Oh, Ninian! Josse cried silently, but he did not speak; it was clear that the boy was only just managing to keep his composure and tell his tale and sympathy might make him break down and be unable to continue.
‘They- I heard more chanting, and then Stephen screamed and it was cut off suddenly, as if they’d stuffed something in his mouth. I could still hear him, though — a sort of terrified moan that suddenly went really high- pitched, as if he was hurting badly. Then there was a crash and a sudden brilliant flare of red light. All the knights started to cheer. I heard them stamping their feet up there, making a sort of rhythmic pattern; then one of them started to come down the stairs and I knew he was coming for me.’
Josse could only begin to imagine the lad’s terror. De Loup, you shall answer for this, he thought grimly. Whatever it takes, you’ll die for what you did.
‘But then all at once lots of things happened very quickly,’ Ninian said. He shot a quick glance at Josse and then lowered his eyes. ‘It was all a bit of a muddle and I’m not quite sure about the details. Anyway, before I knew it I was wrapped up in a big cloak. This cloak.’ He pointed to the one they were sitting on. ‘Someone — it must have been Sir Piers — took the manacle off my wrist and carried me outside. I heard him shouting something about the horses and then I was thrown up on to a huge horse and he got up behind me. I pushed the hood aside and we were galloping as fast as the wind, racing across to the lee side of the island where a little boat was waiting with a man beside it. They — he and Sir Piers — pushed the boat through the surf into the sea and we all leaped in. The man rowed us out to a ship that was standing offshore. The ship set sail as soon as we were on board — well, not the man who rowed the boat — and in the evening of the next day it dropped us at La Rochelle.’
‘Then what happened?’
‘Sir Piers and I set off for Chartres. Sir Piers had something with him that he said had to be left there. It was meant to go in the new cathedral.’
‘Meant to?’ Josse repeated.
‘Yes.’ Ninian gave him a slightly guilty smile. ‘Only Sir Piers said we mustn’t leave it there because everything was different now. I didn’t understand what he meant, although something had really upset him and I was worried, because I like him. He’s a kind man and I was happy to serve him. Anyway, because I wanted to help him, if he said we had to bring the thing safely back to England, then that was good enough for me and I did what I could to help.’
‘And where exactly is this thing now?’
Ninian was watching him closely. A smile began to form on his lips. ‘You already know, don’t you?’ he said. ‘You found it — or rather, that pretty girl did. You keep putting it away in the abbess’s room, but that’s wrong, Sir Josse. She’s meant to be out here in the forest. She’s much too powerful to be shut up in a cupboard.’
After a while, Josse said, ‘What do you want me to do, Ninian? If Philippe de Loup has, as I suspect, followed you and Sir Piers back to England-’
‘Oh, he has,’ Ninian said. ‘Although it’s not so much us he’s after as what we brought with us.’ Then his face fell and he said, ‘He attacked Sir Piers and tried to cut his throat. I hit him with a big, heavy stick and he sort of collapsed, but I’m afraid I didn’t hit him hard enough because he managed to get up and ride off. I think he thought Sir Piers was dead. I got him on to his horse — Sir Piers, I mean — and left him at the abbey gates.’ He eyed Josse anxiously. ‘Is he still alive?’ he whispered.
‘Aye, lad, or he was when I set out this morning.’ Josse tried to sound reassuring. ‘But why did you not come in? They’re good people at the abbey and they would have helped you. They’d have hidden you from de Loup.’
‘Yes, I know.’ Ninian smiled slightly. ‘The nuns hid me once before, remember?’
Josse smiled too, for the image was irresistible; the resourceful Sister Caliste had dressed the young Ninian up as a nun and pretended to be teaching him how to sew. ‘Aye,’ he said softly.
‘I couldn’t come in,’ Ninian said. ‘I had her to look after, and she wants to be in the forest.’
‘Her…?’ With a slight shock, Josse realized that he meant the figure. ‘She doesn’t want to be within the abbey walls?’
‘No! I keep telling you!’
