Eleanor shook her head. “And Brother John?” she asked with sadness in her voice.
Gytha put her head in her hands. “Brother John is a good man like Brother Rupert was. I cannot believe he is guilty of murder! Must he die like Brother Rupert and Eadnoth? Is the end of the world coming that good men now die like dogs, even in a community dedicated to God?”
Eleanor’s eyes widened in shock. She reached over to take the young girl’s hand. “Don’t be afraid! If Brother John is innocent, he will not die. Evil may have attacked this house of God, but this house is not evil. I swear it on my own honor!”
Gytha squeezed her hand and wiped her cheeks dry. “My brother did say your coming to Tyndal might bode well for change. He…”
There was a sharp rap at the chamber door. The prioress straightened up and answered with anger in her voice.
Sister Ruth entered, pushing a dirty young fellow about Gytha’s age at arm’s length in front of her. The lines of her scowl were so deeply etched into her forehead they were black.
“This foul-smelling creature demanded entry. I tried to keep him out, but he would not take my nay for an answer. Fa, but he stinks!” The nun stepped backwards in disgust.
The lad did smell like something rotting. His clothes were rags and his shoulders and chest were bursting what few seams held. Tears had cleaned two paths down his blackened cheeks. Gytha started at the sight of him
“Your name, my son?” Eleanor asked, reaching out her hand.
“Eadmund, the son of Eadnoth.” He hawked and spat at the sight of the prioress’s proffered hand. Although his body was not fully fleshed and muscled, his voice was that of a man.
Sister Ruth started to cuff the young man for his rudeness, then withdrew her hand when she realized she would have to touch his filthy cheek.
Gytha had no such qualms. She reached over and shoved him so hard he rocked back on his heels. “Show some manners, Eadmund!”
Eleanor looked back at Gytha with a silent question in her eyes.
“He is a good lad, my lady, for all his ill manners.”
“Then leave us with our thanks, Sister Ruth, and we will hear what he has to say.”
“My lady, it is not safe to leave you alone with such a ruffian.”
“Then get Brother Jo…Thomas, who may be in the sacristy still. He can wait outside my door in case of need.”
Sister Ruth rushed from the room so quickly she left the chamber door open. Eleanor rose and slowly shut it.
“Will you have something to eat, my son?” she said and pointed at the food still on the table.
He looked ravenously at the hunk of cheese and bread but angrily shook his head from side to side.
“If I were to guess, lad, I’d say you hadn’t eaten in awhile. Please take something.”
“I take nothing from the priory.”
“Eadmund!” Gytha said, putting her hands on her hips. “You cannot eat pride, and Prioress Eleanor will not hurt you.”
The lad looked wildly back and forth between Eleanor and Gytha, then charged at the table, grabbed both bread and cheese and began stuffing huge chunks into his mouth. Bits dropped from his lips. He ate like an animal that knows it might never find another meal.
Gytha looked at him, sorrow casting a shadow in her eyes, then she glanced at Eleanor to see her reaction. The tiny nun sat calmly, her expression sad as she watched the boy, nay, both man and boy, bolt the food. Finally, the feeding frenzy over, Eadmund belched loudly. Then he looked wide-eyed at the prioress and began to cry.
“You’ve poisoned me, y’ have,” he moaned.
Eleanor started in shock. “Poison? Why would I do a thing like that?”
“’Cause you killed my pa, you did. You’re bloody devils!”
The door opened. Eadmund jumped up and ran to the wall just under the window. Sister Ruth stuck her head in, glaring in fury at the youth. “Brother Thomas is no longer here, my lady. While we wait for him, I shall…”
“Sister, please leave us. Should the young man wish to depart, he is free to go. In the meantime, stay without and shut the door behind you.”
“But…”
“As I said, sister.”
The chamber door slammed shut.
Eleanor turned to Eadmund, who was looking up at the window like a cornered cat calculating a jump. She wanted to reach out to him but knew such a gesture would only make matters worse.
