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too heartsick to want to find new shadows among the army that already gather about us!’
    A few short weeks ago I had been but the orphaned daughter of a lowly knight, lost in her rustic idyll. Now I was not only serving wine to the King of England and some of his greatest nobles, but this king and these nobles were engaged in an argument about whether I might be a spy in the employ of the King of Sicily.
    My mouth twitched. I caught Stephen’s eye as I moved about Summersete to serve Scersberie, and, God help me, the amusement in Stephen’s face almost undid me.
    I retreated hastily to the chest and collected the final two cups for Lady Adelie and Stephen, keeping my eyes downcast as I served them. I then moved to a spot several paces away from the group and sat on a stool, distant enough not to be obtrusive, yet close enough to see if any needed his goblet refilled, or if the Lady Adelie needed my attention.
    And close enough to hear the conversation that ensued.
    ‘My lady,’ Edmond said to Lady Adelie, ‘I do beg your forgiveness for this unexpected intrusion. I know you prefer to keep a quiet household and my appearance has very evidently shattered the calm. Please, do not trouble yourself to arrange any richness of entertainment or feasting on my behalf. I am content to rest and eat as any member of your household.’
    ‘My dear lord,’ Lady Adelie replied, ‘you are truly welcome in my house, and whatever feast or entertainment I offer you, be assured it is offered out of love and respect and not out of obligation. My only fear is that your arrival in such hasty manner, and without your usual retinue, foretells some heavy and terrible tidings.’
    ‘I regret to say that it does, madam,’ Edmond said. He sighed, fiddling a little with his wine cup before resuming. ‘The south-east, from Dovre to Cantuaberie, is struck with plague. We have heard rumours of it in France and further east, but had hoped our realm should be spared. Not to be, I am afraid.’
    ‘We should have closed the ports months ago,’ Scersberie said.
    ‘Well enough to say that now,’ Pengraic said, ‘but then we did not understand how vilely this plague spreads, nor how long it takes to show its evil nature.’
    ‘My lords,’ Lady Adelie said, ‘please, tell me more. What plague? How dire, that my lord king had to flee Westminster?’
    Edmond indicated that Pengraic should respond.
    ‘My lady,’ Pengraic said, ‘my lord king’s council has, for the past several months, received reports of a plague that had spread west from the lands of the Byzantine Empire, through the Hungarian and German duchies and into the French duchies — even the Iberian states of Aragon and Navarre have not been spared. The rumours spoke of terrible suffering —’
    ‘How so?’ said Lady Adelie.
    Edmond shook his head slightly at Pengraic, and the countess turned to the king.
    ‘My lord,’ she said, ‘I must know. I carry the responsibility of this household when the earl my husband is not present. I cannot manage it weighted by ignorance.’
    Pengraic flicked a glance at me before continuing, and I felt my stomach turn over. Not at the thought that he might be angry at me, or not trust me, but at the words he was now about to speak. Somehow even then I knew the horror that awaited us.
    ‘The sickness begins mildly enough,’ said Pengraic. ‘A feeling of malaise, then a cough. Then, a yellow phlegm expelled from the lungs.’
    ‘And not any phlegm,’ said Scersberie, ‘for it is not moist at all, but of a dry, furry nature.’
    ‘From then the sickness spreads rapidly,’ Pengraic said. ‘Once a man begins to cough the yellow phlegm, his body rapidly succumbs. Eventually, the yellow … fungus … spreads over most of his body.’
    He paused. ‘And then the final horror, Adelie. This “fungus” seems composed of heat, for all too often it bursts into flame and the sufferer is burned to death in his or her sickbed.’
    ‘Terrible,’