse and Brother Ralf of the heavy tack and then she led the company down the long slope to the Abbey. Paradisa and her lover had their heads close together and were talking urgently in low voices. The young man had not yet been presented to Helewise but she knew it was not the moment to stand on ceremony, for both he and Josse had walked all the way from Joanna’s hut, wherever that might be, and they were exhausted. She led them in through the Abbey gates, where Sister Martha and Sister Ursel, the porteress, came out to greet them. Sister Martha had tears in her eyes as she squeezed Josse’s hand.
They went on to the infirmary.
Helewise realized that it would cause uproar if Josse’s companion were put anywhere near Thibault and Brother Otto and so, with a look at Sister Euphemia, who nodded her understanding, Helewise led him and Josse to the recess at the far end of the long ward. Sister Euphemia saw her new patients inside then, drawing the curtains, turned to Helewise and Paradisa and said firmly, ‘I will care for them now. My lady Abbess, they must be stripped of their soiled garments and bathed, then we will see to their hurts. When we have finished’- there was a slight emphasis on when — ‘I will send word.’
The infirmarer evidently did not think such tasks were fit for any woman except a professional healer. Helewise hid her amusement. ‘Very well, Sister,’ she said. She glanced at Paradisa, who was fuming. ‘Come, Paradisa.’ Helewise turned it into a command. Turning, she walked away. After a moment she heard Paradisa’s footsteps following behind her.
‘It isn’t fair!’ the young woman burst out as she and Helewise stepped into the open air. ‘He and I have cared for each other for two years and a thousand miles! There is little that I haven’t done for him or he for me.’
‘I do not doubt it,’ Helewise said soothingly. ‘But now you are at Hawkenlye Abbey and you must do as everyone else does and abide by its rules.’
‘Which I don’t suppose include women intimately tending their lovers in the infirmary?’ There was a faint smile on Paradisa’s face.
‘No, they do not.’ Helewise tried to keep a straight face. ‘Come with me, young Paradisa. We shall go and say a prayer of thanks that these beloved men are safe, and then you shall come with me on my rounds and meet my nuns.’ Paradisa hesitated. ‘Do not worry,’ Helewise added gently, ‘Sister Euphemia knows she must send word the instant we are permitted to see them.’
With that, Paradisa had to be satisfied. She fell into step beside Helewise and together they went into the
