Euphemia, this is Ella, who is in charge of my kitchen at New Winnowlands.’ Ella was staring up at the infirmarer, awestruck, and now she gave a bob curtsey. ‘Ella, Sister Euphemia here and her nursing nuns will be able to help you.’
‘What ails you, Ella?’ Sister Euphemia asked gently; she must, Josse noted, have picked up Ella’s fear and chronic shyness and she had turned from a large, confident and sometimes overbearing woman into a soft-spoken soul whose only wish was to soothe and to comfort.
To be able to change one’s very essence so swiftly and seamlessly was, he reflected, quite a talent.
‘Ella has-’ he began.
But with a smile Sister Euphemia shook her head. ‘Thank you, Sir Josse, but I would prefer it if she told me herself,’ she said.
Then, without a backward glance from either of them, the infirmarer and her shy companion walked away to one of the curtained recesses and disappeared from sight. Josse stared after them and wondered just what to do next.
He found Will waiting for him outside the infirmary.
‘Ella’s being cared for,’ Josse said. ‘By the infirmarer herself, who is very good at reassuring those who are disturbed. Don’t worry, Will, we’ll soon have our Ella back again and restored to her usual self.’ Will muttered something under his breath. ‘Go and get yourself something to eat,’ Josse ordered. ‘Over there — ’ he pointed — ‘you’ll find the refectory, and they serve food to those who ask. Tell them you’re with me,’ he added, unable to prevent the instant of pride.
Will suppressed a grin. ‘Right you are, sir,’ he said. Then, turning to go: ‘You’ll be off to see the lady Abbess, no doubt.’
‘I-’ But the protest never came. It was exactly where Josse was going.
Will’s smile was wider now. ‘See you later, sir.’ With what might well have been a wink, he turned and was gone.
Slowly Josse walked across the open space to the cloister, at the end of which Abbess Helewise had her little room. Tapping on the door, he heard her low ‘Come in’ and opened the door.
She looked as delighted to see him as she always did.
‘Sir Josse,’ she exclaimed, getting up and striding around her wide oak table, ‘you have come back! What can we do for you?’
‘It’s not me, it’s my servant Ella,’ he said hastily. ‘She’s given herself a bad fright and we just can’t get her out of her terror.’
‘How dreadful for her! What on earth happened?’
‘We had a stranger staying with us at New Winnowlands. He came to us asking for work, although he looked so sickly and weak that I didn’t reckon there was much he could have done. Anyway, we offered him an outbuilding to sleep in and we fed him up a bit.’ He was aware of her nod of approval and it warmed him. ‘It was odd, because for all he ate everything put before him, still he did not seem to grow any stronger. Instead of getting up in the mornings, he kept to his bed and slept for most of each day.’
‘What was the matter with him?’ asked the Abbess. ‘Oh, Sir Josse, it wasn’t some frightful sickness…?’
‘No, my lady, I am sure, for no sick man ever ate like our stranger.’
‘Go on,’ she commanded. ‘What happened to scare Ella so badly?’
‘She was intrigued as to why he slept all day,’ Josse explained, ‘and I guess she imagined he might be up to some secret nocturnal task. Anyway, she got up one night and went to see for herself and she discovered he wasn’t there.’
‘Did that not serve only to confirm her suspicions?’
‘So you’d have thought,’ Josse agreed ruefully, ‘but unfortunately she made up her mind that our stranger was some sort of malevolent spirit who hid from the light and emerged by night to do whatever such entities do.’
‘Had she any reason to believe the man was malevolent?’ asked the Abbess.
Josse shrugged. ‘If so, she has not revealed it.’
The Abbess was studying him closely. ‘Have you?’
Josse considered the question. ‘I don’t know,’ he said slowly. ‘He’s a mystery, that’s for sure — I’m pretty certain he’s been brought back from Outremer and abandoned, for he looks, acts and for the most part speaks like a foreigner. That’s really what prompted me to take him in, my lady — too many returning crusaders use a man they’ve engaged out East for as long as it pleases them, only to kick him out once they’re home with their own servants again.’
‘I see,’ she said. Then: ‘And this strange guest of yours has definitely gone?’
‘Aye. Vanished into the night, taking everything he owns with him.’
‘If it is indeed true that he is engaged upon some clandestine mission,’ she said thoughtfully, ‘then could it be that Ella’s sudden interest caused him to flee?’
‘Just what I thought,’ Josse agreed. ‘I visualized him on the point of setting out, then spotting Ella tiptoeing across the yard to spy on him. Fearful that she’d report back to me, he ran.’
‘Yet you say he took all his belongings with him,’ she pointed out. ‘Does that not suggest to you that he was planning to leave anyway, even before he saw Ella going out to check up on him?’
He rubbed a hand across his jaw. ‘Aye,’ he acknowledged gruffly. ‘Aye, it does.’
She smiled suddenly. ‘Sir Josse, does it matter? You did what you could for him, and it appears you helped him recover his strength. The important thing now is to make Ella see that her fears were unfounded; that this mystery man was no more than a stranger whom you took in and saw on his way. If we here at Hawkenlye can achieve that, we can call the matter closed.’ He did not answer. ‘Yes?’
He looked up and met her eyes. There was, he detected, the beginnings of amusement in her expression. ‘Suppose so,’ he muttered.
‘Excellent!’ she cried. ‘Now, you have had a long ride in the cold — let me order some refreshments.’
Ella remained closeted with the infirmarer for most of the afternoon and by the time she emerged — smiling shyly up at Will, who was waiting for her — it was too late to set out for New Winnowlands. Josse and Will were offered accommodation with the monks down in the Vale and one of the nursing nuns said she would prepare a shakedown bed for Ella in the infirmary.
In the morning Will was up early to ready the mounts. Josse, who had been enjoying a chat with Brother Augustus while he finished his breakfast, followed him a little later up to the Abbey to seek out Ella, who was making herself useful in the infirmary by helping Sister Caliste take food and drinks to the bed-bound patients.
Will brought out the horses and Josse went to say farewell to the Abbess. He, Will and Ella had already mounted up and were setting out through the gates when Josse heard the sound of hurrying hooves. He drew rein, waiting.
A horse and rider came into sight from the direction of the forest. The horse was pushed to its limits and, despite the chill morning air, sweating. The rider was white in the face and looked shocked and sick.
Josse slid off Horace’s back, handing the reins to Will. Stepping forward, he went to meet the rider as he pulled his horse to a skidding halt at the gates.
‘Is this Hawkenlye Abbey?’ the man shouted. He was young — little more than a boy — and the poor quality of his garments compared with the splendour of his horse suggested that the animal was not his usual mount.
Laying aside the instant suspicion that this lad might be a horse thief, Josse put a hand on the horse’s bridle and said, ‘Aye, this is Hawkenlye.’
‘Oh, thank God!’ The lad all but fell from the saddle, stumbled and would have collapsed but for Josse’s supporting arm. ‘It’s terrible! I’ve never seen anything so ghastly in all my born days, and that’s a fact!’ His eyes were wide with horror and Josse smelt vomit on his breath. ‘It fair turned my stomach and I don’t normally quake at the sight of blood.’ His pallor increased and Josse stepped back just in time as the lad threw up on the frosty grass.
A small crowd had gathered. Sister Martha, frowning and with her pitchfork in her hand, stood beside Ella, who was mounted on the mule; Brother Saul and Brother Augustus, who had come to see Josse’s party on their way, stepped forward. In the background the Abbess was walking slowly towards the source of the commotion, eyebrows raised.
Josse nodded at Augustus who, understanding, took charge of the lad’s horse. Then Josse put an arm around
