“Sister, please leave us. Should the young man wish to depart, he is free to go. In the meantime, stay without and shut the door behind you.”
“But…”
“As I said, sister.”
The chamber door slammed shut.
Eleanor turned to Eadmund, who was looking up at the window like a cornered cat calculating a jump. She wanted to reach out to him but knew such a gesture would only make matters worse.
“Eadmund?” she asked in a soft voice. “Stay there and I will stand over here.” She gestured to the wall on her right. “If you want to run, you can reach the door and leave any time you want.” Then she calmly walked to the far corner, gesturing Gytha to follow her. “You can see that you are free to leave if you choose, and neither Gytha nor I could stop you. You heard me give orders to let you go when you open that door.”
The look in the young man’s eyes grew less feral. He slid with his back still against the wall into a sitting position and stared at Eleanor.
“You must have wanted to talk to me if you braved Sister Ruth to get in,” Eleanor said with gentle voice and a slight smile.
He looked at her, his expression still wary. He jerked his head in Gytha’s direction. “Her brother said you were trustworthy. And he’s a trusty one himself, aye, although his sister works for you black devils.”
“Has anything happened to Gytha despite her being here?”
Eadmund belched again. “Nay. Other than she is now fat and fine.”
Gytha snorted.
“Then we are not all devils, surely?”
The young man’s look darkened. “Maybe not but I cannot say who is and who isn’t.”
“You know Tostig’s judgement is good and that he would not have sent you into danger alone. He’d have come himself if he thought you had anything to fear. He seems to be both a brave and a decent man.”
Eadmund nodded. “He said he’d come with me if it would make me feel safer, but I said I would come alone. He gave me his word you’d not hurt me.” In puffing out his chest, he now looked more a boy than the man he was becoming.
“And have I?”
Eadmund belched for the third time. “I’m not dead yet…and the cheese was good.” He looked around as if hoping, despite his misgivings, that there would be more.
“Then you have shown courage. Perhaps now you will say what you came to tell me?”
Once again, the boy looked like a small and helpless child. “I don’t know what to say.” He smeared what Eleanor suspected were tears away from his eyes, then looked at Gytha with ferocity. “Get her out!” he shouted. “I’ll not tell anything if she’s to hear me.”
Mentally shoving rules aside, Eleanor gestured to Gytha to leave. The girl hesitated, then realized the boy was more afraid than angry, and she quickly left, shutting the door softly behind her.
“Now then, lad. What did you come to say?”
The boy put his head into his hands and began to weep in gulping sobs. “He threatened me, forced me to fuck him, he did, then drove my father out of his wits, swearing he’d make sure we died if either of us said one word. He took me down to that cave and made me swyve him. He gave us money, but my father grew mad with grief. I couldn’t leave my father. He needed me to care for him. I had no choice. I had to.…I’ll burn in Hell for this!” The lad howled like a wounded wolf in a trap.
Eleanor felt a pain as sharp as a dagger thrust in her heart. “Hell shall not have you, Eadmund. That I promise,” she whispered. “Now tell me who did this monstrous thing to you.…”
“The tall black monk.”
“Brother John?”
“Nay! When I told him my sins in confession after Brother Rupert died, he wept, he did, but said he could say nothing unless I spoke out. He begged me to tell Sister Ruth. I would have none of that!” He coughed from swallowed tears, then wiped a hand across his nose. “She’s no different than the others. After you came, he beseeched me to talk to Gytha’s brother and ask his advice about coming to you. Tostig said you could be trusted.…”
“And thus you bravely came. If not Brother John, lad, then who was the man…?”
“The fat one. Simeon, he’s called.”
With that, the boy began to wail again, and this time, when Eleanor reached out to him, he fell into her arms.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“The creature lies!” Sister Ruth was shaking with anger as she marched out of the prioress’s chambers.
Thomas followed, his face without expression.
“Why do you say that, sister?” Eleanor came last, then closed her chamber door quietly behind. Like a mother would her own child, she had tucked the distraught lad up in blankets from her own bed and sent Gytha running to the hospital for help and medicine to ease him into a dreamless sleep. Although he had calmed, she knew he still suffered from the occasional hiccup of sobs behind the closed door.
“This loutish animal is not worthy to speak his name. Brother Simeon is above reproach. He would never commit such an unspeakable vileness.”
“Indeed we would hear what Brother Simeon has to say for himself.…”
“How could you even think that such a base thing would be more truthful than a man of our receiver’s high station and reputation?” Sister Ruth’s face flushed with rage. “Treating low creatures as equals is an error you have been making since your arrival. Forgive me for being so blunt, my lady, but you do show ignorance about much.”
Eleanor curled her hands into fists and ground them against her body. This was not the time to lose her temper with the woman. “Then teach me,” she said.
Sister Ruth hesitated only a moment before continuing, her now mottled face stiff with hatred for Eleanor. “First, you are ignorant of what occurred before your arrival. Even now, you know little of us all. Prioress Felicia had been long with us and knew she could trust our good receiver to provide her with suitable guidance. It may not be proper for me to speak ill of Prior Theobald, but he is not a man to take charge, as he should. If it had not been for Brother Simeon, we might well have suffered many deprivations over the years. He is an excellent steward. We thought for sure he would become a prior elsewhere, if not here.” She waved her hand at Eleanor. “This is the man you now treat with such little respect.”
“So I have heard, but Brother Rupert…?”
“Brother Rupert was a kind man, loved by us all, but he was weak in his dealings with Prioress Felicia. Where he should have given her firm direction, she sometimes guided him, but Brother Simeon wisely left the two of them to do what they would within the confines here. As he often told me, work within the priory was woman’s work and good enough in its place, but stewardship of the lands properly belonged in the hands of a man.”
Eleanor suddenly raised her head. “Often, you say, sister?”
Sister Ruth paled. “As porteress, I had occasion, proper occasion, to talk with Brother Simeon.”
“And you agreed with his methods of running the priory lands without consulting the prioress?”
“Indeed. As Brother Simeon said, that is as it should be. It is unnatural for Adam to be ruled by Eve. I would not be so unwomanly as to disagree, my lady.”
As I have disagreed and will always disagree, Eleanor thought, biting her lip. “And such would have been your approach to running Tyndal when you became prioress after the death of your former superior, had I not usurped the position.”
“My lady, I would not…” Ruth stuttered, then dropped her eyes.
“You expected to become prioress, did you not, sister? When the priory voted, you were chosen and would have ascended to the position if the King and Abbess had not wished otherwise. There is no shame or wrong in acknowledging a fact.”
“Yes, my lady, but I hold no malice.…”
“Nor did I think you did,” Eleanor said, knowing otherwise but smiling disarmingly. “So tell me one thing, good sister?”