The Widow's Tale (Sister Frevisse Medieval Mysteries Book 14) Page 12

  She made it a question deeply laced with uncertainty, knowing how few people could hold back from showing their knowledge in the face of another’s ignorance; and most obligingly Master Say answered, “Laurence wishes he were. In truth, my lord of Suffolk likely doesn’t even know he was granted Cristiana’s keeping and the girls’ wardships.” To Frevisse’s startled look he explained with a bluntness that surprised her, “Laurence probably paid someone a fee to present his petition to Suffolk. If Suffolk even read the thing, I doubt he thought about it at all. At the most, what mattered was that one of his people told him a fee had been paid, so he granted the petition. Or maybe they didn’t bother showing it to him at all. The fee was enough.”

  A harsh and bitter array of thoughts concerning Suffolk went through Frevisse’s mind. Since she could not say them aloud and doubted she kept them from her face, she was glad Master Say had turned back to his meal. She turned back to her own and only after a few moments and some thought asked, “How did you recover her?”

  “I told my lord of Suffolk she was a friend of my wife’s and that we wanted her in our care. He told one of his clerks to write the order for it. Then he signed and sealed it and I walked out of the room with it.”

  “But what …” Frevisse stopped, wary her interest was becoming too open. But she had to know. “What of Laurence Helyngton’s grant? That he paid for.”

  “He’s lost it and his fee. That’s how it works, if you’re not close enough to my lord of Suffolk to have his constant favor.”

  “And since you serve Suffolk . . .”

  “I serve the king,” Master Say said, a hard edge under his voice’s mildness. It was like a steel blade suddenly being slightly slipped from a sheath and then thrust out of sight again as he went on easily on, “But presently the best way to serve my lord the king is to serve my lord of Suffolk. That far, yes, I suppose I’m Suffolk’s man. On the other hand, Laurence Helyngton is a pig who wants to feed in every trough and serves no one but himself.”

  Frevisse reached for the goblet they shared between them, Master Say reached more quickly, took it, wiped its rim with his napkin, and handed it to her, his manners faultless; but as she took it from him, he looked directly at her and said, “You’re taking a deep interest in all of this, my lady.”

  He made it not quite a question, but Frevisse felt both the question and the deeper asking under it and met his gaze openly as she fairly answered, “Our nunnery was used for a foul purpose. I want to understand how it happened and I’m curious about what’s going to come of it. You’ll be able to gain the girls’ wardships, too?”

  “Soon. It’s never good to ask for too much at once. Cristiana’s plight seemed the more desperate.”

  They were interrupted then by servants bringing cheese fritters to the table and afterward she fell into talk with

  Father Richard on her other side until the meal’s end. Then, while they were all rising from their places, a servant made his way out of the general clearing of tables below the dais, bowed to Master Say, and said, “Please you, sir, there’s riders coming, Master Helyngton, I think, and some women and others.”

  Chapter 11

  Sir Gerveys turned immediately to Cristiana. “You can take Mary to your chamber. You don’t have to see him or any of them.”

  Cristiana, one of Mary’s hands clutched in both of hers, shook her head against that. “No. I won’t hide from him. They’re maybe bringing Jane.”

  “Do you want to withdraw, Gerveys?” Master Say asked. “I’d rather see the cur than have him think I’m hiding from him. He has to know I’m here by now.”

  “If we meet them in the yard,” Mistress Say said, “we can go into the garden, rather than the house. We can be easier rid of them from there.”

  “Yes,” Master Say agreed. He turned to Domina Elisabeth. “Will you come with us? You and Dame Frevisse?”

  He asked it less for courtesy than for the sake of adding their nunhood’s weight against Helyngton and whoever was with him, Frevisse thought; and felt a spurt of anger at being used as a pawn in this clumsy game’s purposes; but Domina Elisabeth said, “Of course,” and Frevisse bent her head in agreement. If she were going to be a pawn, she would rather be in the game’s midst than not.

  Whoever had been keeping watch had been keeping it well. Laurence Helyngton and maybe a dozen others were just riding through the gateway when Frevisse came to the head of the stairs behind Domina Elisabeth and the others. The Says were at the stairfoot, Cristiana just behind them still tightly holding Mary’s hand, while Sir Gerveys was stopped a few steps above them, putting him at eye level with Helyngton reining in his horse in front of them.

