Or else their scribing took them away from their offices and so Frevisse was behind in the kitchen accounts and should be paying better heed to them now while she had the chance, she thought, and tried again to take an interest in Item in candelis-for candles, two pence. As cellarer she was responsible for the nunnery’s worldly needs within the cloister-what they ate or wore or used; what they were in need of; whether what they had would do or if, St. Zita forbid, something had to be bought. Besides that, she was also kitchener, overseeing everything that was done, everything that was used, in the priory’s kitchens, both in the cloister and in the guesthalls. What time those duties did not take up, the account keeping for them did, it seemed, so that between all that and the scribework and the eight daily Offices of prayers in the church, time merely to sit had been slight.
Dame Claire and Dame Juliana were now talking together over one of the lavender-bordered middle beds, and Frevisse noted sadly that although Domina Elisabeth had made some attempt to restore the rule-lost under their last prioress-that silence should be kept except at certain times and places in St. Frideswide’s, no one held to it very much, even the older nuns, except herself sometimes, when she was able, and Sister Thomasine always, when she was allowed.
But then Sister Thomasine had never lost her quiet, even in the worst days under Domina Alys, and if she had no other duty to hold her, she was probably praying in the church even now.
The garden’s gate opening turned everyone to look, even Sister Johane and Sister Cecely pausing in their chatter to see who was come, despite the gate led only to the cloister and no one more unfamiliar than another nun or cloister servants was likely; and indeed it was only Sister Emma and everyone went back to what they had been doing, except Frevisse because Sister Emma, after a moment’s hesitation to look around the garden, came purposefully toward her, and regretfully Frevisse rolled closed the accounts. Today Sister Emma was taking turn to attend on Domina Elisabeth, and if she was seeking Frevisse, it was on Domina Elisabeth’s behalf rather than her own. Indeed she called while still bustling along the path, before she reached where Frevisse sat, “My lady says you’re to come. She needs you in her parlor right away, please you.”
Tucking the account roll under one arm and picking up the pen and ink, Frevisse asked, “To what purpose?”
Reaching her, Sister Emma dropped her voice to almost a whisper, as if somehow it must be kept a secret, “There’s a Master Spencer come to see her.”
Frevisse did not see why that needed whispering, but she asked as she rose and started back toward the gate with Sister Emma, “She’s there alone with him?”
‘Oh, no!“ Sister Emma indulged in being scandalized at the thought that she might have left their prioress in private with a man. ”Sister Amicia is there.“ Sister Amicia presently being hosteler, in charge of the guesthalls and therefore of any guests to the nunnery, which Frevisse presumed this Master Spencer was. ”And Master Naylor has been sent for,“ Sister Emma added, a little breathless though Frevisse had been trying to hold in her quicker walk to Sister Emma’s bustling one.
Hand out to open the garden’s gate, Frevisse paused to look at her. “Master Naylor?”
Sister Emma nodded, catching her breath and eager to tell more. “This Master Spencer gave Domina Elisabeth a letter and added, right then and there before Sister Amicia could leave, that it might be well if she were to send for Master Naylor to come to answer in the matter.”
Frevisse went out the gate and along the way to the slype, the narrow passage into the cloister walk, Sister Emma still happily saying behind her-because almost anything out of the way of the cloister’s ordinary day was delight to Sister Emma, and with the rule of silence slackened, there was little to hold her back from her best pastime of talk-“So Domina Elisabeth bade Sister Amicia wait a moment and she read the letter, only there wasn’t much of it…”
Frevisse supposed probably nothing more than “I pray you pay heed to the bearer of this letter. He knows what I wish said to you,” with signature and seal to identify the sender, and who that was Sister Emma surely did not know or she would have said.
‘… and then she said I was to find someone to go for Master Naylor and then I was to find you and bid you come, please you, and Sister Amicia could stay with her.“ More breathless now, talking to have it all said as she and Frevisse went around the cloister walk toward the stairs up to Domina Elisabeth’s rooms, she added, ”What do you suppose it’s about?“
‘I couldn’t guess,“ Frevisse said, leaving speculation to Sister Emma who was enjoying it so much.
As they passed the short passage from the cloister walk to the outer door, Master Naylor was coming in and paused to let them pass, bowing to them while they did. He was never given to much talk; nor had he ever, Frevisse knew, found it easy to take direction from women, even St. Frideswide’s prioresses, but through one thing and another, something like respect had grown between him and her over the years, and she bent her head in answer to his bow, then led up the stairs to Domina Elisabeth’s parlor, Sister Emma panting behind her, Master Naylor following after.
The parlor door stood open but Frevisse paused to knock lightly and receive Domina Elisabeth’s “Benedicite” before she entered. Because among her duties St. Frideswide’s prioress had to receive important guests and conduct such nunnery business as needed more privity than the daily chapter meeting involving all the nuns, her parlor was more richly furnished than the rest of the nunnery, with not only a fireplace and glass in the three tall windows overlooking the courtyard but brightly embroidered cushions on the window seat and a Spanish woven carpet over a table set with a silver ewer and bowl and two chairs, one of them high-backed and elaborately carved, rather than the usual stools for sitting. For Domina Elisabeth, a scribe’s slant-topped desk had been added, set beside the window for best light, where she could work at the copying tasks she shared with her nuns, and beside the hearth there was a cushioned basket where her cat occasionally slept between whiles of trying out various beds in the nuns’ dormitory, usually preferring Dame Claire’s, who did not like the beast, while scorning Sister Johane’s endless attempts to win its affections.
As she entered, Frevisse took in Domina Elisabeth standing beside her desk, one hand out to rest on a letter lying open there-the message she had lately received, Frevisse supposed-and a man-Master Spencer, surely- standing nearby, facing her, and Sister Amicia keeping watch beside the door for propriety’s sake, in the moment before lowering her eyes properly toward the floor in an unknown man’s presence while she crossed to make deep curtsy to Domina Elisabeth, then stepped aside for Master Naylor to make his bow while Sister Emma announced the obvious with, “I’ve brought them, my lady,” and added brightly, “Good company makes short miles!”
Sister Emma used proverbs far more often than she understood them, and even though this one was somewhat more apt that Sister Emma’s often were, Domina Elisabeth paused, distracted, said, “Yes. Well.” And, “Thank you.” Then, “You and Sister Amicia may go.”
It took a brief pause for Sister Emma and Sister Amicia to realize they were being sent away without having heard anything worth telling anyone, but they recovered, made hasty curtsies to Domina Elisabeth, and left in a swish of long black skirts, and only when they were gone did Frevisse realize Domina Elisabeth had given no order for food or drink to be brought for whoever this man was, a failure of courtesy that roused a warning in her even as Domina Elisabeth said somewhat crisply, “Master Naylor, you and Master Spencer are acquainted, I believe?”