Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1) - Connie Willis Page 0,110

stone floor and out the door after her, dropping the candle as she ran.

Agnes was almost to the lychgate, but she stopped as soon as Kivrin was out the door and ran back to her.

“No!” Kivrin shouted, waving her on. “Run!”

“Is it a wolf?” Agnes asked, wide-eyed.

There was no time to explain or try to coax her to run. The men who had been cutting wood had disappeared. She scooped Agnes up in her arms and ran toward the horses. “There was a wicked man in the church!” she said, setting Agnes on her pony.

“A wicked man?” Agnes asked, ignoring the reins Kivrin was thrusting at her. “Was it one of those who set upon you in the woods?”

“Yes,” Kivrin said, untying the reins. “You must ride as fast as you can to the manor house. Don’t stop for anything.”

“I didn’t see him,” Agnes said.

She probably hadn’t. Coming in from outside, she wouldn’t have been able to see anything in the church’s gloom.

“Was he the man who stole your goods and gear and cracked your skull?”

“Yes,” Kivrin said. She reached for the reins and started to untie them.

“Was the wicked man hiding in the tomb?”

“What?” Kivrin said. She couldn’t get the stiff leather untied. She glanced anxiously back at the church door.

“I saw you and Father Roche by the tomb. Was the wicked man hiding in Grandfather’s grave?”

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Father Roche.

The stiff reins came suddenly loose in Kivrin’s hands. “Father Roche?”

“I went in the bell tower, but he was not there. He was in the church,” Agnes said. “Why was the wicked man hiding in Grandfather’s tomb, Lady Kivrin?”

Father Roche. But it couldn’t be. Father Roche had given her the last rites. He had anointed her temples and the palms of her hands.

“Will the wicked man hurt Father Roche?” Agnes asked.

He couldn’t be Father Roche. Father Roche had held her hand. He had told her not to be afraid. She tried to call up the face of the priest. He had leaned over her and asked her her name, but she hadn’t been able to see his face because of all the smoke.

And while he was giving her the last rites, she had seen the cutthroat, she had been afraid because they had let him in the room, she had tried to get away from him. But it hadn’t been a cutthroat at all. It had been Father Roche.

“Is the wicked man coming?” Agnes said, looking anxiously at the church door.

It all made sense. The cutthroat leaning over her in the clearing, putting her on the horse. She had thought it was a vision from her delirium, but it wasn’t. It had been Father Roche, come to help Gawyn bring her to the manor.

“The wicked man isn’t coming,” Kivrin said. “There isn’t any wicked man.”

“Hides he still in the church?”

“No. I was wrong. There isn’t any wicked man.”

Agnes looked unconvinced. “You cried out,” she said.

Kivrin could hear her telling her grandmother, “Lady Katherine and Father Roche were in the church together and she cried out.” Lady Imeyne would be delighted to have this to add to her litany of Father Roche’s sins. And to Kivrin’s list of suspicious behavior.

“I know I cried out,” Kivrin said. “It was dark in the church. Father Roche came upon me suddenly and I was frightened.”

“But it was Father Roche,” Agnes said as if she could not imagine anyone being frightened by him.

“When you and Rosemund play at hiding and she jumps suddenly at you from behind a tree, you cry out,” Kivrin said desperately.

“One time Rosemund hid in the loft when I was looking at my hound, and she jumped down. I was so affrighted I cried out. Like this,” Agnes said, and let out a bloodcurdling shriek. “And another time it was dark in the hall and Gawyn jumped out from behind the screens and he said ‘Fie!’ and I cried out and—”

“That’s right,” Kivrin said, “it was dark in the church.”

“Did Father Roche jump out at you and say ‘Fie’?”

Yes, Kivrin thought. He leaned over me, and I thought he was a cutthroat. “No,” she said. “He didn’t do anything.”

“Go we still with Father Roche for the holly?”

If I haven’t frightened him away, Kivrin thought. If he hasn’t left while we’ve stood here talking.

She lifted Agnes down. “Come on. We must go find him.”

She didn’t know what she’d do if he’d already gone. She couldn’t take Agnes back to the manor to tell Lady Imeyne how she had screamed. And she couldn’t go back