Page 25
Though he did not wish for her to go, it was clear the healer meant to and struggled to stand. He aided her, reluctantly, wishing to gain the information he sought first.
“It seems I will be getting wet.”
“Come quickly,” the man at the door said. From the frantic tone in his voice, it seemed that might be the babe’s father. “Here.” He took her arm as the healer approached him, Kieran at her heels. “Let me aid you.”
She slapped away his hand. Apparently, an arm when sitting or standing was welcome, but anything more, was not.
Kieran did not have to beg the woman for information. His expression surely did that, for the healer looked at him with some measure of pity. “Perhaps,” she said. “But I do not speak freely with strangers. Come back on the morrow.”
With that, she turned and left.
Kieran stood at the door and stared after her. It slammed shut, the rain now pouring down. He watched as the man covered her head with a cloth, but it would soon be soaked through. At her age, a chill could be deadly.
He shook his head at the bad luck of finding someone who might aid him but was unwilling to do so. He returned to Maisie.
“Well, wife. It seems I will be returning on the morrow.”
“Or,” she said, “perhaps we stay the eve and you speak to her in the morn. Unless you relish returning to the Red Stag in that.” She nodded toward the wooden shutters, still open, the rain seeming to fall even harder than before.
“I would not keep you all night from the inn,” he said.
“’Tis my choice. All will be well. We can speak with her again in the morn and then be off straightaway.” Maisie added, “She knows something.”
“Aye,” he agreed. “She does.”
“So you’ll be needing a room then?”
Where had the alewife come from?
“Indeed,” he said. “There is an inn at the edge of town, is there not?”
“There is,” the alewife said. “But I’ve a room if you’re needing one.”
“One room?” he asked.
Her eyes narrowed. “Yer man and wife, are ye not?”
The woman had good ears. Though it mattered not. Many already knew his purpose here. It was how he found the healer.
“Aye,” he said, with no other acceptable answer.
“I’ll send fresh linens and clothing up for when ye need them. Now sit, I’ll fetch some stew.”
“Seems alewives are as forthright and capable as innkeepers,” he said.
“In some villages, they are one and the same,” Maisie answered.
“I will sleep on the floor,” he said, quietly.
Maisie said naught to that. “I think,” she said finally, “we will need more ale.”
Kieran very much agreed.
11
Chapter
The healer never returned.
