Rhiannon (33 page)

Thaddeus made the sign of the cross, and the other two followed him in it. The monk knelt, Rhiannon sat upon her heels with bowed head, and Jonah crouched.

“We pray you, sir, intercede so that our actions may be well planned and bravely done as we set out to save our innocent friend, James Gatt,” Thaddeus whispered to the hermit.

The other two said amen to it, then all but the hermit opened their eyes.

Rhiannon turned to Jonah, tapping her chin with Mam's cross. “Let's hear your plan then,” she said flatly. “The good hermit may give his blessing, though I warn you,
I
know of your rash nature and may be harder to please.”

Jonah squinted his eyes, taking that in. “Yes, my nature is indeed rash,” he mused. “In the past that often served me well, though in more recent times it's been my undoing. You're good to remind me, friend Rhiannon. I'll let you hear and judge, then.”

“Tell her first of the stone pictures at Wythicopse,” Thaddeus urged in a whisper.

“Yes!” Rhia nodded eagerly. “How
did
you know of those ceiling pictures?”

Jonah took a breath. “Those small stones are
not
a ceiling as you suppose, Rhia. They rather make up the floor of an ancient palace, fallen to ruin, or burned, many centuries ago. Conquerors from near the time of Christ built such palaces throughout the world, including in this land. Romans, they were, and though they were chief among pagans, their capital is now capital of all Christendom. I've seen floors like the one you described when I've been traveling with Aleron in Italia, and indeed have glimpsed bits of two or three of them even here in England. Beneath those elegant picture floors are open spaces run through with large pipes. Once, slaves stoked fires that breathed hot air into those pipes, thus heating the floors in winter. The building skills of the ancient Romans were formidable, though their grand kingdom is long since fallen and their opulent buildings now lie ruined even in the city from which they took their name.”

Thaddeus cleared his throat and added, “In truth, once Jonah had spoken of those stone pictures, I, too, recognized what your ceiling must be, Rhia. I saw Rome with my father, as a child, and marveled at the fine mosaic floors left in ruins from those ancient times. The artistry is incredible, though the subject matter is pagan, gods and goddesses and the like. Of course, there are natural things too, such as the hare you saw, and—”

Jonah grew impatient. “Yes, yes, they're pretty enough. But for
our
purposes, the interesting thing is the space left for those pipes to run beneath that stone floor. The moans and huffings Rhia has heard must mean that air still goes through those ancient pipes. And since the pipes are still intact, one
should
be able to crawl beneath that floor from some ancient fireplace that surely lies hidden somewhere in the overgrowth. Thaddeus and I will search for an opening in the morning.”

“You'll do
what
?” Rhia was completely lost. “Search for an opening? But
why
?”

Ignoring her question, Jonah leaned toward her across the hermit, his eyes flashing. “Rhiannon, Thaddeus has told me that the earl's son and his friends desire to come up to the bluff, to visit the chapel some dark evening to see if it may hold haunts. Is this true?”

Rhia's breath came faster. “Well, yes, it's an outrageous wish of Maddy's, and now it seems the new friends she's made at the manor are taken with the idea as well. She gave me a choice of celebrating Beltane Eve at Wythicopse or here upon the bluff, and I of course told that I'd meet her at Wythicopse. The day Mam allowed such a thing as a party in this sanctified chapel would be the day it rained down frogs upon us all.”

Jonah nodded, grinning ear to ear. “But they
want
to come here, is the thing. And if something fearsome should happen at Wythicopse to spoil the party, they'd welcome your suggestion that the festivities simply be moved to the bluff, am I right?”

Rhia tore at her hair. “I've just
told
—you—Mam would never
hear
of it! And nothing fearsome
will
spoil things at Wythicopse. The boys squiring here have heard the moans and hisses that Maddy and I heard and do not fear dragons one whit!”

“They do not fear air pipes one whit is more like it, Rhia,” Thaddeus told her. “Likely they have traveled and seen the same type of Roman ruins Jonah and I have seen. As they have decided to use this secret knowledge to their own advantage, we might be forgiven for playing a similar game.”

