The Midnight Man by Paul Doherty Page B

place.’
    Gascelyn never replied but plodded on, Anselm and Stephen close behind. The novice just wished they could leave. At first sight this cemetery had seemed a true place of the dead yet the longer they walked, pushing aside nettles and thorns, their feet cracking fallen twigs, the more this cemetery transformed into a living, ominous place breathing out its own malign spirit. The silence was unsettling. The desolation hung like a veil hiding darker, more sinister forces. Now and again Stephen glimpsed the forbidding church tower and the mass of its leaded roof black against the late spring sky. Stephen took a deep breath. A voice whispered to his right, though when he turned only a bush moved in the morning breeze. Stephen turned away then spluttered at the gust of corruption which caught his mouth and nostrils. He stumbled.
    Anselm caught his arm. ‘Be on your guard,’ he whispered, ‘for the devil is like a prowling lion seeking whom he may devour.’ Anselm winked at Stephen and called out to Gaceslyn that they’d seen enough, though he’d like to visit the death house which stood some distance from the church, shaded by a clump of yew trees.
    â€˜My manor,’ Gascelyn called back, ‘my fortress – come and see.’
    The death house was a spacious, rather grand building of smart red brick on a grey stone base, its roof tiled with blue slate. The windows were covered in oil-strengthened linen; the framework and heavy shutters, like the door, were of sturdy wood and painted a gleaming black.
    â€˜Sir William had this refurbished,’ Gascelyn explained. ‘He intends to renovate the church and make the cemetery worthy of the name “God’s acre”.’
    â€˜When?’ Anselm asked.
    â€˜Once May has come and gone. Stone masons and painters, glaziers as well as labourers by the score have been indentured.’ Gascelyn waved around. ‘Some will camp here, others in tenements Sir William has bought down near Queenhithe. That’s why he’s asked me to guard this place. So,’ he shrugged, ‘the death house is my dwelling place.’
    He lifted the latch and led them inside. Stephen was surprised. The death house was unlike any he had ever seen. Its walls were smoothly plastered and painted a lovely lilac pink; the floor, of evenly cut paving stones, was ankle-deep in lush supple rushes strewn with scented herbs. Capped braziers stood beneath the two windows. The bed in the far corner was neat and compact and covered with a beautiful gold counterpane sprinkled with red shields. The long mortuary table stood against one wall with the parish coffin on top, half-hidden by a thick woollen black fleece embroidered with silver tassels, while pots of flowers ranged beneath this.
    At the other end of the room stood a chancery table, a high leather-backed chair and two quilted stools. The room also had a long chest with coffers and caskets neatly stacked on top. Pegs on the back of the door were used to hang cloaks as well as Gascelyn’s gold-stitched war belt with its decorated scabbards for the finely hilted sword and dagger.
    â€˜I sleep well.’ Gascelyn gestured round. ‘Isolda the parson’s woman brings me cooked food.’ He paused as he heard voices. ‘Indeed, I think that is Parson Smollat and his lady now. They’ll be going in for the Jesus Mass – wait here.’
    Gascelyn left the death house. Anselm walked round and sat on the edge of the bed, Stephen on a stool. The novice glimpsed a book bound in calfskin, fastened by a silver chain on the chancery table. He rose, walked over and opened the book of hours. He read the first entry, a line from the introit for Easter Sunday: ‘I have risen as I said.’ Stephen admired the silver-jewelled illumination. The ‘R’, the first letter of ‘
Resurrexi
’, was covered in red-gold ivy and silver acanthus leaves. In the top of the