Dissolution

I seemed to wait a long time. I heard the dead bell tolling again in the distance; now Simon Whelplay's funeral was over and he too was being laid in the earth. I cursed myself for not letting Goodhaps make his way to town alone. I wanted to go to the fish pond, and then I had plans for dealing with Brother Edwig.

I heard voices. I frowned and opened the door. Murmurs from the kitchen, Mark's and Alice's tones. I strode down the hallway.

Alice's dress lay on a scrubbing board where she had been washing it. She was dressed only in her white undershift, and she and Mark were clasped in each other's arms. But they were not laughing, her face against his neck was full of sadness and Mark's too was serious, as though he were comforting rather than embracing her. They saw me and jumped apart, startled. I saw the movement of full, firm breasts under her shift, the hard nipples pressing against the material. I looked away.

'Mark Poer,' I said sharply, 'I asked you to hurry. We have work.'

He blushed. 'I am sorry, sir – I –'

'And you, Alice, is that what you call modesty?'

'I have only one clean dress, sir.' Her tone was defiant. 'This is the only place I can wash it.'

'Then you should have locked the door against intruders. Mark, come.' I inclined my head and he followed me back up the passage.

In our room I stood facing him. 'I told you not to dally there. You have obviously had more converse with her than I thought!'

'We have talked whenever we could these last few days.' He faced me boldly. 'I knew you would not approve. I cannot help my heart.'

'Nor could you with the queen's lady. Is this to have the same end?'

He reddened. 'This is clean different,' he burst out. 'My feelings for Mistress Fewterer are noble! I feel for her as for no woman before. You can scoff, but it is true. We have done nothing sinful, no more than hold and kiss as you saw. She was upset after falling in the snow.'

'Mistress Fewterer? You forget that Alice is no mistress, she is a servant.'

'That did not stop you embracing her when she fell in the snow. I have seen you looking at her, sir. You admire her too!' He took a step towards me, his face suddenly angry. 'You are jealous!'

'God's death!' I shouted. 'I have been too soft with you. I should cast you out now, to take your busy cock back to Lichfield and see if you can find a place as a ploughman!'

He said nothing. I forced myself to speak calmly.

'So, you think me a poor cripple full of jealousy. Yes, Alice is a fine girl, I won't deny that. But we have serious business here. What would Lord Cromwell think of you taking time out to dally with the servants, eh?'

'There is more to life than Lord Cromwell,' he muttered.

'Is there? Would you like to tell him that? And that's not all. What would you do, take Alice back to London? You say you do not want to go back to Augmentations, but is a servant's status all you seek?'

'No.' He hesitated, casting his eyes down.

'Well?'

'I thought perhaps you might let me be your assistant, sir, your clerk. I have helped you in your work, you have said I am good at it –'

'A clerk?' I repeated incredulously. 'A lawyer's jobbing clerk? Is that the reach of your ambition?'

'It is a bad time to ask, I know,' he said sulkily.

'God's blood, any time would be bad for that request! You would shame me before your father and shame yourself too, for lack of honest ambition. No, Mark, I will not have you as a clerk.'

He spoke with sudden heat. 'For one who is always talking of the welfare of the poor and building a Christian commonwealth, you have a lean view of common people!'

'There must be degrees in society. Not all are of the same degree and God never ordained otherwise.'

'The abbot would agree with you there. So would Justice Copynger.'

'God's death, you go too far!' I shouted. He faced me in silence, retreating behind that infuriating, impassive mask of his. I waved a finger at him.

'Listen to me. I have gained a measure of Brother Guy's confidence. He told me what happened to Simon Whelplay. Do you think he would have acted similarly if he, rather than I, had come upon a scene like that just now? When that girl is under his protection? Well?'

Still he did not reply.

'There must be no more dalliance with Alice. Do you understand? No more. And I urge you to think very carefully on your future.'

'Yes, sir,' he muttered coldly. I could have struck his expressionless face.

'Get your coat. We are going to investigate that pond. We can look round the chapels on the way back.'

'It is like hunting for a needle in a haystack,' Mark said sullenly. 'The things could be buried.'

'It will only take an hour or so. Come on. And you had better prepare your flesh for the touch of cold water,' I added maliciously. 'It will be a lot colder than the arms of that girl.'

* * *

We made our way in silence. I was burning with anger; anger at Mark's thoughtlessness and insolence, but also at myself, for what he had said about my jealousy was true. To see him holding Alice, when she had shrunk from me, had burned me to the heart. I glanced sideways at him. First with Jerome, now with Alice. How could this obstinate, self-indulgent boy always leave me feeling in the wrong?

As we passed the church the monks were going in once more in double file. Simon was buried now in the monks' churchyard, but evidently there was to be a further service for him, though there had been none for Singleton. I reflected bitterly that Simon would have been grateful for a tenth of the attributes and opportunities God had lavished on Mark. The last of the brothers filed in, the door banged shut, and we walked on past the outhouses to the lay cemetery.

Mark stopped suddenly. 'Look there,' he said. 'That is strange.' He pointed to Singleton's grave, its brown earth standing out against the snow. The fresh snowfall had covered everything around with a further dusting, but not the grave.

We crossed to it and I exclaimed with disgust. The grave was covered with a viscous liquid, glittering in the weak sun. I bent down, touched it carefully and lifted my finger to my nose. Then I snorted angrily.

'Soap! Someone's coated the grave with soap. To prevent the grass growing. It has melted the snow.'

'But why?'

'Haven't you heard the story that grass will not grow on the graves of the sinful? There was a woman hanged for infanticide when I was a boy. Her husband's family would steal out and coat the grave with soap so nothing would grow, like this. It's a vicious piece of mischief.'

'Who has done it?'

'How should I know?' I snapped. 'God's passion, I'll have Abbot Fabian bring the lot of them out here to clean it under my supervision – no, under yours, it'll be a bigger humiliation to do it under you.' I turned away furiously.

We trudged on, traversing the graveyard and then the orchard, now almost a foot deep in snow. Watery sunlight was reflected from the stream and the ice-covered circle of the fish pond.

I pushed my way through the frozen rushes. The ice was thicker now, a light covering of snow round the edges. But by bending down and squinting hard I could still discern something gleaming faintly near the middle of the pond.

'Mark, see that pile of loose stones, under where the wall is patched. Fetch a big one and break the ice.'

He sighed, but at a stern look from me went off and fetched a great lump of limestone. I stood back as he raised the boulder above his head and flung it into the centre of the pond. There was a tremendous crash, satisfying somehow, though I flinched as a spout of water and shards of ice flew into the air. I left the water to settle, then carefully approached the edge, got down on hands and knees again and peered in. Disturbed fish milled about frantically.