Athelstan looked away. 'Nothing,' he muttered. 'I am just tired.'

'Your astrology?'

He grinned. They had had this conversation before. He edged closer.

'Astrology, Benedicta,' he began with mock pomposity, 'is the belief that the stars and the planets affect men's moods and actions. The great Aristotle accepted the theory of the ancient Chaldeans that man is a microcosm of all there is in the universe. Accordingly, there is a bond between each of us and the stars above.'

Benedicta's eyes rounded in sham admiration of his scholarship.

'Now astronomy,' Athelstan continued, 'is the study of the planets and stars themselves.' He stretched out his hands. 'There are two schools of thought.' He thrust forward his left hand. 'The Egyptians and some of the Ancients believe the earth is a flat disc with heaven above and hell below.' Athelstan now stretched out his right arm, his hand rigid like a claw. 'However, Ptolemy, Aristotle and the Classics believe the earth is a sphere within a spherical universe. Each star, each planet, is a world in itself.'

Benedicta leaned back on her heels.

'My father,' she answered tartly, 'said the stars were God's lights in the firmament, put there by the angels at the beginning of time.'

Athelstan knew she was teasing him.

'Your father was correct.' He shrugged sheepishly. 'At Exeter Hall in Oxford I studied the greatest minds. In the end their explanations pale beside the creative wonder of God.'

Benedicta nodded, her eyes serious now, her teasing over.

'So why do you spend so many hours there, Father? On top of the church tower at night? We see your lantern.'

Athelstan shook his head.

'I don't know,' he murmured. 'But on a clear summer's night, if you stare at the velvet blackness and watch the movements of the planets, the shimmering light of the evening star, you become lost in their vastness.' He looked sharply at her. 'It's the nearest man comes to eternity without going through the door of death. When I am there, I am no longer Athelstan, priest and friar. I am just a man, stripped free of cares.'