He realized Ninian was watching him closely. ‘What is it?’
Ninian smiled. ‘They are not really my kin, Josse,’ he said gently. ‘I’m only your adopted son, remember?’
Josse waved a hand, momentarily unable to speak. He had quite forgotten. He drew Ninian to him, taking him in his arms. Very quietly, he said, ‘There is somewhere else, too.’ And he told Ninian what Gervase had said.
He hugged the young man once more, then let him go. He strode away to the edge of the valley and turned his back. He heard Meggie’s soft voice, speaking some urgent reminder to her half brother. Then she came to stand beside him.
For rather longer, he listened to the quiet sobbing of Little Helewise and the gentle tones of Ninian as he tried to comfort her.
Finally, she, too, came to join them.
They all turned and saw Ninian, already mounted on Garnet, one hand raised in farewell. He put his heels to Garnet’s sides, and the horse went up the slope out of the valley. For a few moments they heard the thud of his hooves as Ninian kicked him first to a canter and then, as the trees thinned, to a gallop. Then the sounds faded and they heard no more.
Speed him on his way and let him find a safe haven, Josse prayed. He thought he was praying to God, but suddenly an image of Joanna flashed before his eyes. He’s your boy, he reminded her, as if she needed reminding. You make sure he’s all right.
There was no answer.
On either side of him, Meggie and Little Helewise each took one of his hands. Together, not speaking, they went home.
THIRTEEN
Helewise had been praying. She wished she could go through the forest to St Edmund’s Chapel, for it was a place very dear to her heart and she felt that God’s presence was very close there. Something to do with its simplicity, she often thought, and also with its air of slight detachment, situated as it was above and apart from the hectic bustle of the abbey. It ought to have been locked up, of course. That was what the interdict meant to the ordinary people. They had few comforts in their hard lives, and now, just because two great men of power had squabbled like a couple of small boys each determined to have their own way, even the solace of the church’s services had been taken away.
Somehow, the chapel seemed to have been overlooked. And, besides, there was no lock on its door.
She could not go there now. She had seen Josse’s face as he left to say goodbye to Ninian. He would have to support Meggie and Little Helewise all the way home, and he would need some support himself by the time he got back. So she went out into the woods, following one of her favourite tracks deep beneath the trees to a private place she had discovered. An ancient oak had fallen a year or so back, and the sudden absence of its huge crown had allowed the sun into a place of darkness. The glade always appeared full of light, even on a dim day, because of the contrast to the surrounding shadowy gloom.
She knelt on the mossy ground and prayed, for Ninian and for those left behind who would miss him so much. She stayed there on her knees for some time and, when eventually she got up and returned to the house, she felt as if she had a strong, silent ally to help her face the difficult times ahead.
As she walked back along the path, something occurred to her. She stopped in surprise — why on earth hadn’t they thought of it before? — and then carefully studied the idea. Was it right? Was it practicable? She thought it was.
Hurrying, eager now to speak to Josse, she picked up her pace and strode home.
They were back. She could hear someone sobbing: it was her granddaughter. Of all of them, this was perhaps hardest for Little Helewise, she reflected, for the child was young still, deeply in love and, until this dreadful business, had happily expected to marry the man she loved as soon as the church was permitted to perform the service. Now Ninian had gone, out of her loving arms for an indefinite time.
We must keep her occupied, Helewise thought. Misery was far worse if not distracted. Suddenly, she heard Meggie’s voice, quite close. ‘Come with me, young lady,’ she was saying firmly. ‘I have been absent from my work for far too long, and I must go over to the hut and prepare more cough syrup, for my supplies are all used up. I need another pair of hands, and yours will do admirably.’
Helewise smiled. Meggie, clearly, had had the same thought.
She stood in the doorway and watched the two young women walk across the yard and off on the path through the woods. Then she went to find Josse.
He was out in the stables. He had been grooming Alfred — Will had passed her in the yard, muttering under his breath about the master doing the man’s work — but now he was just standing there, a curry comb in one hand and strands of Alfred’s luxuriant tail in the other. Alfred stood half asleep, languidly munching on a mouthful of hay.
She went up to Josse and, as he heard her footsteps, he turned to see who it was. The misery in his face briefly lifted. Then he said, ‘He’s gone,’ and she thought he might break down.
‘It was the only thing to do,’ she said fervently. ‘We have no guarantee that he would receive any trial at all, never mind a fair one, for the king is capricious and surrounded by ruthless men elbowing each other out of the way as they strive for the king’s favour. Even if King John wished to act in accordance with the law, who can say that one of his close circle might not take matters into his own hands?’
‘Like the king’s father and Archbishop Becket,’ Josse murmured.
‘Exactly! This way, we are robbed of Ninian for a time, but not for ever.’
He looked down at his hands, twisting a strand of Alfred’s tail this way and that. ‘How can you be sure it’s not for ever?’ he asked.
She hesitated, mentally arranging her words. She had to convince him. Then she said, ‘Josse, you said earlier that Ninian couldn’t come back till the king either forgot or died. There is another alternative: find out the truth about how Hugh de Brionne died, and try to prove that, up by the chapel, Ninian acted in self-defence, having no idea that one of the men he was fighting was the king.’
Apart from the grinding of Alfred’s big teeth, there was silence in the stable. She thought she had failed. She fully expected him to give a scathing reply, such as: and just how am I to work this miracle?
He didn’t. He reached for her hand and raised it to his lips, kissing it. Then, his voice gruff with emotion, he said, ‘We have worked our way through such insurmountable obstacles before, you and I, have we not? Shall we do so once more?’
She smiled, blinking back her tears. ‘I was hoping you would say that.’ They stood for a moment, not speaking, and she imagined he was taking strength from her just as she was from him.
Finally, she stepped away. ‘If you’ve quite finished with that horse’s tail,’ she said, making her tone brisk, ‘then let us go into the hall and work out exactly what we are going to do.’
They sat opposite each other at the big table in the hall. At some time Tilly must have brought food and drink, but Helewise only noticed when she found herself absently reaching out for bread and cheese. She was concentrating deeply, and she knew Josse was too.
‘So, let us go through how we see the sequence of events,’ Josse finally said.
Helewise had stylus, ink and scraps of parchment; she had been making notes, but they were in random order, and now she prepared to make a fair copy. ‘Rosamund was taken by Olivier de Brionne,’ she said, writing as she spoke, ‘acting according to a plan devised by his brother, Hugh, that was designed to please the king by presenting him with a young woman.’ Josse made an explosive noise. ‘Don’t say it,’ she said. ‘I know. Olivier takes Rosamund with him on his horse, and they set out westwards, making for the hunting lodge on the Ashdown Forest, where Ninian and Meggie tracked them. According to Olivier, Hugh was meant to be there too, but for some reason he did not turn up. We now know that he died during the time that Olivier and Rosamund were travelling between this house and the hunting lodge.’
Josse was gazing into the distance. ‘Mm.’
When he did not continue, she prompted him. ‘Well?’
