The Reckoning (21 page)

‘
I did not wait to find out,' Moineau said. 'When I was
fourteen, I entered a monastery.'

‘Good Lord!'

‘
It is not such a strange choice in France,' Héloïse
defended. 'Or it was not, in the old days.’

Moineau nodded. 'There was a monastery on the top of the
next hillside, and when I was out with the sheep I used to look
across at it, sitting there in the sunshine like a great white
ship. I used to hear the bells ringing the divisions, and think
what a good, happy, peaceful place it must be. The idea grew
to be an obsession with me, and at last I broached it with my
father. He was glad for me to go, and at the earliest oppor
tunity – younger sons have to be provided for somehow.’

It answered Héloïse's question about a wife, at any rate.
But as if he had heard her thought, he went on, 'I never took
my vows, however. The Revolution came before I had
finished my training, and in that irreligious period of our
history, the monastery was closed. So I was thrown out into the world again. By then I had had enough of being shut in,
and I decided to see as much of the world as I could. I took to
wandering, and liked it so much I have been wandering ever
since.’

Did you never go home again?' Héloïse asked.

‘
To Nouzonville? Never. My father was killed in one of the
purges, for attending a Mass in the old form – anti-revolu
tionary activity was what they called it,' he said sadly. 'My
mother had been long dead, and my brothers scattered
abroad. I had nothing to go back for; so I made the world my
home.'

‘
Have you been
everywhere?'
Héloïse asked impulsively.

At the same instant, Edward asked, 'What did you do for
your living?’

Moineau gathered them both in a look. 'Yes, I have been
everywhere – or very near – and done a great many things. I
have been a shepherd, and a groom, a carpenter and a soldier. I ran a tavern, once, in Saxony – that was amusing; and I was
tutor to a prince's sons in Poland. I went to Italy for a time,
and was ordained in Rome itself, the heart of our church! I
held a cure there, and later one in Portugal, and again in
Germany. So I have many languages, you see.'

‘
Then you are Father Moineau!' said Héloïse. 'But this is
wonderful! We have a chapel here, but our chaplain left us
some months ago, and there is no-one to say the Mass. If we
could prevail upon you to stay with us for a few days, and
perform our Sunday celebrations, we should be so grateful!’

Edward and James exchanged alarmed looks. 'My love,'
James said quickly, 'Father Moineau will not want to be
delayed on his journey. He doubtless has friends expecting
him. They'll be worried about him.’

Héloïse looked distracted. 'Oh, I had not thought – but
tonight, Father, you will stay tonight at least? It is dark, and
raining, and they surely will not look for you tonight. And then you might conduct the early service tomorrow, before
you leave.’

Father Moineau smiled at her with complete satisfaction. 'I
shall be happy to stay until Sunday, Madame – more than
happy. I should like to see how the boys go on.'

‘It will not delay you?'

‘
My time is entirely my own. I make it a rule never to
travel anywhere in a hurry: the best adventures fall to those
who allow them time and space to grow.'

‘
And you must have plenty of adventures,' Edward said,
not entirely without irony. It had all been a little too pat for
him. 'You must tell us some of them.'

‘
If it would amuse you, I shall be happy to oblige,' said
Moineau, looking as though the irony was not lost on him.
‘Perhaps, like a mediaeval minstrel, I can pay for my supper
with a story.’

In bed that night, James made love with more than usual
vigour. Afterwards when Héloïse was lying in his arms happy
and slightly bemused, he said suddenly, 'You really like that
little man, don't you?’

Yes,' she said. Then, 'Don't you?’

The answer was a long time coming. She could almost feel
the struggle going on. Then her husband's voice came,
slightly grumbling in tone, out of the darkness.

‘Yes, I do. But I don't see why the deuce I should.’

*

Since Marie had left, Alice had been acting as lady's maid to
Héloïse, though she wanted very little maiding – only inacces
sible hooks and buttons doing up, and her hair arranging. Alice arrived the next morning just after James had disap
peared into the dressing-room with Durban to be shaved. She
hardly needed Héloïse's formal question to spill over into chat
about the stranger.

‘
Whether he slept or not, my lady, I can't say, for when
Stephen went in this morning according to your instructions,
he was already up and dressed. Not that he would have
needed valeting, however, for Stephen says there's not a thing
in his pack to change into, bar a clean shirt, stock and stock
ings. Though they were clean, Stephen says, my lady, and the
wonder of it is how he keeps 'em clean, being a traveller as he
is! But Stephen's took the worn ones away to launder, and he
says Father Moineau thanked him very pretty, and said as it
would be the first time they'd felt a touch of starch in many a long month. I suppose he hasn't been staying at the best inns,
my lady.' Héloïse
 
wouldn't normally have encouraged a servant to chatter about a guest, but she was eager to know anything
and everything about Moineau. So she said, 'Did Stephen do
everything for him?'

