“I’d have to tell a falsehood—” he began.
“Forgive me, Brother, but how many falsehoods have you told these many years to keep my presence a secret? One more will do nothing to alter the toll, I wager.”
“I’ll think on it,” he said. “But for the moment, I’m to bring you to Alois.”
Bridget groaned. Alois was the abbot of St. Gabriel. He had always seemed to Bridget to be a fair man but, unlike Francis, he had absolutely no sense of humor. She knew that his reprimand for her actions would be much more severe than Francis’s gentle chiding.
“The stranger himself said that I may have saved his life,” she told Francis.
“Aye, child. We all know that your medicines can work wonders, but ’tis the other that has raised Brother Alois’s concern.”
“The other?” Bridget asked.
Francis averted his eyes and stumbled over the words as he explained, “This man—the, um, patient—he’s claiming that he kissed you.”
As it turned out, Bridget had had to face not only Brother Alois, but also Brother Cyril, the abbey prior, and Brother Ebert. She might have expected Ebert, since he was the brother who, by common consent, had most to do with the outside world. It had been Ebert who had first found the wounded stranger on the road, and Ebert was the monk who most often rode to the city when the necessity arose for some item that the monks could not grow or create themselves. Most often this meant something for one of the monks’ inventions.
The three awaited her arrival sitting side by side on the high trestle bench in the small sacristy at the back of the church. They wore identical habits, since Alois refused to distinguish himself from the others by wearing abbot’s robes. Bridget knew she had nothing to fear from them, but at the moment they resembled three vultures perched on a log.
Francis stood next to her as she stopped in front of them.
“My child,” Alois began. “You have been our charge these many years, and every one of us in this brotherhood has vowed to protect and care for you.”
“I know, Brother, and I’m sorry if I’ve caused—”
Alois held up a hand. “’Tis no fault of yours, Bridget. The fault was ours for not realizing how difficult it would be to keep you from the world now that you’ve grown into a—” the abbot stumbled over the words “—into a mature woman.”
Bridget had been called to account before for minor transgressions, but she sensed something different about this audience. She was used to gentle chiding, a softly reproving smile. Instead the expressions on the faces of her three accusers seemed to reflect something resembling fear.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.
Brother Ebert leaned forward. “Do you have something to tell us, Bridget? Did this man—this stranger—do anything—anything—”
He stopped. The words were beyond even the worldly Ebert.
Bridget felt a tug at her heart. What Alois had said was true. The brothers had cherished and protected her as if they had been her parents, but somewhere along the line it seemed almost as if she had become the mother and they the sons. She knew little of the world, but thanks to her readings, she probably had more sense than any of them about what could happen between a man and a maid. She could see that the monks were afraid for her, and that they had no earthly idea how to communicate either that fear or the love that inspired it.
She wished she could go to each one of them and give them an embrace, but that, of course, was forbidden by the Rule. Instead she tried to put her feelings into her smile. “You can stop worrying about me. Nothing passed between me and our visitor. Perhaps I should not have tended to him myself, but there’s no help for that now.”
Cyril was tapping a foot nervously on the crossbar of the bench. “She says nothing happened. What more do you want from the girl?” he asked impatiently. “Make her promise not to see him again, and let’s be done with it.”
Bridget rarely saw Cyril outside of the work shed, and she imagined he was anxious to return to whatever experiment he was currently conducting.
Ebert nodded agreement, but Alois looked uncertain. “As abbot, I must be sure.”
Francis, who’d been standing next to Bridget, spoke for the first time. “The man was in a fever, brothers. He scarcely remembers what transpired, and soon he’ll be gone. I don’t think we need to take any further action.”
With his three brother monks waiting for his word, Alois finally nodded agreement. “Do you promise, Bridget?” he asked.
Bridget nodded. “I’ll stay well out of sight until he’s gone.”
Alois let out a long breath. “Very well, then. We’ll speak of the matter no more.” The three monks stood with noticeable sighs of relief, then filed silently out of the room.
Ranulf sat on the edge of the bed hoisting the heavy cloth belt in his hand. The thieves who had robbed him, if they had been thieves at all, had either been incredibly impatient or stupid. They’d taken his horse, his weapons, his outer clothes, even his boots, but they’d left him wearing a small fortune beneath his undertunic. And the plump little monk had just restored it to him untouched. For a man who’d been nearly beaten to death, Ranulf was amazingly lucky.
“How far is this town, Brother?” he asked Francis. “And what’s the maid’s name? I’d like to visit her home to thank her and compensate her for her service.”
The monk’s cheeks jiggled as he gave a vigorous shake of his head. “She’d not receive you, sir. Nay, ’tis best left alone. The only reward any of us wish is your return to good health. With the fever gone, it shouldn’t be long before you regain your strength and can be about your business.”
Ranulf was not ready to tell the monk that his business was to begin here at St. Gabriel. He wanted his strength back and his head totally clear before he began his inquiries about Edmund.
“I appreciate what you all have done for me, Brother,” he said, “but I believe it was the maid’s medicine that saved my life, and I don’t intend to leave without showing my gratitude.”
Francis sighed. “Beauville is a long ways from here, Sir Ranulf. You’re not yet strong enough for the trip.”
Ranulf’s head still hurt, but his mind had regained its sharpness. Something in the monk’s words confused him. “If she lives so far from here, how was it that she was tending me in the middle of the night?”
“You must be mistaken,” Francis answered stiffly. “She comes at midday.”
Ranulf glanced at the tiny window where a shaft of sunlight pierced the gloom of his cell. Had he been that muddled? he wondered. Or were day and night all one in this foreign land?
“She treated me by candlelight. I remember it distinctly.”
“Ah, sir, you were in too sorry a state to remember anything distinctly. Now I think it’s time for you to lie down and get some sleep, lest you fall back into the delirium you’ve just left.”
Ranulf looked from the monk down to the money in his hand. “Shall I give this back to you for safekeeping?” he asked.
Francis laughed. “You need have no fear of thieves inside the walls of St. Gabriel. Your coin has no value to us here.”
Ranulf shook his head in wonderment. He’d never met such men before. The monks who had tended him seemed to be uniformly content with their lot. They appeared to have none of the failings of ordinary men—greed, ambition, desire.
He dropped the heavy belt to the dirt floor beside his bed. “I’ll just leave it here for now. But though your