World Without End Page 0,440

don't have to give up everything."

He sat on a stool and pulled her towards him. She straddled his thighs and lowered herself on to his lap. "You'd better get a straw mattress up here," she said, her voice thick with desire.

He nuzzled her breasts. "How would I explain the need for a bed in a mason's loft?" he murmured.

"Just say that masons need somewhere soft to put their tools."

A week later Caris and Thomas Langley went to inspect the rebuilding of the city wall. It was a big job but simple and, once the line had been agreed, the actual stonework could be done by inexperienced young masons and apprentices. Caris was glad the project had begun so promptly. It was necessary that the town be able to defend itself in troubled times - but she had a more important motive. Getting the townspeople to guard against disruption from outside would lead naturally, she hoped, to a new awareness of the need for order and good behaviour among themselves.

She found it deeply ironic that fate had cast her in this role. She had never been a rule keeper. She had always despised orthodoxy and flouted convention. She felt she had the right to make her own rules. Now here she was clamping down on merrymakers. It was a miracle that no one had yet called her a hypocrite.

The truth was that some people flourished in an atmosphere of anarchy, and others did not. Merthin was one of those who were better off without constraints. She recalled the carving he had made of the wise and foolish virgins. It was different from anything anyone had seen before - so Elfric had made that his excuse for destroying it. Regulation only served to handicap Merthin. But men such as Barney and Lou, the slaughterhouse workers, had to have laws to stop them maiming one another in drunken fights.

All the same, her position was shaky. When you were trying to enforce law and order, it was difficult to explain that the rules did not actually apply to you personally.

She was mulling over this as she returned with Thomas to the priory. Outside the cathedral she found Sister Joan pacing up and down in a state of agitation. "I'm so angry with Philemon," she said. "He claims you have stolen his money, and I must give it back!"

"Just calm down," Caris said. She led Joan into the porch of the church, and they sat on a stone bench. "Take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

"Philemon came up to me after Terce and said he needed ten shillings to buy candles for the shrine of St Adolphus. I said I would have to ask you."

"Quite right."

"He became very angry and shouted that it was the monks' money, and I had no right to refuse him. He demanded my keys, and I think he would have tried to snatch them from me, but I pointed out that they would be no use to him, as he didn't know where the treasury was."

"What a good idea it was to keep that secret," Caris said.

Thomas was standing beside them, listening. He said: "I notice he picked a time when I was off the premises - the coward."

Caris said: "Joan, you did absolutely right to refuse him, and I'm sorry he tried to bully you. Thomas, go and find him and bring him to me at the palace."

She left them and walked through the graveyard, deep in thought. Clearly, Philemon was set on making trouble. But he was not the kind of blustering bully whom she could have overpowered with ease. He was a wily opponent, and she must watch her step.

When she opened the door of the prior's house, Philemon was there in the hall, sitting at the head of the long table.

She stopped in the doorway. "You shouldn't be here," she said. "I specifically told you-"

"I was looking for you," he said.

She realized she would have to lock the building. Otherwise he would always find a pretext for flouting her orders. She controlled her anger. "You looked for me in the wrong place," she said.

"I've found you now, though, haven't I?"

She studied him. He had shaved and cut his hair since his arrival, and he wore a new robe. He was every inch the priory official, calm and authoritative. She said: "I've been speaking to Sister Joan. She's very upset."

"So am I."

She realized he was sitting in the big