AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The door behind Wace opened. Becca had returned holding two pieces of paper and a pen. She was also holding a razor and a can of shaving foam.
‘I want you to read what Becca’s written for you,’ said Wace, as Becca laid the two forms and the pen before Robin on the table, ‘and, if you agree, copy the words out onto the blank form, then sign it.’
Robin read what had been written in Becca’s neat, rounded handwriting.
I have been duplicitous.
I have spoken falsehoods.
I have manipulated a fellow church member and undermined his trust in the church.
I have manipulated and encouraged a fellow church member to lie.
I have acted and spoken in direct contravention of the church’s teachings on kindness and fellowship.
By my own thought, word and deed, I have damaged the bond of trust between myself and the church.
I accept a proportionate punishment as penance for my behaviour.
Robin picked up the pen and her four accusers watched as she copied out the words, then signed as Rowena Ellis.
‘Becca’s going to shave your head now,’ said Wace, ‘as a mark—’
Taio made a slight movement. His father looked up at him for a moment, then smiled.
‘Very well, we’ll forgo the shaving. Taio, go with Becca and fetch the box.’
The pair left the room, leaving Wace and Mazu to watch Robin in silence. Robin heard scuffing footsteps, and then the door opened once more to reveal Taio and Becca carrying a heavy wooden box, the size of a large travel trunk, with an envelope-sized rectangular hole at one end and a hinged, lockable lid.
‘I’m going to leave you now, Artemis,’ said Wace, getting to his feet, and his eyes were wet again. ‘Even where the sin has been great, I hate the necessity for punishment. I wish,’ he pressed his hand to his heart, ‘it weren’t necessary. Be well, Rowena, I’ll see you on the other side, purified, I hope, by suffering. Don’t think I don’t recognise your gifts of intelligence and generosity. I’m very happy,’ he said, making her a little bow, ‘in spite of everything, that you chose to stay with us. Eight hours,’ he added to Taio.
He left the room.
Taio now threw back the lid of the box.
‘You face this way,’ he told Robin, pointing at the rectangular hole. You kneel and bend over in an attitude of penance. Then we close the lid.’
Shaking uncontrollably, Robin stood up. She climbed into the box, facing the rectangular hole, then knelt down and curled up. The floor of the box hadn’t been sanded: she felt the splintered surface digging into her knees through the thin, wet robe. Then the lid banged down on her spine.
She watched through the rectangular hole as Mazu, Taio and Becca left the room, only the hems of their robes and their feet visible. Mazu, the last to leave, turned out the light, closed the door of the room and locked it.
83
Nine in the fifth place…
In the midst of the greatest obstructions,
Friends come.
The I Ching or Book of Changes
Strike, who’d arrived in Lion’s Mouth at one o’clock that afternoon, was now sitting in the dark in his BMW at the blind spot in Chapman Farm’s perimeter with the car’s headlights off. Shah had given Strike the night vision binoculars and wire cutters, and he was using the former to stare at the woods for any sign of a human figure. He’d sent Shah back to London: there was no point two of them sitting here in the dark for hours.
It was nearly midnight, and raining heavily, when Strike’s mobile rang.
‘Any sign of her?’ said Midge anxiously.
‘No,’ said Strike.