  Frevisse could not see Sir Gerveys’ face, but Helyngton glared at him, saying, “You. I’d heard you were here. What happened? Things go wrong between you and your duke?”

  “Things change;” Sir Gerveys answered evenly. “Usually for the worse when you’re part of them.”

  Helyngton’s eyes narrowed but he let that quarrel lie, instead snapped his look to Domina Elisabeth and asked curtly, “You’re still here?”

  “Good day to you, too, Helyngton,” Master Say said in pointed reminder of courtesy.

  Helyngton shifted his narrowed look to him and said with no particular grace, “Say. Mistress Say.”

  What he would have said to Cristiana was cut off by a little girl’s cry of, “Momma!” from among the riders.

  “Jane!” Cristiana cried out in return; said, “Stay here,” to Mary; and went past the Says and Helyngton toward the little girl wriggling out of the arms and saddle of the woman with whom she was riding. Only barely the woman kept grip on her until Cristiana reached them and then did not so much loose her as had her snatched away by Cristiana, who with the little girl in her arms and the little girl’s arms around her neck would have retreated toward the stairs, except Mistress Say with Mary by the hand met her, stopped her, and said past her, “Mistress Colles. Mistress Petyt. Welcome. We’re going to the garden. Will you come with us? The day is too fair for being inside, don’t you think?” Despite the day happened to be still overcast and somewhat damp from the morning’s rain.

  Frevisse recognized one of the women, lowering at Mistress Say with dark-visaged irk, from St. Frideswide’s. It was the other woman, the one who had held Jane, younger and with a milder face, who asked, “Laurence?”

  “Yes,” he snapped. “Go on. I have things to talk about with Say.”

  Cristiana did not wait while the women dismounted. Taking Mary by the hand again and still carrying Jane, she went away toward the garden, leaving them to Mistress Say, Sir Gerveys went down the rest of the stairs, clearing way for Domina Elisabeth and Frevisse to join Mistress Say and the two women, now dismounted. Maybe not seeing the one woman’s glare and the younger woman’s long, soft look toward Sir Gerveys, she made them known to each other with, “Domina Elisabeth, Dame Frevisse, please you to meet Master Helyngton’s sisters. Mistress Milisent Colles.” The woman who had been at St. Frideswide’s. “It’s her husband there with Master Helyngton.” The man who had been at the priory, too, Frevisse saw. “And Mistress Ankaret Petyt.” Who was again casting a sideways look toward Sir Gerveys. “Ankaret,” Mistress Say said, taking her by the arm and starting along the yard toward the garden, “how does your husband? And your little boy?”

  Frevisse guessed that meant she had not missed Ankaret’s look.

  The half of an hour or so that followed was, to say the least of it, unpleasant. The garden was beyond a green-painted door in a tall, new brick wall that hid it from the yard and enclosed it on one other side, while the third side, opposite the yard, had a low lattice fence with a penticed gateway and a wide view of a gentle-sloped stream valley and its fields, hemmed in only on the right by the long run of the wall enclosing the kitchen yard. The fourth side was made by the manor house itself, overlooked by the parlor window, which was the only place from which Frevisse had seen the garden until now. Like the parlor and its wi
ndow, it was obviously new, with the squared beds of herbs and flowers fenced with ankle-low trellis-work, the paths cleanly graveled, the grass of the brick-sided, turf-topped bench along the brick wall starred with small daisies.

  Cristiana was seated on that bench, one arm holding Mary close to her, the other around Jane on her lap. She did not acknowledge the women when they came into the garden. All her heed was for her daughters, none for Mistress Say, Milisent, and Ankaret, stopped just inside the doorway for Ankaret to make exclaims about the garden, and none for Domina Elisabeth and Frevisse going past them, following the garden’s middle path to the gate on its far side.

  There, as far as might be from everyone, they stood together, looking out. Beyond the kitchen’s roof an orchard’s treetops could just be seen, but it was toward the shallow stream valley that Frevisse looked. It sloped mildly away between pasture and hayfield toward the river valley lying out of sight beyond a curve of low hill to the east. Green rushes grew thickly tall along it and from somewhere beyond the kitchen and other buildings a dirt track curved down to the sideless timber bridge to the stream’s other side where a girl was grazing a large gaggle of brown-and-white geese along the marshy edge of the reeds. With girl, geese, gently swaying reeds, and peaceful field quiet under the softly clouded sky, it was a contented scene, but Domina Elisabeth said, low-voiced and uncontented, “Do we want to involve ourselves in this matter or stand aside from it?”

