Chapter 36
One of the novices put his head around the end of the corridor. “Do you need any more stones moving from the fire?” he asked, in careful Bhoti. “It will be cooling off by now, I expect.”
“Thank you for asking,” she replied. “That would be lovely.” Her Bhoti had lapsed a little in the time she had been away, but it was coming back well and the monks were tolerant of her efforts.
He smiled and nodded at her. “I will do it now. Is everything all right?”
She smiled back. “Yes, yes, thank you, Kalsang. Edie is extremely pleased.” He nodded again and disappeared along the corridor to the outside door. The stones were heated on a pyre outside and shovelled in through a hole in the outside wall to a chamber at the end of the bath.
Kalsang was one of the novices who had begun at the monastery when she and her father had stayed here four years ago and who had helped her to nurse him. He had helped her scatter his ashes, as well.