Ishraq nodded towards Luca. ‘An earthquake followed by a wave,’ she remarked.

‘A hundred years ago?’ Luca pressed Father Benito. ‘Exactly a hundred?’

‘More,’ he said quietly. ‘The earthquake was in 1348. And after the wave the Black Death came to the village. First the ground shook, then the wave came, then the plague. God forbid that this wave brings the pestilence also.’

‘The Black Death?’ Brother Peter queried.

The priest nodded. ‘It was the worst in Friuli, but they felt it as far away as Rome. It shook this village. I have the accounts of the church rebuilding, which is how I know the dates. It was almost impossible to get the stone masons to repair the tower, for within months of the wave, they were all dead.’

‘I shall write this in my report,’ Luca said. ‘Perhaps we should see it as a warning. Do you think you should store grain, and food? In case a pestilence follows this wave, as it did a hundred years ago?’

Father Benito crossed himself. ‘God forbid,’ he said. ‘For last time they had to dig great plague pits in the graveyard to take the bodies. I wouldn’t want to have to open them again. They buried half the village, more than a hundred people, old and young. And the priest himself died. God spare me.’

‘God help us all,’ Luca said solemnly. ‘Perhaps this is, as they say, the end of days.’ No one answered him, and he turned and went down the hill to the quayside alone.

Brother Peter and the two young women watched him go. Father Benito murmured a blessing, closed the church doors, and went quietly away to his damp house.

Brother Peter sighed and led the way down the hill to the inn on the quayside. ‘I suppose we had better get a ship and move on,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing we can do here anymore. We’ll sail across to Split as we planned.’

‘Are we giving up on Freize?’ Isolde asked bleakly. ‘Are we not looking for him any more; not waiting for him?’

‘We could leave a message for him, as to where to find us, if he were ever to return. But I can’t believe that he survived the flood,’ Brother Peter replied. ‘What would be the point of us waiting here?’

‘For fidelity!’ Isolde exclaimed. ‘Because we can’t just go on!’

Ishraq shook her head. ‘No. We may as well leave. It does Luca no good to wait and watch here. We’ll have to find a boat and go on with our journey. Can you find someone to take us, Brother Peter? Would you like me to go and ask?’

‘A few ships came into port this morning, which seem to have escaped damage. I’ll find someone. Shall we set a time and go tomorrow?’

‘In the morning,’ Ishraq said. ‘I suppose you’ll all want to attend mass before we sail. We can go after Prime.’