“All adults were tall then.”
“He had good features, like you. Well-carved. If ever you’d grown a beard, people would have guessed.”
“I remember the day he died,” Jonathan said. “He took me around the fair. We watched the bearbaiting. Then I climbed the wall of the chancel. I was too frightened to come down, so he had to come up and carry me down. Then he saw William’s men coming. He put me in the cloisters. That was the last time I saw him alive.”
“I remember that,” Jack said. “I watched him climb down with you in his arms.”
“He made sure I was safe,” Jonathan said wonderingly.
“Then he took care of the others,” Jack said.
“He really loved me.”
Jack was struck by a thought. “This will make a difference to Philip’s trial, won’t it?”
“I’d forgotten that,” Jonathan said. “Yes, it will. My goodness.”
“Have we got irrefutable proof?” Jack wondered. “I saw the baby, and the priest, but I never actually saw the baby delivered to the little priory.”
“Francis did. But Francis is Philip’s brother, so his evidence is tainted.”
“My mother and Tom went off together that morning,” Jack said, straining his memory. “They said they were going to look for the priest. I bet they went to the priory to make sure the baby was all right.”
“If she would say so in court, that would really sew it up,” Jonathan said eagerly.
“Philip thinks she’s a witch,” Jack pointed out. “Would he let her testify?”
“We could spring it on him. But she hates him, too. Will she testify?”
“I don’t know,” said Jack. “Let’s ask her.”
“Fornication and nepotism?” Jack’s mother cried. “Philip?” She started to laugh. “It’s too absurd!”
“Mother, this is serious,” Jack said.
“Philip couldn’t fornicate if you put him in a barrel with three whores,” she said. “He wouldn’t know what to do!”
Jonathan was looking embarrassed. “Prior Philip is in real trouble, even if the charge is absurd,” he said.
“And why would I help Philip?” she said. “He’s caused me nothing but heartache.”
Jack had been afraid of this. His mother had never forgiven Philip for splitting her and Tom. “Philip did the same to me as he did to you—if I can forgive him, you can.”
“I’m not the forgiving type,” she said.
“Don’t do it for Philip, then—do it for me. I want to continue building at Kingsbridge.”
“Why? The church is finished.”
“I’d like to pull down Tom’s chancel and rebuild it in the new style.”
“Oh, for God’s sake—”
“Mother. Philip is a good prior, and when he goes Jonathan will take over—if you come to Kingsbridge and tell the truth at the trial.”
“I hate courts,” she said. “No good ever comes out of them.”
It was maddening. She held the key to Philip’s trial: she could ensure that he was cleared. But she was a stubborn old woman. Jack was seriously afraid he would not be able to talk her into it.
