Where the Stones Sing (9 page)

Dame Maria nodded. ‘Yes, that’s true. And you should be
heading back to the priory, now too, I suppose. Jack, not so fast. You know what you are supposed to do to do when you leave – wash yourself in the rosemary water after
handling
that waste. You should know the rules of the stillroom by now. Be careful! You will knock over that basin and the stool! Goodness, I never knew a boy to make as much noise as you do!’

Dame Maria was very strict on keeping everything as clean as possible, and urged the children to wash themselves well, even their clothes, having been in the houses of the sick. But even she did not realise that the real cause of the plague was the infection carried in the bites of the fleas that the black rats had brought with them from the east. Those fleas had now deserted the rat population in search of new blood, human blood. Like tiny vampires, they bit into the flesh on men, women and children, infecting their victim, then moving on and leaving them to die.

After they left Dame Maria’s house, Kai went to see how Edward was. She had not been able to visit him as often as she would have liked, but she was not worried about him. He still seemed very happy in the stonemason’s house. And it had not been attacked by the plague. The only fly in the ointment was Paul, who continued to dislike Edward and never missed a chance to put him down. Kai, visiting her brother in the stone yard one day, had finally lost her temper with the older boy. She turned on him angrily when he
came over for the third time to criticise the way Edward held his chisel and worked the stone.

‘When you are a master mason, I am sure my brother will be happy to take your advice. At the moment the person he takes guidance from is Master Giles. And Master Giles has nothing but good things to say about his work!’

‘Kai, there’s no need …’ Edward, as usual, was trying to keep the peace.

But now Paul lost his temper too. ‘That’s enough of your lip, beggar child. We all know you and your brother would both be tramping the roads like your father if the good people of Dublin hadn’t taken you in. But I don’t see why you spend so much time down here in the stone yard – I hope you are not on the lookout for things to thieve! I must be make sure to check nothing is missing after you leave! It’s the likes of you have brought the plague to Dublin, in my opinion. You and your brother should never have been let inside the gates!’ He stormed off and Kai was left staring after him with her fists clenched.

Edward put his hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. ‘Don’t let him upset you,’ he said. ‘I pay no heed to his words, and nor does my master. Everyone else is kindly and makes me welcome, so I ignore Paul as much as I can. But what can I have done to make him dislike me so much? Now come into the house and say hello to Joan. I think she made nut and honey cakes this morning.’

Kai left the mason’s house comfortably full of cake, but as she did she was almost run down by a group of chanting, white-clad pilgrims. Some of them were beating themselves on the back with whips as they walked along the streets. The city was full of strange people now – not the jugglers and fairground people of the past, but groups calling out that the end of the world was coming soon, and that everyone must repent or be burned in Hellfire. Processions of these people were seen all over Dublin, shouting out loud about what
terrible
sinners they were.

Brother Albert snorted when they passed them in the streets. ‘Nothing to do with God at all, of course,’ he
muttered
. ‘They have just become caught up in some kind of group madness, where they compete with each other to be the most dramatic. Pay no heed to them.’

But Roland’s mother had become involved in one of these groups. She came one day to the schoolroom, dressed in a loose white robe and with a crucifix in one hand and a piece of rope in the other. She went over to where Roland was sitting and tried to embrace him. For his part, he had been trying hard to look as if he had no idea who she was.

‘My child!’ Lady Rachel had a high-pitched, excitable voice. ‘You must come with me and tread the path of
repentance
! Our fair city of Dublin has been polluted with demons and witchcraft! Satan has entered the very gates of the town! We must pray for forgiveness, pray on bended knees, fasting
and doing penance, to be saved from the evil that is here amongst us!’

Roland pulled away from her, looking furious.

She must once have been a pretty woman, thought Kai, but she was now so thin and pale that in her white gown she looked like a ghost or, as Jack whispered unkindly to Tom, a banshee.

Brother Albert gently prevented her from dragging Roland out of the room.

‘He needs to be here, learning, Dame Rachel,’ he said. ‘And you know that your husband would not be happy to see him taken away from the priory. Besides, we do not want to lose such a good singer! He is doing God’s will here!’

