A Dark Night Hidden by Alys Clare Read Free Book Online Page B

coming tumbling down on top of a gathering of pilgrims.’ With a quick grin, he added, ‘The poor souls come here to have their hurts mended, not be given a whole lot more.’
    ‘Thank God nobody was inside last night,’ Saul breathed.
    And they all said, ‘Amen.’
    ‘How long do you think it will take?’ Josse asked. He was thinking of Hawkenlye’s visitors, the sick, the injured and the needy who came to take the healing waters and pray with the monks for relief from their afflictions. What were those poor folk to do if they arrived in this bitter weather to find no shelter, no comfort, nothing but the cold, hard ground?
    Brother Erse was eyeing the collapsed shelter as if it were a dangerous animal, rubbing his chin absently with one square hand and swinging the hammer in the other. ‘Won’t be an easy job,’ he remarked. ‘Ain’t no way we can ask the old ’uns to lend a hand – they’d be more of a liability than a help. Reckon a week, maybe more, with just the three of us.’
    Several thoughts ran through Josse’s head. He pictured some poor family with a sick child making the fraught winter journey to Hawkenlye and finding nowhere to shelter. He thought of the welcome that the monks and the nuns always gave to everyone, him included. And he thought how long it was since he had thrown himself into a satisfying job of manual work.
    Making up his mind – not that it took long – he said, ‘Not three of you, Erse. Four. If you’re prepared to put me up a while longer, I’ll stay and help.’

4
    It was not long before Helewise heard about the new labourer working down in the Vale. Brother Firmin considered it his duty to inform her, which he did with his usual amount of conversational preamble. Was she in good health? Did she not find the very cold weather a trial? How good it was of her to permit the lighting of an evening-time fire in the monks’ home.
    Trying not to show her impatience – there were at least twenty tasks that she had promised herself she would complete before midday – she interrupted him with a gentle, ‘How may I be of assistance, Brother Firmin?’
    He had to scratch his head in thought before replying; even he, it seemed, had forgotten the purpose of his visit.
    ‘Ah, yes!’ he said after a moment. ‘The pilgrims’ shelter had been damaged, my lady Abbess. The branch of a tree fell on it, damaged, it is thought, by the hard frost. We are putting it – the damage, I mean – to rights. That is, Brother Saul, Brother Erse and Brother Augustus are. And Sir Josse has very kindly said he will help.’
    ‘Has he, indeed?’
    ‘Aye.’ Brother Firmin nodded eagerly. ‘We are, of course, offering him what hospitality we can, and he says he is well used to sleeping down in the Vale.’
    ‘We are lucky in our friends, are we not, Brother Firmin?’ she said quietly.
    ‘Oh, yes, my lady. Yes. Er . . .’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘We – that is, I was wondering . . . Might you spare a moment to come down and see how work progresses? Your presence would, I am sure, spur our little workforce to yet greater efforts.’
    ‘I will, Brother Firmin. And I will take the chance to thank Sir Josse.’ She went on smiling at the old monk, feeling her cheeks begin to ache with the sustained effort. He went on smiling back. Finally she said kindly, ‘Was there anything else? Only I am rather busy . . .’
    Bowing, apologising and backing out of the room all at the same time, he wished her good day and left her.
    Helewise eventually went down to the Vale as the short afternoon was ending. As she descended the path she saw with dismay that the pilgrims’ shelter was all but demolished. Hastening her steps, she hurried towards the four black-clad figures working in its ruins.
    Someone had found a monk’s habit for Josse to work in. It was a little too short; she had a rather disconcerting sight of strong, muscular, hairy calves above firmly tendoned ankles. She had not appreciated how