Alys Clare - The Rose of the World

Shock, she told herself firmly. Shock, and too much running around. She raised her knees and folded her arms on top of them, dropping her head and giving in to her fatigue. But as soon as she relaxed, an image of Ninian flew into her mind.

Her head shot up. Where was he? Oh, she did not even know if he had taken his horse! Leaping up, she ran to where they had left the two animals, on the fringe of the forest. Both horses were still there. She put her arms around Daisy’s neck and leaned against her. The mare gave a soft whicker and nudged her nose against Meggie’s shoulder.

‘I don’t know where he’s gone,’ Meggie whispered to her. ‘He’s fled on foot, so I guess he is within the forest.’ In the most secret ways of the wildwood, progress on horseback was all but impossible. She put a hand out to Ninian’s horse, unwinding the reins. ‘You’d better come with us, my friend Garnet,’ she said to him. ‘Ninian may well have need of you, before long.’

Slowly, she led both horses along the track that curved around the bulge of the forest and back to the clearing before the chapel. She was about to head on down to the abbey, but all at once she knew what she needed. Tethering the horses once more, she crossed the grass and went into the chapel.

She knew straight away that something was wrong. The chapel was small and very simple, and one glance sufficed to take in the stone flags of the floor, the pale oak rood screen and the unadorned altar with its plain cross. Her heart beating hard, Meggie crossed to the flagstone that, although few knew it, was also a trapdoor concealing the steps down to the crypt. She had seen as soon as she entered that it was not quite closed.

Many possibilities raced through her head, each worse than the one before and all pointing to the terrible suspicion that somebody had slipped into the chapel, opened the trapdoor and descended to the place that held the chapel’s secret. Would the Black Madonna still be there? Or had she vanished?

She pushed back the trapdoor, and it crashed against the floor. She flew down the narrow little steps and, ducking her head beneath the low arch, burst into the crypt.

In front of the niche where the Black Goddess sat, somebody stood guard. She had a heavy stick in her hand. As Meggie sprang out before her, she swung it up over her head.

‘Keep away! You cannot have her!’ she shouted.

Meggie fell against her, enveloping her in her arms. ‘It’s me!’ she cried. ‘It’s all right, it’s me!’

The stick fell with a thud to the floor and Helewise said, ‘Meggie! Oh, Meggie!’

The two women hugged. Meggie could hear Helewise’s heart thumping in her chest. ‘What were you doing?’ Meggie asked.

‘I heard voices, shouting,’ Helewise replied, with a slightly shaky laugh. ‘I was up in the chapel praying that Rosamund would be found today, and suddenly there were people outside and the sounds of a scuffle. I was quite sure they had come for the goddess. I had to save her.’

Meggie looked at her lovingly. ‘Where did you get your weapon?’

Helewise laughed again. ‘There’s a little bench in the corner there, for when people want to sit in vigil down here. I pulled one of its legs off.’

‘Strong as well as resourceful,’ Meggie murmured. Then something struck her. ‘Did you not feel similarly compelled to protect the wooden cross on the altar?’

Helewise gave her a serene smile. ‘I did not feel that was in any danger.’

Meggie reached for her hand. ‘Your prayers have been answered,’ she said gently.

Helewise’s expression went from confusion to doubt to a tentative hope. ‘You mean they’ve found her?’

‘Yes. She’s down at the abbey.’

Helewise closed her eyes, and her lips moved silently. Then, looking at Meggie, she said, ‘Go and find your father. Abbess Caliste will have sent someone to notify Rosamund’s parents, and Josse should be told too, as soon as possible.’

‘There’s-’ Meggie had been about to say that there was something else she had to tell Josse: about Ninian and what had happened outside the chapel. But she stopped herself. Let Helewise enjoy this moment of joy for a while. ‘I will,’ she said instead.

Back at the abbey, Meggie learned that riders had already been sent to New Winnowlands to find Dominic and Paradisa, and out to the north and west of the abbey, to where Josse and Gervase were searching. Josse and the sheriff, however, had been on their way back to the abbey when the messenger found them and, as he gave them the news, Gervase had very gladly given the order that all search parties could now stand down. Then he had headed down to Tonbridge to spread the word there, and Josse had ridden as hard as he could back to Hawkenlye, where Meggie had been waiting.

She took her father aside to speak to him privately. ‘Father, there was a fight up by the chapel,’ she said quickly. ‘Ninian and I were trailing the men who had Rosamund. He struggled with two of them and both were wounded, one badly.’

Josse’s face had paled. ‘Will he live?’

‘I do not know. Both are in the infirmary.’

‘And Ninian?’

‘He was unhurt, at least I believe so. But, Father, these men are important lords, men of wealth and power! They are richly clad — at least, one of them is — and they ride fine horses. They were hunting on the Ashdown Forest, and only men of high position are allowed to do that. If Ninian has killed one of them — even if the man lives, Ninian inflicted a grave wound — then they won’t rest till he’s caught and hanged.’

Josse watched her, pain darkening his eyes. ‘He has fled?’ he asked.

She nodded. ‘I told him to. It seemed the only thing he could do.’

Josse did not speak for some time. Then he put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her to him. ‘I don’t know, my love, if what you did was sensible,’ he said. ‘It could be argued that Ninian would have been wiser to stand his ground and defend his actions — you say there were two of them, so he could surely have been forgiven for defending himself when they attacked.’

‘But-’ she began.

He stopped her. ‘Dearest, I said your action might not have been sensible,’ he murmured. ‘What I was going to say was that, sensible or not, it’s what I would have done too.’ He bent to put a kiss on her forehead. ‘Better to have fled than take the terrible risk of a trial going against him.’

They stood together for some moments and, as she had always done, she took strength from him and from the great love she knew he had for her. Then he took her hand and, with a brave attempt at a smile, said, ‘Come on. We had better visit these two important lords of yours.’

The men had been installed at the far end of the infirmary, a little away from the other patients. Josse, still holding his daughter’s hand, walked the length of the ward, aware of many pairs of curious eyes on them. He smiled to himself. The average humble peasant coming to Hawkenlye with a broken wrist or a chesty cough was not normally treated to the spectacle of two of the lordly class borne in on stretchers, and the story would no doubt soon be spreading far and wide.

Josse glanced at Meggie. She was biting her lip, a sign that she was feeling anxious. She loved her half-brother dearly, Josse reflected. If she sensed that she had advised him ill, she would not forgive herself.

We shall have to make sure he is safe, Josse thought.

They had reached the far end of the infirmary. Sister Liese stood waiting for them. Greeting Josse, she drew back the curtain to the recess on her right. ‘This is the more seriously injured man,’ she said, standing back to allow Josse and Meggie into the cubicle. ‘Your daughter did well,’ the infirmarer added. ‘The care she gave him immediately after he received his wound probably saved his life.’