The Rose of the World (5 page)

The lad nodded, then jerked his head in the direction of the steps leading up to the house. ‘Him and the mistress are having breakfast,' he said.

Josse nodded his thanks and then gave Helewise a swift, questioning look.

‘Ready,' she whispered.

Together they mounted the steps and went into the hall.

Helewise looked around her at the home of Gervase and Sabin de Gifford. The hall was generously sized and well furnished. The rushes on the stone floor were fresh and sweet-smelling, and the table at which the family were sitting to eat was sturdy oak.

Gervase was on his feet, greeting his guests and calling to a servant to bring more food. Helewise paused briefly to respond to his welcome, but her eyes were on her son.

Dominic had also risen. Unlike Gervase, he stayed where he was at the table. He was staring at her, and she recognized that even in that first moment he was aware something was wrong.

Josse was muttering something to Gervase, who turned to stare at Dominic. Helewise, hardly noticing, walked steadily across to her son.

‘Rosamund is missing,' she said. ‘She was last seen yesterday at dusk and we have had been out all night looking for her. We believe she was taken away by a young man who was lurking close to the House in the Woods.'

She watched Dominic's face. She saw doubt and anger and, finally, agony so severe that instinctively she reached out to him.

He pushed her hands away. ‘She is eleven years old, Mother,' he said, and his voice was like ice. ‘Could you not have taken better care of her?'

Helewise felt as if she had been stabbed through the heart. She dropped her head, fighting tears. She sensed a swift movement beside her, and Josse's arm went round her shoulders. She heard his words as from a great distance – he was saying it was not her fault, it was the result of mistaken identity, and that Dominic should take back his harsh comment – but she did not take them in.

He blames me
, she thought.
He blames me and he hates me.

A tear slid down her cheek.

She was ushered to a chair, Josse holding her as if he feared she would fall, Sabin disentangling herself from her children and rushing to take Helewise's hand. Then Dominic was before her, his face stiff as he said curtly, ‘I apologize, Mother. Apparently, I was wrong to put the blame on you.'

She met his eyes. ‘She was, as you say, in my care,' she said. ‘I will do my utmost to help you find her.'

He studied her for a moment longer. Then he turned away.

THREE

J
osse sat with Dominic and Gervase as they worked on how best to hunt for Rosamund. Helewise, still looking so stunned that Josse longed to comfort her, sat alone and silent at the end of Gervase's long table. Gervase had already summoned a group of his most reliable men and, when Dominic had asked if somebody could ride over to the Old Manor to ask his brother Leofgar to come to help, Gervase had readily agreed. Now, as they waited for the others to assemble, the three of them divided up the terrain and decided who should lead the hunt in which sector.

‘We should each concentrate on the areas we know best,' Gervase said. ‘This means you, Josse, concentrate on the forest between Hawkenlye Manor and the abbey.'

‘We have searched the ground there all night!' Josse exclaimed impatiently. Although he knew it was sensible to sit here and organize the search so as to make best use of the available men, in his heart he felt they were wasting time and he longed to be out looking for Rosamund.

Gervase looked at him, sympathy in his light eyes. ‘I know, old friend,' he said, ‘but it was dark. You may well have missed something important.'

‘I'll take the area east of the forest, centred on New Winnowlands and covering the roads and tracks to the coast,' Dominic said. Josse glanced at him. His face was pale, and a muscle worked constantly at the point of his jaw. His pain and his anger were palpable. I would not, Josse thought, like to be the man who has taken Rosamund when her father finds him.

‘Good,' Gervase was saying. ‘You are confident that your brother will join us, Dominic?'

‘I am.'

‘Very well. We will assign to him the area to the north and north-east of the town. I propose to put my most able deputy in charge of Tonbridge, and I will concentrate on the lands to the west, taking a band of men out towards Saxonbury, Hartfield and the Ashdown Forest.'

‘The forest is a royal preserve,' Dominic said, frowning. ‘Is it not a waste of time to search there?'

