“Yes, yes, of course I know your circumstances.” Emma spoke impatiently.
“Then you can have no quarrel with your brother, for I am the cause of his anger, not you. But in truth, Emma, if you love me and are so sure you want this match, I would agree to it if only for the sake of—”
“No, Hugh, no! You misunderstand me. I’m not in love with you! Don’t think that for one moment.” Embarrassed by her hasty words, she rushed to explain. “I don’t mean any disrespect, please don’t think that. You know I love you as a sister. I always will. No, the trouble lies with the fact that the man who has won my heart is just not good enough for Anselm.”
Janna risked a glance at Hugh, and was amused to see the look of relief on his face. She was sure it was mirrored on her own. She hastily bent her head so that he could not read her expression, and subjected the rushes covering the floor to an intense scrutiny.
“So who is he, this man who has won your heart?”
“He is called Peter Thatcher, for that is what he is and what he does. And you won’t find as good or careful a craftsman for many miles about.” This was said defiantly. It was clear Emma had become used to defending her beloved.
“A thatcher? A free man?”
“No. But we are both happy and content to live at the manor under his lord. Peter is a good man, Hugh, you must believe that. He is kind, and gentle, and he makes me laugh!” In her desperation to be understood, Emma had grasped Hugh’s hands in her own, and now she squeezed them hard and released them. “I love him,” she said softly. “I love him with all my heart. I want to live my life with him, have children with him, and grow old with him.” Janna felt a moment of pure envy that the girl seemed so sure of her love and her happiness. But the reality of the situation cooled her wits sufficiently to listen carefully to what followed.
“Why is Anselm so against the match?” Hugh asked.
“He says that, as I have a small dowry, I should make a better match than Peter. Indeed, he told me that he was taking steps to increase the amount of my dowry, and I could then have anyone of my choosing, any free man, that is. He talks of family honor yet, in truth, our family is not so noble or high that I can be proud in my choosing. But I know who he really wants me to wed. You.” Emma’s smile was rueful.
“And that was why he was so insistent yesterday that I honor my pledge to marry you? Although I have to say, I do not recollect any such pledge between us.”
“No, there never was. I think it was Dame Alice’s fond hope that the two of us might make a match, but you have nothing to reproach yourself with, Hugh. Anselm is trying to build a castle out of straw when he says there is an understanding between us.”
“Do you want me to try to talk to Anselm, and put in a good word for your thatcher?”
“It’s too late for that!” Now there was real distress in Emma’s voice. She looked up at Hugh. “Don’t you see? After you told me of your quarrel with Anselm, I went to plead with him. But he would not listen, he pushed me away. I fear that he has fallen in with bad company, for I found him at the cockfighting pit, making wagers, spending coins we cannot afford. I swear he had been drinking, for he was unsteady on his feet, and seemed to be paying more attention to a pair of half-dead birds than to me. But he must have been listening to me after all and taken great insult from it, for this is the result!” There were tears in her eyes. She blinked them away. “I came as soon as I heard what had happened. Oh, Hugh, I am so sorry for this, and I am sure Anselm will be too, once he is sober, once he’s had time to reflect on his actions. I’m just so grateful he didn’t manage to kill you!”
“So am I!” Hugh laughed, but with little amusement. “But I think you’re wrong about Anselm, truly I do. I didn’t see who attacked me, but I didn’t notice him among the crowd around us, and neither did Johanna. In fact, they were mostly women and children.”
A brief flash of hope lit Emma’s face. Then she frowned. “Perhaps he hid himself until the last moment?” she fretted. “Be sure I’ll ask him. I’ll find out the truth of the matter.”
“In the meantime, tell me what I can do to help you in your troubles.”
“I don’t know.” Now Emma looked worried. “You must stay out of Anselm’s way, for the first part. For the second, I wanted to see how you are, and to apologize for Anselm. I can’t believe he would do such a thing! And for the third, I also wanted to make sure that someone was taking good care of you.” She flashed a grateful smile at Janna. Her forehead creased into a frown once more as she faced Hugh. “I confess I can’t see any way out of this coil of trouble other than to give up my attachment to Peter, and that I will not do. My brother has no right to keep me from the man I love.”
