Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1) - Connie Willis Page 0,142
her onto his lap. Everyone laughed.
Imeyne spent the long evening sitting by the chaplain, reciting her grievances against Father Roche to him. He was ignorant, he was clumsy, he had said the Confíteor before the Adjutorum during the mass last Sunday. And he was out there in that ice-cold church on his knees, Kivrin thought, while the chaplain warmed his hands at the fire and shook his head disapprovingly.
The fire died down to glowing embers. Rosemund slid off Bloet’s lap and ran back to the game. Gawyn told the story of how he had killed six wolves, watching Eliwys the whole time. The chaplain told a story about a dying woman who had made false confession. When the chaplain had touched her forehead with the holy oil, her skin had smoked and turned black before his eyes.
Halfway through the chaplain’s story, Gawyn stood up, rubbed his hands over the fire, and went over to the beggar’s bench. He sat down and pulled off his boot.
After a minute Eliwys stood up and went over to him. Kivrin couldn’t hear what she said to him, but he stood up, the boot still in his hand.
“The trial is once more delayed,” Kivrin heard Gawyn say. “The judge who was to hear it is taken ill.”
She couldn’t hear Eliwys’s answer, but Gawyn nodded and said, “It is good news. The new judge is from Swindone and less kindly disposed to King Edward,” but neither of them looked like it was good news. Eliwys was nearly as white as she had been when Imeyne told her she’d sent Gawyn to Courcy.
She twisted her heavy ring. Gawyn sat down again, brushed the rushes from the bottom of his hose, and pulled the boot on, and then looked up again and said something. Eliwys turned her head aside and Kivrin couldn’t see her expression for the shadows, but she could see Gawyn’s.
And so could anyone else in the hall, Kivrin thought, and looked hastily around to see if the couple had been observed. Imeyne was deep in complaint with the chaplain, but Sir Bloet’s sister was watching, her mouth tight with disapproval, and so, on the opposite side of the fire, were Bloet and the other men.
Kivrin had hoped she might have a chance to speak with Gawyn tonight, but she obviously could not among all these watchful people. A bell rang, and Eliwys started and looked toward the door.
“It is the Devil’s knell,” the chaplain said quietly, and even the children stopped their games to listen.
In some villages the contemps had rung the bell once for each year since the birth of Christ. In most it had only been tolled for the hour before midnight, and Kivrin doubted whether Roche, or even the chaplain, could count high enough to toll the years, but she began keeping count anyway.
Three servants came in, bearing logs and kindling, and replenished the fire. It flared up brightly, throwing huge, distorted shadows on the walls. Agnes jumped up and pointed, and one of Sir Bloet’s nephews made a rabbit with his hands.
Mr. Latimer had told her that the contemps had read the future in the Yule log’s shadows. She wondered what the future held for them, Lord Guillaume in trouble and all of them in danger.
The king had forfeited the lands and property of convicted criminals. They might be forced to live in France or to accept charity from Sir Bloet and endure snubs from the steward’s wife.
Or Lord Guillaume might come home tonight with good news and a falcon for Agnes, and they would all live happily ever after. Except Eliwys. And Rosemund. What would happen to her?
It’s already happened, Kivrin thought wonderingly. The verdict is already in and Lord Guillaume’s come home and found out about Gawyn and Eliwys. Rosemund’s already been handed over to Sir Bloet. And Agnes has grown up and married and died in childbirth, or of blood poisoning, or cholera, or pneumonia.
They’ve all died, she thought, and couldn’t make herself believe it. They’ve all been dead over seven hundred years.
“Look!” Agnes shrieked. “Rosemund has no head!” She pointed to the distorted shadows the fire cast on the walls as it flared up. Rosemund’s, oddly elongated, ended at the shoulders.
One of the redheaded boys ran over to Agnes. “I have no head either!” he said, jumping on tiptoe to change the shadow’s shape.
“You have no head, Rosemund,” Agnes shouted happily. “You will die ere the year is out.”
“Say not such things,” Eliwys said, starting toward her.