Earlscastle has not changed. Tywelve years ago, Merthin recalled , he had been asked to demolish the old fortress and build a new one, modern palace fit for an earl in a peaceful country. But he had refused, preferring to design the new bridge at Kingsbridge. Since then, it seemed, the project had languished , for here was the same figure – eight wall with two drawbridges, and the old fashioned keep ensconced in the upper loop, where the family lived like frightened rabbits at the end of the burrow, unaware that there was no longer any danger from the fox. The place must have been much the same in the days of Lady Aliena and Jack Builder.
Merthin was with Caris, who had been summoned hare by the countess, lady philippa, Earl William had fallen sick and Philippa thought her husband had the plague. Caris had been dismayed. She had thought the plague was over. No one had died of it in Kinsbridge for six weeks.
Caris and Merthin had set out immediately. However, the messenger had taken two days to travel from Earlscastle to Kingsbridge, and they had taken the same time to get there, so the likehood was that the earl would now be dead, or nearly so. ‘All I will be able to do is give him so poppy essence to ease the final agony,’ Caris had said as they rode along.
‘You do more than that,’ Merthin had said. ‘Your presence comforts people. You’re calm and knowledgeable, and you talk about things they understand, swelling and confusion and pain – you don’t try to impress them with jargon about humours, which just makes them feel more ignorant and powerless and frightened. When you’re there they feel more ignorant and powerless and frightened . When you’re there, they feel that
everything possible is being done; and that’s what they want.’
‘I hope you’re right.’
From the book ‘World without end’ by Ken Follet