  “We’re involved,” said Frevisse. “Nor do I like the people who have involved us.”

  “Nor do I. Come with me.”

  Mistress Say, Milisent, and Ankaret were just beginning to move from the doorway. Frevisse thought Mistress Say was trying to draw them away from Cristiana and that Milisent was resisting that, but Domina Elisabeth led the way briskly and directly to where Cristiana sat and said on her own behalf and Frevisse’s, “May we sit?” Cristiana stiffened and Domina Elisabeth added, with a slight movement of her head toward the other women, “So no one else can.”

  Cristiana flinched a glance that way, understood, and gave a curt nod. Domina Elisabeth sat down on her left, Frevisse on her right, hands folded into their laps and heads slightly bowed. Helyngton had wanted Cristiana guarded: they were guarding her.

  The other women kept away, not without occasional hard looks toward Cristiana; and the men when they came in stayed standing just inside the door, Master Say and Helyngton in heavy talk together with Master Colles hanging close but looking more dogged than comprehending, while Sir Gerveys stayed a few paces aside, saying nothing. Frevisse guessed he supposed—probably correctly—that anything he said would only make trouble. And while Helyngton and Master Colies wore both daggers and swords, Sir Gerveys and Master Say had only their daggers at their belts.

  Taken up with her daughters—Jane was happily telling what good things there were to eat at Aunt Ankaret’s— Cristiana refused to see any of them. Frevisse, feigning prayer but watching everything from under her lowered lids, wished she were leaving here soon. This very hour, if she could. Whatever the rights, wrongs, goods, and ills here, there was nothing she could do about them. Why didn’t Abbot Gilberd’s release come?

  “Give it over, Helyngton.” Impatience raised Master Say’s voice for everyone to hear.

  “I paid—“ Helyngton began.

  “You bribed. You—“

  Helyngton abruptly started toward Cristiana, ordering, “Milisent! Now!”

  On the instant Milisent left Mistress Say. Before anyone understood, she and Helyngton were both to Cristiana who barely had time to recoil and hold her daughters more tightly, to no use. As Helyngton snatched Jane from her lap,

  Milisent grabbed Mary by the arm. Trying to cling to both girls, Cristiana was pulled halfway to her feet, but Helyngton shoved her back onto the bench and Milisent dragged Mary away. Domina Elisabeth and Frevisse both rose to their feet, protesting. Ignoring them, Helyngton and Milisent headed back for the gate, met on the way by Master Colies, who took Mary by the other arm, forcing her more strongly toward the garden door, Sir Gerveys and Master Say moved to block their way but Helyngton snarled, “I have their wardships. I’m within my rights to take them.”

  He was but that might not have stopped Sir Gerveys except Master Say put out an arm to hold him back. Ankaret, hurrying after her brother and sister, cast a pleading look toward Sir Gerveys that he did not see, turning to catch Cristiana now running after her daughters, hindered by her skirts and blinded with tears. Mistress Say joined him, putting her arms around Cristiana, both of them trying to persuade her not to follow further. Except to cling to Sir Gerveys’ arm, Cristiana refused their help or comfort, crying out for her daughters and stumbling after Master Say as he followed the Helyngtons out of the garden, back to the foreyard where their men and horses waited.

  Unable to stay behind, Domina Elisabeth and Frevisse reached the yard behind them all. By then Master Colies was holding Mary while Milisent swung up to her saddle with no nonsense about a sidesaddle, and Master Say was with Helyngton who was shaking his head, refusing whatever Master Say was saying, Jane still in his arms while he waited for Ankaret to mount. Close to them, Sir Gerveys and Mistress Say held Cristiana back between them, but she was crying out, “Mary! Jane!” to Mary twisting in Master Colies’ rough hold and crying back, “Momma!” while Jane sobbed and held out her arms over Helyngtons shoulder.

