Alys Clare - The Rose of the World

‘You would dare do that, when for all we know he may already have made up his mind?’ She was instantly very worried for him. ‘Oh, Josse, you would be walking on very delicate ground!’

He grinned. ‘I have done so before,’ he replied. ‘The king is far from being a mindless fool who cannot think for himself. He will know by now of my connection with Ninian, and I believe he will not be surprised that I am trying to clear the lad’s name.’

‘Be careful,’ she warned.

‘I will. And you; what have you planned for yourself?’

‘We all must do our best to take Little Helewise’s mind off her heartbreak, and as soon as she and Meggie return from the hut, I plan to take her over to New Winnowlands to see her cousin. While we’re there, I will find the opportunity to ask Rosamund to tell me all that she remembers of her time with Olivier.’

‘Good!’ Abruptly, he stood up, and she sensed the impatient need for action that flowed through him. ‘I’m off to the abbey. Make sure you are back here by tonight, won’t you? I don’t know why, but I have the feeling that we have no time to waste.’

She might have queried that, except that she felt it too.

Helewise and her granddaughter set off in the early afternoon. Helewise rode Daisy, and Little Helewise, subdued and with red-rimmed eyes, was mounted on her grey mare. Helewise did not try to make her talk. The loss was very raw, and everything about the girl seemed to be quietly saying: leave me alone.

The ride to New Winnowlands took them around the wide eastwards bulge of the great forest. The track was well used, and the going was firm, for of late the weather had been dry and quite cold. As they neared the small manor house that had once been Josse’s and was now the home of Helewise’s younger son and his family, both of them kicked on their horses and they reached the house at a smart canter.

The family came out to greet them. Rosamund, Helewise noticed, kept very close to her mother. Dominic came to help her down from her horse, and she said quietly, ‘Ninian has had to leave England.’ Briefly, she explained.

Dominic’s eyes widened. ‘You cannot believe he is guilty of murder?’

‘No, none of us thinks that. Josse and I are going to try to find out who really killed Hugh de Brionne, and thus clear Ninian’s name.’

Little Helewise had also dismounted and was embracing her young cousin. Dominic watched the two girls. ‘She is taking this hard,’ he observed, indicating Little Helewise. ‘She is pale and it’s obvious she’s been weeping.’

‘We are trying to keep her busy to distract her from her sorrow,’ Helewise replied. ‘Hence the visit here.’

Dominic nodded. ‘She is welcome to stay. She and Rosamund get along well, and New Winnowlands has fewer associations with Ninian.’

‘Thank you for the thought. We’ll suggest it to her. There is one other thing.’

‘Yes?’

‘I would like to speak to Rosamund concerning the time she spent in Olivier’s company. Is she, do you think, ready to talk about it?’

‘Why do you want to question her?’ Then, before she could respond, he provided the answer. ‘Of course. To prove Ninian’s innocence, you have to discover the identity of the murderer. And you are hoping Rosamund can help.’

‘Have I your permission to speak to her?’ Helewise tried to keep the urgency out of her voice. She did not want to put pressure on Dominic to give his consent, but, on the other hand, there were more people than just Rosamund to consider.

‘You have,’ Dominic said. ‘It would be better, I think, not to question her in front of Little Helewise; you said you’re trying to distract her from thinking about Ninian, and she would quickly realize the purpose of your questions. But go carefully with Rosamund, won’t you?’ His sombre face broke into a quick smile. ‘As if you wouldn’t,’ he muttered.

She embraced him. ‘Thank you.’ Then she hurried after the two girls.

Dominic must have explained to Paradisa that Helewise wished to speak to Rosamund, for she came in, took the elder girl’s hand and said, ‘The stable cat has just had kittens. One of them has a little black moustache — come and see!’

Helewise caught her daughter-in-law’s eye and mouthed, ‘Thank you.’

Left alone with Rosamund, Helewise went to sit beside her and explained why she had come to see her. ‘If there is anything you can recall that might be relevant, please tell me,’ she said. ‘You can see how Little Helewise suffers, and it will not be safe for Ninian to return until we can prove he was not involved in Hugh de Brionne’s death.’

‘I don’t know this man,’ Rosamund said, frowning. ‘He is Olivier’s brother, you say?’

‘Yes.’ Helewise, appreciating that it was distressing Rosamund not to be able to help, decided to change her approach. ‘Tell me about Olivier,’ she invited.

Predictably, Rosamund’s expression lifted with relief at being able to supply an answer. ‘He looks like Ninian,’ she said. ‘When I saw him on the path close to the House in the Woods, I truly thought he was Ninian. After I’d realized my mistake, I wasn’t really afraid of him, because he was nice and he said we were going to a surprise party. He was kind to me and he looked after me, always asking if I was warm enough and making sure I was comfortable when we slept out in the open.’

Her frown was back. Helewise wondered what she was remembering. She was about to prompt her when she spoke again. ‘He — I don’t know how to explain, but quite often he seemed to be talking to someone, and at first I thought there must be another person with us, somehow keeping just out of sight, but then, of course, lots of the time we were out in the open and there was nowhere for anyone to hide, and in the end I thought he must be talking to himself.’ She looked at Helewise. ‘That was quite frightening,’ she admitted.

‘I’m sure it was,’ Helewise said. Dear Lord, the poor child must have been terrified. ‘Could you make out what he was saying?’

‘Not really. He muttered quite quietly, although often he seemed to be arguing about something. It was almost as if whoever was talking to him was giving him orders, and he didn’t want to obey them.’

Helewise stored that away. She was beginning to develop a picture of Olivier de Brionne, and she did not much like what she saw. ‘You slept out in the open,’ she said.

‘Yes. He took me for a ride on his horse — he’s a lovely horse, black with a star on his brow and he goes like the wind — but we got lost. He — Olivier — was very good at making a camp, and we had a fire and some food, and I wasn’t really scared. I thought we’d just go home in the morning. Or, at least, that’s what I told myself.’

The child had courage, Helewise thought. Many girls of her age would have been out of their wits with fear, sobbing and screaming uncontrollably. And what would this Olivier de Brionne, who heard voices and believed it was appropriate to present an eleven-year-old child to a king, have done if Rosamund hadn’t been so calm and level-headed? She did not want to think about it. ‘But next day he didn’t bring you back,’ she said. ‘What happened?’

‘He had packed up our blankets and stamped out the fire and we were about to set off,’ Rosamund said. ‘We’d camped in the middle of a stand of trees, up on a slight rise above a bend in the river. There were lots of bracken and bramble bushes, and you could hide in there among the trees. We heard a horse in the distance and quite soon I saw a rider approaching, although he was too far away for me to see his face. He had a dark cloak with a hood. He was riding really hard, spurring on his horse. When he saw us, he starting yelling something and waving his arm.’