Read Online The Difficult Saint: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery by Sharan Newman - Free Book Online Page A

“They have a nurse. I just left her at home. And I still read and go to the lectures of the masters when I can. In four years James will be sent for fostering. I want as much of him as possible before he goes away. I’m not sorry, Agnes. I know you wish I’d stayed at the Paraclete and taken my vows, but this is what I think was intended for me. I have a good life.”
    Agnes’s expression indicated disbelief. She motioned for them to sit and gave them dried fruit and nuts from a dish the nuns had left for guests. James went to sleep on the blanket as Edana explored the room.
    “Why did you come?” Agnes asked.
    “Mother’s jewelry,” Catherine reminded her. “You may have all of it if you like. There’s a gold cross I would like to save for Edana that belonged to our grandmother, but I have no need of the rest.”
    “You’ll need some to make a decent impression among Father’s friends,” Agnes insisted. “You can’t have people mistaking you for one of the servants.”
    “Perhaps you would prefer it if they did,” Catherine suggested sharply. She needed all her patience to deal with her children. There wasn’t much left for Agnes.
    “I can’t tell you how glad I am to be going where no one knows you.” Agnes stood as if to go. “You seem to take such joy in giving me shame.”
    “Catherine would never shame anyone with her manners!” Margaret exclaimed. “You should have seen the dress she wore to our castle. And the jewels. She looked as fine as a queen! Mother was very impressed.”
    Catherine smiled. “Thank you, Margaret. I’m doing better than when we were young, Agnes. I cover my hair most of the time, I remember to use my napkin at table and I don’t argue theology however much I’m provoked. At least not often.”
    Agnes looked doubtful, but returned to the box Catherine had brought. She glanced at a movement from the corner. “Should your daughter be eating that?”
    She gestured to where Edana was investigating a piece of metal she had uncovered from among the rushes and herbs.
    Catherine jumped up to grab the thing from the child before she cut herself.
    “No, no!” she said. “Not in the mouth!”
    She examined what Edana had found. “I thought you said the nuns cleaned here. What is it?”
    It was a roughly square piece of metal, about half the size of her palm. There was a sharp edge to it and holes at two of the corners.
    Margaret peered at it from her seat.
    “It looks like it fell off a leather tunic,” she guessed. “From a soldier’s gear?”
    “I suppose,” Catherine said. “It reminds me of something else. I’ll take it to Edgar. He’ll know.”
    She started to tie it up in her sleeve but Agnes leaped from her stool and snatched it from her.
    “It’s not yours,” she insisted. “You can’t just take things.”
    “But it’s just a bit of detritus left on the floor,” Catherine said. “Some visitor must have dropped it. It’s not as if it were a ruby.”
    “That’s not the point.” Agnes was firm. “I’ll give it to the nuns. The owner may return for it.”
    Catherine nodded. “Of course,” she said as soothingly as she could. “You never know. It may be have been a very strategically placed bit of metal. From over the heart, for instance.”
    Agnes’s hand shook as she tied the metal into her own sleeve. Her reaction surprised Catherine, but this was just one of many things she didn’t understand about her sister.
    Catherine picked up James, who flopped over her shoulder sound asleep. Margaret retrieved Edana from the corner, where she was still investigating.
    “If you’ll make a list of the jewelry you’ve taken,” Catherine told Agnes, “I’ll send one of Father’s men to bring back what’s left. I think we should be going now. You know that you’re welcome to stay with us. Margaret has our old room, but she can share or come down and sleep with us.”
    “I’ll never return until you totally disassociate yourself from those