“If you suspect that Anselm is drinking and gambling, perhaps you should stay away from him for the while, just until he returns to his senses?” Hugh suggested. “Take courage, Emma, for the fair will soon be over and you’ll return to your manor. Will Anselm go with you? Does he live there with you still?”
Emma nodded. “I wish he did not,” she said bitterly. “Then he would not be able to interfere with my life as he does now.”
“Have you spoken to your lord regarding your match with Peter? If he sanctions it, then surely your brother will have to agree?”
“We haven’t asked my lord, but what you say is true.” Emma looked somewhat happier. “I shall speak to Peter about it.”
“He does want to marry you?”
“Oh, yes.” A sudden smile smoothed the worry from Emma’s face. “It’s what we both want more than anything,” she said. “See what he has given me as a token of his love?” She pointed proudly at the ring she wore on her right hand.
Both Hugh and Janna leaned in for a closer look. It was a broad band of gold chased with lilies, so carefully enameled that the drooping white trumpets and interlinking foliage looked like miniatures of the real thing. Janna wondered how a humble thatcher could afford to purchase anything so fine, and had her question answered almost immediately.
“I admired it yesterday at the fair,” Emma said, adding somewhat defensively, “Peter tried to buy it for me as a betrothal gift, but he didn’t have enough coins and so we bought it together. I shouldn’t really wear it until we are wed, but it is so pretty I cannot resist it. Besides, it is safer on my finger than off.”
“Peter is here, at the fair?” Hugh was startled. “Is that wise?”
“Never fear, he is keeping out of Anselm’s way.” Emma bent to kiss Hugh goodbye, then cast a curious glance at Janna. “I’ll leave you in the good care of Sister Johanna,” she said, and walked out.
“Do you believe that Anselm was behind the attack on you, my lord?” Janna asked, as soon as Emma was out of hearing.
Hugh frowned. “I can’t be sure,” he said slowly. “I know him well, and I would have said such an action was not in his character. Yes, I have seen him angry before now. He has a quick temper, but I have never known him attack a defenseless man without provocation. Certes I did not recognize him in the crowd coming toward us just before I was attacked, and yet whoever did the deed must have been there among them.”
“If not Anselm, then who?” Janna asked, coming back to the question that worried her most. “Was anyone in the crowd from your aunt’s manor at Babestoche, my lord, anyone at all?”
“No.” Hugh thought about it. “No,” he said again. “You’re still worried about Robert, aren’t you?”
Janna nodded. She picked up the salve left by Sister Anne, and turned back to the bed. “Could you please lift your shirt, my lord?” She tried to ignore the heat coursing through her body as, with a grin, he obeyed her instruction.
She carefully unwrapped the cloth that bound the wound. “It is quite clean and is healing well,” she told him, as she smoothed the cool paste over the ugly gash in his side. She felt him shrink from her touch and knew that she hurt him, but he kept silent. “You are lucky, my lord,” she reassured him. “The dagger could have gone deeper, or at an angl
e, and done a lot more damage than it has.”
“A glancing blow, one meant to warn rather than kill, think you?”
“Or a blow meant to silence me and, perhaps, checked when the assailant realized he had the wrong mark?”
“I wish you would put that thought out of your mind, Johanna. I feel sure that I was the target and, whatever Emma says, I must see Anselm again and talk to him about it.” Hugh shifted restlessly. “I shall visit him just as soon as you let me out of here.”
“Is that wise, my lord?”
Hugh gave a small huff of amusement. “Better perhaps to visit him later, at his manor, after he has had a chance to cool down and sober up?”
Janna hesitated. It was not her place to advise him, and yet he had asked her to stay and hear Emma’s story, so presumably he placed some value on her opinion. “Is this not something best left for brother and sister to work through?” she asked diffidently. “It would be a pity to heat things up again, perhaps make matters worse by your interference, especially as you have all been friends from childhood.”
