The Law of Angels by Cassandra Clark Read Free Book Online

in angels?”
    Hildegard frowned. “It’s an ancient and commonly held belief,” she replied cautiously.
    Petronilla’s eyes were fixed on hers. “Some people believe that everyone has an angel to guard their body and soul,” she continued. “And I’m told there are hierarchies of angels just as there are hierarchies of people.” She paused. “I’m also told that Archangels are the ones who carry out God’s will and lesser angels exist to perform minor tasks for us in everyday life.”
    “Yes, I’ve heard that too.” Hildegard was noncommittal.
    “But,” Petronilla went on importantly, “as well as being helpers in a kindly way, angels also punish us. That’s right, isn’t it?”
    “So some people say.” Wondering where this was leading, Hildegard would go no further than that.
    Petronilla continued. “Angels have work to do like everyone else in the world, and when they see someone break the laws of compassion and respect they calmly and without any anger chastise the transgressor to help them become better people.”
    “That’s another common belief.” Hildegard led the way down a short incline between the trees with Petronilla, Maud and the two hounds jostling at her heels, but Petronilla caught up with her and began to trot by her side.
    “Sometimes,” she continued, “their punishment is so harsh it takes the form of death, or so I’m told. After that the evil-doer has to go down into hell where their impure soul is cleansed by the most horrible fires to make it ready to return to the world of humans. The hope is that it can live a better life than the one it forfeited. The angels,” she continued, as if having learned the words by rote, “are the true protectors of our souls. By their help we can attain the reward of everlasting joy in the heavenly paradise that awaits.”
    When Hildegard made no comment she turned to Maud who was still following close behind and said, “So you do see, don’t you, my dear little Maud, there’s no need to plan revenge on those violent men as I’m sure you would like to and as I most certainly would, because the angels will do it for you. That is their law. They punish evil-doers. And no one can escape their terrible vengeance.”
    Maud, her hood still up, walked on in silence.
    *   *   *
    At last they came out on a rise where the trees had been felled and the path led down into a wide dale with a river running through it. There were other signs of settlement, an enclosure, empty of kine, the distant barking of a dog, the scent of woodsmoke. Hildegard told them she guessed they were less than a mile from York in a place called Two Mills Dale.
    This was proved when they came across the first of the mills on the other side of a narrow causeway. It was now nothing more than a derelict hulk and was separated from the path they were on by a marsh meadow, incongruously bright for so melancholy a place, with king cups, purple flag and bog wort among the bulrushes.
    The mill had clearly been unused for many years, its roof partly caved in, the vanes rotted, broken paddles hanging askew, and the great wooden wheel itself looking as if it would never turn again. It hung half under the water, the surface of the mill pond covered by a thick skin of duckweed.
    Everyone seemed to feel ill at ease. Petronilla made little shuddering sounds, Maud increased her pace and even Agnetha looked warily across as if expecting something monstrous to emerge from the slime. Hildegard tried to allay their uneasiness with a story she had heard based on fact not fantasy.
    Many years ago, she told them, the abbot of that time had built a new mill farther downstream. It was closer to the vills owned by the lord of the manor than this one. Soon the abbot’s miller was in competition with the one employed by the manor lord. A dispute arose as to who was the best miller. Eventually the miller here had been put out of business. Now nobody even remembered his name. All anyone knew