by Alys Clare
It’s only to be expected, he told himself as he rode along. She wasn’t just a nun, she was an abbess, and of a great foundation at that. Nobody can be expected to leave the religious life and all that it entailed behind in a few months!
It was some five years since Helewise had actually lived within the abbey. Soon after the death of Queen Eleanor back in 1202, Helewise had begun to implement the plans which had long been in her mind. She had quit Hawkenlye in stages, the first one being to stand down as abbess, witness the election and the installation of Caliste as her successor, and then go to live in the tiny little cell adjoining the new chapel on the edge of the forest. The chapel was dedicated to St Edmund and had been built on the orders of Eleanor in memory of Richard, the late king and her favourite son.
The pope’s action against King John had effectively closed the abbey to outsiders, and although Josse knew full well that Hawkenlye had done its best to go on being a place of refuge, help and succour, the task had been all but impossible. The attention of the king and his agents had always hovered over the abbey — it was just too important a foundation to be overlooked — and many were of the opinion that John would have robbed the abbey of all its treasures had he not feared the wrath of his formidable mother. Dead she might be, but apparently it made no difference.
The keen glance of the king, however, had slid over St Edmund’s Chapel and its little cell without pausing to look properly. Had he done so, he would have seen something quite surprising. The people, finding the church inside the abbey locked and barred, had quietly transferred their devotion to the chapel. Its door was always open, and there was usually a candle burning on its simple altar. Down in its hidden crypt it concealed a treasure known to very few, and it was perhaps the power of this secret that kept the chapel safe from those who wished it ill.
Whatever the truth of it, the people had a place where they could pray. Not only that, for the chapel had its own guardian, and she was a woman whose reputation went before her. She was always there for those in need, providing a smile, a kind word, a simple but nourishing plate of food, a warming drink; even, on occasions, a blanket on the floor for those too tired to make the journey home until morning. As the years passed, she also began to give remedies for the more common ailments, taught and helped in her work by both Tiphaine, the abbey’s former herbalist, and Josse’s daughter, Meggie.
In the summer, however, Helewise had implemented the second stage of her withdrawal from the abbey. The House in the Woods had grown in the decade since Josse had gone with his household to live in it, and there had been plenty of room for another resident. However, the sweet hopes that Josse had cherished of Helewise living in any sort of intimacy with him had been swiftly shattered. Quietly, she had explained what she needed: a small room readily accessible to visitors where she could receive and help those who came seeking her, with a little sleeping space leading off it. In effect, he had realized miserably, her desire was to reproduce her cell beside the chapel.
The trouble was, as Josse saw it, that the rest of the world still thought she was an abbess. Or, at least, the whole of the suffering, needy community in and around Hawkenlye did, which, as far as Josse was concerned, was the only part of the world that mattered.
It was all to do with the wretched interdict. Out in the forest, alone except for Alfred and unlikely to be overheard, Josse gave vent to his feelings and cursed the pope, the king, the interdict, the excommunication and everything else that was presently caused him distress.
The echoes of his angry shouts died away. Alfred twitched his ears sympathetically — he was growing on Josse, despite his stubborn nature — and Josse resumed his musings.
To cheer himself up he thought about the beloved people who would be waiting for him at home. His daughter Meggie, he knew, wasn’t there. He had actually been quite close to her earlier that day, when he had ridden past the track leading to Joanna’s hut. Meggie went over there quite often, and she kept both the tiny dwelling and its herb garden tidy and cared for. Sometimes she would not return for several days. Over the years, Josse had learned to curb his anxiety. She was, he knew, more than capable of taking care of herself and, just like her mother, she seemed to cherish the quiet, secret hut and its almost magical setting.
It was hardly surprising that even someone whose big feet were as firmly planted on the good earth as Josse’s should sense the magic, even if he did not understand it. Joanna had been one of the Great Ones of the strange forest people, as had her mother Mag before her. Both Mag and Joanna had left much of their power within the hut and its little clearing, and now Meggie — who, according to her people’s predictions, would be the greatest of them all — was adding to what they had so freely bestowed.
