'What time is it?'
'Past nine. The infirmarian says breakfast is waiting in his kitchen. He knew we would be tired and let us sleep.'
I threw off the clothes. 'We haven't time to waste sleeping! Hurry, finish that and get into your shirt.' I started pulling on my clothes.
'Will you not shave?'
'They can take me unshaven.' The burden of work to be done filled my mind. 'Hurry now. I want to see this place properly and talk to the obedentiaries. You must find an opportunity to talk to Mistress Alice. Then take a walk around the place, look for likely hiding places for that sword. We have to cover the ground as fast as we can, we have a new problem now.' As I laced up my hose, I told him of my visit to Whelplay the night before.
'Someone else killed? Jesu. This skein gets more tangled by the hour.'
'I know. And we have little time to untangle it. Come.'
We went down the corridor to Brother Guy's infirmary. He was at his desk, squinting at his Arabic book.
'Ah, you are awake,' he said in his soft accent. He closed the text reluctantly and led us to a little room, where more herbs hung from hooks. Inviting us to sit at the table, he set bread and cheese and a jug of weak beer before us.
'How is your patient?' I asked as we ate.
'A little easier this morning, thank God. The fever has broken and he is in a deep sleep. The abbot is coming to visit him later.'
'Tell me, what is Novice Whelplay's history?'
'He is the son of a small farmer towards Tonbridge. Brother Guy smiled sadly. 'He is one of those too soft by nature for this harsh world, too easily bruised. Such souls often gravitate here, I think it is where God intends them to be.'
'A soft refuge from the world, then?'
'Those like Brother Simon serve God and the world with their prayers. Is that not better for all than the life of mockery and ill-treatment such people often have outside? And in the circumstances he could hardly be said to have found a refuge.'
I looked at him seriously. 'No, he found mockery and ill-treatment here too. When we have eaten, Brother Guy, I would like you to take me to the kitchen where you found the body. I fear we have had a late start.'
'Of course. But I should not leave my patients for too long—'
'Half an hour should be enough.' I took a last swig of beer and rose, wrapping my cloak around me. 'Master Poer will stay here in the infirmary this morning, I have allowed him a morning's rest. After you, Brother.'
We went through the hall, where Alice was again attending to the old monk. He was as ancient as any man I had ever seen, and lay breathing slowly and with effort. He could not have been a greater contrast to his plump neighbour, who sat up in bed playing a card game. The blind patient was asleep in a chair.
The infirmarian opened the front door, stepping back as nearly a foot of snow banked up against the door fell over the threshold.
'We should have overshoes,' he said, 'or we shall get foot-rot walking in this.' He excused himself and left me looking out, my breath steaming before me. Under a blue sky the air was as still and cold as any I remember. The snow was that light, fluffy sort that comes in the hardest weather, the devil to walk through. I had brought my staff, for with my poor balance I could easily go over. Brother Guy returned carrying stout leather overshoes.
'I must have these issued to the monks with outside duties,' he said. We laced them up and stepped up to our calves in the snow, Brother Guy's features standing out darker than ever against the whiteness. The door to the kitchens was only a short distance away, and I saw the main building had a common wall with the infirmary. I asked if there was a connecting door.
'There was a passage,' he said. 'It was closed off at the time of the Black Death, to minimize the spread of infection, and has never been reopened. A sensible measure.'