Read Online By Sylvian Hamilton by Max Gilbert - Free Book Online Page A

will not do. I must go'

    She
sat in Chapter with her nuns, the officers of the community, the
morning after Gilla's disappearance. They were all shocked and very
distressed, but even more upset by the notion of Mother leaving to
ride twenty-five miles to some petty farm at the edge of beyond,
quite out in the wilds, and in this appalling weather. It had begun
to rain in the night and blow hard, and looked as if it intended to
rain and blow for ever.

    'The
child was in our care,' said the prioress. 'I must tell her father
myself and lose no more time about it.'

    Voices
were raised in protest but the prioress stood and raised her hand,
silencing them. 'I am going. There's no more to be said. Sub-Prioress
Domitilla will take my place while I'm away. It will only be
overnight; I shall be back tomorrow. Dame Januaria, get Sister Hawise
to pack our bags, tell Sir Bernard to ready himself you'll find him
in the mews with his mangy sparrowhawk--and tell Ambrose to put
pillion-saddles on Sorrell and Roland.'

    Dame
Januaria, who had no cushion of flesh on her bones and detested
riding, whispered 'Yes, Mother,' and fled unhappily out of the room.
The others crowded round the prioress, still protesting, several even
weeping, but she shook them off as a mother cat shakes off her
kittens, blessed them in total and marched to her room. There she
took silver from a small coffer and put it in a worn leather purse
buckled to her belt. She kicked off her sandals and rummaged in a
chest for a pair of sturdy boots. A great hooded cloak over all, and
she was ready.

    Presently
the two horses clattered out of the priory gates, Sir Bernard with
the Prioress behind him and the bailiff with Dame Januaria on a
thick-legged mare. Rohese dreaded the meeting ahead and as they rode
prayed non-stop for Gilla's safety. Business having taken Straccan to
Nottingham, he called at Eleazar's narrow unobtrusive house to
collect a sum due from a client, and found his money-man unhappy and
worried. 'Haven't you heard? No, I see you haven't. News just came.
That Pluvis, Master Gregory's man, he met with a dreadful accident.
He's dead, Sir Richard.'

    'How?
What happened?'

    'They
found him, well, just bits really, not all of him, by the crossroads
at a place called Shawl. Torn to pieces by wild beasts, so they say.'

    'What
of his escort? He had two men-at-arms.'

    'Asleep
in their beds, as he should have been too. They saw him to his room,
and slept by the fire downstairs. How he came to be wandering about
alone in the forest in the middle of the night, no one knows.'

    'Anyway,'
said Straccan, 'what wild beasts? Wolves are no trouble at this time
of year. Did he fall foul of a boar?' 'Wolves, boars, whatever it was
it tore him to pieces. And in truth, they may say wolves, but they
don't believe it. They think some evil spirit got him, they really
do, they believe it! You Christians have some very odd notions.'

    'We
do indeed,' said Straccan, tucking his money into the breast of his
coat and fastening it. It had been a long day. He'd be glad to get
home to Stirrup.

    By
the time he reached home he was tired and hungry, and none too
pleased to be dragged from his supper by the watchbell's clank,
announcing the approach of strangers.

    'Who's
coming?'

    'Looks
like nuns,' said the watchman, frowning against the sun.

    'Nuns?'
Straccan ran up the steps to look out. The three riders were close
enough now to recognise. 'Open the gate,' he said, feeling sudden
dread clamp round his heart as he went down to greet Prioress Rohese.

    Straccan
shut his eyes, his mind crying, No, no! He clenched his fist and
struck the wall, and again, bursting the skin and leaving blood on
the stone. No, no! He leaned, shaking, on the table edge until the
shocked stiffness of throat and tongue abated and he could speak, at
first with his back to her, but then able to turn and look at her.

    'A
monastery is not a prison, after all,' he said harshly. 'Nuns are not
jailers. Why should little