Return To The Dingle (The Chronicles of Brother Hermitage Book 27) by Howard of Warwick

Author:Howard of Warwick [of Warwick, Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Funny Book Company
Published: 2022-12-23T16:00:00+00:00

Caput XV: It’s A Plot

They were taken to the guest quarters, the ones Hermitage didn’t know existed, and presented with a large room lined with cots.

‘Oh,’ More squealed with delight as he chose a cot and lay down.

‘I’m sure this used to be where they hid the food,’ Hermitage commented as he looked around the space.

Wat wandered the room, examining it as if looking for another way out, in case it was needed. That was generally a wise step whenever entering a room in De’Ath’s Dingle.

Bart took the cot next to More and relaxed with his hands behind his head. He took a deep breath of satisfaction. Then, he wrinkled his nose, looked across to More and moved to a cot farther away.

Cwen sat on the edge of one of the cots and looked as if she had something to say. When Cwen looked like she had something to say, she said it. ‘They seem..,’ she was searching for the right word.

Hermitage knew that she wanted to say, “nice”, but didn’t want to upset him.

‘Harmless,’ she came up with.

‘Harmless!’ Hermitage didn’t find that as offensive as nice, but it was still a complete misunderstanding of the monks of De’Ath’s Dingle in general, and of Athan in particular.

He was sure that Cwen was the first person ever to use that word in this place. The building itself wasn’t harmless, never mind those who lived in it.

‘You know what Athan is like,’ he told Cwen. ‘We’ve had to deal with him enough times. On any of those occasions, did he come across as harmless?’

‘Well, no,’ Cwen admitted. ‘But you must accept that he’s never behaved like this before. And that Remnick brought us bread and ale.’

‘Because they are up to something,’ Hermitage insisted. ‘It’s just another lie.’

‘It’s a pretty good one.’ Wat sounded thoughtful as he wandered back from his survey. ‘I’ve known some very horrible people in my time and, as I said, Athan was one of them. I’ve never seen any of them change like this.’

‘He hasn’t changed.’ Hermitage was starting to worry that Athan’s deceit was working on the others.

'He's said a lot of things he would never have said before,' Wat explained. 'And horrible people can't do that and sound sincere about it. They always grind the words out and they don't sound right. It's like getting a child to say sorry for pushing their friend in the dung. They say the word, but you know they don't mean it.'

‘And there’s Thomas too,’ Bart put in. ‘He seemed sorry as well.’

‘All part of whatever it is they’re up to.’

‘And what’s that?’ Cwen asked.

‘Well, I don’t know, do I?’ Hermitage protested. ‘I’ve only just got here and found the place turned on its head. All I do know is that this is not right. They are not behaving in this way because of some Damascene moment.’

‘A what?’

‘The conversion of Paul the Apostle on the road to Damascus,’ Hermitage explained quickly. They really should know this.

‘Is that near here, then?’ More piped up.

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