Meggie had been absent now for a couple of days. Josse hoped she would soon return. He never dared tell her how much he missed her when she was away but, being the woman she was, he probably didn’t need to.
With a happy smile, Josse remembered that Geoffroi would be waiting for him, eager to hear how Alfred had behaved. Geoffroi was now eleven, a strong, robust boy who was tall for his age and already showing the broad shoulders and sturdy build that he had inherited from Josse. Geoffroi loved all living things, and his knowledge of the natural world was wide and profound. For all that there were plenty of people considerably older than Geoffroi living at Hawkenlye Manor and working with its sundry livestock, it was Geoffroi who was the ultimate authority when it came to animal husbandry. Which was quite surprising, his father reflected, considering the boy could barely read or write. Still, as Geoffroi always said, you didn’t need book learning to understand why a ewe was limping or to judge which combination of mare and stallion would produce the finest offspring.
Geoffroi himself rode a dark-brown mare called Bruna, the offspring of Horace. It was nice, Josse often thought, that in this way the old horse lived on.
Josse’s thoughts rambled on. Everyone else would be home, too. He smiled as he pictured them. Ninian — half-brother to Geoffroi and Meggie, and Josse’s adopted son — would be there, his presence all the more treasured because he was so often away. Ninian was in love with Helewise’s granddaughter, Little Helewise. She adored him too, and were it not for the interdict, they undoubtedly would have been wed a year or more ago. Little Helewise lived with her family at the Old Manor, the ancestral home of the Warins, which her father Leofgar, being the elder of Helewise’s two sons, had inherited. Ninian spent as much of his time as he could with her and, privately, Josse reckoned the young people had already become everything to each other.
Aye, Ninian. Josse smiled as he contemplated the lad. Others, too, awaited Josse — Gus, Tilly and their children, Will and Ella too, servants in name but more like family to Josse — and their faces flashed one by one across his mind. It would be good to get back.
He realized he was hungry. The household at the House in the Woods ate well, even given the current circumstances, for virtually everything that went on their table came from their own land. Over the year, Josse and his small workforce had gradually cut back the trees surrounding the house, and now several acres were under cultivation. Their sheep grazed on the pastures of New Winnowlands, Josse’s former home, with the flock belonging to the manor’s present occupants. Given the constant, greedy demands of the king, they were fortunate, Josse well knew, to live in such an out-of-the-way spot. Outside those who lived in the immediate vicinity, only a handful of people knew the House in the Woods even existed.
What would Tilly have prepared for the evening meal? He was almost home now, and he kicked Alfred to a canter. He would soon be finding out.
Helewise was having a lovely day. The autumn weather was pleasantly warm, and she had spent most of the time out of doors, reason enough to make her happy. In addition, for much of it she had had the company of her youngest grandchild, whose father had left her that morning in Helewise’s care while he rode on to Tonbridge. He had business with Gervase de Gifford, who was the sherif
f.
Helewise didn’t enquire, as once she would have done, what that business was. It wasn’t that she did not care; it was more that her priorities had changed. The outside world was less important to her now than her family and her loved ones.
When asked by her fond grandmother what she would like to do with their day together, Rosamund promptly said that she wanted to see the Dark Lady. Smiling to herself, Helewise readily agreed and, after the noon meal, the two of them set off through the forest towards the abbey. There was no hurry, so they took their time, chatting as they walked. It was no surprise when, a quarter of a mile or so from their destination, Meggie materialized beside them.
‘You’re going to see the Lady?’ she asked with a smile.
‘We are,’ Helewise agreed.
‘Can I come too?’
‘Of course.’
St Edmund’s Chapel had been deserted, Helewise’s little cell empty. Then there was still no replacement, she observed sadly. Brushing the thought aside, she followed Meggie and Rosamund into the chapel, and together she and Meggie raised the trapdoor cleverly disguised as a flagstone. The three of them descended into the crypt, and Meggie struck a spark, lighting the torch that was set in the wall sconce.
