Historical Setting, 629 C.E. Vosges Mts.
Haberd has the fields planted and seed grains are leftover. With so many of the castle fields new this year and other novice farmers wasting seed as Will had done at first, Haberd guesses he might find a market for his own leftover seed. That is a good excuse, anyway, for him to take a jaunt over there with the mule wagon. And a mule and a wagon make a proper way for Layla and Will and the new baby to get home. So, I’m not the only one finding excuses to help them out in the name of family. It’s a good thing. Will can know the nature of family, now that he has one.
Gaia wants to go back up to the little secular church where the wedding will be. That, of course, is very near where a particular surprise awaits her. Brandell is afraid Mater Doe will let the secret out, so he puts aside the chores Haberd has for him, postpones his plan for visiting Luxeuil and chooses to stay close to Gaia and guard the secret. Mater Doe might easily let it slip that they will soon be close neighbors together.
He is also feeling anxious that he has to face up to the unfinished situation with the Church and he would like to put that off.
It’s been many years now, since Father Columbanus left that community. Over time a lot has changed. Here and everywhere the Benedictine Rule and the Celtic Rule have merged into one more standard rule for so many new monasteries rising up.
Gabe assures him the brother who was the Church Doctrine authority, who brought Brandell so much frustration, is now buried in the monk’s cemetery. So, no one will find the monastery deciding policy for hates according to the edicts of a Frankish king.
Apparently, all the issues that the Church authority found so disturbing are currently snoozing in silence and Brandell shouldn’t be worried. As far as rumors of a living Lazarus circulating among the commoners, no one but our own family was out searching for this still living Lazarus when I went missing. The matter of my life and life again is not quaking the earth.
Of course, sometimes dead isn’t dead, even in the tangible earth of politics and power plays. There is always someone who remembers an old legend or a song, or someone who peeks out a little window in a church tower and notices the teachings of Jesus are still out there.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 