Free A Dark Night Hidden by Alys Clare Page B

very size!’
    Josse looked indulgently at her. ‘I don’t know, my lady. But it’s as good a guess as any I’ve managed to come up with.’
    In the morning, Helewise went to Prime with a heavy heart. She had slept badly, overcome with anxiety concerning what she was to do about Father Micah. Kneeling, she thanked God for that gift of pity for the priest, without which she would have been well on the way to hating him. ‘He needs help, dear Lord,’ she whispered, ‘for surely something is seriously amiss with him . . .’
    As the office began, she gave herself to her devotions. Peace began to settle around her, as it always did, and she felt the inestimable help of a strong energy supporting her. Some time later, heartened, she went out to face the day.
    The first of the dramas came in the middle of the morning, when Helewise was seated at her wide oak table studying a list of outstanding rents owed by some of the tenants who farmed the Abbey’s lands. Her concentration was broken by the faint sounds of someone outside her door. There was no knock, but she heard a quiet, suppressed cough and the sound of soft footfalls, as if someone were walking up and down the cloister.
    Once she had noticed the noises, she found it impossible to ignore them. It seemed likely that, if she managed to do so and get back to work, whoever it was would instantly make up their mind that they really had to see her and tap on the door.
    Helewise got up, went over to the door and opened it. Outside, her hand raised as if about to knock, was Sister Bernadine.
    ‘Sister Bernadine!’ Helewise said. ‘You wish to see me?’
    ‘Yes, my lady. That is, I am not sure – it is probably nothing, just my imagination, but although I keep telling myself so, I am still perturbed.’
    It was quite a long speech for the usually reserved Sister Bernadine. ‘Come in,’ Helewise said, ‘and tell me what it is that worries you.’
    Sister Bernadine looked pale, Helewise thought, even more so than usual. And the smooth-skinned hands that were normally tucked neatly away in the opposite sleeves of the nun’s habit were restless and fluttering.
    Helewise guided Sister Bernadine to her own chair. ‘You do indeed appear anxious,’ she said. ‘Here, take some sips of water . . .’ – she held out a cup to Sister Bernadine’s pale lips – ‘there, that’s better. Now, what has happened?’
    Sister Bernadine turned wide, fatigue-shadowed eyes up to her superior. Not a woman to waste words, even when she was upset, she said, ‘I went to the script room after Tierce. When we were there yesterday with Father Micah I had noticed that there were fingerprints on the lid of the book chest. I was relieved that the Father did not see them for I should have been ashamed had I given him the opportunity for a reprimand.’
    ‘Quite,’ Helewise murmured. The Father, she thought, had issued quite enough reprimands as it was.
    ‘When I knelt down on the floor and began to polish the lid of the chest, something prompted me to look inside. I fetched the key from where it hangs in the window embrasure and opened the chest. And – oh, my lady Abbess, I cannot swear to it but I believe that somebody has been through the precious manuscripts.’
    Helewise kept her voice calm. ‘Is anything missing, Sister?’
    ‘I don’t know. My first swift glance inferred that about the right number of scripts were there, but I did not stop for a proper look. I thought it better to come straight to you, my lady.’
    ‘Quite right, Sister Bernadine,’ Helewise said stoutly. ‘Now, we shall go back together and you will look more closely.’
    ‘But—’ Sister Bernadine, still very pale, closed her eyes.
    ‘But what?’
    Opening her eyes, she raised them to Helewise’s. ‘Supposing the thief – if, that is, there is a thief – is still there? Hiding behind the door, waiting to jump out on us?’
    ‘It is not very likely, now, is it?’ Helewise said briskly.