‘Meggie, aye,’ Tiphaine said. ‘She and the child were here together yesterday. She’s a pretty little thing, and she has a generous heart.’
‘Yes, she-’ But Helewise’s eyes had filled with tears and she could not trust her voice.
Tiphaine stepped closer. ‘She is alive and as yet she is unharmed,’ she murmured.
Hope flared in Helewise’s heart. ‘You know this? You have seen her?’
Tiphaine shook her head. ‘Not since she and Meggie left this place to return to the House in the Woods.’
‘Then how can you be so sure she’s not-’ Helewise could not say the word dead. ‘How do you know she’s unharmed?’
Tiphaine looked at her for a long moment. ‘Such a death would have been so far from the natural ways of the woodland that we would have felt it,’ she said. As Helewise opened her mouth to protest, Tiphaine stopped her. ‘Do not ask, Helewise. I cannot explain further. You will just have to believe me.’
‘You do not know where she is,’ she said instead. She was sure Tiphaine had no such knowledge for, had she done, she would have acted upon it.
‘No,’ Tiphaine agreed.
‘I need to know if anyone inside the abbey mentions her,’ Helewise said. ‘People always gossip, and it’s possible some visitor to Hawkenlye has seen or heard something of her. I-’
‘You want me to find out,’ Tiphaine finished for her.
‘You should see Abbess Caliste and explain what I need to know.’
‘She is already aware of what has happened. Selene has been to see her.’
Selene. Caliste’s twin. Helewise had seen her once and believed she was Caliste. But that was long ago; with a shake of her head she brought herself back to the present. ‘I would dearly like to speak to Abbess Caliste, only I cannot-’
‘You cannot go yourself. I understand.’ Tiphaine had turned and was already walking away.
‘Where are you going?’ Helewise cried.
Tiphaine stopped and looked at her over her shoulder. She smiled quickly. ‘Where do you think?’
He did not know what to do.
It was the day after he had taken her. At first it had been so easy; far, far easier than he had thought possible. Right from the start, once the audacious, brilliant plan had slipped into his head, events had played straight into his hands.
He did not understand the impulse to creep away from the others and follow his lord when he had gone off under the trees. His lord had said, clearly and firmly: ‘Wait for me here.’ Usually, all the men obeyed his instructions automatically. They knew what he was capable of when he was in a temper, and his temper was all too easily aroused nowadays when, like all the wealthy and important men in the land, he had a sackful of problems to deal with. It had been as if a secret voice had spoken inside the young man’s head: Go after him. See what he’s up to.
Whose voice had it been? The young man did not know. He heard voices quite frequently. Often they issued warnings concerning the other men: That one doesn’t like you. That one is whispering behind your back. That one means you harm. At first he hadn’t known whether or not to believe the voices, but lately he had begun to think that they — whoever they were — were his only true friends. When the voice had told him to creep after the lord, he had obeyed without question.
He had watched carefully, and he had seen what the lord was looking at so intently. It hadn’t taken him long to come up with his brilliant idea. Everyone knew about the lord. The men exchanged the stories freely amongst themselves, always making sure the lord wasn’t in earshot, and it was thrilling to sit there and hear all about the things he had done. What a man he was! He was afraid of nothing and nobody, and he dismissed the boring old greybeards of the church and all their thou-shalt-nots with a snap of his fingers and a cruel laugh at their gullibility.
He did just as he pleased, their lord.
The young man wanted more than anything to be recognized, welcomed, taken into that precious inner circle of the favoured. It is my right, he told himself. Very few of the others are to him what I am.
The lord knew his identity, of course he did, but it did not seem to make any difference. The lord did not know what the young man was really like, so he would just have to show him. I am clever enough to know what pleases the lord, the man thought, and I am resourceful enough to find it for him.
Find her…
Yesterday he had stayed carefully concealed as the lord watched the two figures walk away, only emerging from his hiding place once they were gone. The young man had remained hidden as the lord strode off, out from under the trees and away to where the other men were waiting for him. He had heard the lord’s shouted command and the jingle of harness metal and stirrups as the party had ridden away. He had hesitated for an instant — he would be in trouble when they discovered he hadn’t mounted up and gone after them — but he had decided that the lord would readily forgive him once he knew what he had been doing.
Once the lord and the men had gone, the young man had set about finding her. It had been quite hard at first because she and the other person had gone to sit out in the open, in full view of the great abbey that sprawled on the edge of the forest. They were joined by an older woman, and for a while he believed that his wonderful plan would come to nothing. Then they all came back towards the trees and he had to hurry to hide. He followed them, always staying out of sight. Although the dark-haired young woman with the lights in her eyes sometimes stopped and stiffened, listening intently as if she sensed the presence of someone or something that should not be there, she did not see him.
Then the older woman left, and he stayed close to the other two. Later, he followed them right across the forest — he had been frightened then — and over to where the trees began to thin out on the far side. He heard them chattering to each other and realized they were about to part, and he had to hurry on ahead so as to intercept her.
Then that amazing thing had happened. She caught sight of him, and, although he swiftly turned his back, he believed the game was up. But she thought he was someone else. Someone she knew and trusted. He heard her say goodbye to the dark-haired one — ‘Goodbye, Meggie!’ she called — and he risked a quick glance to watch as this Meggie turned away, back the way they had come.
The girl came right up to him, calling out to him: ‘Hello, Ninian! Thank you for waiting — shall we walk home together?’
He would not have believed he could think so fast. He was extremely proud of his resourcefulness. He said swiftly, ‘Not Ninian, I’m afraid, but he sent me to come and meet you. We’re not going home; we’re all going to meet up at Meggie’s hut.’
She looked up at him. ‘That’s where I’ve just come from,’ she said uncertainly. ‘Meggie didn’t say anything about us all meeting there.’
‘That’s because it’s a surprise!’ he said, smiling broadly.
‘A surprise?’ Still the doubt clouded her wide, dark eyes.
‘Yes! Ninian and the rest are taking food and wine over there, we’re going to make a big fire, and there’ll be singing and dancing!’
Then she smiled. ‘I love dancing.’
‘So do I! Let’s dance together, shall we? I’d like that.’ As he spoke he was hurrying her away, back towards the western fringe of the forest, although not along the same track that the other woman had taken. That would not do, not at all.
They went on chattering together, just as if they were old friends, and at last they emerged from under the trees close to the chapel.
The girl looked anxious. ‘We’ve missed the path to the hut,’ she said. ‘We’ll have to go back into the forest and I’ll see if I can find it. It’ll be easier coming from this direction, because the path is clearer and-’
He had to stop her. He said winningly, ‘I’ve got a horse and he’s really fast. Shall we go for a ride? We’ve got time. It’ll be ages till the food’s ready.’
She stared at him, and he realized she was beginning to have her suspicions. ‘He’s jet black and his name’s Star because he’s got a star on his brow,’ he said. ‘You can ride behind me and I’ll show you how he goes. You really love horses, don’t you?’
It was a gamble, but the voice in his head suggested it and the voice knew what it was about. Her face
