Read Online The Heretic's Apprentice by Ellis Peters - Free Book Online

resting-place he had desired, was not a tragedy, but the completion of an altogether satisfactory life, the more easily and readily accepted because he had been gone from this household for seven years, and the gap he had left had closed gently, and had not now been torn open again by his recovered presence. Elave told what he could of the journey home, of the recurring bouts of illness, and the death, a gentle death in a clean bed and with a soul confessed and shriven, at Valognes, not far from the port where he should have embarked for home.
    â€˜And his funeral is to be tomorrow,’ said Jevan. ‘At what hour?’
    â€˜After the Mass at ten. The abbot is to take the office himself. He stood by my master’s claim for admittance,’ said Elave by way of explanation, ‘against some visiting canon there from Canterbury. One of the bishop’s deacons is travelling with him, and let out like a fool some old business of falling out with a travelling preacher, years ago, and this Gerbert would have every word dragged out again, and wanted to call William a heretic and refuse him entry, but the abbot set his foot firmly on that and let him in. I came close,’ admitted Elave, roused to recollection, ‘to sticking my own neck in a heretic’s collar, arguing with the man. And he’s one who doesn’t take kindly to being opposed. He could hardly turn on the abbot in his own house, but I doubt he feels much love for me. I’d better keep my head low till he moves on.’
    â€˜You did quite right,’ said Margaret warmly, ‘to stand by your master. I hope it’s done you no harm.’
    â€˜Oh, surely not! It’s all past now. You’ll be at the Mass tomorrow?’
    â€˜Every man of us,’ said Jevan, ‘and the women, too. And Girard, if we can find him in time, but he’s on the move, and may be near the border by now. He meant to come back for Saint Winifred’s feast, but there’s always the chance of delays among the border flocks.’
    Elave had left the wooden box lying on the bench under the window. He rose to fetch it to the table. All eyes settled upon it with interest.
    â€˜This I was ordered to deliver into Master Girard’s hands. Master William sent it to him to be held in trust for Fortunata until her marriage. It’s her dowry. When he was so ill he thought of her, and said she must have a dowry. And this is what he sent.’
    Jevan was the first to reach out to touch and handle it, fascinated by the beauty of the carving.
    â€˜This is rare work. Somewhere in the east he found this?’ He took it up, surprised at the weight. ‘It makes a handsome treasury. What’s within it?’
    â€˜That I don’t know. It was near his death when he gave it to me and told me what he wanted. Nothing more, and I never questioned him. I had enough to do, then and afterwards.’
    â€˜So you did,’ said Margaret, ‘and you did it very well, and we owe you thanks, for he was our kin, and a good man, and I’m glad he had so good a lad to see him safely all that way and back again home.’ She took up to the box from the table, where Jevan had laid it down, and was fingering the gilded carving with evident admiration. ‘Well, if it was sent to Girard, I’ll keep it aside until Girard comes home. This is the business of the man of the house.’
    â€˜Even the key,’ said Jevan, ‘is a piece of art. So our Fortunata lives up to her name, as Uncle William always said she would. And the lucky girl still out marketing, and doesn’t yet know of her fortune!’
    Margaret opened the tall press in a corner of the room, and laid both box and key on an upper shelf within. ‘There it stays until my husband comes home, and he’ll take good care of it until my girl shows a fancy to get wed, and maybe sets eyes on the lad she wants for husband.’
    All eyes had followed William’s