ended a messenger from the bishop came and with him two priests, all three of great learning and goodness,” Roche prayed.
Don’t be fooled by the gold and fancy clothes, Kivrin thought. You’re worth ten of them. “The bishop’s envoy will say the Christmas mass,” Imeyne had said and didn’t seem to be troubled at all by the fact that he hadn’t fasted or bothered to come to the church to prepare for the mass himself. You’re worth fifty of them, Kivrin thought. A hundred.
“There is word from Oxenford of illness. Tord the Cottar fares better, though I bade him not come so far to the mass. Uctreda was too weak to come to the mass. I took her soup, but she ate it not. Walthef fell vomiting after the dancing from too much ale. Gytha burned her hand upon the bonfire in plucking a brand from it. I shall not fear, though the last days come, the days of wrath and the final judgment, for You have sent much help.”
Much help. He wouldn’t have any help if she stood here listening much longer. The sun was up now and in the rose and gold light from the windows she could see the drippings down the sides of the candlesticks, the tarnish on their bases, a big blot of wax on the altar cloth. The day of wrath and the final judgment would be the right words for what would happen if the church looked like this when Imeyne marched in to mass.
“Father Roche,” she said.
Roche turned immediately and then tried to stand up, his legs obviously stiff with the cold. He looked startled, even frightened, and Kivrin said quickly, “It’s Katherine,” and moved forward into the light of one of the windows so he could see her.
He crossed himself, still looking frightened, and she wondered if he had been half dozing at his prayers and was still not awake.
“Lady Imeyne sent me with candles,” she said, coming around the rood screen to him. “She bade me tell you to set them in the silver candlesticks on either side of the altar. She bade me tell you—” She stopped, ashamed to be delivering Imeyne’s edicts. “I have come to help you prepare the church for mass. What would you have me do? Shall I polish the candlesticks?” She held out the candles to him.
He didn’t take the candles or say anything, and she frowned, wondering if in her eagerness to protect him from Imeyne’s wrath she had broken some rule. Women were not allowed to touch the elements or the vessels of the mass. Perhaps they weren’t allowed to handle the candlesticks either.
“Am I not allowed to help?” she asked. “Should I not have come into the chancel?”
Roche seemed suddenly to come to himself. “There is nowhere God’s servants may not go,” he said. He took the candles from her and laid them on the altar. “But such a one as you should not do such humble work.”
“It is God’s work,” she said briskly. She took the half-burned candles out of the heavy branched candlestick. Wax had dripped down the sides. “We’ll need some sand,” she said, “and a knife to scrape the wax off.”
He went to get them immediately, and while he was gone, she hastily took the candles down from the rood screen and replaced them with tallow ones.
He came in with the sand, a fistful of filthy rags, and a poor excuse for a knife. But it cut through wax, and Kivrin started in on the altar cloth, scraping at the spot of wax, worried that they might not have much time. The bishop’s envoy hadn’t looked in any hurry to heave himself out of the high seat and prepare for the mass, but who knew how long he could hold out against Imeyne.
I don’t have any time either, she thought, starting on the candlesticks. She had told herself there was plenty of time, but she had spent the entire night actively pursuing Gawyn and hadn’t even got close to him. And tomorrow he might decide to go hunting or Rescuing Fair Maidens, or the bishop’s envoy and his flunkies might drink up all the wine and set off in search of more, dragging her with them.
“There is nowhere God’s servants may not go,” Roche had said. Except to the drop, she thought. Except home.
She scrubbed viciously with the wet sand at some wax imbedded in the rim of the candlestick, and a piece flew off and hit