The Black Goddess sat in her niche and, as always, Helewise felt her power. She gave herself up to it for a few moments, then, with a smile to Meggie, slipped away and went back to the chapel above. She went to stand before the simple altar with its plain wooden cross. Without thinking, she dropped to her knees. Soon she was so deep in prayer that she did not notice Meggie and Rosamund come up from the crypt, gently lower the flagstone and leave the chapel.
When finally she emerged into the bright afternoon, it was to discover that the others had found a sunny spot on the slope that led down to the abbey and were crouched on the grass, deep in conversation.
‘You’ll get cold, sitting on the wet grass!’ she scolded, hurrying down to them.
Rosamund turned and gave her a sweet smile. ‘We are sitting on our thick cloaks, and mine is lined with fur! Besides, the grass is not wet,’ she said. ‘Feel! The sun is warm today and has dried it.’
Helewise was about to insist — the child was her responsibility just then — but there was no need. Both of them were already getting up. ‘I have just been telling Rosamund about the little bridge I’ve been trying to build across the stream beside the hut,’ Meggie said. ‘She’d really like to-’
Rosamund didn’t allow others to speak for her. ‘I’d love to see it,’ she said pleadingly, taking Helewise’s hand and giving it a squeeze. ‘Can we go with Meggie to the hut, Grandmother?’
Helewise looked from one to the other. This was meant to be my day with my granddaughter! she thought, and then instantly regretted it. Others loved Rosamund too, for the girl was generous with her affections. Why should Meggie not enjoy the child’s company as well? She glanced at Meggie and saw understanding in Meggie’s brown eyes.
‘Perhaps you should go back with your grandmother,’ Meggie said gently, ‘and we’ll go to the hut another time, when-’
‘No, go now!’ Helewise interrupted her with a smile. ‘Just the two of you. I’ll see you later, back at the House in the Woods,’ she said, giving Rosamund a hug. ‘I don’t mind,’ she added softly to Meggie.
Meggie looked at her intently, the bright golden lights in her eyes that were so like her father’s catching the lowering sun. Then she nodded.
The three of them walked together as far as the place where the track to the hut branched off from the main path. There, with a cheerful, ‘Goodbye, Meggie! See you later, Rosamund!’, Helewise went on alone.
The inhabitants of the House in the Woods knew where Rosamund was, and so nobody thought to worry about her. She was with Meggie, and Meggie was more at home in the forest than anyone else in the family.
Darkness began to fall. First Josse and then Helewise slipped outside to look anxiously down the track that led away under the trees.
‘She’ll be here soon,’ Josse said.
Helewise thought his voice sounded uncertain. ‘Yes, I’m sure she will.’ She noticed that hers did too.
They waited.
Presently, footsteps sounded, crossing the courtyard behind them. Ninian came to stand beside them, closely followed by Geoffroi. Half-brothers they might be, but there was little resemblance between them, other than an indefinable but unmistakable air of confidence and power. Ninian was tall, slim and dark, like his mother. His brilliant blue eyes he had inherited from his father.
Geoffroi looked worriedly at Josse. ‘Maybe Meggie got lost,’ he said. ‘It’s getting dark.’
They all agreed that it was. Nobody said what they were all thinking: that Meggie knew her way through the trees blindfold.
Gussie and Will came out of the house. ‘Tilly’s making hot soup,’ Gussie volunteered. ‘They’ll be cold when they get here.’
Helewise felt a stab of fear dart into her heart. She put a hand to her chest. ‘Josse?’ she whispered.
He put his arm around her shoulders. He hugged her very tightly for an instant, then let her go. ‘Saddle the horses, Will,’ he said firmly. ‘Ninian, Gus and I will go and look for them.’
