The Service of the Dead

Kate picked at the torn sleeve of her gown, thinking as she watched the midwife packing Jennet’s wound with a poultice. “The comfrey will draw the heat from the burn and speed your healing,” Bella said in a soothing voice. Jennet looked white as the midwife loosely wrapped the wound.

Berend poured water for Lille and Ghent, and reached for food.

“Just a little,” said Kate. “They will be heading out again, so not too much.”

“Eh?” Berend straightened from his task.

“One of Sir Elric’s men has Phillip,” she said, looking to Petra. “Is Sam right? Andrew turned one of the men who wear the earl’s livery?” She nodded toward Elric as he bent to come through the kitchen door. “One of his men?”

“Not one of my men. I do not harbor traitors,” he protested.

“‘No Name,’ that is what Andrew called him. Mean.” Petra looked at Elric, a challenge in her eyes.

“You would trip on your pride, Sir Elric,” said Kate. “Traitors are born out of dissatisfaction. Who among your men holds a grudge? Feels unappreciated? Unnoticed?” She saw the wince. “Too many to name. Well, Sam was not the only one Andrew recruited here. Someone in your guard joined his game, distracted us with a man who looked like Sam, and he has my ward Phillip.”

“I will help.”

“You blundered in before I learned what I needed to know, and now you want to help? Stay out of my way – you will frighten the boy. Berend, with me. Lille, Ghent.” The dogs rose.

Berend nodded to Petra. “Serve yourself more bread and make yourself useful. See that the good knight does not follow us.”

“Are you mad?” Kate exclaimed.

But the child stepped up to her. “I can help maybe. I know the hiding places.”

“Why would you help?”

“Phillip is nice to me.”

Kate glanced at Berend, who mouthed, Trust her. Perhaps he was right, time was of the essence. She reached out her hand to Petra.

The girl hid hers behind her back. “I will help for him, not you.”

For the rest of the morning, Kate discovered abandoned cellars, boathouses, sheds, even an entire abandoned dwelling she had not known existed. Cobwebs, rats, decaying corpses of things the hounds shied away from – with each ghastly space Kate’s heart darkened, dreading what she would find at the end of the search.

“How do you know these places?”

“We did not sleep in the same shelter twice.”

At last the child suggested another “game” Andrew played, hiding something in plain sight. The deanery.

Marie squeaked at the sight of the filthy girl in the hall. “What is it?”

“She is helping us search for Phillip. Let her be,” Kate warned, allowing the child to lead her to the cellar. “You know this building so well?”

“I practiced,” said Petra. “I thought I might take the boy messages from down there, but the cat caught me every time.”

As if on cue, Claws appeared at the foot of the ladder leading down to the undercroft, hissing.

“The boy is not here, then. That cat would have set up a howl if a stranger was down there.” The child headed to the kitchens, demanding of Helen, “Are there any rooms no one goes in?”

Helen glanced at the child, her expression neutral. “Not with the children here.”

“Outbuildings,” Petra announced, and led the way out the door to the garden.

No Phillip.

Dean Richard joined them. “I am so sorry, Katherine. Phillip must have gone before the servants were up and about. We did not notice his absence until Marie complained that he was a slug-a-bed and Helen told her to go up to see if he was unwell. She found his chamber empty. We sent word.”

“I know. Sir Elric’s men took their time telling me. It was not your fault, uncle. The Earl of Westmoreland’s men consider themselves too important to fret about a child lured away by a murderer.”

“I should have come myself.”

“I’ve no time to debate this.”

The dean nodded toward Petra as she emerged from a garden shed. “Who is the urchin?”

“My niece. Walter’s child. I will tell you her strange story when we have found Phillip. That comes first.”

A church bell rang. Then another.

“Sext,” said Berend. “Midday already. When Andrew does not send for them, what will happen, Petra?”

“The man will kill Phillip at sundown.”

“By the rood, he would not do such a thing to an innocent,” the dean exclaimed.

Petra fired a pitying glance at him.

As more bells joined in, Kate gazed up at the minster. “The chapter house.” She left the dogs and Petra, who had begun to stumble with weariness, with Helen. When the girl protested, Kate promised that if they did not find Phillip in the minster, they would come back for her. “Eat something. Be ready to return to searching. Come, uncle, Berend.”