‘Very well,’ Josse said soothingly. He grinned. ‘I’d better stop returning her to the abbess’s cupboard, then.’ Ninian grinned fleetingly in response. ‘Shall I take you to the abbey now? It’s safe there and-’
‘No, Sir Josse.’ Ninian spoke with a firm and undeniable authority and suddenly Josse remembered who had fathered him. Good grief, and didn’t it show. Fleetingly he wondered if Ninian knew. ‘I cannot go to Hawkenlye because I have to stay in the forest. It’s… it’s sort of where I belong and I feel secure out here.’
‘Where do you sleep?’ Josse asked. A thought struck him: perhaps he wasn’t the only one visiting Joanna’s clearing. ‘In the little hut?’ he asked gently.
‘No.’ Ninian stared down at his boots. ‘It’s my mother’s place. I know that. But she isn’t there any more. I’ve looked and looked and I can’t find her, and I… well, I don’t want to be there without her.’
‘I know, lad,’ Josse murmured.
‘I’ve been using the house,’ the boy went on, and Josse could hear the effort it took to move away from the emotional subject of his mother. ‘You know, the house in the woods where we were all together, her and you and me. It belonged to her and so I suppose that it now belongs to me.’
Belonged. Oh, dear God. ‘Do you think…? Ninian, what’s happened to your mother? Do you know?’
Ninian’s blue eyes were wet with tears. Staring at Josse, he said, ‘I think she’s dead.’
Twelve
It was only with grave misgivings that Josse left the boy out in the forest. He walked some of the way back to the house with him, and then Ninian said he preferred to go on alone. ‘I’d better be quick,’ he said. ‘It’s past the time I usually see to my horse.’
Trying to mask his fear for the lad, Josse said lightly, ‘You used to have a pony called Minstrel.’
Ninian’s face lit up. ‘Fancy you remembering that! Minstrel came with me when I went to Sir Walter’s, but I’m much too big for him now.’ It was said with a touching note of pride. ‘The youngest pages ride him. He’s old and a bit slow, and they can’t come to any harm.’
‘Aye,’ Josse said absently. Sir Walter. That would be Sir Walter Asham, the knight with whom Josse had placed Ninian when Joanna had abandoned the outside world and gone to live in the forest. It was, as she had said at the time, no life for a boy like Ninian, who had such rare and noble blood in his veins.
‘And then I got the horse I have now, and he’s called Garnet because his coat is reddish chestnut, and- Josse, you’re not listening!’
‘I am!’ Josse protested. Then, for the piercing blue eyes gave the impression that they saw all too clearly, ‘Well, I heard the last bit. I was thinking about Sir Walter. Ninian, why did you not go to him for help when Sir Piers was attacked? His manor is only some twenty miles from here. Did you not know the way?’
‘Of course I did! Josse, I couldn’t — it would have been like abandoning Sir Piers and I had been commanded to serve him, so that wouldn’t have been right at all.’
Josse was thinking ahead. ‘But you will go back to Sir Walter when
… er, when this matter has been settled?’
Ninian stared at him for a long moment. Then his eyes slid away. ‘I don’t know,’ he muttered.
‘But you’re in the middle of your training! Your mother intended you to have the upbringing that prepares a man for the life of a knight and she-’
‘My mother is no longer here,’ Ninian said coldly. ‘It is now up to me to decide the course of my life.’ His hard gaze softened. ‘I’m sorry, Josse. I did not mean to be rude. I have to protect the statue, you see, and I can’t really look beyond that at the moment.’
‘Aye, I understand.’ Josse looked down into the intent face. You won’t go back to your old life, lad, he thought in a sudden flash of insight. I can’t see clearly what you’ll do instead, but it won’t be what your mother believed was right for you.
‘Josse?’ Ninian was looking anxiously at him. ‘Is something the matter?’
‘No, of course not.’ Josse forced a laugh.
They were now quite close to the house in the woods where Ninian was living. ‘Go back to the abbey,’ Ninian said. ‘I’m quite all right. I like it here,’ he added.
