Michael JECKS - The Leper's Return

“My Lord Bishop, you are very welcome,” Peter said, and Baldwin could hear the doubt in his voice. Peter must also have seen the Bishop’s mood. “My Lord, would you like some spiced wine to take the chill off after your journey?”

“My friend, it’s good to be here again once more,” the Bishop said automatically, though a trifle curtly. “Meet the new master of St. Lawrence’s Chapel, Ralph of Houndeslow.”

Baldwin had noticed the cleric before he was introduced. To the knight, most young monks looked as if they would benefit from early exercise every morning for several weeks; they invariably had skin that displayed an unhealthy pallor. This one was different. He stood tall and straight, not bent at the shoulder, and from his ruddy color he might have been a laborer. His face was thin, but not weakly. He had a solid, pugnacious-looking chin, and his blue eyes were intelligent, glittering with a prideful confidence beneath a thatch of tawny hair. The monk put Baldwin in mind of some of his dead friends from the Templars.

As they walked back to the Dean’s hall, Baldwin noticed that the Bishop did not stride so purposefully as had once been his wont. The prelate had aged in the last year. Although still tall, he was more stooped than before. It looked as if the burden of his office was becoming too much for him to bear. Baldwin had first met him here in the Dean’s house a year before, when Stapledon had pressed him to confirm to whom he owed his allegiance – King or Earl. Then Stapledon had been tall, erect and powerful. But Baldwin knew Stapledon was involved in the politics that surrounded the King, and that the pressure must be crushing. He recalled that twelve months before, they had both been fearful of war. In retrospect this appeared laughable: the situation had not been nearly so fraught with danger as it had now become.

Ralph took a seat a little to the Bishop’s left, leaving the older man near the fire. Two balks of oak glowed dully, and as the Bishop dropped down with a grunt, Baldwin gave them a kick, creating a shower of sparks, before tossing split beech logs on top. Peter Clifford chivvied servants to fetch the wine before seating himself opposite their guests, and Baldwin pulled up a stool next to Ralph. As the flames curled upward the monk saw the knight’s face in the flickering, lurid orange light, and to judge from the set nature of his expression, his thoughts were not pleasant.

Close to, the knight appeared older than the monk had first thought. Sir Baldwin was a lean-looking man, with the massive shoulders and arms of a swordsman, but where Ralph would have expected to see cruelty and indifference, he was surprised to see rather the opposite. The knight had kindly eyes. They were set in a dark face which was framed by short black hair, frosted with gray at his temples. A well-trimmed beard followed the line of his jaw.

His cheek wore a long scar, which shone in the candlelight. But Ralph could also see that pain marred his features. His forehead was slashed across with deep tracks, and at either side of his mouth were vertical lines that pointed to years of suffering. He gave the impression of a man who had endured, although the cost of surviving was high.

Bishop Stapledon also saw Baldwin’s detachment and gave a rueful shrug. “Sir Baldwin, please excuse my shortness. I didn’t intend to be rude.”

“I am the one who should apologize; my mind was wandering.”

“In my case I was reflecting on a chance encounter,” said the Bishop.

“Really, my Lord?” asked Dean Peter with interest.

“Yes, Dean. I met a man I had no wish to see again,” Stapledon said coldly. He accepted a goblet of mulled wine from the bottler, snuffing the aroma and grunting his approval. “That smells good! It was chilly on the way here; I swear I feel the weight of my years more strongly with each succeeding winter. With age, my flesh grows ever less protective against inclement weather. As a lad I’d have thought the weather today was so mild it only merited a shirt, but now I am old and feeble I have to reach for two tunics, a jerkin, and a thick woollen cloak. Dean Peter, your wine tastes as good as it smells! Thank you – I can feel my good humor returning!”

“But what unsettled you?” Peter persisted, waving at the bottler to top up Bishop Stapledon’s goblet.

“That incorrigible little man, John Irelaunde.”

“Oh – good God!”

“You don’t seem surprised, Dean,” the Bishop observed drily. “I am sure I recollect advising he should be banned from the town.”

“It was hard to evict him. I’m not responsible for the town’s court, as you know.”

“You mean to suggest that the good people of this town wouldn’t take your recommendation, Dean?”

Ralph heard the Bishop’s voice sharpen. The Dean was avoiding Stapledon’s keen gaze, and when Ralph glanced at Sir Baldwin he noticed that the knight was once more staring at the flames, but now with a tiny grin touching his mouth as if he was trying to conceal his amusement. Ralph looked back at the Bishop helplessly. “But my Lord Bishop, who was the man? He looked inoffensive to me, just a tranter about his business – why should he irritate you so much?”

The Bishop’s features set into a sour mask; the Dean thoughtfully stirred his wine with a finger. It was left to Baldwin to respond. Without turning from his contemplative survey of the logs, he spoke quietly, eyes twinkling merrily in the firelight. “This man John of Irelaunde is well known.”

“But why, sir?”

“I’m not the best man to ask. It all happened a long time ago, before I returned here myself. I lived abroad for many years, and it was only when my brother died in an accident that I inherited the estate. All I know is what I have heard.”

Baldwin shot Ralph a quick look. The monk saw his features highlighted by a sudden jet of flame, and now he could hear the delight in his voice. So too could the Bishop, for Ralph heard him grunt in a surly manner and shift irritably in his seat.

The knight continued, “John Irelaunde arrived here in 1315 – I think in the August, wasn’t it, my Lord?” The Bishop gave a short nod. “As I say, I was not myself here in those days, but I have heard the story so often, it almost feels as if I saw it all. But before you hear about Irelaunde, you have to know the background, the tale of the other man, the one whom Irelaunde had met on the road. You see, the Bishop here was holding a service in the church to celebrate a mass…”

“It was the mass of St. Peter advincula,” Stapledon said quietly. “Orey came here on the Wednesday before the first of August.” While Baldwin continued, his voice close to laughter, the Bishop could see the scene in his mind’s eye with perfect clarity.

It was a cold and wet August – every month that year and the year following were abysmal – and the congregation was soaked. In the yellow glow of the hundreds of candles, the Bishop could see the steam rising like some strange marsh gas from the clothes of the people standing before him, creating an unwholesome fug. The stench was unimaginable: sodden wool, damp furs, the rank animal scent of badly cured leather, the reek of unwashed bodies – Stapledon had thought they all combined with the burning tallow to create a uniquely repellent atmosphere. He felt it was no way to give praise to God. It was so bad he had to rebuke himself for his lack of concentration.

As he moved on with the mass, chanting the long passages that held such a wealth of meaning for him, submitting himself to the influence of the familiar phrases and soothing cadences, his concentration was shattered by a wild shriek.

It was as if a pig’s bladder had been inflated and burst. The noise was so unexpected it was an obscenity in its own right. Stapledon was horrified, thinking at first that the devil himself had polluted the ceremony. Voices called out, some in condemnation, others in praise and while the Bishop stared uncomprehendingly, he saw that a figure was stumbling wide-eyed toward him, shouting, “A miracle, a miracle!”