  Helplessly watching, Frevisse and Domina Elisabeth were probably first of anyone to see the armed men in buff and blue ride through the gateway into the yard, so suddenly there that Domina Elisabeth exclaimed, “God keep us!” and crossed herself.

  Frevisse was as startled, but in the same moment of surprise that brought everyone in the yard to a frozen stop that would have been fatal if this had been an attack by enemies, she took in that the men were come in three orderly pairs and saw the badges on their shoulders, and her momentary alarm turned to something else even before the riders turned aside from the disordered spread of people and horses in the yard’s middle, clearing the gateway for more riders behind them.

  First among those was a woman who immediately drew rein, bringing to a stop the two women and more men behind her. Sitting straight-backed in her saddle, her dark blue riding gown lightly dusted with travel, a wide-brimmed green hat over the white wimple encircling her face, she sat taking in everything in front of her. Everyone stared back at her in a stillness broken only by Mary and Jane’s sobbing. Then she demanded in a clear, carrying voice, certain of her authority, “Master Say, what is this?”

  Master Say started toward her. Helyngton shoved Jane into Ankaret’s hold and followed him, beginning to speak even before Master Say did, while Cristiana cried out, “My lady, for the love of St. Anne, stop them!”

  Lady Alice, duchess of Suffolk, confronted by angry men, pleading woman, crying children, and a score of lookers-on all at once and without warning, gave no sign she was set back, only demanded ‘Quiet’,” in a voice and with a look that warned she had better have it. And when she did, when the only sounds were a horse stomping its foot and a jingle of harness, she pointed at Helyngton and said, “You seem to have the loudest mouth. What have you to say about all this?” Frevisse wondered whether the man was so self-consumed with his own desires that he did not hear her warning and displeasure. If he did, it made no difference; he stepped forward and said with eager certainty, “My lady, I’ve done your pleasure. I’ve let Mistress Helyngton have time with her daughters. Now I’m claiming them again. Whether she’s fit or mad is beside the point. I have the grant of their wardships and the right to have them. I did your pleasure but …” Knowing Master Say had lied to Helyngton about Alice’s part in this, Frevisse fairly guessed none of that was making sense to her; nor did she suppose things would be bettered if Helyngton learned Master Say had lied; and she went forward, away from Domina Elisabeth to Cristiana still held between her brother and Mistress Say, and from behind her put a hand on her shoulder and looked straight at Alice, who was looking f
rom face to face of those in front of her, probably trying to assess what was happening here beyond Helyngton’s ongoing flood of words. Her gaze paused on Frevisse for a bare flicker of time but enough, because she looked back to Helyngton, and all smooth and smiling with graciousness, cut him off with, “I see. Of course you’re fully within your rights, but I beg your kindness. Let them stay this while that I’m here. A day or two? You’ll well have my thanks for it afterward.”

  It was probably less her graciousness than the weight of the dukedom behind it that froze Helyngton to silence. Then he swept her a low bow and said, despite he looked as if his guts were grinding, “Your pleasure in this is mine, my lady.” Still smiling, Alice said, “My thanks, sir. I’ll well see you’re presented to his grace the king when he’s here in three days’ time.” She delivered that deliberately, bringing Helyngton upright with a jerk to stare at her along with everyone else while she went gracefully on, “Now, though, I’m ready to be done with riding and to rest a time. Nor should I keep you. You were about to leave, were you not?” She favored Milisent and Ankaret with her smile but somehow left no choice but for them all to fulfill her expectation that they would go. Milisent even managed a somewhat curdled smile in return, although Ankaret simply looked bemused, as if not fully grasping what had happened.

  Helyngton set Jane down with a nod at Colies to free Mary, who instantly dodged away from him to grab Jane by the hand and run toward Cristiana, Sir Gerveys and Mistress

  Say had let her go by then and Frevisse was stepped back from her, standing with hands tucked into her opposite sleeves to watch as Cristiana caught her daughters to her and Alice smiled on Helyngton and Master Colies as they mounted their horses.

  Alice went on smiling while they and everyone with them rode out of the yard. That cleared way for the rest of her own escort to ride in, and as they did, she said to Mistress Say, “Don’t fear. I’m not going to put all of us on you, Beth. There’s baggage and wagons a while behind us on the road with everything needful if you’ll but tell Sir Robert here where my pavilion, tents, and all can be set up.”