She thought for a while and then said, ‘Sir Josse, if these bones are not Merlin’s, then they have to be someone else’s.’ He smiled briefly at the simplicity of her argument but did not interrupt. ‘Then perhaps we should turn our efforts to discovering whose the bones are,’ she went on.
‘They’re very large,’ Josse put in. ‘The man in that grave would easily have stood head and chest above me, if not more.’
‘That much taller than you!’ She was shocked, for Josse was no midget.
‘Well, maybe not quite,’ he admitted.
‘Who on earth was he?’ she murmured wonderingly. She had always dismissed tales of giants as nothing more than fairy stories. To have the skeleton of one found not ten miles away was disturbing, to say the least. . ‘If it is true that Florian did not make this miraculous find on the forest fringe with its lead cross helpfully providing identity-’
‘I’ll stake my reputation that he didn’t,’ Josse said.
‘-then he must have found the skeleton somewhere else, manufactured the lead cross, dug a hole in the forest floor, lined it with stone and placed a slab in its base, then transported the bones. He would have had to wait a while for the grave to lose its air of raw newness-’
‘Not so long at this time of year,’ Josse put in. ‘In May and June everything grows so fast and signs of recent labour would soon have been covered up.’
‘Very well. Let us say he waited a few weeks. Then he chops down the trees to make his clearing, puts up fences and huts and then makes the announcement. You and I both know full well how news travels, especially when it concerns a miracle. All Florian would have to do was sit back and wait.’
Josse was frowning and she wondered if there was some point with which he wished to take issue. ‘Sir Josse?’
‘My lady, I was thinking of something prompted by the first part of your proposed account.’ He glared at her, although she knew his anger was not directed at her. ‘The trees,’ he said bluntly.
‘The trees?’ She tried to follow. Then light dawned. ‘Oh, I see. You are thinking of the forest people.’
‘Aye. We have seen in the past how they react to unnecessary felling of trees. I am thinking, my lady, that I would not wish to be in the shoes of the man who roused the wrath of the Domina.’
‘Neither would I,’ she agreed fervently.
There was a short silence in the little room. He, she imagined, was thinking the same as she. Who would be the first to put the thought into words?
It was Josse. ‘I should seek them out,’ he said slowly. ‘The forest people, I mean. I’ll go into the forest and try to locate one of them, and ask to be taken to her. The Domina,’ he added, as if he could have meant anyone else.
But he could, she suddenly realised: he could have meant Joanna.
Joanna lived in the Great Forest. She was one of the forest people and Helewise had good reason to know that her powers had been steadily growing until she too was a force to be feared. She also had reason to know that to speak of Joanna was difficult for Josse.
But speak of her she must.
‘Joanna too will be greatly disturbed by this intrusion,’ she said softly. ‘Should you, do you think, seek her out too?’
He turned pained eyes to her. ‘She is not always there to be sought out,’ he said. ‘Since I found out about Meggie, I have sometimes tried to. She said I might,’ he added, as if he needed to excuse his actions. Not to me, Helewise thought quickly. Why should a man not wish to see his natural child, and the woman who bore her?
‘You have tried to go and visit, but found her away from home?’ Helewise prompted.
‘Aye. Three times now, since that business with the Eye of Jerusalem.’
‘She saved my life, and that of others,’ Helewise observed. ‘I have never thanked her. Perhaps I ought to.’
Josse was watching her. ‘She’d probably be at home to you,’ he said roughly.
‘Oh, Josse, don’t-’ She could feel his pain and instantly wanted to comfort him. But she did not know how to. She bowed her head.
After some time she said, ‘I will go into the forest, with Sister Tiphaine as my guide.’ Sister Tiphaine was the herbalist; rumoured still to be part-pagan despite all the years she had spent as a nun, she was known to have contacts and friends among the Forest Folk. ‘We shall try to find the Domina and also perhaps Joanna, if she is there to be found, and speak to them concerning their views on Merlin’s Tomb. It may be that Hawkenlye and the Forest will unite in their opposition, and both be the stronger for having a powerful ally.’
He nodded slowly. ‘Aye. And it can surely do no harm to discover what they think.’ Tearing himself away with an obvious effort from thoughts of the forest and those who dwelt within it, he said, ‘As for me, I shall don my true identity and visit Florian’s home, then return to the wider area around the tomb. If it is as we conjecture and Florian has transported bones from elsewhere, then perhaps I shall be able to find out where he found them. If that fails, I shall consider approaching Florian himself to demand some explanations.’
She looked at him. ‘Be careful,’ she warned. ‘He is making a great deal of money and he will not be willing to discuss the whys and wherefores with anyone, even a well-armed knight such as yourself.’
‘I am a King’s man,’ he said with a hint of pride.
‘So you are but, on your own admission, Florian surrounds himself with bodyguards.’
‘Hm.’ He looked as if he would have preferred it if he had kept that fact to himself. ‘Very well, my lady. I shall be careful.’
‘I will pray for you,’ she said gently. ‘Once again, you take on a force that threatens the Abbey and, once again, we are in your debt.’
He grinned. ‘Don’t feel too much indebtedness until you know it’s warranted,’ he said. ‘I may achieve precisely nothing in my endeavours.’
‘That I doubt,’ she returned. ‘When will you set out?’
‘First light tomorrow.’ He stretched. ‘For now, I will reclaim my own clothes and return these garments to Sister Emanuel. Then I shall visit the monks in the Vale and ask them to provide me with some food and a bed for the night.’
He made a sketchy bow, headed for the door and was gone.
The next morning Helewise sought out Sister Tiphaine immediately after Tierce. She made her way around to the herb garden, where the neat rows of plants were growing abundantly under the June sunshine. Sweet, potent smells floated up to her and she breathed in deeply, enjoying the sensation as some of the plants’ power surged into her lungs.
The herbalist was standing inside her little hut. The door was propped open and the soft sound of Sister Tiphaine’s humming could be heard. It sounded more like a chant, as if the herbalist were making some incantation to empower whatever remedy she was working on. . Wisely, Helewise decided not to enquire.
‘Sister Tiphaine!’ she called out as she approached.
Abruptly the humming broke off. ‘My lady Abbess,’ Sister Tiphaine greeted her, wiping her hands on a spotless piece of white linen and coming to stand in the doorway.
‘Sister, I have to go into the forest,’ Helewise said without preamble — she was feeling quite apprehensive and the best way to deal with qualms was, in her experience, to ride straight at them — ‘and I need you to be my guide.’
‘Of course, my lady.’
‘It’s this wretched business of the new shrine.’
‘Merlin’s Tomb, they’re calling it.’ There was scorn in the herbalist’s tone.
‘Yes, indeed they are. Well, whether it is or not’ — she could have been mistaken but she thought she heard Sister Tiphaine mutter, ‘It’s not’ — ‘it is giving us a very great problem because it is diverting the pilgrims who would otherwise come here. Since a large part of the reason for our very existence is to care for those who come to take our healing waters, this is not a situation that I wish to see continue for any longer than can be helped.’ She realised that she was sounding pompous. Looking straight into Sister Tiphaine’s deep eyes, she said simply, ‘For their own reasons, the forest people must be equally distressed at this intrusion. It is my hope that I might meet the Domina and discuss our position. Can you — will you — help?’