Alys Clare: Whiter than the Lily

At which Brice put both arms around her and hugged her to him as she wept.

When, after some moments, she moved a little distance away from Brice and, giving him a grateful smile, wiped her eyes, Josse said, ‘Was that why, Isabella, you tried to dissuade us from going down into the Saltwych settlement to rescue Galiena? Because you feared for Brice?’

‘I feared for you too!’ she said. ‘I knew what they are capable of; you did not. And I did not know the identity of the girl in the hut. I was sorry for her, of course I was, but I felt that for your sakes, we should leave well alone.’ She looked at Galiena, then back at Josse. ‘I am so glad,’ she added, ‘that you ignored me.’

‘Just how long,’ Helewise asked cautiously, ‘had you been watching the Saltwych settlement, Isabella? Days? Or was it weeks?’

Again, Isabella turned her remarkable eyes on to her. ‘You guess accurately, my lady,’ she said.

‘The Abbess does not guess , she reasons,’ Josse interrupted pontifically, and his tone broke the tension in the hall, allowing them all a moment of laughter.

‘It was a guess, really,’ Helewise admitted. ‘You gave the impression last night, Isabella, that you knew the place much better than Josse or Brice, which, of course, you have just explained to us by saying that you were born and brought up there. So it follows that you would have known of a good place to hide while you watched and listened to all that went on.’

‘Yes, I have been going there on and off since Nicholas died,’ Isabella said. ‘My family all know that I love to hunt alone which, as well as allowing secret meetings with Brice, also meant I could slip away and see what was happening at Saltwych. Try to hear, for example, if any plans were being laid for me.’ Looking across at Galiena, she said, ‘I am only sorry that I did not learn of the threat to you, dearest. Aebba must have slipped away from Ryemarsh the very night after you had announced your visit to Hawkenlye, in order to tell Aelle that the perfect opportunity had arisen to snatch you and substitute a woman who looked like you. Had I seen Aebba in the settlement then, I might have been suspicious. But I did not.’

There was a silence as they all considered the implications of that. Then Ambrose said, and from his tone Helewise thought he was giving a final summing-up of the discussion, ‘Well, that cannot be helped. Galiena is safe now, back where she belongs, and, with Aelle’s death, it appears that there is no longer a threat to Brice if he becomes Isabella’s husband. You do not think that his successor will carry on his policy of marrying selected girls of the kinfolk to important outsiders, Isabella?’

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘There is not another like Aelle. He has no child of his own and his successor is his cousin’s son, a weak-minded fool who wishes nothing more than to hunt fowl in the marshes by day and whittle wood in the evening.’

‘I pray,’ Ambrose said gravely, ‘that you are right.’

‘I am,’ Isabella said firmly. ‘The Saltwych community has had its time and will degenerate to nothing.’ Then, as if surprised at her own prophetic words, she said ‘Oh!’

Ambrose got up and embraced both her and Brice. ‘I will send word of this happy news to your kin at Readingbrooke,’ he said, with a warm smile for Isabella. Then, delight flooding his face, ‘And, indeed, we must also impart the miraculous tidings that Galiena is returned to us. But for now we will drink the health of the newly betrothed couple!’ Turning towards the door that led to the kitchens, he shouted, ‘Julian! Bring us the best wine!’

As the day reached and passed noon, Helewise felt that she should set out back to Hawkenlye. The revelries at Ryemarsh were clearly going to continue for quite a time and, she thought, why not? Both couples had something to celebrate; a betrothal in one case and a joyous and unexpected reunion in the other. She hoped that Josse might offer to ride with her but, failing that, that Ambrose would supply an escort from his household.

She had spoken quietly to Ambrose and he had asked that the Hawkenlye community say masses for the soul of his groom, Dickon. To her surprise, he had added, ‘And, for all that she was a pagan and set out to do me great harm, please also pray for the woman who impersonated my wife.’ He paused, then whispered, ‘Now let her be buried under her own name.’

Guessing that he probably felt a superstitious dread at the thought of the Hawkenlye grave that was marked with his wife’s name, Helewise nodded.

Josse must have guessed that she wanted to be on the road for, as soon as they had finished the midday meal — which took a long time — he approached her and said, ‘I am ready to leave as soon as you give the word, my lady. We can be back at the Abbey by nightfall.’

Ambrose, Galiena, Brice and Isabella all came out to the courtyard to see them off. Helewise was helped on to the golden mare, Honey, and Josse swung up into Horace’s saddle; both horses looked sleek and well fed from their brief stay in the Ryemarsh stables and Josse muttered to Helewise that they had a lively ride ahead of them.

‘I will visit Hawkenlye soon, if I may,’ Galiena called out.

And Helewise, understanding, called back, ‘You will be welcome, you and your lord.’

But Josse, looking down at the radiant girl and her dignified husband, his lined face filled with a luminous joy that took years from him, muttered, ‘Perhaps it will not prove necessary.’

They did indeed have an exciting ride. Sensing the mare’s impatience, Helewise held her in; there was one more thing she wanted to ask. ‘Sir Josse,’ she said when they were out of sight of Ryemarsh, ‘why did you question Isabella so closely concerning the murder of her husband?’

‘It seemed cruel to you, my lady, that I pressed her hard?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ she admitted. ‘But I am sure you had your reasons.’

He said, after thinking for a few moments, ‘I saw her deliberately fly her hawk at Aelle. He was chasing us and he would doubtless have harmed some or all of us had he caught up with us; he had already given poor Brice that alarming bruise on his face. Isabella’s intention was clearly to defend us. But still, it was a calculated act and it is certain that the hawk’s attack probably blinded Aelle and caused him to fall to his death.’

She understood. ‘And you wished to reassure yourself that she acted out of what she saw as necessity,’ she commented. ‘She was, in short, not only protecting her friends but also, and perhaps more crucially, avenging her late husband.’

‘Exactly,’ Josse replied.

And, despite her own misgivings, Helewise decided from his set expression that it was probably best to say no more about it.

The lively horses were eager to run and at first Josse — who, as always, had been displaying his usual uneasiness in the company of the golden mare — seemed anxious in case Helewise could not stand a full gallop. But now she was impatient to be home. I’ll show him, she thought gleefully, I’ll prove that, although I’m a nun, I haven’t forgotten how to ride!

With a cry of delight, she kicked her heels into Honey’s sides and felt the mare leap off. Flying, feeling the wind of their fast passage tear at her veil, she heard Horace’s thundering hooves beat against the hard ground as Josse came after her. And she found herself laughing from sheer happiness.

She had been back at Hawkenlye for a day when Isabella came to speak to her. Helewise had spent some time thinking back over the impostor’s time at Hawkenlye and several things that had puzzled her about the woman whom she had believed to be Galiena Ryemarsh were now clarified. Why she had been so heavily veiled all the time, for example. Why she had refused to pray in the Abbey church but instead spent her time crouched in the corner of the shrine down in the Vale. Why she had shouted at poor Saul when he went in to clean the steps. Why, too, the serving woman, Aebba, had slipped away to the forest; she must have been looking for her accomplice, desperate to speak to Fritha so that the two of them might find a way to deal with the unexpected arrival of Ambrose.