Hugh looked thoughtful. “You may well be right,” he admitted, “but I can’t stay away and do nothing to help, not when Emma’s happiness is at stake.”
“You risk your life by interfering,” Janna reminded him.
“I doubt Anselm will try anything like that again—if in truth he was behind this attack.” In spite of his reassuring words, Hugh sounded troubled.
“He must care deeply for his sister to go to these lengths to secure her future.”
“Unless drink has addled his brain he must know that killing me isn’t the way to go about it! And I hope that once he is away from the temptations of the fair, he will listen to what I have to say regarding Emma and her betrothed.”
Janna saw that Hugh was bound to his course, and that nothing she could say would dissuade him from it. “Then I wish you every success in helping Mistress Emma find happiness with the man she loves, my lord.” She finished spreading the last of the cream, and bound the wound tight with a clean linen bandage.
“I suppose a goodnight kiss is out of the question?” Hugh asked, with a twinkle in his eye. A quiet rustle behind Janna alerted her to the fact that they were no longer alone.
“I don’t believe that’s part of your treatment, but you could ask Sister Anne to oblige, if you feel a kiss might help your recovery.” With flushed cheeks and bright eyes, she pushed past the infirmarian and fled.
Chapter 9
At Sister Anne’s insistence, Janna stayed behind again the following day. “We cannot both go to the fair; someone must stay here to attend our new patient,” the infirmarian said. “I would send you, Sister Johanna, but I fear you might not be safe on your own. Yet I worry that it might not be safe for you here, either, as the lord Hugh is apparently unaware of proper decorum here in our abbey. You would be well advised to keep someone with you when you tend him. There can be no future in a liaison with him, you know that, don’t you?” She bustled off without giving Janna a chance to reply.
Janna knew that the nun’s advice was sound; nevertheless, she was content to stay behind, the presence of Hugh being more than enough compensation for missing the delights of the fair. The thought of the bailiff, anxiously awaiting news of Agnes, sat heavy on her mind, but there was little she could do about it. To send a message with Sister Anne was out of the question. Besides, Janna reasoned, Agnes had seemed to like the man in spite of her fear of the unknown. With further thought, she might well repent her hasty decision. Better to leave it alone for the moment, and see if time wrought any change to her feelings.
As a lay sister, and with work to do in the infirmary, Janna had been excused from attending most of the offices that the nuns observed through the day and night. Nevertheless, she was expected to attend Mass every morning, and so she did, going on afterward to the chapter house to make her report. She sat patiently while the business of the abbey was discussed and waited, with some curiosity, to hear details of the latest sins. For once, Sister Martha was silent. They were about to file out of chapter when a scared voice piped up from the back of the room.
“I have found the missing pages from Sister Ursel’s manuscript.”
A hush fell over the convent, broken only by a gasp of relief, quickly suppressed, from Sister Ursel. Every eye turned on the hapless novice who had spoken up. She slowly withdrew from her sleeve two sheets of vellum. Even standing some distance away, Janna could see clearly the glowing illuminations that bordered the script: gold, blue, red and green birds and flowers, all minutely observed and exquisitely drawn. She echoed the scribe’s sigh as she realized that, although somewhat crumpled, the pages were undamaged.
“For what reason did you take these pages?” The abbess’s voice was awful in its thunderous judgment.
“But…but I d-didn’t.” In her fright, the novice stammered almost as badly as Sister Ursel. Desperate to avoid blame, she rushed into explanation. “I-I found them lying under a bush in the cloister garth. I was just walking past on my way to chapter, and…and the pale color of the parchment and the gleaming gold and colors of the illuminations caught my eye. I-I must confess to the Sin of Curiosity, but I stepped aside to see what it could be.” She hastened forward, holding out the sheets to the abbess. “See, Reverend Mother,” she cried. “The pages are still slightly damp from the dew. In Christ’s holy name, I do not know how they got under the bush for I did not take them, but I give thanks that they are found undamaged.”
“I-I s-searched the c-cloister garth, M-Mother, when the p-p-pages went m-missing. They were n-not th-there when…when I l-looked b-before.”