“Eadmund?” she asked in a soft voice. “Stay there and I will stand over here.” She gestured to the wall on her right. “If you want to run, you can reach the door and leave any time you want.” Then she calmly walked to the far corner, gesturing Gytha to follow her. “You can see that you are free to leave if you choose, and neither Gytha nor I could stop you. You heard me give orders to let you go when you open that door.”
The look in the young man’s eyes grew less feral. He slid with his back still against the wall into a sitting position and stared at Eleanor.
“You must have wanted to talk to me if you braved Sister Ruth to get in,” Eleanor said with gentle voice and a slight smile.
He looked at her, his expression still wary. He jerked his head in Gytha’s direction. “Her brother said you were trustworthy. And he’s a trusty one himself, aye, although his sister works for you black devils.”
“Has anything happened to Gytha despite her being here?”
Eadmund belched again. “Nay. Other than she is now fat and fine.”
Gytha snorted.
“Then we are not all devils, surely?”
The young man’s look darkened. “Maybe not but I cannot say who is and who isn’t.”
“You know Tostig’s judgement is good and that he would not have sent you into danger alone. He’d have come himself if he thought you had anything to fear. He seems to be both a brave and a decent man.”
Eadmund nodded. “He said he’d come with me if it would make me feel safer, but I said I would come alone. He gave me his word you’d not hurt me.” In puffing out his chest, he now looked more a boy than the man he was becoming.
“And have I?”
Eadmund belched for the third time. “I’m not dead yet…and the cheese was good.” He looked around as if hoping, despite his misgivings, that there would be more.
“Then you have shown courage. Perhaps now you will say what you came to tell me?”
Once again, the boy looked like a small and helpless child. “I don’t know what to say.” He smeared what Eleanor suspected were tears away from his eyes, then looked at Gytha with ferocity. “Get her out!” he shouted. “I’ll not tell anything if she’s to hear me.”
Mentally shoving rules aside, Eleanor gestured to Gytha to leave. The girl hesitated, then realized the boy was more afraid than angry, and she quickly left, shutting the door softly behind her.
“Now then, lad. What did you come to say?”
The boy put his head into his hands and began to weep in gulping sobs. “He threatened me, forced me to fuck him, he did, then drove my father out of his wits, swearing he’d make sure we died if either of us said one word. He took me down to that cave and made me swyve him. He gave us money, but my father grew mad with grief. I couldn’t leave my father. He needed me to care for him. I had no choice. I had to.…I’ll burn in Hell for this!” The lad howled like a wounded wolf in a trap.
Eleanor felt a pain as sharp as a dagger thrust in her heart. “Hell shall not have you, Eadmund. That I promise,” she whispered. “Now tell me who did this monstrous thing to you.…”
“The tall black monk.”
“Brother John?”
“Nay! When I told him my sins in confession after Brother Rupert died, he wept, he did, but said he could say nothing unless I spoke out. He begged me to tell Sister Ruth. I would have none of that!” He coughed from swallowed tears, then wiped a hand across his nose. “She’s no different than the others. After you came, he beseeched me to talk to Gytha’s bro
ther and ask his advice about coming to you. Tostig said you could be trusted.…”
“And thus you bravely came. If not Brother John, lad, then who was the man…?”
“The fat one. Simeon, he’s called.”
With that, the boy began to wail again, and this time, when Eleanor reached out to him, he fell into her arms.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“The creature lies!” Sister Ruth was shaking with anger as she marched out of the prioress’s chambers.
Thomas followed, his face without expression.
“Why do you say that, sister?” Eleanor came last, then closed her chamber door quietly behind. Like a mother would her own child, she had tucked the distraught lad up in blankets from her own bed and sent Gytha running to the hospital for help and medicine to ease him into a dreamless sleep. Although he had calmed, she knew he still suffered from the occasional hiccup of sobs behind the closed door.
“This loutish animal is not worthy to speak his name. Brother Simeon is above reproach. He would never commit such an unspeakable vileness.”
