The Song of the Nightingale Read Online Free PDF Page B

about. The dead did not bury themselves in graves, shallow or otherwise. As to the other reason for Gervase’s presence, Josse was all too afraid he understood that, too.
    â€˜You have helped me many times over the puzzles posed by death, old friend,’ Gervase was saying, ‘death by violence in particular. Will you help me again?’
    â€˜Of course,’ Josse said. Then: ‘There was violence done to the bodies?’
    â€˜Hard to be sure, from a quick preliminary look, just how they died, but it appears one of them had been tortured.’ Gervase paused, then said, ‘He has cuts incised into his chest. If you didn’t know, you’d almost think they were letters, but if so, they belong to no language or letter system that I am acquainted with.’
    Josse felt a surge of pity for the victim. It was bad enough to suffer being killed by another’s hands, but how much worse to be forced to endure such agony before death released him. ‘You said the bodies were found near to Hawkenlye Abbey, so presumably that is where they have been taken?’ he asked.
    â€˜Yes,’ Gervase said. ‘They’re – it was thought that the patients in the infirmary ought not to be subjected to such sights and – er – smells, so Abbess Caliste found a room in the undercroft beneath the nuns’ dormitory, and the bodies lie there.’
    Better and better, Josse thought ruefully. Not only was he to be torn away from hearth, home and a pretty new guest to inspect three dead men, but in addition the bodies were putrid and stinking. He suppressed a sigh. ‘I’ll go over to the abbey tomorrow,’ he said.
    Gervase grasped his hand. ‘Thank you, Josse. I’ll get up there myself, as soon as I can. Until tomorrow.’
    â€˜Aye, until the morning,’ Josse replied.
    He watched as Gervase mounted his horse and went out of the stable, joining his guard out in the yard. With a final wave, Gervase put spurs to his horse and hastened away.

THREE
    M eggie was awake before the dawn. Living in the House in the Woods was good, in every respect save one: she never seemed to have any time by herself. Until now she had at least had a tiny sleeping cell to call her own – it was situated between Helewise’s room, set apart in one corner of the house, and the passage leading to the main hall – but yesterday Little Helewise had arrived, apparently for an indefinite stay, and the obvious place to make up a bed for her had been in with Meggie.
    Not that Meggie disliked Little Helewise: far from it. The girl loved Meggie’s beloved half-brother as much as Meggie did herself, and, but for the interdict, Little Helewise and Meggie would surely by now have been sisters-in-law. No – it was simply that early morning and late evening alone in her cosy room had been the times Meggie could retreat into the solace of her own thoughts, and now, because of her new companion, she couldn’t.
    She glanced across at Little Helewise. One of the things she most wanted to do now was to put herself into the light trance state that allowed her to discover things beyond the reach of her waking senses; there was something about Little Helewise that sent out a clear, light, warning note, and Meggie did not know what it was.
I do not know YET
, she corrected herself with a smile.
    She knew that the girl was deeply unhappy, and that was perfectly understandable, with the man she loved so far away, out of reach, out of touch and, apparently, in grave danger. It was enough to make anyone miserable, and Meggie, too, had to work hard to keep depressing, negative thoughts at bay. Little Helewise and Ninian, Meggie suspected, had only just been discovering the depths and the truth of their feelings for each other when he was so abruptly torn away, which would have made the pain of the rift that much worse.
    Was that it? Meggie wondered. Was it enough to account for the different