‘That was quick,’ said Michael, admiringly, as he emerged. The captain was careful not to do anything as gross as tuck his braes into his hose. Because, had he taken her right there against the cloister wall, he would still have re-dressed meticulously before emerging.
Why didn’t I? He asked himself. She was willing enough.
She liked me.
She hit me very hard.
He smiled at Michael. ‘It took as long as it took,’ he said. As he spoke, the heavy iron-bound door opened and a mature nun beckoned to the captain.
‘The devil himself watches over you,’ Hugo muttered.
The captain shook his head. ‘The devil doesn’t give a fuck, either,’ he said, and went to deal with the Abbess.
He knew as soon he crossed the threshold that she’d elected to take them on. If she’d decided not to take them on, she wouldn’t have seen him again. Murder in the courtyard might have been closer to the mark.
Except that all the soldiers she had couldn’t kill the eight of them in the courtyard. And she knew it. If she had eight good men, she’d never have sent for him to begin with.
It was like Euclidean geometry. And the captain could never understand why other people couldn’t see all the angles.
He rubbed at the stinging in his ear, bowed deeply to the Abbess, and mustered up a smile.
She nodded. ‘I have to take you as you are,’ she said. ‘So I will use a long spoon. Tell me your rates?’
He nodded. ‘May I sit?’ he asked. When she extended a reasonably gracious hand, he picked up the horn wine cup that had obviously been placed for him. ‘I drink to your eyes, ma belle.’
She held his gaze with her own and smiled. ‘Flatterer.’
‘Yes,’ he said, taking a sip of wine and continuing to meet her stare over the rim like a proper courtier. ‘Yes, but no.’
‘My beauty is long gone, with the years,’ she said.
‘Your body remembers your beauty so well that I can still see it,’ he said.
She nodded. ‘That was a beautiful compliment,’ she admitted. Then she laughed. ‘Who boxed your ear?’ she asked.
He stiffened. ‘It is an old-’
‘Nonsense! I educate children. I know a boxed ear when I see one.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘A nun.’
‘I do not kiss and tell,’ he said.
‘You are not as bad as you would have me believe, messire,’ she replied.
They gazed at each other for a few breaths.
‘Sixteen double leopards a month for every lance. I have thirty-one lances today – you may muster them and count them yourself. Each lance consists of at least a knight, his squire, and a valet; usually a pair of archers. All mounted, all with horses to feed. Double pay for my corporals. Forty pounds a month for my officers – there are three – and a hundred pounds for me. Each month.’ He smiled lazily. ‘My men are very well disciplined. And worth every farthing.’
‘And if you kill my monster tonight?’ she asked.
‘Then you have a bargain, lady Abbess – only one month’s pay.’ He sipped his wine.
‘How do you tally these months?’ she asked.
‘Ah! There’s none sharper than you, even in the streets of Harndon, lady. Full months by the lunar calendar.’ He smiled. ‘So the next one starts in just two weeks. The Merry month of May.’
‘Jesu, Lord of the Heavens and Saviour of Man. You are not cheap.’ She shook her head.
‘My people are very, very good at this. We have worked on the Continent for many years, and now we are back in Alba. Where you need us. You needed us a year ago. I may be a hard man, lady, but let us agree that no more Sister Hawisias need die? Yes?’ He leaned forward to seal the deal, the wine cup between his hands, and suddenly the weight of his armour made him tired and his back hurt.
‘I’m sure Satan is charming if you get to know him,’ she said quietly. ‘And I’m sure that if you aren’t paid, your interest in the Sister Hawisia’s of this world will vanish like snow in strong sunshine.’ She gave him a thin-lipped smile. ‘Unless you can kiss them – and even then, I doubt you stay with them long. Or they with you.’
He frowned.
‘For every steading damaged by your men, I will deduct the price of a lance,’ she said. ‘For every man of mine injured in a brawl, for every woman who complains to me of your men, the price of a corporal. If a single one of my sisters is injured – or violated – by your Satan’s spawn, even so much as a lewd hand laid to her or an unseemly comment made, I will deduct your fee. Do you agree? Since,’ she said with icy contempt, ‘Your men are so well disciplined?’
She really does like me, he thought. Despite all. He was more used to people who disliked him. And he wondered if she would give him Amicia. She’d certainly put the beautiful novice where he could see her. How calculating was the old witch? She seemed the type who would try to lure him with more than coin – but he’d already pricked her with his comment about Sister Hawisia.
‘What’s the traitor worth?’ he asked.
She shook her head. ‘I do not believe in your traitor,’ she said, pointing on the enamel leaf on a wooden platter by her side. ‘You carry this foul thing with you to trick fools. And I am not a fool.’
He shrugged. ‘My lady, you are allowing your dislike for my kind to cloud your judgment. Consider: what could make me to lie to you about such a thing? How many people should have been at that steading?’ he asked.
She met his eye – she had no trouble with that, which pleased him. ‘There should have been seven confreres to work the fields,’ she allowed.
‘We found your good sister and six other corpses,’ the captain countered. ‘It is all straightforward enough, lady Abbess.’ He sipped more wine. ‘One is missing when none could have escaped. None.’ He paused. ‘Some of your sheep have grown teeth. And no longer wish to be part of your flock.’ He had a sudden thought. ‘What was Sister Hawisia doing there? She was a nun of the convent, not a labourer?’
She took a sharp breath. ‘Very well. If you can prove there is a traitor – or traitors – there will be reward. You must trust that I will be fair.’
‘Then you must understand: my men will behave badly – it is months since they were paid, and longer since they’ve been anywhere they might spend what they don’t have. The writ of my discipline does not run to stopping tavern brawls or lewd remarks.’ He tried to look serious, though his heart was all but singing with the joy of work and gold to pay the company. ‘You must trust that I will do my best to keep them to order.’
‘Perhaps you’ll have to lead by example?’ she said. ‘Or get the task done quickly and move on to greener pastures?’ she asked sweetly. ‘I understand the whores are quite comely south of the river. In the Albin.’
He thought of the value of this contract – she hadn’t quibbled at his inflated prices.
‘I’ll decide which seems more attractive when I’ve seen the colour of your money,’ he said.
‘Money?’ she asked.
‘Payment due a month in advance, lady Abbess. We never fight for free.’
Lorica – A Golden Bear
The bear was huge. All of the people in the market said so.
The bear sat in its chains, legs fully extended like an exhausted dancer, head down. It had leg manacles, one on each leg, and the chains had been wrought cunningly so that the manacles were connected by running links that limited the beast’s movement.
Both of its hind paws were matted with blood – the manacles were also lined in small spikes.
‘See the bear! See the bear!’
The bear keeper was a big man, fat as a lord, with legs like tree trunks and arms like hams. His two boys were small and fast and looked as if they might have a second profession in crime.