World Without End Page 0,371

illness. Caris said: "Would the lord bishop like to speak to one of his deputies?"

Henri answered crossly: "If I could find one, yes!"

"Perhaps if I take Archdeacon Lloyd to the dormitory..."

"As soon as you like!"

Lloyd got a torch from a servant, and Caris led him quickly through the cathedral into the cloisters. The place was silent, as monasteries generally were at this time of night. They reached the foot of the staircase that led up to the dormitory, and Caris stopped. "You'd better go up alone," she said. "A nun should not see monks in bed."

"Of course." Lloyd went up the stairs with his torch, leaving her in darkness. She waited, curious. She heard him shout: "Hello?" There was a strange silence. Then, after a few moments, he called down to her in an odd voice: "Sister?"

"Yes?"

"You can come up."

Mystified, she climbed the stairs and entered the dormitory. She stood beside Lloyd and peered into the room by the unsteady light or the burning torch. The monks' straw mattresses lay neatly in their places along either side of the room - but not one of them was occupied. "There's no one here," Caris said.

"Not a soul," Lloyd agreed. "What on earth has happened?"

"I don't know, but I can guess," said Caris.

"Then enlighten me, please."

"Isn't it obvious?" she said. "They've run away."

Part Six. January 1349 to January 1351

Chapter 63

When Godwyn left, he took with him all the valuables from the monks' treasury and all the charters. This included the nuns' charters, which they had never succeeded in retrieving from his locked chest. He also took the sacred relics, including the bones of St Adolphus in their priceless reliquary.

Caris discovered this on the morning afterwards, the first day of January, the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ. She went with Bishop Henri and Sister Elizabeth to the treasury off the south transept. Henri's attitude to her was stiffly formal, which was worrying; but he was a peevish character, so perhaps he was like that with everyone.

The flayed skin of Gilbert Hereford was still nailed to the door, slowly turning hard and yellow, and giving off a faint but distinct whiff of rottenness.

But the door was not locked.

They went in. Caris had not been inside this room since Prior Godwyn stole the nuns' one hundred and fifty pounds to build his palace. After that they had built their own treasury.

It was immediately obvious what had happened. The flagstones that disguised the vaults in the floor had been lifted and not put back, and the lid of the ironbound chest stood open. Vaults and chest were empty.

Caris felt that her contempt for Godwyn was vindicated. A trained physician, a priest and the leader of the monks, he had fled just at the moment when the people needed him most. Now, surely, everyone would realize his true nature.

Archdeacon Lloyd was outraged. "He took everything!"

Caris said to Henri: "And this is the man who wanted you to annul my election."

Bishop Henri grunted noncommittally.

Elizabeth was desperate to find an excuse for Godwyn's behaviour. "I'm sure the lord prior took the valuables with him for safekeeping."

That stung the bishop into a response. "Rubbish," he said crisply. "If your servant empties your purse and disappears without warning, he's not keeping your money safe, he's stealing it."

Elizabeth tried a different tack. "I believe this was Philemon's idea."

"The sub-prior?" Henri looked scornful. "Godwyn is in charge, not Philemon. Godwyn is responsible."

Elizabeth shut up.

Godwyn must have recovered from the death of his mother, Caris thought, at least temporarily. It was quite an achievement to persuade every single one of the monks to follow him. She wondered where they had gone.

Bishop Henri was thinking the same thing. "Where did the wretched cowards go?"

Caris remembered Merthin trying to persuade her to leave. "To Wales, or Ireland", he had said. "A remote village where they don't see a stranger from one year to the next." She said to the bishop: "They will be hiding out in some isolated place where no one ever goes."

"Find out exactly where," he said.

Caris realized that all opposition to her election had vanished with Godwyn. She felt triumphant, and made an effort not to look too pleased. "I'll make some inquiries in the town," she said. "Somebody must have seen them leave."

"Good," said the bishop. "However, I don't think they're coming back soon, so in the meantime you're going to have to manage as best you can with no men. Continue the services as normally as possible