The Miracle at St. Bruno's

The next day the wedding took place in our house chapel. Lord Remus was led in between two young bachelors whom he had brought in his suite and each of them wore the customary bridelace on branches of green broom attached to their arms. Kate looked beautiful.

The seamstresses had been working for weeks on her gown of brocade and cloth of silver; her hair hung loose about her shoulders. Rupert carried the silver bridecup before her as they went in procession to the chapel and I walked behind her as her attendant.

And all members of the household followed with the musicians playing sweet music and some of the maids carrying the big bridecake.

The ceremony was performed and as the bridecup was handed around Simon Caseman, who was standing behind me, whispered: "Your turn next.”

Bruno was with the party. He looked aloof and scornful and the day after Kate's wedding he disappeared as mysteriously as he had appeared in the Christmas crib.

"I always knew," said Clement, "that he was no ordinary being.”

A CHILD IS BORN

THERE was no trace of Bruno. Rumor was now certain that he was indeed the Holy Child, that Ambrose had lied under torture and had been killed for his blasphemy. As for Keziah there was evidence that she too had been submitted to torture. The wounds on her thighs would not heal and she had gone strange in the head since her "confession.”

People were always ready to believe the fantastic.

Clement was constantly talking of the miracle and how the Abbey had changed and that the Child had the gift of healing the sick.

Even my father believed the rumors.

"But if it were so," I said, "why had Bruno not been able to save the Abbey?”

"I can only think that he has been preserved for something even greater," answered my father.

I wanted to think so too. But most of all I wanted him to come back. I could not understand my feelings for him. I thought of him constantly. I remembered how we had talked together in the days when there had been an Abbey and how elated I had been when I had claimed his attention for a while. I was obsessed by him. I remembered certain allusions Kate had made. Once she had said that Bruno was more important to either of us than anyone else in the world. She was right-as far as I was concerned, though I was sure worldly magnificence meant more to her.

Strangely enough after Bruno's disappearance Keziah grew better. She mingled freely with the other servants and as they were afraid to speak of the strange affair of the child in the crib it was never mentioned. I discovered that there was another reason for the change in Keziah.

She had been making butter in the dairy and came to me in my room. I was surprised to see her at that hour of the morning and she said: "It came to me, Mistress, all of a sudden that I should speak with you.”

"What is it?" I asked.

She smiled and said quietly: "I'm with child, Mistress.”

"No, Keziah!”

"'Tis so, Mistress. I've known a week or more and I've had that happy feeling that comes with it. Or so 'twas always with me.”

"It is wrong. You should not feel happy. You have no husband. What right have you to have a child?”

"The right that's given every woman, Mistress. And I can scarce wait to hold the little 'un in my arms. 'Twas always a child of my own I wanted. But there was always the voice within me that said no. You can't bring a bastard into the world, Keziah.

You must go to your Granny.”

"You should think of this before...”

"One day you'll understand. There's no thinking before. 'Tis only after that you get to thinking. Three times I've been to Granny in the woods. And twice she has brought about that which I knew must be, though never wanted it. There was the first time..." Her face puckered. She had been trying to convince herself that she and Ambrose had never had a child. "This time," she went on quickly, "I won't go to her. I want this child. 'Tis maybe the last I'll ever have for I am getting past the age for childbearing. And this little 'un will be to me what I've never had before.”

"Who is the father of this child?”

"Oh, there's no doubt of it, Mistress. It was him all right. It had to be. There couldn't be a shadow of doubt. This little one belongs to Rolf Weaver.”

"Keziah! That man! That... murderer!”

"Nay, Mistress, 'twas the monk who were the murderer. My Rolf... he were the victim.”

I was horrified. I stared at Keziah's expanding body. That man's seed! It was horrifying.

I said: "No, Keziah. In this case it is justified. You must go to your Granny.”

Keziah said, "Hush you, Mistress. Would you murder my baby? I want this child as I never wanted a child before... and I've grieved for all of them. When I saw that boy my heart earned for him. But he spurned me but when I knew that I carried this seed in my body it gave me comfort. I shall have this child.”

There was a strange exalted look about her and she would not listen to anything I said.