All Fall Down by Sally Nicholls Read Free Book Online Page B

bigger secret than just strangers in the village, isn’t it? And what will happen to that little girl if – when – she dies? You can’t keep a priest from a dying child, can you?
    Sir John is backing away from me.
    â€œAh,” he says. “Well. I don’t know. I can’t – I mean, I don’t know if there’s anything—”
    Gilbert Reeve is staring at him.
    â€œYou can’t refuse to visit the sick,” he says, which is just what I’m thinking. Is he going to send us all to hell unshriven? That miserable old coward!
    â€œAh,” says Sir John. He looks about him as though expecting to find an escape somewhere. There isn’t one. “Ah. Of course. I’ll just – if you just—” But he doesn’t move. Gilbert Reeve is looking at me.
    â€œAre Radulf and Muriel sick?” he asks. I shake my head.
    â€œNo. Not yet,” I say. And then, catching his expression, “You aren’t going to do anything to them, are you?”
    â€œIf he’s brought the pestilence here,” says Gilbert grimly, “he’ll have the safety of the village to answer for. What happens to him isn’t up to me.”
    Â 
    The safety of the village. The hair prickles on the back of my arms. The safety of a little yellow-haired girl against the safety of us all. The love of a brother for his sister and her children against the safety of Alice and Ned and Father and Robin and Amabel and Mag.
    The importance of caring for the sick against Geoffrey’s life. The safety of the village against the promise of eternal life. Life against death. Virtue against despair.
    News spreads fast here. The next morning, at mass, everyone knows. You can hear the fear passing between them, the rustles and glances and murmurs.
    There’s no sign of Radulf or his wife, Muriel.
    â€œHave you heard?” says Emma Baker.
    â€œWe’ve heard,” says Alice. “That poor child.”
    â€œBut did you hear about Sir John?” Emma’s eyes are bright with excitement. Alice looks away and draws in the air through her nostrils. She hates gossiping about holy men. She walloped Ned hard across the back of his legs once for calling Sir John an old windbag.
    â€œIt’s not our place to speak ill of a priest,” she says, but she doesn’t know what’s coming next.
    â€œWait until you hear,” says Emma, and she lowers her voice. “He’s gone!”
    â€œGone?”
    â€œRun away and left us. He was supposed to be visiting that child, but he never came. So Muriel went up to his house, and he’d gone. Taken all his clothes, and the good plate and—” Her voice drops. “The candlesticks from the church too, they say.”
    Our church has two silver candlesticks, which sit on the altar at mass. They’re sitting there now.
    â€œThe candlesticks are still there,” I say. “Emma. Look.”
    Emma glares at me, then carries on as though I haven’t spoken.
    â€œThat little girl,” she says. “What will happen to her when she dies? Without a priest to hear her confession.” I shiver. If you die without confessing your sins, and without receiving
absolution, you carry your sins into the next life, where you have to pay for them with years and years of burning in hell. Receiving absolution is one of the most important things you can do, if you want to get to heaven. “What’s going to happen to us all?” says Emma, and her voice rises. “What’s going to happen to us without a priest?”
    Father presses his lips tight together, the way he always does when he’s angry or upset, but before he can say anything, there’s a movement up at the front of the church. One of Sir John’s chaplains is calling, “Hello? Hello!”
    There are some nudgings and shufflings and everyone quietens right down, which almost never happens in church. Usually it’s