My schedule.

I've become a bit erratic in my posting, I'm afraid. I hope no one minds. As long as I post at least one good passage a week, I'm pleased, but I like this story and where it's heading and when I have a free moment I like to get further along.

Twenty-eight

Selden marveled, “Everything has come naturally to Rian.”

“Sit with him, and you’ll see there’s no guile or invention in the boy.”

“I have. I sense it.”

“Yes, of course... Maybe I’m growing tired.”

“Primus, I’ll return in the morning. Or call for me if you need anything.”

“Rian stays with me. And Nurse hovers close. As does the bird.”

“This bird, Primus...”

“You’ll see.”

Selden turned to face the night and he felt the faintest presence. That was true.

“Good night, Gereon.”

And the bishop slept.

Twenty-seven

“So the boy asked me to see the woman,” Gereon recounted, now speaking aloud. He paused. And the sky took on the colors of dusk in the early spring. The blue shadows had grown long and the bud break seemed encased still in ice.

Selden listened closely as the bishop told the tale, though he couldn’t help but feel slightly impatient hearing a story so dated and unimportant. Every boy comes of age.

But the bishop spoke up and said, “And I told him, 'no.'”

Selden hid his surprise.

“I was disgusted by what I had heard about the woman. Disgusted by what she had been reduced to, and disgusted that she reveled in the scandal of it. I made excuses to Rian. The healall will know what’s best... The trip would be a long way for me... He saw through it all, of course. He stood up and asked, ‘You won’t help her?’ and I said, ‘No.’"

“'I will,' he told me.”

“I warned him of the village talk, his parents’ disappointment.”

“And he told me–I still hear the rebuke. He said, ‘Every one has proved faithless; all alike are turned bad; there is none who does good; no, not one.’ And he turned and strode away, each footstep wounding me. Past the churchyard he went, and then I called him before he passed through the hedge. I called with the Gift.”

“Yes, I see. And he heard you,” Selden said.

But Gereon talked over Selden’s murmuring, “He turned and stared back at me. Not defiant, but unbending and, truthfully, ashamed for me.”

“I told him, ‘I’ll go,’ and the rustle of the beech trees shimmered and I seemed delivered to the boy. He wasn’t ashamed as much as grieved, and now he shone with certainty. ‘Wait for me,’ I said. ‘Yes, I’ll lead you,’ he told me, and I followed up the creek where Ava was as sour as vinegar and Rian was the sweet balm."

Twenty-six

“Just help me up,” Ava said.

“You need more help than I can give,” Rian told her. “You’re badly hurt.”

“Goddamn him,” and she sighed so deeply. Rian felt her spirit nearly broken, but the anger burned.

“I would give thanks that you’re alive.”

“Would you?”

Rian ignored the sarcasm, but he was chastised, too. “I mean ... Will he come back?”

“No.”

It was true. He could have killed the woman. Instead ...

“Likely he’ll run,” Rian agreed.

“Run? From what? From justice?”

Rian leaned forward just a bit and told Ava, “From you.”

Ava couldn’t help but laugh, but the laughter made her ribs ache and sharpened her temper.

“I’ll cut his balls off,” she said. “I will!”

“I don’t doubt it.”

“Don’t,” and she fumed.

“Let’s get you cleaned up ... and then I’ll look for help.”

“No, no! Get along. I’ll want another woman to help me.”

Rian was quiet, glancing nervously around the hut, not wanting to say what had to be said.

“Get along then,” she repeated.

So Rian told her, “The women won’t come.”

“No?” She closed her eyes. “No ... they won’t. You’re right.”

“My mother will come ... if I ask–”

“No, don’t be foolish.”

Rian was grateful, but his head began to spin again. He forced himself to breathe deeply. “What have I done coming here?” he asked himself. “I’ve embarrassed everyone.”

But we do what we must, Rian knew. He knew what would come next and said aloud, “The healall’s gone up the lake. I saw her go. She’ll be back tomorrow. Late, she said.”

“Yes.”

“So I’ll bring Pater.”

“A priest?!”

“He’s the one to mend you.”

“Bugger a priest.”

“Please, don't--"

“Please? That bastard will be the last to come!”

“He’ll come. He’ll come. He’s a good man–”

“A good man! A eunuch more like, full of words and empty of sense ... or pity.”

“He’ll come.”

Twenty-five

Rian approached the door to the hut with apprehension. He stood some feet away and felt like a fool when he clapped his hands together. It was how one called on a neighbor, but it was ridiculous to wait outdoors for a welcome while someone moaned inside. He steeled himself and walked in, forthright as if the hut were his own home. He called out to the dark corner and the woman called Ava demanded, “Step out of the doorway. Let me see who you are.”

“I’m Rian.” And he stepped forward and smelled blood and sweat and worse. What little the hut held was broken or tumbled.

“You’re late to join in the fun, young one.”

Rian felt the bitterness and rage the woman contained.

“Are you badly hurt?”

“And what is it to you? You’re here to help? Or is that disappointment on your face?”

“I ... would like to help, if I can.”

“You can, if you will.” And the woman’s rage softened ever so slightly. “Come look at me, child. Come look what he’s done to me.”

“I don’t know if I shall withstand it.”

“God,” she moaned. “If I can stand it, then so can you.” She demanded again, “Come close.”

Rian pushed aside some broken glass with his shoe and came to the side of the bed where Ava lay in a bloody cloth. She was beaten, he saw. Her eye was blackened and swollen. Rian could hardly breathe. He whispered, “He burned you, too.”

“How would you know?” She became enraged again, nearly spitting, “Did he send you? Did that fucker send you to stare at what he’s done? Goddamn right, he burned me! He...”

“Please!” and Rian knelt beside her and he took her hand. “Please, calm yourself.”

“Who are you that you leer at me? Goddamn you, too!” And she turned her body away from him. Rian felt the wincing pain.

“What do they call you?”

“They call me whore. What else would bring you here?”

“I came with a copper, that’s true. It shames me now.”