The Abbot's Agreement: 7 (The Chronicles of Hugh De Singleton, Surgeon)

by Mel Starr

  A movement in the door of Galen House caught my eye. Kate had left her fire to watch my examination of the bones. She held Sybil in her arms.

  I called to Kate to bring the babe to me. At five months old her head was larger than when newly born, but not much. I spread my hands about her head to measure, then went to a corner of the toft where mud from recent rain had not yet dried. I fashioned a sphere of the proper size from the mire, then returned to Kate and Sybil and the table of bones.

  Kate drew back as I approached with the muddy ball. “What are you about?” she asked.

  “Watch,” I said. I held out the muddy orb to compare it in size to Sybil’s head. It was somewhat smaller, which was as I intended. I turned to the pelvic bone upon the table and tried to pass the mud ball through it. I could not do so. The opening was far too small. ’Twas the bones of a man which lay in the sun upon our table. A small man, who had lost one tooth.