Tom turned white. Suddenly he looked older. Jack realized that he had wounded Tom profoundly. He had won the argument, but he had probably lost a friend. He felt sour and sad.

Tom whispered: “Get out of here.”

Jack left.

He walked away from the towering walls of the cathedral, close to tears. His life had been devastated in a few moments. It was incredible that he was going away from this church forever. He turned at the priory gate and looked back. There were so many things he had been planning. He wanted to carve a whole doorway all by himself; he wanted to persuade Tom to have stone angels in the clerestory; he had an innovative design for blind arcading in the transepts which he had not even shown to anyone yet. Now he would never do any of these things. It was so unfair. His eyes filled with tears.

He made his way home, seeing through a blur. Mother and Martha were sitting at the kitchen table. Mother was teaching Martha to write with a sharp stone and a slate. They were surprised to see him. Martha said: “It can’t be dinnertime already.”

Mother read Jack’s face. “What is it?” she said anxiously.

“I had a fight with Alfred and got expelled from the site,” he said grimly.

“Wasn’t Alfred expelled?” said Martha.

Jack shook his head.

“That’s not fair!” Martha said.

Mother said wearily: “What did you fight about this time?”

Jack said: “Was my father hanged at Shiring for thieving?”

Martha gasped.

Mother looked sad. “He wasn’t a thief,” she said. “But yes, he was hanged at Shiring.”

Jack was fed up with enigmatic statements about his father. He said brutally: “Why will you never tell me the truth?”

“Because it makes me so sad!” Mother burst out, and to Jack’s horror she began to cry.

He had never seen her cry. She was always so strong. He was close to breaking down himself. He swallowed hard and persisted. “If he wasn’t a thief, why was he hanged?”

“I don’t know!” Mother cried. “I never knew. He never knew either. They said he stole a jeweled cup.”

“From whom?”

“From here-from Kingsbridge Priory.”

“Kingsbridge! Did Prior Philip accuse him?”

“No, no, it was long before the time of Philip.” She looked at Jack through her tears. “Don’t start asking me who accused him and why. Don’t get caught in that trap. You could spend the rest of your life trying to put right a wrong done before you were born. I didn’t raise you so that you could take revenge. Don’t make that your life.”

Jack vowed he would learn more sometime, despite what she said; but right now he wanted her to stop crying. He sat beside her on the bench and put his arm around her. “Well, it looks as if the cathedral won’t be my life, now.”

Martha said: “What will you do, Jack?”

“I don’t know. I can’t live in Kingsbridge, can I?”

Martha was distraught. “But why not?”

“Alfred tried to kill me and Tom expelled me from the site. I’m not going to live with them. Anyway, I’m a man. I should leave my mother.”

“But what will you do?”

Jack shrugged. “The only thing I know about is building.”

“You could work on another church.”

“I might come to love another cathedral as much as I love this one, I suppose,” he said despondently. He was thinking: But I’ll never love another woman the way I love Aliena.

Mother said: “How could Tom do this to you?”

Jack sighed. “I don’t think he really wanted to. Prior Philip said he wouldn’t have me and Alfred both working on the site.”

“So that damned monk is at the bottom of this!” Mother said angrily. “I swear-”

“He was very upset about the damage we did.”

“I wonder if he could be made to see reason.”

“What do you mean?”

“God is supposed to be merciful-perhaps monks should be too.”

“You think I should plead with Philip?” Jack asked, somewhat surprised at the direction of Mother’s thinking.

“I was thinking I might talk to him,” she said.

“You!” That was even more uncharacteristic. Jack was quite shocked. For Mother to be willing to ask Philip for mercy, she must be badly upset.

“What do you think?” she asked him.

Tom had seemed to think Philip would not be merciful, Jack recalled. But then, Tom’s overriding concern had been that the lodge should take decisive action. Having promised Philip that they would be firm, Tom could not then plead for mercy. Mother was not in the same position. Jack began to feel a little more hopeful. Perhaps he would not have to leave after all. Perhaps he could stay in Kingsbridge, close to the cathedral and to Aliena. He no longer hoped that she would love him, but nevertheless he hated the thought of going away and never seeing her again.

“All right,” he said. “Let’s go and plead with Prior Philip. We’ve got nothing to lose but our pride.”

Mother put on her cloak and they went out together, leaving Martha sitting alone at the table, looking anxious.

Jack and his mother did not often walk side by side, and now he was struck by how short she was: he towered over her. He felt suddenly fond of her. She was always ready to fight like a cat for his sake. He put his arm around her and hugged her. She smiled at him as if she knew what he was thinking.

They entered the priory close and went to the prior’s house. Mother banged on the door and walked in. Tom was there with Prior Philip. Jack knew immediately, by their faces, that Tom had not told Philip about Jack setting fire to the old cathedral. That was a relief. Now he probably never would. That secret was safe.

Tom looked anxious, if not a little scared, when he saw Mother. Jack recalled that he had said I did my best for you, I hope your mother will see that. Tom was remembering the last time Jack and Alfred had a fight: Mother had left Tom in consequence. Tom was afraid she would leave now.

Philip was no longer looking angry, Jack thought. Perhaps the lodge’s decision had mollified him. He might even be feeling a trifle guilty about his harshness.

Mother said: “I’ve come here to ask you to be merciful, Prior Philip.”

Tom immediately looked relieved.

Philip said: “I’m listening.”

Mother said: “You’re proposing to send my son away from everything he loves-his home, his family and his work.”

And the woman he adores, Jack thought.

Philip said: “Am I? I thought he had simply been dismissed from his work.”

“He’s never learned any kind of work but building, and there’s no other building work in Kingsbridge for him. And the challenge of that vast church has got into his blood. He’ll go wherever someone is building a cathedral. He’ll go to Jerusalem if there’s stone there to be carved into angels and devils.” How does she know all this? Jack wondered. He had hardly thought it himself-but it was true. She added: “I might never see him again.” Her voice shook a little at the end, and he thought wonderingly how much she must love him. She would never plead like this for herself, he knew.

Philip looked sympathetic, but it was Tom who replied. “We can’t have Jack and Alfred working on the same site,” he said doggedly. “They’ll fight again. You know that.”

“Alfred could go,” Mother said.

Tom looked sad. “Alfred is my son.”

“But he’s twenty years old, and he’s as mean as a bear!” Although Mother’s voice was assertive, her cheeks were wet with tears. “He doesn’t care for this cathedral any more than I do-he’d be perfectly happy building houses for butchers and bakers in Winchester or Shiring.”

“The lodge can’t expel Alfred and keep Jack,” Tom said. “Besides, the decision is already made.”

“But it’s the wrong decision!”

Philip spoke. “There might be another answer.”

Everyone looked at him.

“There might be a way for Jack to stay in Kingsbridge, and even devote himself to the cathedral, without falling foul of Alfred.”