World Without End Page 0,132

"Brother Godwyn, the sacrist?" he said.

There was a pause, and then Lady Philippa stepped out and closed the door behind her. "I told you no visitors," she said angrily. "Earl Roland is not getting the rest he needs."

Ralph said: "I know, my lady, but Brother Godwyn wouldn't bother the earl unnecessarily."

Something in Ralph's tone made Godwyn look at him. Although Ralph's words were mundane, the expression on his face was adoring. Godwyn noticed, then, how voluptuous Philippa was. She wore a dark-red dress belted at the waist, and the fine wool clung to her breasts and hips. She looked like a statue representing Temptation, Godwyn thought, and he wished, yet again, that he could find a way to ban women from the priory. It was bad enough if a squire fell in love with a married woman, but for a monk to do the same would be a catastrophe.

"I regret the need to trouble the earl," Godwyn said. "But there's a friar waiting downstairs to see him."

"I know - Murdo. Is his business so urgent?"

"On the contrary. But I need to forewarn the earl what to expect."

"So you know what the friar is going to say?"

"I believe I do."

"Well, I think it's best if the two of you see the earl together."

Godwyn said: "But-" then pretended to stifle a protest.

Philippa looked at Ralph. "Get the friar up here, please."

Ralph summoned Murdo, and Philippa ushered him and Godwyn into the room. Earl Roland was on the bed, fully dressed as before, but this time he was sitting up, his bandaged head cushioned with feather pillows. "What's this?" he said with his usual bad temper. "A meeting of the chapter? What do you monks want?"

Looking at his visage directly for the first time since the bridge collapse, Godwyn was shocked to see that the entire right side of his face was paralysed: the eyelid drooped, the cheek hardly moved and the mouth was slack. What made it so startling was that the left side was animated. When Roland spoke the left side of his forehead frowned, his left eye opened wide and seemed to blaze with authority, and he spoke vehemently out of the left side of his mouth. The doctor in Godwyn was fascinated. He knew that head injuries could have unpredictable effects, but he had never heard of this particular manifestation.

"Don't gawk at me," the earl said impatiently. "You look like a pair of cows staring over a hedge. State your business."

Godwyn pulled himself together. He had to tread carefully over the next few minutes. He knew that Roland would reject Murdo's application to be nominated as prior. All the same, he wanted to plant in Roland's mind the idea of Murdo as a possible alternative to Saul Whitehead. Therefore Godwyn's job was to strengthen Murdo's application. He would do this, paradoxically, by objecting to Murdo, thereby showing Roland that Murdo would owe no allegiance to the monks - for Roland wanted a prior who served him alone. But, on the other hand, Godwyn must not protest too strongly, for he did not want the earl to realize what a truly hopeless candidate Murdo actually was. It was a tortuous path to walk.

Murdo spoke first, in his sonorous pulpit voice. "My lord, I come to ask you to consider me for the position of prior of Kingsbridge. I believe-"

"Not so loud, for the love of the saints," Roland protested.

Murdo lowered his voice. "My lord, I believe that I-"

"Why do you want to be prior?" Roland said, interrupting him again. "I thought a friar was a monk without a church - by definition." This point of view was old-fashioned. Friars originally were travellers who held no property, but nowadays some of the fraternal orders were as wealthy as traditional monks. Roland knew this, and was just being provocative.

Murdo gave the standard answer. "I believe that God accepts both forms of sacrifice."

"So you're willing to turn your coat."

"I have come to think that the talents he gave me could be put to better use in a priory, so yes, I would be happy to embrace the Rule of St Benedict."

"But why should I consider you?"

"I am also an ordained priest."

"No shortage of those."

"And I have a following in Kingsbridge and the surrounding countryside such that, if I may be allowed to boast, I must be the most influential man of God in the area."

Father Jerome spoke for the first time. He was a confident young man