Read Online Belladonna at Belstone by Michael Jecks - Free Book Online Page A

considered as she walked down the stairs to the cloister again, then out to the lavatorium to wash and clean herself, going straight to the frater afterwards for a large pot of wine. There she sat at a wall, slightly huddled against the gusts that howled along the building.
    No, what could the visitor be expected to do when the two women were so antagonistic? They hated each other, and never more so than now, with the competition between them for ruling the convent out in the open. That was why Margherita had sent her letter to Bertrand, after all. To show that a new prioress was needed here - one who could command the respect of the other nuns. And that was why she had told the nuns about the allegations in her letter: so that all would look askance at the prioress. By the time the visitor returned, no one would believe anything Lady Elizabeth said.
    Margherita was a clever woman. Dangerous, too, Katerine considered. You had to keep on the right side of her; she might be a good ally for the future. The young novice shivered. This room with its high ceiling, benches and cold stone floor, was one of the chilliest in the place. Draining her cup she hurried to the warming room.
    The calefactory was filled with a glorious orange glow from the fires. Two huge hearths lighted the place, the logs merrily crackling and hissing. Katerine got as close as she could, edging up to the hearth until her face felt deliciously scorched.
    She crouched, staring raptly at the fire, but when she heard steps, rather than be commanded to leave the place, she slid herself back into the shadows. Two nuns entered, walking straight to the chairs and sitting. In their habits Katerine wasn’t sure who they were, but she guessed when she heard them speak.
    “Do you think Prioress Elizabeth could be removed from her post?”
    “Why should she be? Who do you think’s going to be able to prise my Lady Elizabeth from her prioressy? You don’t honestly think she killed Moll, do you?” Katerine recognised that voice: it was Emma, the cellaress, a woman who had not been consecrated because she was no virgin when she entered the convent, not that it ever seemed to give her cause for gloom. She was always happiest with an ale in her hand and a friend to gossip with.
    “No, of course not! Lady Elizabeth is no murderer. No, I think Moll drank too much of Constance’s dwale and it made her blood overheat. You know how these things happen. It opened the wound that fool of a clerk made in her arm. But the prioress is responsible for everything in her convent, and the suffragan will want a scapegoat.”
    Katerine’s ears pricked. This was Anne, the fratress. She had no responsibility in the infirmary, for her job was to see to the chairs and tables in the frater, but because of that she was always about when other nuns talked, so she had access to good sources of information. If she believed Brother Godfrey had operated carelessly, that was probably the view of many others.
    “I wonder if Constance realises her own danger, then.”
    ‘ Her danger?“
    “Of course - she mixed the dwale.”
    “Oh yes. I hadn’t thought,” Anne said, and then chuckled quietly and cruelly. “I remember her when she first came to the convent, you know. I said at the time that she was wrong for that job. She had no idea of the importance of getting the mixtures right. Spent most of her time daydreaming. What could you do with someone like her?”
    “Would she have done it deliberately, do you think?” Emma frowned thoughtfully.
    “What - get the mixture so strong?” Anne grinned nastily, and glanced about her before leaning forward conspiratorially. She murmured something so quietly Katerine couldn’t hear, sitting back and nodding sagely and solemnly while Emma absorbed her words, then giggled.
    “You think so? Who - Constance? I find it hard to believe.”
    “You watch her, Emma. It’s not only her. There’s that novice, too - Sir Rodney’s little miss: Agnes. Watch