Free World Without End by Ken Follett

in first. 'Brother Joseph has studied the ancient masters,' he said. 'He must know best. I don't suppose Matthew can even read.'
    'I can, Brother Godwyn,' Matthew protested. 'And I have a book.'
    Anthony laughed. The idea of a barber with a book was silly, like a horse with a hat. 'What book?'
    'The Canon of Avicenna, the great Islamic physician. Translated from Arabic into Latin. I have read it all, slowly.'
    'And is your remedy proposed by Avicenna?'
    'No, but - '
    'Well, then.'
    Matthew persisted. 'But I learned more about healing by traveling with armies and treating the wounded than I ever did from the book.'
    Mother Cecilia said: 'Saul, what's your view?'
    Godwyn expected Saul to give the same answer, so that the contest would be indecisive. But, although he looked nervous and shy, Saul contradicted Godwyn. 'The barber may be right,' he said. Godwyn was delighted. Saul went on arguing for the wrong side. 'The treatment proposed by Brother Joseph might be more suitable for crushing or hammering injuries, such as we get on building sites, where the skin and flesh all around the cut is damaged, and to close the wound prematurely might seal evil humors inside the body. This is a clean cut, and the sooner it is closed the faster it will heal.'
    'Nonsense,' said Prior Anthony. 'How could a town barber be right and an educated monk be wrong?'
    Godwyn smothered a triumphant grin.
    The door flew open, and a young man in the robes of a priest strode in. Godwyn recognized Richard of Shiring, the younger of the two sons of Earl Roland. His nod to the prior and prioress was so perfunctory as to be impolite. He went straight to the bedside and spoke to the knight. 'What the devil has happened?' he said.
    Thomas lifted a weak hand and beckoned Richard closer. The young priest leaned over the patient. Thomas whispered in his ear.
    Father Richard drew away as if shocked. 'Absolutely not!' he said.
    Thomas beckoned again, and the process was repeated: another whisper, another outraged reaction. This time, Richard said: 'But why?'
    Thomas did not reply.
    Richard said: 'You are asking for something that is not in our power to give.'
    Thomas nodded firmly, as if to say: Yes, it is.
    'You're giving us no choice.'
    Thomas shook his head weakly from side to side.
    Richard turned to Prior Anthony. 'Sir Thomas wishes to become a monk here at the priory.'
    There was a moment of surprised silence. Cecilia was the first to react. 'But he's a man of violence!'
    'Come on, it's not unknown,' Richard said impatiently. 'A fighting man sometimes decides to abandon his life of warfare and seek forgiveness for his sins.'
    'In old age, perhaps,' Cecilia said. 'This man is not yet twenty-five. He's fleeing some danger.' She looked hard at Richard. 'Who threatens his life?'
    'Curb your curiosity,' Richard said rudely. 'He wants to be a monk, not a nun, so you need not inquire further.' It was a shocking way to talk to a prioress, but the sons of earls could get away with such rudeness. He turned to Anthony. 'You must admit him.'
    Anthony said: 'The priory is too poor to take on any more monks - unless there were to be a gift that would pay the costs...'
    'It will be arranged.'
    'It would have to be adequate to the need - '
    'It will be arranged!'
    'Very well.'
    Cecilia was suspicious. She said to Anthony: 'Do you know more about this man than you're telling me?'
    'I see no reason to turn him away.'
    'What makes you think he's a genuine penitent?'
    Everyone looked at Thomas. His eyes had closed.
    Anthony said: 'He will have to prove his sincerity during his novitiate, like anyone else.'
    She was clearly dissatisfied, but for once Anthony was not asking her for the money, so there was nothing she could do. 'We'd better get on with treating this wound,' she said.
    Saul said: 'He refused Brother Joseph's treatment. That's why we had to fetch the Father Prior.'
    Anthony leaned over the patient. In a loud voice, as if speaking to someone deaf, he said: 'You must