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resources through the coming winter months.
There was something similar now in the atmosphere of those who had jammed
into the chapel and those clustered outside at the door. Jim at last realized
why Geronde had been so determined to have a Mass to follow her marriage. The
marriage itself was hardly more than a commercial transaction. This, here and
now, was what gave the achievement of marriage all of its real meaning and
memorability.
Jim tried another glance at Geronde, but still he saw only the unharmed side
of her face. The other side was still turned away from him.
Behind, he heard those who had been able to crowd into the chapel, stirring
and occasionally whispering to each other. They fell silent as the priest,
facing the altar and the crucifix above it, began a fresh paragraph in Latin.
For a moment his conscious attention had been lost in memory. For a moment
the Latin was not understandable. Then he was caught up by what was being
said, and he was following it once more. The priest was already into the first
of two blessings on the married couple this one a blessing on the bride, in
the heightened atmosphere of the chapel, the music of its words caught all his
attention.
"& respke propius super hanc famulam tuam& " the priest was saying. "& look in
Your mercy on this Your handmaid who is now joined in wedlock and implores
protection from You. May the yoke of love and peace be on her& may she be dear
to her husband like Rachel, wise like Rebecca, long-lived and faithful like
Sarah& doctinis caelibus erudita. May she be well taught in heavenly lore. May
she be fruitful in offspring& may they both see their children's children to
the third and fourth generation, and reach the old age they desire. Through
the name of Our Lord."
The priest went on to the consecration of the Host, and the congregation
seemed to hold its breath as an acolyte rang a small bell three times. They
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continued in the same powerful concentration as the priest prayed, unheard by
them, to consecrate the bread. He knelt on one knee, holding it, then rose,
facing the altar and lifting it up at arms-length for an extended moment, that
the people might see it. He placed it in a small golden dish on the altar,
knelt again, and turned to the consecration of the wine in a silver chalice.
The audience breathed once more as the wine was consecrated. The wine was out
of sight in the chalice, but the bread was the visible, living miracle they
had been waiting to see.
The priest then partook of the wine and bread himself, and after, gave it in
turn to the acolytes. Finally, he turned to give the consecrated bread to
Brian and Geronde as they knelt on the steps.
Only they received it. He turned his back once more, ate and drank what
remained of the wine and bread, that none of the consecrated Host might be
left over, then washed the chalice that had held the wine.
He gave one more blessing specifically to the bride and groom. Then, facing
the congregation, he said a single brief prayer and, making a sweeping sign of
the cross, said the final words of the Mass.
"Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus, Pater etFilms et Spiritus Sanctm."
"& May God almighty bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen."
The Mass was over.
It was almost with a sense of shock that Jim realized there was no more to be
said or done, and they were all about to leave the chapel. He turned about
with the rest of the wedding party to wait for the few moments it took for
those who had been behind them to clear the way by getting out of the chapel
door.
He saw some of the women softly crying, and was startled though by this time
he should know better than to be so by seeing an almost equal number of the
men weeping quietly as well. The moment of the lifted bread had been one of
great emotion, and males of this time gave free vent to their emotions all
emotions.
Outside, finally, at first the new, low, wintry sunlight, shining directly in
his eyes, blinded him. So, half-seeing, he blundered forward to join the
others in both wedding parties, now mixed together as they moved toward the
Great Hall door and the wedding feast waiting for them there.
Abruptly he realized that now, for the first time, he was next to Geronde on
a side that enabled him to see the cheek that had been hidden from him until
now. He glanced quickly at it. The scar was still there, clearly sunlit, still
on her face.
Chapter Forty-Seven
The Great Hall echoed with high voices and good cheer. After the emotional
solemnity of the Mass, this was the happy time of celebration of the marriage,
in a joyful clamor of voices and clatter of spoons and eating knives.
Silent at the High Table with Brian and Geronde, Jim felt sick.
"What is it?" whispered Angie, at his side.
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"Tell you later," he whispered back, and made a heroic effort to smile, drink
and talk happily like everyone else.
To cover up the way he was feeling after seeing the scar still there, he made
an effort to fall into conversation with the priest, next to him at table on
his right. Manners required he should do so anyway. He had never seen the
priest before today, and he now discovered the other was to be addressed as
"Sir William," a courtesy title required by the fact that he was not a member
of a particular religious order for whom the name of "Father" was reserved.
Sir William had the chair next to him, on the other side from Angie. The man
of the cloth was between him and Geronde, with Brian just beyond her. Somewhat
to his surprise, he found the priest to be an unusually intelligent, obviously
highly educated man, only a little older than Geronde.
Out of his ecclesiastical robes, Sir William was dressed like a scholar, in a
houpeland a sort of ancestor of the loose, long academic robe Jim was familiar
with in his own time, with wide sleeves.
He was a lean, calm man, who as had Jim himself under the different
circumstances of the future had originally intended to teach at the university
he had attended. But he had found the call of religious service stronger. He
had been ordained by the Archbishop of Oxford and, after getting a letter from
Geronde, who had heard of him through friends and written, had taken up his
duties at Malvern.
William had been attracted by the position and found his attraction
justified. In addition to his priestly duties, he acted as a secular advisor,
and someone for Geronde to talk to and learn from. He could be useful in a
multitude of concerns with the staff and guests. He liked his religious duties
as castle priest, dealing closely with an ever-changing household of servants
and men-at-arms.
Although ordained by the Archbishop of Oxford, as he explained to Jim, he
was, of course, now responsible to the Bishop ofBath and Wells, and would
remain so as long as he was in that Bishop's diocese.
Their talk took Jim completely out of his preoccupation with Geronde's
still-existing scar until he found his attention pulled away by their early
loss of the King Sir Straw who had been seated at the table's far end. During
the wedding outside, the King had been steadily drinking hot mulled wine,
brought him by a servant, as an additional specific to deal with the cold and
windy day. During the Mass, of course, there was no drinking even by a King.
But once in the Great Hall with the food, he had made up for lost time.
In earlier years his capacity had been legendary. It was still respectable,
but age had nibbled away at it for some decades now. So at the table he had
become sleepy and had needed to be escorted by his knights up to his suite of
rooms undoubtedly, literally carried up the long flight of steps accompanied
and watched over by both the Prince and Joan, who slipped away from the table
to go with him. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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