Read Online Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims by Toby Clements - Free Book Online

tears pour down her cheeks and fall on the rough material of Alice’s winding sheet. At length she takes a cloth from the infirmarian’s table and, kneeling by the head of Alice’s bed, she dips it into the bucket and begins gently to wipe her forehead clean.
    As she does so, she begins to envy Alice. Her time in this world is done. She has journeyed ahead to a place where there will be neither tears nor suffering. Death is a release.
    The bruises and welts on Alice’s face only become more livid as Katherine wipes away the dried blood and spit and tears. She smooths the cloth across her unblemished eye and it is then that the doubt begins. She puts the flannel aside and presses the tips of her fingers against those bruised lips.
    Is it her imagination?
    She puts her ear to Alice’s chest and thinks she hears something but cannot be sure. She hurries to the table where the infirmarian keeps her medicaments in neat rows, the largest jars at the back. She does not know what she wants or needs and the jars and bags are labelled with words she cannot read. She unstoppers one, then another, removing the pig’s bladder seals and sniffing each until in one – a large green glass bottle – a sharp smell brings tears to her eyes, sets her coughing and clears her head. She hurries back to Alice and pours some of the black viscous contents on to the cloth. She reseals the bottle and drops it on the mattress next to Alice’s, then holds the cloth below her nose.
    There is an instant reaction. Alice’s eyeballs flutter.
    Alice is alive.
    A moment later she opens her eyes and stares at Katherine. The clarity of her white eyeballs against the bruising all around is astonishing. Then her hand moves. The fingers creep out to touch Katherine’s.
    ‘Stay here,’ Katherine says. ‘I’ll get Sister Infirmarian.’
    Alice moves her head an inch and coughs.
    ‘Be still,’ Katherine says. ‘Don’t move.’
    She crashes down the stairs and out into the cloister. Beyond, the Prioress stands by the well in conversation with Sister Joan. Both turn.
    ‘She’s alive,’ Katherine says. ‘Alice is still alive. Where is the infirmarian?’
    The Prioress is startled.
    ‘She is in the almonry,’ she says. ‘Quick, girl, summon her.’
    Katherine stumbles across the garth and out across the yard to the almonry. But here the door is locked. She hammers and pulls at the handles. There is no give. She shouts. There is no one there.
    She retraces her steps. The cloister is empty and the Prioress and Joan have gone. Another sister sits in her carrel poring over a page. Katherine makes her start.
    ‘Sister, have you seen the infirmarian?’
    ‘She goes to the library after Mass,’ the sister tells her.
    The library is on the other side of the cloister, up a small flight of steps above a storeroom. Another room Katherine has never visited. The infirmarian is there, standing at the lectern over a large book.
    ‘Sister Meredith,’ Katherine breathes. ‘Come. Sister Alice is alive.’
    The infirmarian looks puzzled.
    ‘I am glad to hear it, Sister,’ she says.
    ‘Then come. She needs you.’
    Sister Meredith leaves the book and follows Katherine out of the library and down the stairs. Katherine holds the door for her at the bottom and guides her across the garth.
    ‘Where are we going?’ she asks.
    ‘The infirmary, of course.’
    ‘What is Alice doing there?’
    ‘She has been attacked. I thought you would have known?’
    Something is wrong. The old woman mutters as they make their way up the steps to the infirmary. The Prioress and Sister Joan are there already, beside Alice. When the door opens they both step away.
    Something inside Katherine goes cold.
    Sister Meredith hurries past them and kneels by Alice. Her hands play over the girl’s face and neck. Alice’s eyes are closed again and her hair is messed up on the sheet behind her head. Sister Meredith fetches a small copper bowl from her table, places it on Alice’s chest