“Indeed we would hear what Brother Simeon has to say for himself.…”
“How could you even think that such a base thing would be more truthful than a man of our receiver’s high station and reputation?” Sister Ruth’s face flushed with rage. “Treating low creatures as equals is an error you have been making since your arrival. Forgive me for being so blunt, my lady, but you do show ignorance about much.”
Eleanor curled her hands into fists and ground them against her body. This was not the time to lose her temper with the woman. “Then teach me,” she said.
Sister Ruth hesitated only a moment before continuing, her now mottled face stiff with hatred for Eleanor. “First, you are ignorant of what occurred before your arrival. Even now, you know little of us all. Prioress Felicia had been long with us and knew she could trust our good receiver to provide her with suitable guidance. It may not be proper for me to speak ill of Prior Theobald, but he is not a man to take charge, as he should. If it had not been for Brother Simeon, we might well have suffered many deprivations over the years. He is an excellent steward. We thought for sure he would become a prior elsewhere, if not here.” She waved her hand at Eleanor. “This is the man you now treat with such little respect.”
“So I have heard, but Brother Rupert…?”
“Brother Rupert was a kind man, loved by us all, but he was weak in his dealings with Prioress Felicia. Where he should have given her firm direction, she sometimes guided him, but Brother Simeon wisely left the two of them to do what they would within the confines here. As he often told me, work within the priory was woman’s work and good enough in its place, but stewardship of the lands properly belonged in the hands of a man.”
Eleanor suddenly raised her head. “Often, you say, sister?”
Sister Ruth paled. “As porteress, I had occasion, proper occasion, to talk with Brother Simeon.”
“And you agreed with his methods of running the priory lands without consulting the prioress?”
“Indeed. As Brother Simeon said, that is as it should be. It is unnatural for Adam to be ruled by Eve. I would not be so unwomanly as to disagree, my lady.”
As I have disagreed and will always disagree, Eleanor thought, biting her lip. “And such would have been your approach to running Tyndal when you became prioress after the death of your former superior, had I not usurped the position.”
“My lady, I would not…” Ruth stuttered, then dropped her eyes.
“You expected to become prioress, did you not, sister? When the priory voted, you were chosen and would have ascended to the position if the King and Abbess had not wished otherwise. There is no shame or wrong in acknowledging a fact.”
“Yes, my lady, but I hold no malice.…”
“Nor did I think you did,” Eleanor said, knowing otherwise but smiling disarmingly. “So tell me one thing, good sister?”
“Yes, my lady?”
“The day Brother Rupert’s body was found in the cloister, you left your post at the door to the passageway into the nuns’ quarters, as indeed you should have, for Mass and Chapter.”
The nun nodded confirmation with a wary hesitation.
“When you left the door, did you leave it unlocked?”
Sister Ruth turned pale. “I did not!”
Eleanor raised her eyebrows in doubt.
“She tells the truth, my lady.”
Eleanor, Ruth, and Thomas all turned to look at the person standing with Gytha at the top of the stone stairs.
“It was I.”
“At whose instruction, Sister Christina?” Eleanor asked softly.
“Brother Simeon’s.”
Sister Ruth fainted.
***
Anne, whose arrival had been delayed by a crisis at the hospital, had just joined Thomas and Eleanor at the crumb-strewn table in the prioress’s chambers. With a serene manner, Christina had calmed youth and nun, then led Eadmund and Ruth off to the hospital with Gytha’s help, leaving the other three alone.
“How did Brother Simeon know that Sister Christina would be the one to check and then lock the passageway door?” Anne asked the prioress.
“Sister Ruth told him. As we have all noticed, Sister Christina becomes so lost in prayer that she often fails to notice when the other nuns rise and leave for Chapter. She is always the last to leave. When Sister Ruth was elected prioress, she asked our infirmarian to check the passageway door after Mass, in case someone waited without, and then lock the door again so that Brother Rupert and Sister Ruth could come immediately to Chapter after services. Brother Simeon knew that Sister Christina would ask no questions if he told her to leave the door open and that she might well forget he had even done so. Her concerns are not of this world.” Eleanor looked down at the rushes under her feet. She did not know if she were more saddened that Christina’s trusting nature had been abused or more grieved that Sister Ruth’s bitter resentment had caused her to, well, perhaps not lie as much as fail to tell the truth when needed.
