A Dark Night Hidden

This is the real thing. A medieval mystery that is full of medieval mystery.

In Part One of the book we meet Father Micah, a sadistic bigot who is unleashing a reign of terror on the countryside around Hawkenlye, and now at the Abbey itself.

Then he is found murdered.

Anyone might have killed him, for no one could stand him. Even Abbess Helewise herself "flushed deep pink and shouted 'I didn't kill him!'"

Sir Josse d'Aquin, who couldn't stand him either, investigates. And this time he is not helped by Helewise, who has at least to pretend loyalty to the deceased priest and agreement with his brutal treatment of harlots and unbelievers:

'You speak of a priest,' Helewise said coldly. 'Whatever his faults, Father Micah did his duty to God as he saw it. His methods should not be open to the criticism of ordinary people.'

'No?' De Gifford's tone was soft. 'Well, my lady, if you will excuse me, I must disagree. The Father's methods included burning down the houses of those he suspected of contravening the Church's edicts, and he did not care whether the inhabitants were inside or not. He also confiscated the meagre food of the poor in order to ensure that they fasted when he ordered them to, and he had been known to beat a man so badly that the poor fellow never worked again. That man had five children.'

Helewise opened her mouth, found she had nothing to say and closed it again.

At the heart of the story is a small group of Cathars from France who come to England to spread the word and instead fall into the hands of Father Micah. Alys Clare knows her stuff: she is good on the Cathars and their beliefs (unlike the authors of some ostensibly more serious works). Josse's problem, though, is not Catharism (with which he finds he has some sympathy) but whether or not one of the Cathar men killed the priest in revenge for what he did to their women.

Actually, the story has two hearts. You come to Part Two, and suddenly you are in the Great Forest and caught up in a sequel to The Tavern In The Morning (which if you haven't read, read first!) with Joanna and her baby (Josse's baby, though he does not know this). She is living in the Forest, as had her mentor, the witch Mag Hobson, learning the magical, pagan, ways of the Forest People, and trying to keep well clear of all outsiders, but can she turn away when she comes across a whipped and branded and dying woman lying in the frosted grass at the edge of the wood?

Great stuff. And incidentally, we get a description of Josse, the first I remember coming across. It arises quite naturally when Helewise is sitting with him and the Sherrif's man, de Gifford, and finds herself comparing them. Josse was brown-eyed and dark, tall, broad-framed and, despite his rough-featured face, he habitually wore an expression that suggested he expected to like people rather than condemn them Not easy, then and there, might be our first reaction. But as all the best historical novelists know, people have not changed (and will not change - this applies to SF, too); it is only the circumstances that vary.