Mist Over the Water by Alys Clare Read Free Book Online Page B

viewing himself and his brethren as rarefied beings several levels above the rest of us, would not be happy at the implication that some slip of a girl thought she was a better healer than the Ely infirmarer.
    The monk was shaking his head. ‘I know nobody of that name,’ he said baldly. ‘There are no cases of high fever in our care at present.’ He might as well have added and that’s the way we want to keep it , for it was plainly written on his sour, disapproving face.
    Anger rose up in me, but I managed to hold it in. My mission had only just begun, and it would be foolish to make an enemy so soon. I bowed again and said, ‘Thank you, brother. I will pursue my search elsewhere. Good evening.’
    I pulled Sibert away, the monk’s faintly surprised dismissal and perfunctory blessing echoing in my ears. ‘Why were you sucking up to him?’ Sibert hissed. ‘He couldn’t have been less helpful if he tried!’
    ‘I know,’ I hissed back. ‘But he might come in useful later.’
    Sibert frowned, clearly trying to work out what I meant. But I had other things to worry about. We had reached the end of the abbey wall and it turned away abruptly to the south. Ahead of us lay the town, and I wondered where in its sprawl of narrow streets and huddled dwellings I was to find my cousin. Think , I commanded myself. Think .
    There must have been hundreds of workers there on the island, all of them connected in some way with the new cathedral build, all of them housed in temporary lodgings. Was there, then, a specific area where they were putting up? It seemed likely. I looked swiftly around me. Spotting a plump and cheerful woman of about my mother’s age, holding the hand of a small child, I approached her.
    ‘Good evening,’ I said, and she returned the greeting with a smile. ‘I’m looking for the workmen’s quarters – my cousin is wounded, and I’ve come to help him.’
    Her smile widened and I could have sworn she winked. ‘Have you now!’ she said. I realized, suddenly, what sort of a girl she thought I was, and I felt the hot flush spread across my face.
    ‘Yes,’ I said simply.
    She studied me and her salacious grin slowly faded. ‘Oh.’ Then, shortly, ‘Sorry. My mistake. The workmen lodge down there.’ She nodded down the alley that ran along the abbey wall. ‘Cross the marketplace then take any one of the streets leading off it to the south. There’s a huddle of lodgings down there towards the water, set up in the shelter of the abbey wall.’
    She was gone before I had finished thanking her; it was her turn to blush.
    Sibert grinned hugely. ‘She thought you were a—’
    ‘Yes, thank you, Sibert, I know what she thought I was.’ I didn’t want to dwell on that so I set off down the alley, and I heard his footsteps as he fell in behind me. We strode across the marketplace – empty now – and hurried down the first of the alleys leading off it. Presently, the more solid, permanent houses petered out, and we found ourselves in the workmen’s quarter.
    You couldn’t really call the dwellings houses. Some were not too bad, although the walls looked flimsy and the roofs must surely let in the rain. Some were no more than lean-tos, and although we tried not to it was all but impossible not to catch glimpses of men huddling round small, inadequate hearths, with cloaks, blankets or even sacks wrapped round their shoulders to keep out the all-pervasive damp. Down towards the water, the plump woman had said, and now I realized what she meant. Space was in short supply on the island of the eels, and the only place to house the suddenly expanded workforce was down on the low ground where nobody else – nobody in their right mind – would want to live.
    A man pushed past us, presumably making for his lodgings, then quickly apologized. ‘Didn’t see you there,’ he muttered.
    I stopped him. ‘I’m looking for my cousin,’ I said for the third time. ‘His name’s Morcar and he’s injured.