“Then you think Brother Simeon killed Brother Rupert and brought the body into the cloister while we were all at Chapter?” Anne asked.
Eleanor nodded.
“I did find Brother Rupert’s cross outside the nave near the passageway door to the nuns’ quarters,” Thomas said.
“Why was the poor man killed in the first place? Surely our receiver could have confessed his sins? The Church allows penance even for sodomy. Murder was not necessary here.” Tears slowly filled Anne’s eyes.
“Worldly ambition can be a powerful thing, sister. Confession and contrition might save the soul, but men of power in the Church do not view indiscreet sodomy in the lower orders with indifference. Those found guilty of it are removed from any position of authority, if not expelled from the Order and left to beg on the byways with lepers,” Eleanor said. “Hard penance for a man used to the sweet honey taste of power.”
Thomas chewed on a finger. “Simeon also had reason to fear for his very life, unless his family was influential enough and cared to intervene. If Brother Rupert revealed what he was doing with Eadmund, our receiver might have been burned at the stake as an example to all that sinned in like fashion. Imagining such foretaste of hellfire is enough to unman most of us.”
Anne studied the monk in silence for a very long moment. “You speak with authority, brother. I accept what you both say, although I do not understand the need for worldly ambition in a community dedicated to a higher glory.” Then her voice turned angry. “But Brother Simeon had bought silence from the boy and his father. How could our good priest have known, and how would our receiver have found out that he did?”
“I can only guess.” Thomas shook his head. “Perhaps Brother Rupert began to suspect about Simeon from something he had heard or seen. Perhaps he had even seen the two together in questionable circumstances. Since we now know from Gytha that Brother Rupert had go
ne to Eadmund’s father, he may have wanted to confirm his suspicions with Eadnoth, and Eadnoth might have later told our receiver of Brother Rupert’s visit. For cert, Brother Simeon would have feared that Brother Rupert would pass the news on to the mother house in France.” Thomas’ voice caught as he rubbed his tired eyes. “Paid or not, from the distraught behavior of Eadmund’s father before he, too, was killed, I’d say he could no longer endure what was being done to his son. Eadmund did say he had lost his wits. Perhaps the father even meant to kill Simeon himself. That would explain the knife when you saw him at the cave, my lady.”
“Still, Eadmund swears neither he nor his father said a word,” Eleanor said. “Although the lad may not have known all his father did or said.”
Sister Anne looked pensive for a moment. “There was one thing. At the time I thought it was of no moment, but now I wonder.…”
“What?” asked Eleanor.
“As Prioress Felicia was dying, she fell into a deep sleep. I thought she would never awaken from it, but she suddenly became quite agitated. She thrashed around in her bed, moaning and reaching out as if she were trying to grab something. To calm her, I took her hand and spoke gently, thinking to soothe her into a quiet passing. Then her eyes opened wide and she grabbed my hand with an uncommonly strong grip and begged me to tell Brother Rupert something. As I remember, she said she had accused wrongly and then she used the phrase: ‘it was not the one we feared, but rather the other.’ Before I could ask our priest to come to her, she died.”
“And did you tell him?”
“Yes, and I saw some light of understanding in his eyes, but he said nothing further to me.”
Eleanor bent her head. I am deeply puzzled by this. What is the connection between her words and Brother Rupert’s subsequent visit to Eadnoth? If no one told them about this heinous crime, how could they have suspected it? And her words suggest they thought someone else was involved in what troubled her so much she had to speak before she died. Nay, it is more likely that they would have realized there was something amiss with the account rolls. She shook her head. Can that be? To my knowledge, only the receiver worked on them. Who else could be involved or even suspected? Eleanor looked up at Sister Anne. “What do you think, sister?”
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