The Pillars Of The Earth Page 0,338

a start. There was someone in the cell with him.

He was terrified.

The cell was pitch-black. The sound of water seemed louder. "Who is it?" he said in a trembling voice.

"It's me-don't be afraid."

"Mother!" He almost fainted with relief. "How did you know I was in here?"

"Old Joseph came to tell me what had happened," she replied in a normal voice.

"Quiet! The monks will hear you."

"No, they won't. You can sing and shout in here without being heard above. I know-I've done it."

His head was so full of questions that he did not know which to ask first. "How did you get in here? Is the door open?" He moved toward her, holding his hands out in front of him. "Oh-you're wet!"

"The water channel runs right under here. There's a loose stone in the floor."

"How did you know that?"

"Your father spent ten months in this cell," she said, and in her voice there was the bitterness of years.

"My father? This cell? Ten months?"

"That's when he taught me all those stories."

"But why was he in here?"

"We never found out," she said resentfully. "He was kidnapped, or arrested-he never knew which-in Normandy, and he was brought here. He didn't speak English or Latin and he had no idea where he was. He worked in the stables for a year or so-that's how I met him." Her voice softened with nostalgia. "I loved him from the moment I set eyes on him. He was so gentle, and he looked so frightened and unhappy, yet he sang like a bird. Nobody had spoken to him for months. He was so pleased when I said a few words in French, I think he fell in love with me just for that." Anger made her voice hard again. "After a while they put him in this cell. That's when I discovered how to get in here."

It occurred to Jack that he must have been conceived right here on the cold stone floor. The thought embarrassed him and he was glad it was too dark for him and his mother to see each other. He said: "But my father must have done something to be arrested like that."

"He couldn't think of anything. And in the end they invented a crime. Someone gave him a jeweled cup and told him he could go. A mile or two away he was arrested, and accused of stealing the cup. They hanged him for it." She was crying.

"Who did all this?"

"The sheriff of Shiring, the prior of Kingsbridge... it doesn't matter who."

"What about my father's family? He must have had parents, brothers and sisters..."

"Yes, he had a big family, back in France."

"Why didn't he escape, and go back there?"

"He tried, once; and they caught him and brought him back. That was when they put him in the cell. He could have tried again, of course, once we had found out how to get out of here. But he didn't know the way home, he couldn't speak a word of English, and he was penniless. His chances were slim. He should have done it anyway, we know now; but at the time we never thought they'd hang him."

Jack put his arms around her, to comfort her. She was soaking wet and shivering. She needed to get out of here and get dry. He realized, with a shock, that if she could get out, so could he. For a few moments he had almost forgotten about Aliena, as his mother talked about his father; but now he realized that his wish had been granted-he could speak to Aliena before her wedding. "Show me the way out," he said abruptly.

She sniffed and swallowed her tears. "Hold my arm and I'll lead you."

They moved across the cell and then he felt her go down. "Just lower yourself into the channel," she said. "Take a deep breath and put your head under. Then crawl against the flow. Don't go with the flow, or you'll end up in the monks' latrine. You'll get short of breath when you're almost there, but just keep calm and crawl on, and you'll make it." She went lower still, and he lost contact.

He found the hole and eased himself down. His feet touched the water almost immediately. When he stood on the bottom of the channel his shoulders were still in the cell. Before lowering himself farther, he found the stone and replaced it in position, thinking mischievously that the monks would be mystified when they found the cell empty.

The water was