The Rose of the World (6 page)

Helewise did not feel that she could take up her abode in the little cell next to St Edmund's Chapel, no matter how much she longed to, for much the same reasons. The chapel and its attendant accommodation were outside the abbey walls but, all the same, everyone would know she was there. You just couldn't help that sort of news spreading in a place like the abbey.

No. What she had in mind was somewhere a great deal more remote from the Hawkenlye community. It depended on two things: whether she succeeded in finding it, and whether the person who had very recently been living there would permit her to stay.

She found the place quite easily, only missing her way once. The question of whether or not she would be allowed to stay did not arise, for there was nobody there.

As Helewise unfastened the intricately-twisted knot of rope that fastened the door of the little hut, she wondered where Meggie was and when she would be back. Then she put aside her speculation and set about the tasks she had to do. She collected water from the stream and several loads of kindling and dead wood from the surrounding woodland. She got a fire going in the hearth inside the hut, for it would be cold that night. She checked on Meggie's food supplies, relieved to discover that, although she would very soon be hungry unless she foraged for more, she would not starve. Once she had seen to the practicalities, she went outside into the little clearing and turned her mind to the reason that she had come.

Being much closer to the abbey than the House in the Woods, the hut made a more convenient base for her task. But there was more to her choice than that; much more. She needed an intermediary who could slip in and out of the abbey without arousing interested comment, someone who did it all the time and who people were used to seeing coming and going, and this was the best place to find her. The person she had in mind had once lived mostly within the abbey walls as a nun, although it had been common knowledge that she had close allegiances with the strange forest people who had once frequented the area. Now they were gone, or so it was said, or perhaps they had become better at remaining hidden. The wildwood was steadily shrinking as the population grew and men nibbled away at its fringes, bringing more and more land under cultivation. In addition, the old tolerance of those who lived a different life and worshipped God in another guise was fast becoming nothing but a memory. In lands far away to the south, the church had taken up arms against those it accused of heresy, and it was only a matter of time before the same harsh and narrow rule was applied everywhere.

It was no wonder they had gone, Helewise mused.

Yet she was one of the few people who suspected that they had not all deserted the Hawkenlye wildwood. She knew for certain of two who remained. One stayed out of love for Hawkenlye's abbess, for she was her sister. The other had her own unfathomable reasons, and it was she whom Helewise was waiting for.

She stood quite still in the centre of the clearing. The little stream sang its bubbling song away to her right, and somewhere a blackbird protested at her presence. She wondered if she should venture out into the forest and start looking for the woman she sought, but quickly she dismissed the thought. They always knew when an outsider was in their domain. If Helewise was patient, by some mysterious method word would be passed and the one she was mentally summoning would come.

‘Helewise.'

She had no warning, and when the quiet voice spoke right in her ear, Helewise jerked round so violently that she felt a stab of pain in her neck.

‘That'll need a rub with some oil and some warming herbs,' the voice went on. ‘You never have taken enough care of yourself, have you?'

Helewise stared into the watchful eyes and studied the weather-beaten, deeply lined face. The newcomer opened her arms, and Helewise walked into her firm embrace. Then she took a step back, and she and Tiphaine, former herbalist of Hawkenlye Abbey, exchanged a warm and loving smile.

It was neither woman's habit to waste time, for years spent in an abbey had cured them of that. Tiphaine was first to speak. ‘I know why you are here,' she said. ‘The little girl.'

‘Yes, my granddaughter,' Helewise agreed. ‘Her name is Rosamund and she's—'

‘I know,' Tiphaine interrupted gently.

Helewise wondered how she knew, but almost instantly answered her own unspoken question. ‘Meggie,' she breathed.

‘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 brightened into an eager smile, and she said, ‘Come on, then!'

He took her little hand and hurried on to where he had tethered his horse earlier in the day. His horse was standing half-asleep, grass trailing from its mouth. He tightened the girth strap and helped her up, settling her behind the saddle, then he mounted. ‘Put your arms round my waist,' he said and felt two slim, strong arms snake round him. ‘Ready?'

‘
Yes
!' she cried.

It was some time before she told him to turn back. When he refused, she became first upset, then angry, then, finally, afraid. ‘Where are we going? Where are you taking me? I want to go home!' she cried, over and over again until he thought he would go mad.

He found a desolate spot where a stand of trees grew in a bend of the river. He drew rein, dismounted and helped her on to the ground. He kept a firm grip on her wrist.