Free The Riddle of St Leonard's by Candace Robb Page B

Leonard’s have lost several orphans, but only Matilda de Warrene and John Rudby among the grown men and women.’
    Jasper sat up, turned to Owen. ‘Mistress Warrene? So they were plague things burned at the hospital.’ His eyes were earnest. A little too earnest for the subject matter.
    ‘Do not try to change the direction of this conversation, Jasper.’
    The boy slumped again, head down, hair in his eyes. ‘I must stay in the city, Captain. I am Mistress Lucie’s apprentice. I am bound to stay, I am bound to do what I can to help the people of York against the pestilence.’
    ‘But if Lucie is right you are one of those in greatest danger.’
    Jasper’s head shot up again. ‘I am not a child.’
    ‘Aye, ’tis true. You are thirteen, not a babe. But not yet so far from it.’
    Jasper leaned forward, elbows on knees, looking out at the water. ‘What would I do all day?’
    Ah. More to the heart of the matter. ‘Sir Robert would find occupation for you. You would not tend the children.’
    The lad was silent for a time. Owen thought perhaps he had run out of arguments. But when Jasper spoke, that hope evaporated.
    ‘Mistress Lucie spoke of Brother Wulfstan the other day, how he is risking his life to go among the sick in the city because so many of the priests are fearful to go near those with the pestilence.’ Brother Wulfstan was the infirmarian of St Mary’s Abbey. ‘She said it is dangerous for him, far more so than for others, because he is so old. But she spoke of him with admiration.’ He glanced at Owen to see his reaction.
    Owen could not help but smile. The lad was bright, and a good debater. ‘Lucie is worried for him, Jasper. She prays for him.’ Lucie and Wulfstan were old friends.
    ‘But she believes he is fulfilling his vow. I, too, have such a vow.’
    Owen gazed on the flaxen-haired, gangly youth and found himself loath to argue further. ‘I always said you grew so fast, one day I would look on you and think you a stranger. And there you sit, suddenly a young man.’
    ‘Then I can stay?’
    ‘How are we to reassure Lucie?’
    ‘I do not mean to cause her pain.’
    ‘The pain is not your fault, lad. It comes from memories. I see her suddenly turn pale, or her eyes grow dark, and I cannot understand what brought the memory, the pain. A scent? A sound? And even with all of you gone to the country I cannot say that would cease. Such pain dulls with time, but never disappears.’
    Jasper had grown quiet, and Owen realised how thoughtless he had been. Jasper had painful memories of his own – by his ninth year he had lost both parents, and the man who was to become his foster father. ‘Come. Let me see whether your shoulder remembers what I taught it today.’
    The novice Gervase showed Jasper into the infirmary at St Mary’s Abbey. Brother Henry glanced up from his prayers with a worried frown. ‘I pray you do not seek Brother Wulfstan for someone in your household?’
    ‘No,’ Jasper said. ‘I need to speak with him. I need advice.’
    The subinfirmarian got to his feet. ‘I need advice myself. How do I stop him? How do I protect him?’
    ‘From tending the sick in the city?’
    Henry’s eyes were wild. ‘Night and day. He comes but to eat and gather more physicks, then he goes forth again. He says he sleeps at their bedsides.’
    ‘What does Abbot Campian say?’
    ‘My lord abbot says, “One does not stop a saint from his work.”’ Henry stuffed his hands up his sleeves, shook his head. ‘I have tried sending novices with Brother Wulfstan, but he convinces them to return alone. He is impossible.’
    ‘Do you think he will be back today?’
    ‘Oh yes, yes. You are welcome to wait. Pray for him whilst you do, lad. Pray for him.’
    Jasper chose to wait in the abbey garden, among Brother Wulfstan’s lovingly tended beds of medicinal plants. This garden gave him solace, for it was here that Jasper had first understood he might love someone as much as he had loved the