‘My husband is a sinner but does not know it! The voices of the saints and the angels told me that! The Lord himself has spoken to me and told me that I am saved and I must bring others to His grace!’ Dame Rachel declaimed loudly, still trying to drag Roland from his seat.

Her son’s face was so red and he looked so close to tears that the other children felt sorry for him, but did not know what to do, except stay as quiet as they could.

Brother Albert’s voice took on a steely note. ‘Madam, your husband has left his son in our care. He is as safe from
sickness
here as he can be in this unhappy city. If he goes with you, he may well catch the disease and we will be answerable to Sir Patrick. Therefore, I must ask you to leave the priory.
If you do not, I will be forced to call for some help to make sure that you do go.’

Lady Rachel dropped her hand and walked out of the room without a word. Brother Albert went over to Roland to see if his arm had been bruised by his mother’s grip, but Roland, red-faced and furious, ran from the schoolroom. He kicked the bench where Jack was sitting – and Jack’s leg along with it – as he did so. All the children were careful to avoid him for the rest of that day.

But when evening came, Kai came upon Roland in the kitchen. It was pure chance that she was there at all.
Sometimes
, when they had fish, she couldn’t eat her supper, and she often found herself very hungry afterwards. Brother Reynalph would always find something, bread or fruit or nuts, for her if he was there when she went down. But tonight the kitchen was empty, apart from the very sleepy boy tending the fire. Or so she thought, until she saw Dinny flying across the room, letting out a fierce yowl of protest and pain and
landing
with a thump on the stone floor. Roland was standing at the window, a cruel smile on his face. He had flung the kitten from one side of the kitchen to the other. Kai ran straight at him, pushing him to the ground and shouting, ‘How dare you? How dare you? How dare you hurt my Dinny?’

The two of them ended up rolling around on the floor, thumping, biting and scratching each other. Brother Reynalph arrived on the scene and ordered both of them to
bed immediately, refusing to listen to either side of the story. He did check that Dinny had not been harmed by her fall, but when Kai tried to tell him what Roland had done he said abruptly, ‘I am too tired to listen to you, child. We now have another, terrible worry to contend with. Our prior has been taken ill.’

This was dreadful news. One day Prior Robert had been up and about, his usual hale and smiling self, encouraging his brothers to keep cheerful and busy; the next day he had started to shiver and move restlessly in his bed, and could not bear the least noise near him, or anyone to touch him. By the same evening, he was lying pale and exhausted in the
sick-room
, unable even to lift a cup of water to his lips. Brother Albert told the children that the plague boils had already appeared under his arms, and smaller boils were also to be found on other parts of his body. The children could hear his cries of agony echoing along the corridors of the priory. Yet he did not die, and the brothers took turns in a constant vigil in the cathedral to pray for his recovery. Roland looked pale when he heard the news and sent yet another message to his father, asking him to get him away from the priory as soon as possible. No answer came.

Next to become ill was Tom. He had been at one of Brother Albert’s now very rare lessons, and suddenly fell
forward
onto the desk. Jack and Kai stared at him in horror. They could see the paleness that heralded the first signs of
sickness. Brother Albert lips tightened and he gave a deep sigh. He lifted Tom gently and carried him to the infirmary. On the small white bed, Tom lay tossing and turning.

Jack said furiously, ‘You have to let us help look after him. Please. If we are going to be infected we are infected already; it won’t make any difference if we are near him.’

Kai nodded, ready to do anything to help her friend. She put her hand to the coral at her throat; her mother’s charm would surely protect her. She saw Brother Albert glancing around.

Roland was no longer in the room.

‘Roland doesn’t want to help,’ said Kai stoutly. ‘And we are better off without him. I wouldn’t trust him to do things properly.’

Brother Albert looked from one of them to the other, and then to Tom, lying pale and restless on the bed.

