World Without End Page 0,344

coughing blood," Madge said.

"I'll go," Caris said. The Webbers were old friends: she preferred to attend Mark herself. She picked up a bag containing some basic medicines and went with Madge to her house in the main street.

The living area was upstairs, over the shop. Mark's three sons loitered anxiously in the dining hall. Madge took Caris into a bedroom that smelled bad. Caris was used to the odour of a sick room, a mixture of sweat, vomit and human waste. Mark lay on a straw mattress, perspiring. His huge belly stuck up in the air as if he were pregnant. The daughter, Dora, stood by the bed.

Caris knelt beside Mark and said: "How do you feel?"

"Rough," Mark said in a croaky voice. "Can I have something to drink?"

Dora handed Caris a cup of wine, and Caris held it to Mark's lips. She found it strange to see a big man helpless. Mark had always seemed invulnerable. It was unnerving, like finding an oak tree that has been there all your life suddenly felled by lightning.

She touched his forehead. He was burning up: no wonder he was thirsty. "Let him have as much to drink as he wants," she said. "Weak beer is better than wine."

She did not tell Madge that she was puzzled and worried by Mark's illness. The fever and the stomach upset were routine, but his coughing blood was a dangerous sign.

She took a vial of rose water from her bag, soaked a small piece of woollen cloth and bathed his face and neck. The action soothed him immediately. The water would cool him a little, and the perfume masked the bad smells in the room. "I'll give you some of this from my pharmacy," she said to Madge. "The physicians prescribe it for an inflamed brain. A fever is hot and humid, and roses are cool and dry, so the monks say. Whatever the reason, it will give him some ease."

"Thank you."

But Caris knew of no effective treatment for bloody sputum. The monk-physicians would diagnose an excess of blood and recommend bleeding, but they prescribed that for almost everything, and Caris did not believe in it.

As she bathed Mark's throat, she noticed a symptom Madge had not mentioned. There was a rash of purple-black spots on Mark's neck and chest.

This was an illness she had not come across before, and she was mystified, but she did not let Madge know that. "Come back with me and I'll give you the rose water."

The sun was rising as they walked from the house to the hospital. "You've been very good to my family," Madge said. "We were the poorest people in town, until you started the scarlet business."

"It was your energy and industry that made it work."

Madge nodded. She knew what she had done. "All the same, it wouldn't have happened without you."

On impulse, Caris decided to take Madge through the nuns' cloisters to her pharmacy so that they could talk privately. Lay people were not normally allowed inside, but there were exceptions, and Caris was now senior enough to decide when the rules could be broken.

They were alone in the cramped little room. Caris filled a pottery bottle with rose water and asked Madge for six pence. Then she said: "I'm thinking of renouncing my vows."

Madge nodded, unsurprised. "Everybody's wondering what you're going to do."

Caris was shocked that the townspeople had guessed her thoughts. "How do they know?"

"It doesn't take a clairvoyant. You entered the nunnery only to escape a death sentence for witchcraft. After the work you've done here, you should be able to get a pardon. You and Merthin were in love, and always seemed so right for one another. Now he's come back. You must at least be thinking about marrying him."

"I just don't know what my life would be like as someone's wife."

Madge shrugged. "A bit like mine, perhaps. Mark and I run the cloth business together. I have to organize the household as well - all husbands expect that - but it's not so difficult, especially if you have the money for servants. And the children will always be your responsibility rather than his. But I manage, and so would you."

"You don't make it sound very exciting."

She smiled. "I assume you already know about the good parts: feeling loved and adored; knowing there's one person in the world who will always be on your side; getting into bed every night with someone strong and tender who wants to