The abbess nodded thoughtfully. She gestured to the novice to return the missing pages to Sister Ursel. “I will speak to you in my rooms,” she told her sternly, and turned to survey the silent nuns. “This is not the end of the matter. Be sure I shall be asking questions of you all.”
“Someone must have taken those pages and hidden them,” Agnes said, when she and Janna came together after chapter. “Who do you think it could be? Who could want to do such a dreadful thing?”
“I don’t know.” Janna shook her head in wonder. “Did you see Sister Ursel’s work? It’s so beautiful, I can’t believe anyone would risk damaging it by taking the pages.” She mused silently for a moment. “It’s an act of great cruelty,” she said. “Sister Ursel has enough affliction to bear, without taking away her peace of mind.”
“Ah yes, her peace of mind.” Surprised by the echo of bitterness in Agnes’s voice, Janna raised her eyebrows in an unspoken question.
“Have you noticed, Janna, that although we all profess to love the Lord and are happy in His work, our small jealousies and tempers, our wishes and desires still manage to disturb the peace of the abbey as well as our own serenity?”
Janna scrutinized Agnes. She wondered if this was a general observation or if there was something more particular on her mind. “Are you talking about Master Will’s offer of marriage?” she ventured.
“No!” Agnes gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “No, I wondered if someone had a particular grudge against Sister Ursel, that’s all.”
“The nun with the barking dog?” Janna struggled to remember her name.
“Sister Catherine? She hates everyone—and so does her dog. And I have to say, they are not well regarded in return. In fact, you’d be hard put to find anyone with a kind word for her, or her dog. You see, Janna, that’s exactly my point. I don’t know why she stays here when she takes so little pleasure in what we do and how we live, and takes out her dissatisfaction on us all.”
Janna was more interested in Agnes than in Sister Catherine. “What about you?” she asked. “Are you happy?”
“I already told you, I am here because I love the Lord,” Agnes said defensively.
“Yes, but are you happy?”
“I am content. That’s enough.” Agnes turned and walked away. Janna stared after her, wishing she knew what to do or s
ay that might lift her friend’s spirits. But perhaps it was no more than that Agnes was in pain. “Come to the infirmary,” she called after her. “If you’ll pick some violets for me, I’ll make up a new salve for you to try.” She thought of something. “I’ll even introduce you to our new patient if you like!”
“Your handsome beau?” Agnes gave her a broad grin. The mischief on her face told Janna that this time, her smile was genuine.
A repentant Hugh awaited Janna in the cubicle off the infirmary. “I owe you an apology,” he said, as soon as she entered. “Sister Anne reprimanded me last night for teasing you. But I meant no disrespect by my remarks. In truth, Johanna…” He stretched out a hand to her. Janna’s first instinct was to grab hold and not let go. She set down the bowl of water she carried and, with a huge effort of will, placed her hands behind her back, clasping them tight to keep her firm in her purpose.
“You are lonely and in pain, my lord,” she said. “’Tis no more than that.”
Hugh looked a little abashed, and she was sorry that her words may have hurt his feelings. Or his pride. “Please take off your shirt,” she said, hoping to ease the awkward moment by keeping busy. She brought the basin to his bedside, added some soapwort leaves to the water and frothed them up. She was about to remove Hugh’s bandage when she heard a throat being cleared, and then a quiet cough. Agnes stood half hidden behind the curtained entrance to the cubicle, clutching a handful of fragrant violets. Hugh stirred, and Janna knew that he’d seen the lay sister and the scar that marred her face. She wished now that she had warned him about Agnes. She couldn’t bear it if her friend’s self-esteem sank even lower because of Hugh’s reaction.
“Agnes!”
“I-I’ve brought the flowers you wanted.” Agnes had edged right behind the curtain, out of Hugh’s sight.
“Come in, please do,” he called. “I’m quite safe even though I don’t have a shirt on.”
Hiding a grin, Janna stepped aside so that Agnes could see his welcoming smile for herself. She noted how the lay sister automatically pulled up the side of her wimple as she ventured into the cubicle.
Unholy Murder: The Janna Chronicles 3 Page 14
