Helewise was about to go on to ask Josse what overall impression he had formed of Gunnora’s family and circumstances, when she recalled the present, more pressing, matter. ‘I don’t wish to interrupt, but I have summoned Elvera here to meet you.’
Momentarily he looked blank, then said, ‘Aye! The young postulant, friend of Gunnora’s.’
‘You expressed a wish to speak to her.’
‘Aye, I did.’ He flashed her a grin. ‘Thank you, Abbess.’
‘I must tell you, before she arrives, that she has been behaving oddly.’
‘Oddly?’
‘Distracted, pale, eyes heavy as if she does not sleep well.’
‘Aye, I remarked myself on her reddened eyes.’ Did you, indeed, Helewise thought. I must never, for an instant, forget how observant you are, Josse d’Acquin. ‘Grief for her friend, do you think?’ he was asking.
‘Perhaps. I have told myself that is most likely.’
‘But you have not convinced yourself.’ Again, the smile. ‘Why not, Abbess?’
‘Because her distress only started when you arrived, Sir Josse.’
He met her eyes, and she saw that he was thinking along the same lines. ‘So, not the murder that grieves her, but its investigation,’ he said softly.
‘Indeed.’
Before either of them could comment, there came the sound of approaching footsteps, quickly followed by a tap on the door.
‘Come in,’ Helewise said.
Sister Anne put her head round the door. ‘Here’s Elvera,’ she said, standing aside and ushering in her charge. ‘Go on, girl, she won’t eat you!’
Josse, Helewise noticed, had pushed his chair back so that he was hidden by the opened door. It would appear, to Sister Anne and, more crucially, to Elvera, that Helewise was alone.
Elvera took a step into the room, and Sister Anne followed.
‘Thank you, Sister Anne,’ Helewise said.
‘Oh! But…’
While she was thinking up an excuse for staying, Helewise added, ‘I’m sure you have duties requiring your attention.’
Sister Anne gave Elvera a last glance, then turned and left, closing the door behind her with exaggerated care.
Elvera stood facing Helewise, who studied the white face and the tense body for a few moments. Yes, there was definitely something amiss with the girl. Could it be that she was ill? In pain? Then wouldn’t she have said so?
There was only one way to find out.
Still holding Elvera’s eyes, Helewise said, ‘Here is someone who wishes to meet you, Elvera. I present Josse d’Acquin, who comes from our new king’s presence with his grace’s express orders to investigate the murder of Gunnora.’
Elvera’s first reaction was to shut her eyes tight and shake her head, as if, perhaps, she hoped that by denying Josse’s presence she could make it not so. As Helewise watched, slowly her eyes opened again and she turned to face him.
She does not lack courage, Helewise thought. Then she said, ‘Elvera, as Gunnora’s friend, you may be able to help Sir Josse by telling him anything that occurs to you about how she was during the last days of her life. If, for example, she seemed worried about anything. If she confided in you any secret anxieties.’
‘Any secret hopes,’ Josse put in. He was, Helewise observed, looking kindly at the girl. ‘Don’t be alarmed, Elvera. I realise you must be very upset to lose a good friend in this way, but-’
‘She wasn’t my friend!’ Elvera burst out. She was clutching at the cloth of her black robe, where it hung loosely over the rounded breasts. The drab black headdress, which would have made almost any other girl or woman look plain, was not enough to remove the lively appeal of Elvera’s face, even in her present state. ‘I hardly knew her! I’d only been here a week when she died! We weren’t close at all!’
‘No, all right, Elvera.’ It wasn’t all right, but Helewise didn’t think they’d get anything useful out of the girl if she were not swiftly brought back from the brink of panic. ‘Just as a fellow member of the community, then, can you help in any way?’
‘Why are you asking me?’ the girl flashed back. ‘They’re already gossiping about me, all those old nuns, saying isn’t it strange, Gunnora and me being so close, anyone’d think we already knew each other before! Goodness, their eyes were out on stalks when Sister Anne came galumphing over her cabbage patch to fetch me just now!’ She paused for breath, then added, her voice unsteady and beads of sweat on her white face, ‘None of them gets sent for to be asked horrible questions by the king’s investigator!’
Then Helewise knew exactly what was ailing Elvera. She was terrified.
But, terrified or not, a postulant did not speak to her Abbess in that way.
‘Elvera, you forget yourself,’ Helewise said coldly. ‘It is not for you to question my actions. You have undertaken to be obedient.’
‘I-’ Some inner battle was going on inside Elvera. It was apparent that she longed to hurl back some pert denial, but something stopped her. Lowering her eyes, she straightened her expression and said demurely, ‘Yes, Abbess.’
Her whole demeanour was so clearly false that it was almost amusing.
Getting up from his seat, Josse moved round to stand beside Helewise, facing Elvera across the table. ‘Friend or not,’ he said mildly, ‘it was noticed by several people that you and Gunnora got on quite well. That you laughed together. That sometimes she sought you out, and-’
‘She didn’t!’
‘Elvera, we know she did,’ Helewise put in gently. ‘You sought each other out. That is a fact. It’s quite senseless to go on denying things which more than one other person noticed and remarked on.’
‘Well, it wasn’t my fault if she came to look for me,’ Elvera said triumphantly. ‘Was it?’
‘No,’ Josse acknowledged. ‘I suppose not.’
‘She hadn’t made any friends all the time she’d been here,’ Elvera went on, with the air of one who has seen a way out and is making all speed to set off down it. ‘Lonely, she was. She latched on to me because … because…’ A sudden fierce frown disturbed the young face, then, as quickly, cleared. ‘Because I was new!’ she finished.
‘You were new,’ Helewise echoed.
‘Yes! New and not set against her like everyone else!’
‘You must not malign your sisters in this way,’ Helewise said. ‘Nobody was set against Gunnora. Her self-absorption was her own choice.’ Dear God but I’m judging her, she thought. And, what’s worse, expressing my judgement in front of this disturbed child.
As if understanding why she had suddenly stopped speaking, Josse said, ‘Elvera, look on it this way. Gunnora believed you to be her friend, enjoyed your company, your light-heartedness. Perhaps it would comfort you to think that you might have made her last days happy, and-’
‘No!’
The single word seemed to emerge from Elvera as if its expression gave her agony. As Helewise and Josse watched, she shut her eyes again. This time, two tears appeared from under the lids and slid down the pale cheeks.
Josse seemed to be at a loss as to how to continue. Helewise didn’t feel any more confident, but, in her own room and in her own abbey, it was up to her to do something.
‘Elvera, I understand your pain but you must tell us anything that might help,’ she said gently. ‘Take a moment to think back over that last day. You and Gunnora were heard laughing together outside the infirmary, and Sister Euphemia-’
‘She came thundering out of her hospital and gave us a right telling-off,’ Elvera said sulkily. ‘Especially Gunnora, since she was senior to me. But she had a go at me, too. Sister Euphemia, I mean. She told me I was a child, that I had to grow up.’
‘Never mind that now,’ Helewise put in. ‘Did you see any more of Gunnora that day?’
‘Of course. In the refectory, during the Holy Offices, here and there around the Abbey.’
‘I meant did you see her alone?’ Surely the girl realised that!