‘Indeed, the king often rides there and would like to make it his own private hunting ground,' Gervase replied, ‘but as yet there is nothing to prevent access.'

‘Providing you don't hunt the deer,' Josse muttered.

‘Yes, but where does that not apply?' Gervase countered. ‘They say there are plans to fence in the whole forest, but for now it is as good a place to hide as any.'

‘I do not know it,' Dominic said. ‘It is a forest, yet you speak of good hunting?' He shook his head. ‘I cannot reconcile the two.'

‘You are thinking, perhaps, of the Wealden Forest that surrounds Hawkenlye,' Josse said. ‘Aye, you'd be hard put to chase and fell a deer there, for the trees and the undergrowth grow so densely that the very tracks disappear in the spring. The Ashdown Forest is in truth a heath,' he went on, ‘and quite different in nature from the woodland around Hawkenlye. You—'

But Dominic put up a hand to silence him. The question answered, Dominic had more pressing matters on his mind. ‘My mother should go to the abbey,' he said decisively, sending a glance in the direction of the silent figure at the end of the table. ‘People come and go there all the time. Basing herself there, she will be in a good position to keep her ears open for any whispered rumour of – of where my daughter may be.'

Josse felt the onset of an agonizing conflict. Dominic's suggestion was astute, for Hawkenlye was the closest sizeable community to the place where Rosamund had last been seen and, as Dominic had implied, had always been a centre for gossip and rumour. But he did not know, as Josse did, Helewise's attitude to the place where she had lived and ruled for so long.

She avoided it. She had explained to Josse that she did not wish her presence to undermine the new regime led by Abbess Caliste. Josse suspected there was more to it than that: he feared that part of her regretted her decision to leave and wished she was still Hawkenlye's abbess.

Either way, she would not take kindly to a curt order from her son that she should go and stay there . . .

Helewise had bowed her head, and she had not uttered a word. It was up to Josse to say so.

‘Your mother will not return to the abbey,' he said quietly. ‘Abbess Caliste is in charge now, and Helewise does not wish to remind the community that once they were led by someone else.'

Dominic's face twisted into a grimace. ‘She will surely not allow such a consideration to outweigh the present emergency?'

‘I think she will,' Josse said.

There was a brief, tense silence. Then, turning to Helewise, Dominic broke it with a single, icy word: ‘Mother?'

Josse watched as slowly she raised her head and met her son's eyes. ‘I will not return to the abbey,' she said.

‘But you—' Dominic began furiously.

Now it was his turn to be silenced. Helewise said, quietly but with infinite authority, ‘Dominic, I will not be persuaded. What you suggest is not possible.'

Dominic opened his mouth to protest again but, eyes fixed to his mother's grim face, he subsided.

‘Thank you,' she said calmly. ‘I will not go to the abbey, but I do agree that what you suggest is sensible. I will lodge close by, and I will send someone to be my eyes and ears within the community. That will serve as well.'

Dominic snorted. ‘It rather depends who you send.'

‘Leave me to worry about that,' Helewise flashed back. Then, regret filling her face as if suddenly she had recalled why they were all there, she added gently, ‘I promised to do my best to help, son, and I will.'

He looked at her for a long moment. Then he nodded.

There was a sudden commotion in the courtyard outside, and a group of a dozen men erupted into the hall. While they were still settling down to hear the sheriff's instructions, there was the sound of a horse's hooves clattering across the yard, swiftly followed by the arrival of Leofgar Warin.

He went to greet his mother. Then he spotted his younger brother and, without a word, went across to take him in his arms in a tight embrace. Breaking away, he turned to Gervase and said, ‘What do you want me to do?'

Josse was heading for the House in the Woods. He planned to gather his household around him and tell them that they were to search every track, path and animal trail until they found some trace of Rosamund. She had stood in the place that Meggie had pointed out, he reflected, and someone had taken her away. Unless they flew, Josse thought, they must have left a mark of their passage and, however small it is, we must find it.

