The Miracle at St. Bruno's

Rupert said: "It's no good, Damask.”

"You may stay here if you are afraid," I said, which was unkind and unfair too. "/ shall not cower behind Lord Remus. I am going home. I am going to discover what can be done.”

"Nothing can be done, Damask.”

"Nothing. How do you know? What have you tried to do? I am going back at once.”

Rupert said: "If you go I shall come with you.”

"You should stay here, Rupert.”

"Where you are I wish to be," he said.

"I will not have you risk anything for me But I shall not stay here. I shall go back at once. There may be something I can do.”

Rupert shook his head but Kate surprisingly came down on my side.

'If she wishes to go back, she must," she said.

"But it is dangerous," protested Rupert. "Who knows what will happen now?”

"What of my mother?" I asked.

'She is stunned by the blow.”

I could imagine her, startled out of a world where she had lived shut away from events and the blight on her roses was by far the greatest tragedy she could envisage.

"And what is being done?" I asked.

"What can we do?" asked Rupert. "He was taken yesterday. He is in the Tower. They have allowed him to take a servant with him. Torn Skillen went. He came back for a blanket and some food. They allowed him to take them to him. So he is not being so badly treated as some.”

I said firmly: "When can we start?”

"We could leave tomorrow," said Rupert. "It is too late today.”

Kate said: "That is wise. You will go tomorrow. Rupert must rest. He has had a long journey.”

I was silent, staring before me, visualizing it all. His calm acceptance when they came to take him; the barge would have taken him through the Traitors' Gate. And he would have been thanking God that Damask was not at home, that she had not been in the house at all while he had sheltered Amos. He would be saying, "Damask is safe.”

As if I wanted to be safe while he was in danger. Why had I gone? Why had I not been there? I would have done something, I promised myself. I would never have allowed them to take him. I thought of him in his dismal prison in the Tower. So many had exchanged their comfortable beds for a pallet on the cold stone floor-to await death.

But it could not come to that. It must not. There would be a way.

Kate was leading me to my room.

There was the night to be lived through before we left. I could not wait to start on the journey home. Remus had come in from the hunt, beaming and full of high spirits.

The change in him when he heard the news was astounding. His skin turned a pale yellow color and his jaw worked without his volition. I was looking at Fear. No man in these days cared to be connected with a traitor.

He recovered quickly, for he was remote from my father; all he had done was marry a cousin of his wife. Surely that could not be construed as treason? After all there had been no question of Lawyer Farland's treachery at that time. He had been a rich man, a respectable lawyer who had given good service to many of the King's close friends. Remus decided that he was safe and the fear passed. But I could see he was glad that I had decided to leave his house.

At dawn I was up, ready to leave. I was touched by Kate's attitude. Never before had she shown her affection for me so clearly; she was deeply moved and she whispered to me: "Rupert will take care of you. Do as he wishes." Then she threw her arms about me and held me tightly for a second.

She stood at the gateway watching us ride away.

It grew lighter as we rowed up river but I scarcely noticed the landscape as we passed.

I was thinking of him; pictures kept coming in and out of my mind; I thought of his standing by the wall watching the barges go by, his arm about me. I heard his voice telling me that the tragedy of the Cardinal was the tragedy of us all. How prophetic were his words, for the Cardinal had fallen when the King broke with Rome and the reverberation of that break still echoed through the land and it was for this reason that my own father now lay in his dank and dismal prison awaiting death.

It was more than I could bear. I was in such despair that only my anger could rouse me from it. I would in my present mood have gone to the King himself and told him what a cruel and wicked thing this was to harm a good man who had done nothing but what he believed to be right.

There on the bank were the towers of Hampton Court. I shivered as we passed it. Work was still being done on it, I remembered inconsequentially. My father had mentioned only the last time we had passed that a great astronomical clock was being erected in one of the courtyards and that the lovers' knots with the King's and Jane Seymour's initials which had been put into the great hall were already out of date since there had been another Queen since and talk of yet another. The towers which had always seemed so enchanting to me, now seemed menacing.