World Without End Page 0,386

been the choice of the monks. Caris and Merthin parted company on the landing, and Caris lay awake, listening to the snores of a knight's wife and the wheezing of a spice-seller, touching herself and wishing the hand between her thighs was Merthin's.

She woke up tired and dispirited, and ate her breakfast porridge mechanically. But Merthin was so happy to be with her that her mood soon lifted. By the time they rode away from Lordsborough, they were talking and laughing as merrily as yesterday.

The second day's journey was through dense woodland, and they saw no other travellers all morning. Their conversation became more personal. She learned more about his time in Florence: how he had met Silvia, and what kind of person she was. Caris wanted to ask: What was it like to make love to her? Was she different from me? How? But she held back, feeling that such questions would trespass on Silvia's privacy, even though Silvia was dead. Anyway, she could guess a lot from Merthin's tone of voice. He had been happy in bed with Silvia, she sensed, even if the relationship had not been as intensely passionate as his with Caris.

The unaccustomed hours on horseback were making her sore, so she was relieved to stop for dinner and get off the pony. When they had eaten they sat on the ground with their backs to a broad tree trunk, to rest and let their food go down before resuming the journey.

Caris was thinking about Godwyn, and wondering what she would find at St-John-in-the-Forest, when suddenly she realized that she and Merthin were about to make love. She could not have explained how she knew - they were not even touching - but she had no doubt. She turned to look at him and saw that he sensed it, too. He smiled at her ruefully, and in his eyes she saw ten years of hope and regrets, pain and tears.

He took her hand and kissed her palm, then he put his lips to the soft inside of her wrist, and closed his eyes. "I can feel your pulse," he said quietly.

"You can't tell much from the pulse," she breathed. "You'll have to give me a thorough examination."

He kissed her forehead, and her eyelids, and her nose. "I hope you won't be embarrassed by my seeing your naked body."

"Don't fret - I'm not taking my clothes off in this weather."

They both giggled.

He said: "Perhaps you would be kind enough to lift the skirt of your robe, so that I may proceed with the check-up."

She reached down and took hold of the hem of her dress. She was wearing hose that came up to her knees. She lifted her dress slowly, revealing her ankles, her shins, her knees, and then the white skin of her thighs. She was feeling playful, but in the back of her mind she wondered if he could detect the changes wrought in her body by the last ten years. She had got thinner, yet at the same time her bottom had spread. Her skin was a little less supple and smooth than it had been. Her breasts were not as firm and upright. What would he think? She suppressed the worry and played the game. "Is that sufficient, for medical purposes?"

"Not quite."

"But I'm afraid I'm not wearing underdrawers - such luxuries are considered inappropriate for us nuns."

"We physicians are obliged to be very thorough, no matter how distasteful we find it."

"Oh, dear," she said with a smile. "What a shame. All right, then." Watching his face she slowly lifted her skirt until it was around her waist.

He stared at her body, and she could see that he was breathing harder. "My, my," he said. "This is a very severe case. In fact -" he looked up at her face, swallowed, and said - "I can't joke about this any more."

She put her arms around him and pulled his body to her own, squeezing as hard as she could, clinging to him as if she were saving him from drowning. "Make love to me, Merthin," she said. "Now, quickly."

The priory of St-John-in-the-Forest looked tranquil in the afternoon light - a sure sign that something was wrong, Caris thought. The little cell was traditionally self-sufficient in food, and was surrounded by fields, moist with rain, that needed ploughing and harrowing. But no one was at work.

When they got closer, they saw that