‘Very well. I am at my wit’s end trying to look after so many patients. In truth, I do not know how I could do without your help. But you must do exactly as I say. You must be sure to get plenty of rest. And you will need to listen to me very carefully, while I give you your first lessons in care of the plague victims. Keep everything as clean as possible. Touch Tom only when you have too. Keep away from his breath, as the plague is said to spread through humours in the air. Above all, pray constantly. Give him rosewater and sugar, if he can take it without choking. There is very little
we can do, except keep him as still and as comfortable as
possible
. Again, if he can take it in, try to get him to keep down the herbal potions Brother Bertrand and Dame Maria have brewed. And watch and pray, children, watch and pray.’

And that was what Jack and Kai did. They took turns to stay with Tom and nurse him day and night. Kai thought she had never seen Jack so quiet and serious, or work so hard at anything. As Brother Albert was caught up nursing the prior and trying to keep pace with the number of sick people in Dublin, the care of Tom was left mainly to them. On the day after he had fallen ill, the horrible buboes formed under his arms. Black patches appeared on his skin.

They took turns to wipe Tom’s forehead and feed him medicines, to change his bedclothes and speak to him, telling him stories and giving as much comfort to him as possible.

It was hard sometimes, to be with their friend and see him in so much pain. They could do so little to help. He would moan and ask for his mother, but his mother was still not allowed into the city to see him. One day, he started to ask for Edith.

‘I’m sorry Tom,’ said Kai, trying to hold back her tears. ‘She can’t come either.’

Tom’s face broke into a smile.

‘But she is here. Can’t you hear her, Kai? She
has
come to see me. She’s talking to me, teasing me, like she used to.’

Kai did not know what to say. This was really worrying,
to have Tom talk as if he could already speak to the dead. She started to say something, but Tom whispered, his voice cracked and feeble, ‘Sssh, Kai, just listen.’

So Kai sat silently, sure that there was nothing to hear but the harsh voices of the gulls flying up from the river outside, and then the bells of St Patrick’s tolling the news of another death. She sat for a long time, almost drifting into sleep, but as Tom himself fell asleep, she thought she heard, very softly, the laughter of a girl.

The days passed. Then one day Jack suddenly grasped Kai’s hand and said, ‘I’m sorry, Kai, I think I’ve got it too,’ and slid quietly to the floor. Now Kai had two patients. But as Jack fell ill, she thought that Tom seemed slightly better, though he was still very weak. Brother Albert said that the fact he was still alive during the days after the boils had formed was a good sign. She tried to divide her time as best she could between the two boys, running from one bed to the other in the infirmary with bowls and cloths and potions until she felt dizzy.

Then there came a night when Tom seemed especially bad, tossing and turning and throwing his blankets off the bed, calling out for Edith and shouting that the mill wouldn’t stop turning and was grinding his bones … that Greenteeth Jenny was there, calling him into the water and that the puca was coming to take him away …

Brother Albert came and looked serious, but when Kai
asked him what she should do, he said, ‘All you can do is keep doing as you have been. And watch and pray, watch and pray.’ He laid his hand lightly on Tom’s forehead, and closed his eyes as if saying a prayer.

Kai stayed up all that night with Tom. The morning came, and he was still alive, but Kai was asleep on the floor by his bedside, worn out. Brother Albert found her there when he came in to check the children on his morning rounds, and carried her carefully to her own bed.

When Kai woke up, the sun was blazing through the dormitory windows, and she realised it must be almost midday. She ran, panicked, to the infirmary. But there was Tom, propped up on the pallet and trying to smile. She raced over and looked at him closely.

‘You are better?’

‘I wouldn’t say better, but Brother Albert says the worst has passed, and it looks as if I may be one of the lucky ones! I’ll have three scars, from all the boils,’ he said, his voice weak, but still proud.

‘Where is Brother Albert?’ Kai looked around and noticed that he was over at Jack’s pallet. She was just about to call out the good news of Tom’s recovery when something stopped her. She started in horror.

‘No,’ she said. ‘No, it can’t be!’

For Brother Albert was drawing the rough linen sheet over Jack’s face.

Tom looked over and his own face, already white, blenched even more. He clutched at Kai’s arm, but she pulled away and ran to Jack’s bedside.