‘
There wasn't anything to be done, my lady, for he'd
already washed
and
shaved himself in the cold water, though Stephen took his can of hot in, of course. But he brushed him
down, at any rate – and a very nice set of brushes he had,
quite old but good, Stephen said, with horn and silver backs,
all rolled up in his housewife along with his razors and such, and some books, so he must be a book-learned man, my lady.
But Mrs Thomson said Ottershaw said you could tell that
anyway by his speech. But all Stephen's brushing went by the
board as soon as Father Moineau got to the nursery.'

‘He's been to the nursery?'

‘
First thing, my lady. Went along there right away, and
Lord, there've been such rompings! You never saw the like!
He had Master Benedict in such a fit of giggles he like to be
sick; and Sarah said he was crawling about the floor at one time, my lady, with his head full of spills, pretending to be
some kind of giant hedgehog he'd seen on his travels and was
telling the children about. What sort of a man is he, my lady?'
she finished wonderingly.

‘
A good man, I think,' Héloïse said, concealing a smile.

‘
Well, he seems to know how to get round people, and
that's a fact. The children worship him already. They're
going to be that upset when he goes, my lady! And Sarah said
he's got Jenny eating out of his hand, and you know what
she's like, my lady, about anyone interfering in her nursery.’

‘
Where is he now?'

‘
In the chapel, getting ready for Mass. Does everyone have
to go, my lady?'

‘Everyone.'

‘
Well,' said Alice, 'I suppose they'd all want to go anyway,
to get a look at him. It'll be the one day there'll be no-one
staying in bed and claiming to have the toothache.’

*

It was a great comfort to Héloïse to have the daily celebration
again, and Father Moineau looked very much at home, even
though the vestments, made for Father Aislaby, were far too
big for him. He had found his way round the chapel and
vestry with no trouble, and even discovered how to ring the bell to summon the household to the service. As Alice said,
everyone seemed to be there, goggling at the stranger who
had brought a little excitement and variety into their routine
lives.

After Mass, breakfast, where conversation was short and
neutral. Edward did not normally linger over breakfast in any
case, having always more things to do than time to do them.
James was usually a leisurely breakfaster, but today – his
fatherhood touched, perhaps, by rivalry – he hurried through
his meal saying that he wanted to take the boys to school
himself.

‘
I'll go straight on to Twelvetrees afterwards,' he said,
draining his cup and standing up. 'You'll see that someone
goes to fetch Nicholas at twelve o'clock, won't you, my love?'
Saturday was a half-day at school. 'I shall be with a
customer.'

‘
Yes, of course. Don't worry,' Héloïse said. A moment
later, she and Moineau were alone at the table. He went on
eating with the calm attention of a man who knows his prior
ities. The breakfast table was always particularly well spread,
for Edward still liked the old-fashioned sort of meal – cold
meat, cheese, bread and beer, with perhaps a veal or game
pie, or a hot dish of mutton chops or beefsteak for a relish;
while James, being a more modern and fashionable man,
preferred the lighter breakfast dishes like boiled or buttered
eggs, mushrooms, fried bacon, sausages,. grilled kidneys,
boiled haddock, oysters and the like, together with toast, rolls
or buns, and coffee.

Father Moineau, to shew his entire impartiality, had gone a
fair way to sampling everything on the table except the beer,
and was now tackling a wedge of game pie topped with a slice of cheese and flanked with a spoonful of pickled red cabbage.
His appetite was truly remarkable, Héloïse thought. She
leaned over to refill his coffee cup, and he looked up at her
with a smile.

‘
The squirrel, of course, buries nuts and seeds to carry him
over the lean times ahead,' he remarked, ‘but I have not the
squirrel's memory. What very excellent coffee this is.'

‘
You must meet my cook,' she said. 'He is always delighted
to speak to a fellow-countryman.'

‘
Ah, he's French, is he? I thought that must be the case. It's
a long time since I had such fine cooking as this. Even the
nursery supper last night looked tempting!’

Héloïse leaned her chin on her hands. 'You have certainly won the children's hearts, from what I hear. And I'm told my
head nursery-maid is your willing slave.’

He cocked his head. 'But not the men of the house,' he
suggested for her. 'That fine, tall fellow who came to bring
me hot water this morning was very upset by my lack of
baggage.’