Angel Time (The Songs of the Seraphim 1)

Because Malchiah had brought me here did not mean there was no suffering ahead. I thought again of what had so struck me about the mix of good and evil in the cathedral. Only the Lord Himself knew what was really good and evil, and we could only strive to follow every Word He'd revealed as to the good.

In sum, that meant anything might happen. And the number of people involved in our plot worried me more than I allowed my companions to know.

It was midday, under a lowering and snowy sky, when we approached the town, and I was visited by exhilaration much as I was before I took a life, only this time I knew a spectacular new aspect of it. The fate of many people depended on what I might bungle or accomplish, and that had never actually been the case before.

When I'd murdered Alonso's enemies, I'd been brash almost as Rosa was brash now. And I had not done it for Alonso. This I now knew. I had done it to strike back at God Himself for what He had allowed to happen to my mother and my brother and sister, and the monstrous arrogance of this gripped me and wouldn't give me any peace.

At last as our wagon with its double team of horses rolled into Norwich, we hit upon this plan.

Rosa would sleep, feverishly in her father's arms, her eyes closed, as she was ill from the journey, and I, who didn't know anyone in the Jewry, would ask of the soldiers whether or not we might take Lea into her own house, or must we go to the Magister of Meir's synagogue, if the soldier knew whom that man might be.

I could naturally claim utter innocence of any knowledge of the community, and so could Godwin, and we all knew that our plan would be immeasurably helped if Lord Nigel had arrived and was at the castle awaiting his brother.

Perhaps the guards of the Jewry would be prepared for this. As to what happened, none of us was prepared at all.

The sun was a dim glimmer beyond the gray clouds as we entered the street before Meir's house, and all of us were surprised to see lights in the windows.

We could think only that Meir and Fluria had been released, and I climbed out of the cart and immediately knocked on the door.

Guards appeared out of shadows almost immediately, and one very belligerent man, large enough to crush me between his hands, demanded that I not harry the inhabitants of the house.

"But I come as a friend," I whispered, not wanting to wake the ailing daughter. I gestured to her. "Lea, the daughter of Meir and Fluria. Can't I take her into her parents' house there to rest until she is strong enough to see her parents in the castle?"

"Go in then," said the guard, and he pounded on the door abruptly with the outside of his right fist.

Godwin stepped down out of the cart, and then received Rosa into his arms. She lay against his shoulder as he hooked his right arm beneath her knees.

At once the door opened, and I saw there a gaunt individual with thin white hair and a high forehead. He wore a heavy black shawl over his long tunic. His hands were bony and white and he appeared to stare dully at Godwin and the girl.

Godwin gasped, and immediately stopped in his tracks.

"Magister Eli," Godwin said in a whisper.

The old man stood back and, glancing meaningfully at the guard, he gestured for us to enter the house.

"You may tell the Earl, his brother is come," said the old man to the guard, and then he shut the door.

It was now clear to me that the man was blind.

Godwin planted Rosa on her feet gently. She too was white with shock at the realization that her grandfather was here.

"I didn't expect to see you here, Grandfather," she said at once, in the kindest voice, and she moved towards him, but he, staring forward, gestured for her to stay where she was.

He looked cold and remote, and then he took a deep breath, as if he were savoring her faint perfume.

Then he turned disdainfully away.

"Am I to believe you are your pious sister?" he asked. "Do you think I don't know what you mean to do? Oh, you are her very double, how well I remember, and was it not your wicked letters to her from Paris that prompted her to go with these Gentiles into the church? But I know who you are. I know your scent. I know your voice!"

I thought Rosa would give way to tears. She bowed her head. I could feel her trembling though I wasn't touching her. The thought that she had killed her sister must have already occurred to her, but now it seemed to hit her full force.

"Lea," she whispered. "My beloved Lea. I am incomplete for the rest of my days."

Out of the shadows, another figure came towards us, a young and robust man, with dark hair and heavy brows, who also wore a heavy shawl over his shoulders against the chill in the room. He too wore the yellow taffeta badge of the Ten Commandments.

He stood with his back to the firelight.

"Yes," said the stranger. "I do believe you are her very double. I could not have told the two of you apart. It is possible that this will work."

Godwin and I nodded to him gratefully for this little enthusiasm.

The old man turned his back to us and moved slowly to the chair by the fire.

As for the younger man, he looked about himself and at the old man, and then he went to him and whispered something to him under his breath.

The old man made a despairing gesture.

The young man turned to us.

"Be swift and wise," he said to Rosa and to Godwin. He didn't seem to know what to make of me. "The cart outside, is it big enough to hold your father and mother, and your grandfather? For as soon as you work your little spell, you should all leave here at once."

"Yes, it's quite big enough," said Godwin. "And I agree with you that haste is most important. As soon as we know that our plan has worked."

"I'll see to it that it's taken around the back," said the man. "An alleyway leads to the other street." He eyed me thoughtfully, then went on: "All of Meir's books have gone to Oxford," he said, "and every other precious thing has been moved out of this house in the quiet of the night. It took some bribing of the guards, of course, but it's been done. You should be ready to leave as soon as your little play has been performed."

"We will be," I said.

Then bowing to us, the man went out the front door of the house. Godwin glanced at me helplessly and then at the old man.

Rosa wasted no time.

"You know why I've come here, Grandfather. I've come to work any deception required of me to remove suspicion from my mother that she poisoned my sister."

"Don't talk to me," said the old man, staring forward. "I'm not here on account of a daughter who would give up her own child to Christians." He turned as if he could see the brightness of the fire. "I am not here on behalf of children who have given up their faith for fathers who are no better than thieves in the night."