World Without End Page 0,396

we buried the letter, I told him I hadn't ever let the secret out, and he said: 'If you had, you'd be dead.' That scared me more than the vow."

"Mother Cecilia told me that Edward II did not die naturally."

"How would she know a thing like that?"

"My uncle Anthony told her. So I presume the secret is that Queen Isabella had her husband murdered."

"Half the country believes that anyway. But if there were proof... Did Cecilia say how he was killed?"

Caris thought hard. "No. Now that I think of it, what she said was: 'The old king did not die of a fall.' I asked her if he had been murdered - but she died without answering."

"Still, why put out a false story about his death if not to cover up foul play?"

"And Thomas's letter must somehow prove that there was foul play, and that the queen was in on it."

They finished their dinner in thoughtful silence. In the monastery day, the hour after dinner was for rest or reading. Caris and Merthin usually lingered for a while. Today, however, Merthin was anxious about the angles of the roof timbers being erected in the new tavern, the Bridge, that he was building on Leper Island. They kissed hungrily, but he tore himself away and hurried back to the site. Disappointed, Caris opened a book called Ars Medica, a Latin translation of a work by the ancient Greek physician Galen. It was the cornerstone of university medicine, and she was reading it to find out what priests learned at Oxford and Paris; though she had so far found little that would help her.

The maid came back and cleared the table. "Ask Brother Thomas to come and see me, please," Caris said. She wanted to make sure they were still friends despite their abrasive conversation.

Before Thomas arrived there was a commotion outside. She heard several horses, and the kind of shouting that indicated a nobleman wanting attention. A few moments later the door was flung open and in walked Sir Ralph Fitzgerald, lord of Tench.

He looked angry, but Caris pretended not to notice that. "Hello, Ralph," she said as amiably as she could. "This is an unexpected pleasure. Welcome to Kingsbridge."

"Never mind all that," he said rudely. He walked up to where she sat and stood aggressively close. "Do you realize you're ruining the peasantry of the entire county?"

Another figure followed him in and stood by the door, a big man with a small head, and Caris recognized his long-time sidekick, Alan Fernhill. Both were armed with swords and daggers. Caris was acutely aware that she was alone in the palace. She tried to defuse the scene. "Would you like some ham, Ralph? I've just finished dinner."

Ralph was not to be diverted. "You've been stealing my peasants!"

"Peasants, or pheasants?"

Alan Fernhill burst out laughing.

Ralph reddened and looked more dangerous, and Caris wished she had not made that joke. "If you poke fun at me you'll be sorry," he said.

Caris poured ale into a cup. "I'm not laughing at you," she said. "Tell me exactly what's on your mind." She offered him the ale.

Her shaking hand betrayed her fear, but he ignored the cup and wagged his finger at her. "Labourers have been disappearing from my villages - and when I inquire after them, I find they have moved to villages belonging to you, where they get higher wages."

Caris nodded. "If you were selling a horse, and two men wanted to buy it, wouldn't you give it to the one who offered the higher price?"

"That's not the same."

"I think it is. Have some ale."

With a sudden sideswipe of his hand, he knocked the cup from her grasp. It fell to the floor, the ale spilling into the straw. "They're my labourers."

Her hand was bruised, but she tried to ignore the pain. She bent down, picked up the cup and set it on the sideboard. "Not really," she said. "If they're labourers, that means you've never given them any land, so they have the right to go elsewhere."

"I'm still their lord, damn it! And another thing. I offered a tenancy to a free man the other day and he refused it, saying he could get a better bargain from Kingsbridge Priory."

"Same thing, Ralph. I need all the people I can get, so I give them what they want."

"You're a woman, you don't think things through. You can't see that it will all end with everyone paying more for the same peasants."

"Not