The Pillars Of The Earth Page 0,380

said, "what shall we do?"

"I don't know," she said, smiling.

"Let's get a loaf of bread and a flask of wine, and ride out into the fields to eat our dinner."

"It sounds like paradise."

They went to the baker and the vintner, and then they got a wedge of cheese from a dairywoman in the marketplace. In no time at all they were riding out of the village into the fields. Aliena had to keep looking at Jack to make sure he really was there, riding along beside her, breathing and smiling.

He said: "How is Alfred managing the building site?"

"Oh! I haven't told you!" Aliena had forgotten how long he had been away. "There was a terrible disaster. The roof fell in."

"What!" Jack's loud exclamation startled his horse, and it did a skittish little dance. He calmed it. "How did that happen?"

"Nobody knows. They had three bays vaulted in time for Whitsunday, and then it all fell down during the service. It was dreadful-seventy-nine people were killed."

"That's terrible." Jack was shaken. "How did Prior Philip take it?"

"Badly. He's given up building altogether. He seems to have lost all his energy. He does nothing nowadays."

Jack found it hard to imagine Philip in that state-he had always seemed so full of enthusiasm and determination. "So what happened to the craftsmen?"

"They all drifted away. Alfred lives in Shiring now, and builds houses."

"Kingsbridge must be half empty."

"It's turning back into a village, like it used to be."

"I wonder what Alfred did wrong?" Jack said half to himself. "That stone vault was never in Tom's original plans; but Alfred made the buttresses bigger to take the weight, so it should have been all right."

He was sobered by the news, and they rode on in silence. A mile or so out of Saint-Denis they tied up the horses in the shade of an elm tree and sat down in a corner of a field of green wheat, beside a little brook, to eat their dinner. Jack took a draft of the wine and smacked his lips. "England has nothing to compare with French wine," he said. He broke the loaf and gave Aliena some.

Aliena shyly undid the laced front of her dress and gave her nipple to the baby. She caught Jack looking at her and flushed. She cleared her throat and spoke to cover her embarrassment. "Do you know what you'd like to call him?" she said awkwardly. "Jack, perhaps?"

"I don't know." He looked thoughtful. "Jack was the father I never knew. It might be bad luck to give our son the same name. The nearest I ever had to a real father was Tom Builder."

"Would you like to call him Tom?"

"I think I would."

"Tom was such a big man. How about Tommy?"

Jack nodded. "Tommy it is."

Oblivious of the significance of the moment, Tommy had fallen asleep, having sucked his fill. Aliena put him down on the ground with a kerchief folded under his head for a pillow. Then she looked at Jack. She felt awkward. She wanted him to make love to her, right here on the grass, but she felt sure he would be shocked if she asked him, so she just looked at him and hoped.

He said: "If I tell you something, will you promise not to think badly of me?"

"All right."

He looked embarrassed, and said: "Ever since I saw you, I can hardly think of anything but the naked body under your dress."

She smiled. "I don't think badly of you," she said. "I'm glad."

He stared at her hungrily.

She said: "I love it when you look at me like that."

He swallowed drily.

She held out her arms, and he came to her and embraced her.

It was almost two years since the one and only time they had made love. That morning they had both been swept away by desire and regret. Now they were just two lovers in a field. Aliena suddenly felt anxious. Would it be all right? How terrible if something went wrong, after all this time.

They lay down on the grass side by side and kissed. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth. She felt his eager hand on her body, exploring urgently. There was a quickening in her loins. He kissed her eyelids and the end of her nose, and said: "All this time, I ached for you, every day."

She hugged him hard. "I'm so glad I found you," she said.

They made gentle, happy love in the open air, with the sun beating down on them and the stream burbling