She brought order and calm to his life, established the routine of a healthy diet, daily exercise, sleep and no visitors. Try as they might, his friends Master Brief and Mister Pike could not get past the goodwife, who kept the door on a chain, eyed them beadily and claimed, ‘My master is not yet ready to entertain!’ ‘Really, Madam!’ Cluckett invariably closed the door in the face of protest. But after a week, when Stort was beginning to recover his old spirits and wished to see his friends, she relented a little. ‘I have sent notice to Mister Barklice that he may attend you for tea today, sir,’ she announced over breakfast. It was a wise choice and a happy visit. Barklice’s friendship with Stort, built up over the years of their travels together, was of a gentler tenor than that which he enjoyed with Brief and Pike. The two had often talked late into the night by the campfire, usually of their deepest yearnings and most intimate desires. The mystery of love was their theme, along with the seeming impossibility of wanderers of the pilgrim road and independent spirits such as themselves ever finding an understanding mate.
