He gazed appreciatively at the buildings rising above the curtain walclass="underline" black and red slate roofs, a soaring church tower. Somewhere deep in the priory a bell tolled and the morning air wafted rich, savoury odours from the kitchens.
They asked directions from a peasant.
‘Well, you can wait like us,’ the pock-marked fellow replied, his nose and cheeks chapped by wind and sun. ‘Wait, as we always do, in the snow, rain or sun for their ladyships to open the gates.’ He pointed further down the wall. ‘Or you can try the postern door. But God help you if it’s not urgent business!’
Corbett thanked him and dismounted. He led Ranulf across and they rapped on the small, metal-studded gate. A grille high up the door was pushed back. Small, black, inquisitive eyes peered out.
‘What do you want? Who are you?’
‘I am Sir Hugh Corbett, King’s emissary, and this is my clerk Ranulf. We demand entrance. We wish to see Lady Madeleine.’
‘You are a liar!’ the querulous voice objected. ‘You are not dressed like a royal clerk!’
Corbett drew out his letter of commission and thrust the red wax seal up against the grille.
‘Open up!’ he ordered. ‘Or I’ll kick this door until it flies off its hinges!’
‘You should have shown me the seal first,’ came the aggrieved reply.
The bolts were pulled back, the gate swung open. The nun standing on the other side was small. She was dressed in a white woollen veil, a cream-coloured coif, and a white gown almost covered by a black apron.
‘I am Sister Veronica!’ she informed them. ‘Cellarer, porter, you name it, I do it.’ She peered up at Corbett, her thin lips tight, her white, wizened face full of hostility. ‘You look like a clerk.’ She glanced at Ranulf. ‘But you don’t. More like a gibbet bird!’
‘Would you say this priory is noted for its charity and Christian welcome?’ Ranulf asked.
The cellarer shook her head. ‘Don’t be impudent, Green Eyes! In my former life I had seven children. Two husbands long dead. Now I am a nun consecrated to God.’
‘And he’s welcome to you!’ Ranulf murmured.
‘What was that?’ Sister Veronica’s hand went to her ear. ‘My hearing’s not what it should be, but did you say something impertinent?’
‘My clerk was simply exclaiming in amazement.’ Corbett took the old woman’s hand. ‘We wish you well, Sister Veronica. However, we are on urgent business. We must see Lady Madeleine as well as the famous shrine.’
Sister Veronica’s face softened. ‘Well, you can see how busy we are going to be. I’d best take you across to the church. You can wait there while I tell the prioress.’
She led them along a pebble-dashed path, through gardens carefully laid out in the French fashion: raised flower beds, herb banks and turfed seats. The air was fragrant with a variety of perfumes. Corbett particularly appreciated the rose bushes planted on either side of the path, which gave off their own special scent. The garden occupied one side of the priory but, in the distance, he could see small orchards of apple, pear and plum trees. Sister Veronica pointed to another wall, its great wooden gates being opened.
‘Beyond that are the stables, outhouses, store-rooms and bakery. On the far side are meadows. We raise good sheep and we even have our own windmill.’
Corbett nodded. St Hawisia’s looked a wealthy establishment. The church before him was built of dressed stone, with a roof of iron-grey slate. The morning sun glistened in the stained glass windows and on either side of the church rose stately mansions of honey-coloured brick, every window sheeted in glass.
‘Our dormitories and refectory are over there,’ Sister Veronica pointed out. ‘We have a guest house and infirmary. Lady Madeleine has her own chambers on the far side of the cloister path near the forest wall. We also own a library and a scriptorium,’ she added proudly.
‘So, your priory is well endowed?’
Sister Veronica stopped abruptly. ‘We bring our own dowries here. The priory has fruitful estates and, of course, St Hawisia looks after us.’ She marched on, her shoulders stooped. ‘I can’t take you into our enclosure. The priory is not yet ready for visitors and Lady Madeleine is very strict about men coming here, be they clerk or prince. That’s why you have to wait in church.’
She waved them up the steps but, as Ranulf passed, she caught him by the sleeve.
‘You be careful what you touch. This is God’s house, not some stall in the marketplace!’
Ranulf seized her hand and, before she could protest, raised it to his lips.
‘Sister, I wouldn’t dream of it. I have had the deepest devotion to St Hawisia ever since I was a child. Do you know, when I was a boy I even had a vision of her?’
Sister Veronica’s jaw sagged.
‘Later, Ranulf!’ Corbett warned.
Ranulf again kissed her hand and, before the good nun could think of a suitable reply, followed Corbett into the church.
They stood in the doorway marvelling at the beauty and elegance of this jewel of a chapel. The flagstone floor was scrubbed clean. The pillars, shielding off the transepts, were painted a dark blue with gold crowns. The walls beyond glowed with brilliantly coloured frescoes illustrating scenes from the Bible. At the far end a heavily carved rood screen sheltered the choir stalls and sanctuary. The air was perfumed by flowers in small copper pots at the base of each pillar. Faint clouds of incense still drifted through the air, catching the coloured sunlight shafting through the stained glass windows.
‘Well endowed indeed,’ Ranulf commented. ‘Better than a royal chapel.’
‘With one difference,’ Corbett said. He pointed to the windows painted in shimmering reds, golds, greens and blues.
‘You are a senior clerk in the Office of the Green Wax, Master Ranulf. You have to be keen of wit and sharp of eye. Have you noticed anything? The paintings and the windows?’
Ranulf walked along the church. He prided himself on his education. Hadn’t he his own copy of the Bible and two Books of Hours? And, wherever he went, Ranulf always watched and listened. Some of the scenes he couldn’t recognise but others he could. Judith, from the Old Testament, cutting off her enemy’s head. Ruth the Moabite. One scene caught his eye and he smiled: it showed the serpent tempting Adam. But this time Adam’s body was concealed, only his head stuck out from a thick wall of privet. Eve, however, was shown in all her glory, hand raised as if warning Adam not to succumb. On the wall beneath the window a dramatic scene showed Christ harrowing Hell after the crucifixion where he divided the good from the bad. Ranulf laughed.
‘It’s women,’ he said. ‘Every scene depicts women! There are hardly any men, apart from Adam’s head and Christ. And look, master, even the Saviour, with his long hair and delicate face, has a girlish cast about him.’
‘And have you noticed the damned?’ Corbett asked. He pointed to the dark shadowy forms, each of whom was dressed in battered armour. ‘Look, Ranulf, all those cursed by God are male but the saved are. .’
‘They are all women!’ Ranulf exclaimed. ‘Even the angels!’
They walked along the church. On the one hand the paintings were lavish, brilliant in their colours and expertly depicted but their message was the same. In Heaven as on earth, the woman was good, the male worthy of condemnation.
Corbett looked up the nave. He saw the Lady Chapel to the left and, to the right, a gleaming oak wood sarcophagus, the glass case at its head shimmering in the light of dozens of beeswax candles.
‘St Hawisia’s last resting place,’ he explained.
He was about to go up and investigate when from the choir stalls in the sanctuary came a young woman’s voice intoning the Salve Regina: ‘Salve Regina, Mater Misericordia, Vita Dulcedo et Spes Nostra, Salve!’
Corbett raised his finger to his lips and, followed by Ranulf, entered the gorgeously decorated sanctuary with its polished wooden choir stalls on either side. At the far end stood a marble altar on a raised dais which was carpeted in thick blue and gold wool. Silver candlesticks stood on the altar and, above them, a jewel-encrusted pyx which held the Blessed Sacrament hung by a filigree chain. The nun standing in the stalls was facing the altar, hands by her sides. Corbett expected her to continue singing but she faltered and began again.