“They'd use it for their own advantage?” Rhia whispered, puzzled.

“To lure young girls, Rhiannon,” Jonah was bold to explain, snickering. “It's one of the oldest tricks in the book. Invite a young lady upon a dangerous adventure, then wait for the ooglie-wooglies you've contrived to frighten her into your protective arms!”

Rhiannon, embarrassed nigh to tears, thought of protesting that Maddy would never be so innocently susceptible to such low tricks, nor would she herself. But the truth was, Maddy had probably hoped just that
would
happen, and she herself had been too innocent to expect it. Maddy, then, was willing victim. But worse——she, Rhia, was gullible dupe!

She put her face in her hands, but Thaddeus took her arm and lightly shook it. “Rhia, though we've painted an honest picture of the company you'll be keeping, do you still have the nerve to meet them at this Wythicopse place? Our plan allows for Jonah and me to be nearby when things come to a boil, but no matter how we try to contrive it otherwise, you must still be at the center if our plan's to work.”

She drew a breath and held out her open hand to Jonah. “Give me Leonard's scarf.”

Jonah drew up his knee and quickly pulled the silken fabric from within one side of his tall boot. He held it toward Rhia, but kept it within his own tightly clenched fingers. He looked her solemnly in the eye for a long moment, as if trying to see the depth of her bravery. Then he yielded the silk, let it drop softly across Rhiannon's sweating palm.

She tucked it quickly away into her waist pouch, murmuring, “One of you must now tell me our plan, and do it stepwise, for this willy-nilly accounting makes my head reel.”

“All right, then,” Thaddeus pronounced. “You will go with your friend as you'd planned tomorrow eve, Rhia, and meet this Leonard and his mates at Wythicopse Ring. If you can, you'll wheedle or tease them into speaking of their recent, uh . . . exploits.”

Jonah interrupted, darkly “Get them speaking of their
crimes
, he means.”

Thaddeus sighed. “All right, their crimes. Meanwhile, my good friend Brother Silas and I will be hidden just beneath your feet, under the mosaic floor. After we've heard what we
expect
we'll hear, we will proceed to give them a scare they certainly
won't
be expecting. After that you will suggest that the party move away from such wretched turf and up to the, well, the romantic privacy of the bluff.” Thaddeus said this last quickly, then dropped his eyes.

“You're
blushing
, Brother!” Rhia teased.

Thaddeus looked straight ahead and cleared his throat. “So be it. Now, continuing, if I may, I'd tell you that even if the company of young men makes no brag and confesses no misdeed, still Brother Silas and I will raise a commotion, as neither Jonah nor I want you lingering in that place with them for long. Upon the bluff, you'll be on home turf, and better protected. I shall follow at a distance, providing some guard from behind as you make your way up the bluff pathway with them. Should there be any mischief on their part, I would not be a match for them physically, of course, but the authority of my robe oft puts an end to unseemly and, well,
lewd
behaviors.”

Jonah raised his eyebrows. “Now you
do
blush, Thaddeus.” Grinning, he turned to Rhia. “Then comes my part in the thing. When you've got them to this chapel, Thaddeus will lock the door from outside, and I will then proceed to compound their fear in the way you've already witnessed tonight. In the moldering guise of this venerable hermit, I will demand a full confession from them as the price of a live exit from this church, which will have gone mysteriously sealed tight at my unearthly bidding.”

Caught up in the thing, he pulled on the worm-woven headdress and pointed a quivering finger first at Thaddeus, then at Rhia. “Murderous villains!” he intoned in a macabre voice holding great and awful power. “Fall now to your wretched knees and seek full confession, else I'll see you spun down into fiery damnation this very midnight!
Now,
I say, get upon your knees, ere with my own knuckle bones I break your foul necks so as to
make
you bend them low!”

Thaddeus and Rhia, impressed, gave him a small applause.

Rhiannon then took a deep breath. “So my part is to get them bragging. Jonah's is to bring their brags to full confession when they've come to this chapel. And in the middle, your part, Thaddeus, is to scare them witless from beneath the mosaic floor so they're eager to flee Wythicopse for the bluff. But how may you bring about such a scare?”

