and happy to do so. I would not presume to burden you with my whims.”
He rode out from the caer on his brown palfrey and arrived at Llanelli just as the labourers were starting their work for the day. The old church, with its stone cross beside the door, still stood on one side of the new town square. It was a rude wood-and-wattle structure, little more than a cow byre in Hugo’s opinion; the sooner demolished, the better.
The abbot turned from the sight and cast his critical gaze across the square at a jumbled heap of timber atop a foundation of rammed earth.What? By the rod of Moses!—was that the new church?
He strode closer for a better look. A carpenter appeared with a coiled plumb line and a chunk of chalk. “You there!” the abbot shouted. “Come here.”
The man glanced around, saw the priestly robes, and hurried over, offering a bow of deference. “You wish to speak to me, Your Grace?”
“What is this?” He flipped a hand at the partially built structure.
“It is to be a church, father,” replied the carpenter.
“No,” the abbot told him. “No, I do not think that likely.”
“Yes,” replied the workman. “I do believe it is.”
“I am the abbot here,” Hugo informed him, “and I say that”—he flapped a dismissive hand at the roughly framed building—“that is a tithe barn.”
The carpenter cocked his head to one side and regarded the priest with a quizzical expression. “A tithe barn, Your Grace?”
“My church will be made of stone,” Abbot Hugo told the carpenter, “and it will be of my design and raised on a site of my choosing. I will not have my church fronting the town square like a butcher’s stall.”
“But, father, see here—”
“Do you doubt me?”
“Not at all. But the count—”
“This is to be my church, not the count’s. I am in authority here, compris?”
“Indeed, Your Grace,” answered the confused carpenter.
“What am I to tell the master?”
“Tell him I will have the plans ready for him in three days,” declared the abbot, starting away. “Tell him to come to me for his new instructions.”
With that, the abbot marched to the old chapel, paused outside, and then pushed open the door. He was greeted by two priests; from the look of it, they had slept in the sanctuary amidst their bundled belongings.
“Who is in authority here?” demanded the abbot.
“Greetings in Christ, brother abbot,” said the bishop, stepping forward. “I am Asaph, Bishop of Llanelli.We would have made a better welcome, but as you can see, this is all that is left of the monastery, and the monks have all been pressed to labour for the count.”
“Be that as it may . . . ,” sniffed Hugo, glancing around the darkened chapel. It smelled old and musty and made him sneeze. “I see you are ready to depart. I shall not keep you.”
“We were waiting to pass the reins to you, as it were,” replied Asaph.
“That will not be necessary.”
“No? We thought you might like to know something about your new flock.”
“Your presumption has led you astray, bishop. It is the flock that must get to know and heed the shepherd.” Hugo sneezed again and turned to leave. “God speed you on your way.”
“Abbot, see here,” said the bishop, starting after him.
“There is much we would tell you about Elfael and its people.”
“You presume to teach me?” Abbot Hugo turned on him.
“All I need to know, I learned from the saddle of my horse on the way here.” He glanced balefully at the rude structure and the two lorn priests. “Your tenure here is over, bishop.
God in his wisdom has decreed a new day for this valley. The old must make way for the new. Again, I wish you God’s speed. I do not expect we will meet again.”
The abbot returned to his horse across the square, passing the carpenter, who was now sitting on a stack of lumber with a saw across his lap. “What about this?” called the carpenter, indicating the unfinished jumble of timber behind him.
“What am I to do with this?”
“It is a tithe barn,” replied the abbot. “It will need a wider door.”
You, Tuck, have the most important duty,” Bran had told him as he boosted the priest into the saddle. “The success of our plan rests on you.”
“Aye,” he had replied, “you can count on me!” Borne on waves of hope and optimism, he had departed Cél Craidd with cheers and glad farewells still ringing in his ears.