Not knowing if Master Rowcliffe heard that but having to suppose he did, Frevisse said, clear-voiced, “No need. They’ve come on reasonable business and mean no harm.” Except perhaps to Sister Cecely, and Frevisse had to admit, if only to herself, that just at this moment she would not mind harming Sister Cecely herself for having brought this on them. Whatever this was.
Frevisse could not help the sharp suspicion that, whatever it was, right was more probably on Master Rowcliffe’s side than Sister Cecely’s, and trying to curb the anger simmering under that thought, she led Master Rowcliffe into the cloister walk, where she came to a startled stop, confronted by St. Frideswide’s nuns gathered in two groups, one to either side of her, standing at the near corners of the cloister walk, barring any further way into the nunnery without they were dealt with first.
There were not many of them, admittedly, even when Sister Margrett slipped past to join those on the right, but grouped in the walk’s shadows, garbed alike in black and white and standing all together, with Domina Elisabeth one pace ahead of those to the right and all their heed and hers fixed and stern toward Frevisse and Master Rowcliffe, their offered challenge was enough to pause anyone.
Frevisse felt Master Rowcliffe come to a full and startled halt behind her. She turned back to him, to see him holding up his empty hands in token of surrender even while his gaze searched among them for Sister Cecely. Frevisse had looked for her as quickly as he had, but she was not there, and he brought his heed back to Domina Elisabeth and said with the care of someone meaning to stop a quarrel, “My lady, I mean no harm here. I swear it. I’ve only come seeking someone who’s done me wrong.”
“If so,” Domina Elisabeth said sternly, “then you should have come with less show of anger, frightening us all.”
Frightened was not what they looked. Defiant, yes, and ready to be openly angry if pushed to it. But frightened? No. Domina Elisabeth had made good use of the time that Frevisse had gained her, and Master Rowcliffe bent his head to her and said as if he meant it, though choking a little on the words, “For that I apologize. I was in the wrong.”
Domina Elisabeth accepted the apology with a gracious single nod of her head. “Let us talk peaceably then,” she said. “If you’ll come with me.” She moved forward, toward the stairs up to her parlor, adding, “Dame Frevisse, come with us. The rest of you thank God that all is well and return to your tasks.”
Since no nun should be shut away alone with a man, someone had to go with Domina Elisabeth as she led Master Rowcliffe up the stairs to her parlor, the chinging of his spurs on the stone steps a harsh, strange sound in the cloister. Frevisse followed them willingly, sorely wanting to hear all of what Master Rowcliffe had to say, not whatever shortened version might come to chapter meeting tomorrow.
In the parlor there was evidence of the flurry Master Rowcliffe’s arrival had brought on, but he probably took no particular note as Domina Elisabeth said with a nod toward the desk standing where the light from the window fell well, “If you would, my lady.” While Domina Elisabeth crossed to the tall-backed, carven chair that had been every prioress’ since St. Frideswide’s was founded, Frevisse went to the desk to stopper the inkpot there and wipe clean the pen that Domina Elisabeth had dropped in her haste. A black spatter of ink from the cast-down pen marred the clean surface of the page she had just begun to write on but Frevisse thought a little careful scraping would make that right.
Meanwhile, Domina Elisabeth sat, said, “Now, sir, what do you claim is your quarrel with us? And your name, if you please,” making a gracious gesture that gave him leave to sit in the room’s other, lesser, chair, facing her from the other side of the fireless hearth.
Her manner and that she had sat and begun to question him before giving him leave to sit were all meant to make clear who held authority here. Maybe not sure how he had been put so completely wrong-footed in the matter, he sat, then answered, respectfully enough, “I’m Master John Rowcliffe. I come from near Wymondham in Norfolk. I’ve no quarrel with you, my lady.” He scowled. “Not unless you mean to protect her.”
“Protect whom?” Domina Elisabeth asked evenly, making him work for it.
“My late nephew’s whore.”
Domina Elisabeth’s eyebrows rose and Master Rowcliffe said defensively, “Well, that’s what she was. Now he’s dead. Drowned two months ago, along with another nephew of mine. I’m left their executor, and she’s run off with what isn’t hers to take and my nephew’s son. You’re welcome to her. Sure as sinning, I don’t want her back. But I want back what isn’t hers to have!” He went sullen, having to know that outburst put him in the wrong again. He cast an angry look, as if it were her fault, at Frevisse where she now sat on the bench below the window, her hands folded on her lap. Then back at Domina Elisabeth, he said, “This is where she came from. She’s come back here, hasn’t she? From what this woman says, she has. I want to see her.”
“Where she came from?” Domina Elisabeth asked, dangerously quiet.
Seemingly not hearing the danger, Master Rowcliffe lost hold on his patience again and burst out, “Saints’ breath, woman! She was a nun! Now she’s run back to the hole she bolted from!”
“You knew she was an apostate nun?” Domina Elisabeth said coldly. Because a nun or monk who forsook their vows was supposed to be thereafter an utter outcast, neither sheltered nor protected by anyone but given over immediately to the law, for the law to give back to the Church for discipline and penance. To have known his nephew had a nun for his paramour and done nothing about it…
“Of course we didn’t know! Guy sang us some song about her being a poor orphan of good family but no fortune about to be forced into a brothel, and how he had rescued her.”
“You believed that?” Domina Elisabeth asked, echoing Frevisse’s own doubt.
“Why not?” Master Rowcliffe returned. “It was the kind of idiot thing Guy would do, given the chance. Besides, he was of age, with income of his own. Who he married was his business, not ours. They were clearly besotted with each other and we left them to it.”
“When did you find out the truth about her?” Domina Elisabeth asked.
“A week ago, if that much. After she ran off. I’d have let her go and good riddance, but she took Edward with her.”
“He is her son, isn’t he?” Frevisse put in.
“He is, poor whelp.”
“How did you find out about her past?” Domina Elisabeth asked. “She surely didn’t tell you.”
Master Rowcliffe gave an angry snort. “Last year, when my fool nephew had had just about enough of her, he told-” He seemed to think better of saying who had known Cecely was apostate and yet done nothing about it until now. “He told someone, who told us after she disappeared. We didn’t have anywhere else to look. Or we had too many ways to look, but thought we’d try this one first. So here we are. Now, where is she?”
Domina Elisabeth answered coldly, “You cannot take her from here. Our abbot has been told…”
“Saint Apollonia’s teeth! I don’t want her! You’re welcome to her. What I want are the deeds she stole. And Edward. What’s she going to do with him, kept in here? I want my nephew’s son, and I want those deeds. After that, she’s all yours. I wish you joy of her.”
“Word of her has been sent to our abbot,” Domina Elisabeth said, yet more coldly. “We’re awaiting answer from him. You are welcome to wait with us. This is plainly something not to be settled on your word or mine alone.”
She stood up. Perforce, so did Master Rowcliffe and Frevisse.
“In the meantime”-Domina Elisabeth started toward the door-“you surely wish to speak with her. I’ll take you to her now.”
Openly off-balanced by her suddenness, Master Rowcliffe followed her from the room and down the stairs, and Frevisse again followed them both. Only in the cloister walk, going toward the church, did Master Rowcliffe recover enough to say at Domina Elisabeth’s back, “I’m not here to make trouble. I don’t want anything from her but what’s rightfully mine. That’s all I’m here for. You understand that?”