Thaddeus looked at her. “I mentioned that Brother Silas will be with me, did I not? That is, I hope to speak with him in secret when Jonah and I go down to Woethersly tomorrow morn, and he will doubtless join me, once he's asked. Did I mention he plays bagpipe? Quite badly, too. When he begins it, the dormitory instantly clears. Some brothers have been known to jump into rough waters and swim quite some ways to get clear of Brother Silas's talents. Others that he's asked to listen have hidden in high trees for entire days until he's given them up as audience.” He cleared his throat. “I confess, I've done my share of hiding, too. Rhia, you might want to be well braced when it begins, if you startle easily. Or even if you don't. Have some cover for your ears, as well.”

Jonah began to chuckle, and Rhia could not keep back a smile. “Poor Silas,” she mused, “to love his music so much he'd creep upon his stomach beneath the mossy ground to find ears above for it. Will you confess to him that you want him not for the beauty he may bring to the evening but only for a fright, Thaddeus?”

Thaddeus shrugged, looking both amused and some shamefaced. “Indeed. He's a good-spirited fellow and will not mind. I'm sure he'll think that to be a fright is better than to be shunned completely. He'll be thrilled to play in any circumstances, and will gladly take whatever compliment he may get, including that he's frightful.”

It had been in Rhia's mind that one sky-high obstacle towered above all the many other little obstacles inherent in this daring, though helter-skelter, plan. She hated to bring it up again as it would spoil things, but it was high time, before this went further.

“You've both ignored the thing I told you that will certainly break this, and that is, Mam will
not
hear of it! I'm sorry to foil your designs, but that's just how it is. You may find your hidden passages and fill them with dreadful noise, Thaddeus. And you, Jonah, may become a saintly hermit. But indeed, if you bring any of this up with Mam tomorrow, she will refuse to let me take any part in Beltane Eve at all! And if you try to go ahead with it without letting her know, she'll come raging when she sees that troupe entering the clearing, as she will not allow the chapel to be used for a Beltane party, ever. And don't hope she will not notice, because
nothing
gets past her up here. Nothing.”

Jonah and Thaddeus were quiet for a bit, though Jonah murmured, “You said it will rain frogs when she allows it.”

Rhia gave a sharp nod. “Exactly. You
do
remember, then.”

Thaddeus cleared his throat. “With all due respect, Rhia, there may be someone who could talk to your mother about this more persuasively than you yourself are able to. I speak of Reeve Clap, and we have reason to think he may throw in with our plan when we tell him of it tomorrow.”

Rhia's eyes widened but she waited to hear more.

“Rhiannon, today we learned there was indeed a witness to Aleron's bloody murder,” Jonah said gravely, and the sudden grit in his voice sent a chill up Rhia's spine.

Thaddeus whispered, “The poor child Ingrid. I fear she saw it all.”

Rhiannon gasped, then froze with her hands over her mouth.

“Something she heard you saying as you gathered seeds this afternoon made her know that Jim stood accused, Rhia,” Thaddeus continued. “When I came upon her here in the chapel, it was much on her mind, enough so that she came to me straightaway, took my hand, and said, ‘I saw it done.' It took me a while to realize
what
she'd seen done, though by her trembling and her fearful aspect I might have figured it out quicker. And then I ran our suspects past—her—Arnold Mopp, Jim himself, the pirate gang, the others that make the woods their present home. To all of these she solemnly shook her head.”

Jonah covered his face with his hands, as this was opening his grief anew. “She must have linked with Charlemagne that awful night,” he whispered. “It comforts me to imagine her giving Aleron's steed solace after he had witnessed such . . . butchery.”

“And then I asked if the murder was done by horsed riders,” Thaddeus went on, squinting with the effort of remembering each detail precisely. “Ingrid nodded! I asked if the riders were nobility. Now, most children might not know of what I spoke, of course, but I thought she would, having lived in a noble house. Again, without a moment's hesitation, she nodded. Finally, I asked if she would recognize them if she saw them again. A third time, she answered me with a firm nod.”

Rhiannon closed her eyes. “And so our strong hunch is proved with a witness.”