He was riding as hard as he could, given that he was leading a second horse. Where Helewise was bound, she had no need of Daisy, and Josse was taking the mare back to the House in the Woods. He and Helewise had ridden back up the hill from Tonbridge, and he had left her at the point where the track to Hawkenlye Abbey branched off the main road that circled the forest. She had not told him what she planned to do. When they had parted, she had done her best to reassure him, but she had failed.

‘I shall be perfectly safe, Josse dear,' she had said, looking up at him as he struggled to control both Alfred and her mare, the horses excited from the hard ride and restless to be moving again.

‘How will I know?' he asked. He heard the pleading tone in his voice.

She smiled. ‘You will have to trust to God and the good spirits of this place to make sure that I am.'

‘But—'

‘Josse, what else would you have me do?' she demanded. ‘Dominic blames me for Rosamund's disappearance, and he is right to do so for she was left in my care. Do you think I could wait back at home, helping Tilly prepare endless soup, while everyone else searches?
Do you
?' she insisted, when he did not answer.

‘No,' he said gruffly.

‘Well, then.' She reached up and took his hand. ‘Don't worry. I'll be all right. I'll keep in touch.'

Then she had slapped Alfred hard on the rump and, before Josse was aware, he found himself cantering away.

The only tiny spot of comfort in the whole exchange, he now thought as he slowed his pace for the final approach to the house, was that she had referred to his house as home.

That, in this terrible day, was something . . .

As soon as Josse was out of sight, Helewise stepped off the road and entered the forest. She knew the tracks well, and it was worth the risk, for she was in a hurry. Furthermore, if she stayed on the road there was always the possibility that Josse would double back and come after her. He was, she knew, deeply unhappy about leaving her.

She walked fast, stopping now and again to get her bearings. She did not habitually cross the forest from north to south, but she knew where she was heading and at this time of year the trees were all but bare, allowing her to be guided by the sun. It was faint today, obscured by high, thin cloud, but she could tell where it was. The air was cold; she huddled deeper inside her thick cloak and tightened the strings of her hood.

She had not enjoyed parting from Josse when he was so very anxious about her. She knew what he felt for her, and her love for him was equally strong, even if she had no idea how to express it. But it was not the time to dwell on her failings there, she reprimanded herself. Not when there was another, far greater, failure to deal with.

Dominic's coldness towards her had been perfectly understandable but, oh, how it had hurt! She turned her mind from that, too. Nothing short of returning Rosamund to him would alter his dark mood, and she would just have to suffer. She did not even dare to think what Paradisa was going through.

It was heartening that Leofgar had raced to offer his support. Helewise knew, however, that her elder son would not be able to go on helping indefinitely. Leofgar was a man of importance now, with connections to the fringe of court society. Whatever he might privately think about the king – he was careful not to say, but Helewise did not need to hear it in words – he gave every appearance of being a loyal, responsible subject. The king had announced he was going to pay a visit to Leofgar and Rohaise in the very near future, and Helewise was sure that, much as Leofgar would like to go on searching for his young niece, his brother would understood that he had to put his own family first.

It helped her, a little, to be doing something positive to help the search. What she had said to Josse was the truth: she could not have borne returning to the House in the Woods to sit waiting for news. In her old life, she reflected, her conscience would have made her do just that, since it was the hardest thing. Now, once more a woman in control of her own comings and goings, she was free to do what she chose.

She strode on, ignoring her fatigue and the ache in her legs. She was used to walking – they all were – but now the demands she was making on herself were extreme. To take her mind off the pain, she thought about where she was going.

The abbey was out of bounds to her, for the reasons that dear Josse had so eloquently given. It was not that the community would not have welcomed her, and that included Abbess Caliste, for there was a great depth of understanding and love between the former abbess and the present one. It was that the abbey would not be best served by Helewise's return, since, despite their best efforts not to do so, the nuns and the monks would not be able to help a very understandable tendency to remember – and undoubtedly talk at length about – how life used to be in Helewise's day. Were there to be some emergency, there could very well be a few of the older ones who turned to Helewise and not Abbess Caliste for guidance. That would not do.