Frevisse, staring across at Sister Amicia and Sister Cecely and belatedly following Sister Thomasine’s lead, declared forcibly, “Et clamor meus ad te veniat.” And let my cry come to you.
Sister Thomasine promptly answered; and unevenly Dame Claire, Dame Perpetua, Dame Juliana, and even, at the last, Sister Johane joined in, carrying the office through the short way to its end, over the other nuns’ now smothered but unstoppable laughter. They had reached, “… per miseri-cordiam Dei requiescant in pace. Amen”-through the mercy of God rest in peace-when shouting that was unmistakably Domina Alys’ and certainly Master Porter’s erupted from somewhere near outside. Mercifully, the words were incomprehensible, but Sister Emma, Sister Amicia, and Sister Cecely lost their little remaining control over their laughter. It pealed out despite their hands over their mouths, and hastily Dame Juliana, exercising her duty in the prioress’ absence, closed the office, exclaiming rapidly, “Et ne nos inducas in tentationem.” And do not lead us into temptation.
Dame Claire, Dame Perpetua, Frevisse, Sister Thomasine, and Sister Johane followed hurriedly with, “Sed libera nos a malo”-But free us from evil-and crossed themselves in an uneven flurry.
Outside, Domina Alys and Master Porter’s voices rose into a greater height of rage. Sister Emma, Sister Amicia, and Sister Cecely, giving up completely to their laughter, collapsed into their seats. Frevisse and the others escaped the choir and then the church with more haste than grace, stood briefly together in the cloister walk looking at each other with nothing to be said, and then went their ways.
Frevisse, with a curiosity she admitted to, went to learn how it had fared between Joice and Benet but realized as she paused outside the open door to Lady Eleanor’s room that he was still there, saying earnestly, “… three manors. They’re none of them large, but all of them are good. You’d have one for your dower…”
Wooing her with properties, Frevisse guessed. Something he should have tried first, instead of yesterday’s stupidity.
She scratched lightly on the door frame and Margrete came to let her in as Lady Eleanor, Joice, and Benet all turned to look at who had come. Lady Eleanor was seated in one of the chairs, her embroidery frame in front of her and turned a little toward the window, away from the room in a polite pretense of leaving Joice and Benet alone, while Joice was seated in the other chair, across the room from her, with Benet standing uncomfortably in front of her. She might be willing to listen to him but she was not going to make it easy for him.
Seeing him there, quite obviously scrubbed and neatened, Frevisse thought what a pity it was he had not troubled to let Joice see him this way before: a not uncomely young man with a very real longing to win her liking.
“Should I come back later?” she asked.
“No!” Joice sprang to her feet before Lady Eleanor could say anything. “Please stay. Sit here!”
“Thank you but no,” Frevisse declined graciously. It was not her place to come between them and Domina Alys’ purpose. “I’ll keep Lady Eleanor company instead. Pray, go on,” she urged.
Neither of them much looked as if they wanted to go on, but she passed them to join Lady Eleanor beside the window and they had no choice. Warily they faced each other again, trying to find another thread of conversation to follow.
Lady Eleanor, watching them circumspectly from the corner of her eyes, smiled. “She isn’t making it easy for him.”
“Nor for herself,” Frevisse said. Equally trying to seem she was not watching them, she sat down on the window seat.
“If she did, he’d likely be suspicious. He’s not a fool, is young Benet.” Lady Eleanor’s smile deepened. “Only foolish. And weren’t we all when we were young, one way or another?”
“Too true,” Frevisse agreed. To her surprise she found she was wishing Benet well, however his present foolishness turned out. “If nothing else, he’s learning now that more than liking goes into love. Unfortunately, it’s at Joice’s cost.”
“Unfortunately for both of them,” Lady Eleanor said mildly.
With a smile and nod of agreement, Frevisse turned a little away, toward the window, to stop watching them. In the yard below, a goodly number of Sir Reynold’s men were idling on guest-hall steps and around the well. She looked to be sure there were no priory servants idling among them, then looked more intently at the group beside the well, half rising to her feet to see them better. The whorled glass of the small panes blurred what she saw, but someone was there who did not seem to be either one of Sir Reynold’s men or anyone of the priory. As she looked, there was a burst of laughter and scattered clapping among the men around him, and he rose to his feet and bowed with a wide sweep of his arm, acknowledging them. Frevisse stood completely up.
“Is something wrong?” Lady Eleanor asked.
“No. Only there’s someone new come down there. I should go see he’s been taken care of.”
Joice looked around at her sharply. Frevisse made a small, refusing shake of her head, telling her it had nothing to do with her.
“I’ll come with you,” Benet said.
She nearly told him she was forbidden to have aught to do with him, that even being seen with him could cause her trouble, but his voice had an edge to it she could not read and she held back, waiting by the door while he made his farewells to Joice and Lady Eleanor, then going out ahead of him and halfway down the stairs, as private as they were going to be, before she stopped and turned to ask him, “Is there something I should know?”
He had the solid Godfrey build but not the thrusting arrogance that was so usually a part of Godfrey blood, and no longer hiding his urgency, he said, “It didn’t go well with her.”
“Could you expect it to, this first time?”
“Not after yesterday, no.”
Mindful it was not his success she should be concerned for but to win time for Joice, she asked encouragingly, “But you’ll go on trying?”
“As long as may be,” Benet said fervently. “As long as she’ll let me. To keep her safe, if nothing else.”
Frevisse tensed. “Safe?”
“I couldn’t tell her, it would frighten her too much, but it’s Sir Reynold. He doesn’t mean for any Fenner to have her. He says her dowry is for the Godfreys. If I can’t bring her to marry me and I don’t…”-he flushed red from his collar up to his dark hair but forced out anyway-“and I don’t take her, I’m afraid he’ll force someone else on her.”
“He’s told you that?”
“Not the last part, but it’s there behind what else he’s said. You have to make sure she goes on seeing me, no matter how much she hates me. It’s the only way I have to keep her safe.”
He was right: Joice should not be told that while she was protecting herself from him, he was protecting her from Sir Reynold. She was already holding too close to one fear to need another added to it. But at the same time Frevisse realized she could not tell him that Joice was deliberately using him with no intention of ever giving way to his suit. Better he go on believing he had some hope.
“I’ll do all that I may,” Frevisse said, then added for her own sake, “but Domina Alys has forbidden any of us to notice you coming and going through the cloister. I’ll be in trouble for speaking to you now, so after this, if there’s aught you think I ought to know, tell Ela in the guest hall, and I’ll send word to you the same way.”
“Ela,” Benet repeated. “Ela. I’ll remember.”
“Good. Now go, please.”
He made her a bow and left her, loping away down the stairs and out of sight along the cloister walk, an overgrown boy who was going to be in worse trouble than he probably deserved if he went on with the company he presently kept. She waited until she heard the outer door close behind him with a muted thud before she followed him. Though it hardly mattered if they had been noticed or not. Tomorrow in chapter she would have to confess, along with other disobedience, that she had spoken to him. It was only a small comfort that her other confession would put her so far in trouble that this one was hardly likely to make matters much worse.