TWO
Ninian left his horse tethered to a tree branch and raced off down the narrow track to Meggie’s hut. He had left his father and Gus behind, painstakingly searching the main path and the narrower trails leading off it, while he hurried on to seek out his half-sister. Rosamund will be with her, he told himself over and over again. Meggie will explain that they didn’t realize how late it was until darkness was too well advanced to make the journey home. She’ll say she’s very sorry we were all anxious, but that it seemed safer to keep Rosamund warm and snug with her in the hut overnight. She’ll tell me she was planning to set out first thing in the morning to bring her back.
He repeated the words to himself until they were meaningless.
He raced on down the overgrown path, heedless of his own skin, and soon had a bramble tear across his cheek and a lump on his shin where he had run into the outstretched branch of a fallen tree. He was calling silently to Meggie as he ran, and he believed she must have heard him. He would not have said he knew with any certainty exactly where the hut was, yet he made his way straight to it with not a single wrong turn. But there was no time to wonder at his sister’s strange powers.
He bounded across the clearing, gasping for breath, his heart pounding so hard that he felt light-headed and sick. He skidded to a halt in front of her door, bending over to ease the sharp pain in his side, then reached out and hammered on the stout wooden planks with his fist.
The door opened instantly, and Meggie’s voice said, ‘No need to break it down! I heard you coming, and anyway I-’
Then she saw the state he was in. She gasped and, clutching at his shoulders with hands that hurt, rasped out, ‘What is it? What’s happened?’
He straightened up and looked at her. There was a light burning inside the hut, but she had her back to it and her face was in shadow. Pushing her aside, he stared into the hut. ‘Is Rosamund here?’ he demanded, eyes darting frantically around the small, tidy space.
He knew the answer to his question even as she spoke. ‘No, of course not, she-’
She had understood, as of course she would. She led him inside, closed the door and pushed him down on to the stool beside the hearth. She picked up an earthenware mug and, tipping into it a handful of something from a jar on a shelf, poured on hot water. She stirred it, blew in it and handed it to him. ‘Drink.’ He obeyed her. ‘Now, tell me.’
He did as he was told. He had no idea what she had given him, but he trusted her. Rightly, for the herbal concoction had already calmed him. ‘Rosamund hasn’t come home,’ he said. Then his fear came galloping back, and he burst out, ‘It’s dark, she’s out in the forest and she’s barely more than a child!’
‘Hush,’ she soothed him. He glanced up at her tense face. She muttered something und
er her breath and then said, ‘I walked back to the House in the Woods with her late this afternoon. We were almost there when she saw you and said she’d run on and go the rest of the way with you.’
‘You let her go on alone?’ Suddenly, he was furious.
‘She wasn’t alone, she’d just seen you!’ she flashed back, her own anger rising alongside his. ‘I watched as she caught you up, then I turned round and came back here.’
Realization struck them simultaneously. ‘It wasn’t you, was it?’ she whispered. Her face had gone white.
Mutely, he shook his head.
She sank down on to the floor beside him and reached out for the mug he held. She took a sip, then handed it back. ‘It looked like you,’ she muttered. ‘Are you absolutely sure? Could it be that you didn’t hear her hurrying up behind you? You did have your back to us…’
He thought hard, running through his movements that afternoon and early evening. There was, however, no real need; he knew full well he’d still been far from home as dusk fell.
‘This afternoon I was fishing on the Teise,’ he said. ‘I was miles away, and it took me ages to get back. I caught a trout,’ he added absently.
‘So you would have arrived home from the opposite direction,’ she said. He watched her fierce concentration as she worked it out. ‘Rosamund and I were approaching from the west, and you were coming from the east. It can’t have been you she saw.’
He pounced on her words. ‘You just said it looked like you,’ he cried. ‘You must have seen this man too!’
Slowly, she nodded. ‘Yes, but Rosamund said, “There’s Ninian,” and I suppose I just took her word for it that it was you.’ A sob broke out of her, quickly suppressed. ‘I should have looked more carefully! I should have gone on with her and handed her over to you! To him, I mean,’ she corrected herself. ‘Whoever he was.’
