Alys Clare - The Joys of My Life

He stared at her. ‘That’s what she said. She said — ’ he frowned as he tried to remember — ‘that the spirit had gone from the world.’

‘Yes. Yes, that’s it!’ Helewise said eagerly. ‘And — don’t you see, dear Josse? — her people recognize the spirit so clearly, for they are so close to the earth and to nature. Why, they don’t have any permanent buildings, do they?’

‘No,’ he agreed.

But she noticed that, after the brief period of animation, his face had fallen into sorrow once more. It was time for some bracing encouragement; she prayed for the strength to provide it. ‘Sir Josse,’ she said firmly, ‘we don’t know what will happen for certain over there in Chartres and, from what you have told me, it sounds as if the Domina was just preparing you for one possible outcome.’ He looked at her dubiously. ‘It may not come to pass.’

He shrugged. ‘I’ll have to wait and see,’ he said heavily.

‘Yes. Yes, you will.’ She searched frantically for something positive with which to encourage him. Then she had it. ‘You must keep your optimism,’ she said, ‘for Meggie’s sake if not your own.’

‘Meggie.’ He repeated the name in a whisper and it worked. His face lightened and, giving her a look that was almost shy, he said, ‘Today, she called me Daddy.’

Helewise was not sure she could trust her voice. She said softly, ‘That’s what you are, Josse.’

He stood mutely staring at her for a few moments. Then, shaking his head as if ridding himself of some thought that was unwelcome, he said, ‘What about that statue, then? Did you feel its force?’

She was very grateful for the change of subject. ‘Yes, indeed. Only when I first touched her, however. When I put my hand back on her a second time, it was as if… Oh, it sounds silly, but I felt she knew who I was and accepted me.’

‘Aye, I reckon that’s the way of it,’ he agreed. ‘Meggie says — ’ his face softened — ‘the figure has to decide if you’re all right or not.’

‘And presumably we are?’ Helewise suggested.

‘Aye.’

Well, that was good to know. ‘The statue is surely very valuable, Sir Josse. Would you like me to find a safe place for it?’

‘Aye, I would.’

She considered. ‘I’ve put it for the time being in the back of my book cupboard.’ She pointed to the recess let into the stone wall. ‘It’s wrapped in the cloth and hidden behind some account rolls.’

‘That sounds as safe a place as any,’ he said. ‘Does anyone come in when you’re not here?’

‘Hardly ever.’

‘Then let’s leave it there.’ He yawned, so overcome by all that had happened that he forgot to put his hand to his mouth.

‘Go to bed, Sir Josse,’ she said. ‘Things may seem brighter in the morning.’

He looked at her and she almost heard his thought: Will they? Then he gave her a cursory bow and left.

She allowed a few moments for him to go out of the rear gate. Then she got up, made her way over to the deserted church and, sinking to her knees in front of the altar, began to pray for him.

The next morning, Helewise’s master mason finally lost patience and announced that if they could not agree a site for the new chapel, he was going home. Helewise, ragged after a virtually sleepless night worrying about Josse, very nearly lost her temper.

‘You have been engaged by Queen Eleanor and you will do no such thing,’ she said, controlling herself. ‘I will tell you where to build when I have decided. For now, you will just have to — ’ what? Dear Lord, what could this man and his team do while she made up her mind? — ‘get on with your preparations,’ she finished feebly. ‘There is stone to cart, wood to select and purchase. Do that,’ she ordered.

The flash of steel seemed to do the trick for Martin the mason, standing open-mouthed in amazement, put his cap back on his head, turned on his heel and said, ‘Right you are, my lady.’

And that, for the time being, appeared to be that.

Nevertheless, Helewise knew she must make a decision. For one thing, that was no way to treat a man with the standing of a master mason. She took a slow walk around her beloved abbey, trying to see it with new eyes and asking herself yet again which building could be sacrificed to make room for the new chapel. As before, she came up with the same answer: none of them. She walked on through the main gates, nodding a greeting to the porteress, and on up the slope to the forest fringe until she stood upon the flat piece of grass where Martin wanted to site Queen Eleanor’s chapel.

Why not here? Helewise asked herself. Would it be so bad to have it outside the abbey walls? This is our land, after all. She had checked again, and the relevant document stated that the abbey owned the land right up to the first of the trees. She walked around the perimeter of the area, trying to visualize a small, simple chapel set there against the forest… and she saw that, in the oak tree that stood out from its fellows like the prow of a vast ship, there was something lodged in the branches.

A chill seemed to creep over her, for she knew without a doubt what it was.

She hurried back to the abbey and sent word to Josse. When he arrived, she said tersely, ‘Someone’s been in my room overnight. They’ve taken the statue and-’

He muttered an oath. ‘It’s been stolen?’

‘No, Sir Josse. It’s back in the oak tree.’

‘Who could have put it there?’

‘I have no idea. Only you, I and Meggie knew where it came from. Only we, indeed, know anything about it at all.’

‘Neither Meggie nor I put it back,’ he said.

‘No, Sir Josse, I did not imagine that you did,’ she replied, calm in the face of his agitation. ‘There is, of course, one other possibility.’

‘That it flew there all by itself?’ he suggested with a faint grin. ‘My lady, you are getting carried away. It is not like you to be so fanciful.’

‘I meant,’ she said patiently, ‘that one other person at least knows where the statue was: the person who put it in the tree in the first place.’

‘And you propose that this mystery man observed that Meggie and I brought her back here; then late last night, when we’d all gone to bed, he crept into your room, managed to find the figure in her hiding place and took her back to the tree?’

It did not, she had to admit, sound very likely, but then it was more credible than a solid wooden statue flying through the darkness of its own volition. ‘Well, it’s one explanation,’ she said lamely.

He smiled at her, a true, warm smile prompted by genuine amusement. Was it a sign that he was feeling more optimistic this morning? Had her lengthy, fervent prayer been answered? Oh, she hoped so! ‘And a reasonable one, my lady,’ he was saying. ‘Still, however she got back into her tree, I’d better go and fetch her.’

‘Yes, please do, Sir Josse. Meanwhile I will sit here and think of a more secure place of concealment.’

Josse hurried out to the edge of the forest, anxious to complete his mission before Meggie came to find him. He was not sure why but he knew he did not want to involve her in this small mystery. It was.. He could not explain it, but he was all too aware that there were undercurrents to this matter that he could not understand. He had left Meggie helping old Brother Firmin fill up the jugs of holy water that were prepared every morning for visiting pilgrims. Meggie had taken to the gentle old monk as if to a beloved grandfather and as for Brother Firmin, Josse had rarely seen him so happy.

He clambered up into the oak tree, got hold of the statue, which, he observed, had been put back in exactly the same place, and then hurriedly returned to the abbey. The abbess was waiting for him in the doorway of her room and, seeing her now in the bright sunlight, he realized how pale and strained she was looking. I don’t reckon she had much sleep last night, he thought. She works too hard, bless her.