Gisborne: Book of Pawns (45 page)

I heard a breath suck in an
d turned as Matilda whispered.
‘Mary, Mother of God, but she’s a
brave one.’

The Obedientary shushed us from her screen-concealed corner as Gisborne answered.

‘Half her pay then,
Beatrice.’

‘You may not be able to bargain with God so easily,
my son
. Now please depart the a
bbey i
n the manner of the knight
y
ou purport to be.’

Her tone slapped at his heels good and hard and I felt a smile blooming in the su
nless cold of the Lady Chapel.

‘Go in peace, Sir Guy,’ she added.

He said nothing and she slid the screen ope
n just enough to slip through.
But nevertheless, his glance caught mine
and in that fraction of a moment, I imagined
th
e whole church must have stopped breathing.

But then he turned and as I dropped my head in relief, all I could hear were the jingling of his spurs and the
sound of his boots in the nave
as the Sisters’ voices sang the end of Lauds.

‘
Gisborne
arrived in Locksley
with papers from
King Richard endowing him with the manor and domain.’

We walked across the a
bbey’s carefully tended potager where
the laywomen dug and weeded. The abbess led the way to the dulcet quiet of the hedged i
nfirmary garden, where weeds had
far
outstripped the medicina
l plants
.

‘You see it n
eeds some work. But Sister Catherine
is frantic
making her simples and caring for
the villa
gers and cannot spare the time.
We haven’t enough lay workers and I worry that
ultimately
our medicine supply will suffer.’

‘Can you not a
sk Gisborne for a woman from an outlying village
?’

‘I coul
d but I choose not to.
From the outset,’ she continued, her hands folded neatly into her capacious
sleeves
, ‘
I determined to be a friend with Gisborne but certainly not a dependent. It is better that way.’

‘I see.
’

Independence.

I sighed. ‘Gisborne is about to hang someone, Reverend Mother. Did you know that?’

She laughed. ‘I think not.’

‘But he arrested Owen for theft.’

‘G
uy is not what he seems, my child.’

I heard Brother John then…
‘We are all of us many things other than what we seem to be, Ysabel.’

‘He greases his own way,’ I scoffed.

‘Not at all,’ said Beatrice. ‘His arrival here was a good thing for the people of Locksley, my dear. I can assure you, God would view him kindly.’

‘You say? When he is about to hang a starving man?’

‘Guy of Gisborne hangs no one. Whatever his secrets are, Ysabel, I would say they prompt him to keep the balance sheets very clean in his own domain. He is a fair individual and Owen is well known as a simpleton and a recalcitrant poacher into the bargain. If he had any sense and his family were hungry, he had only to to approach the bailiff or myself and help could have been arranged. But he is, God forgive me, one of God’s idiots. No my dear, never fear, Owen will not hang. He will be punished but he will not hang.’

‘Punished for trying to feed hungry children? Then your Gisborne is neither fair nor decent, Reverend Mother. There are extenuating circumstances for Owen.’

‘Which I am sure will be taken into account.’

‘I cannot see fair nor decent in Gisborne. I am sorry.’

‘As I said, my dear,
Sir Guy
hangs no one.
He makes arrests and a
rranges surreptitious escapes.’

I laughed, but her expression halted my mockery.

‘Truly?’

I fingered my stitches, aware my voice still displayed disbelief. For a moment I was quiet and then, ‘Why, it’s … it’s rebellious, treasonous. If the Sheriff or other nobles should find out...’

‘
But then who would tell? I will not.’

‘This is unbelievable,’ I shook my head, finding
it hard to reconcile my newfound knowledge with my
most recent
observations.

I subsided onto a stone bench under the boughs o
f an
almond
tree
. Beatrice reposed bes
ide me.

‘You tell me
this
for a reason, don’t you?’ I said.

‘You seem to have a memory of him from the past.’

I sat up straight.

‘You knew him once, did you not?’
she asked.

The questio
n was posed softly but it none-the-l
ess skewered me
like a dagger. H
ow could I tell this woman of God that I
had born a child to Guy of Gisborne?

‘I did, Reverend Mother.’

M
y hands twisted.

She laid
her
own over them and said gently, ‘I can listen, dear girl.
It will go no further and you may find a burden lifts.’

Two tears drif
ted down my cheeks.
In a
moment I was in Cazenay, surrounded by all that was familiar
and on the brink of a tempestuous affair from whi
ch I don’t believe I ever recovered.
I lapsed into quiet on the stone bench in the Infirmary Garden.
Beatrice of Locksley played with the folds of her habit, and all was silence but for
the birds that fi
lled the almond and fig trees.

‘Reverend Mother, it was a sho
rt time but makes a long story…
’

‘I would
not have you upset, my child.
I would like to know your connection with Sir Guy as I can see it turns you awry even now b
ut perhaps it is not the time.
Rather you need to decide if you shall return to the manor or whether y
ou should proceed on your way.
I can give you coin to get you to the next town if you wish, but there are
just two things I would say.’
I watched her fi
ngers press hard together.
‘
You have told me some truths today.
And whilst I realize there is a lot more to tell, I owe you
more of the story I related.’

She stood and began to pace back and forth, her robes swishing, her crucifix swaying as she flung herself abo
ut to walk back.  ‘I was …
expeditious with the truth for which I must ask God and yourself for forgiveness, but it seemed
to me that you disliked Guy
unjustl
y and I sought to remedy that.
What I should have
explained was that when he arrived, he appeared
every bit as d
ark as you seem to think he is even now. That odious Halsham forever dropped in and out and one drew conclusions. He and that godless man, De Courcey … Devil’s consorts!
’

My
heart began its freeze again and I despaired –
as if my life stretched bef
ore me as a dank and muddy road with nary a sunbeam in sight.

‘And
what changed?’ I dared to ask. ‘What made Gisborne
different in the eyes of Beatrice of Locksley
?’

Beatrice sat
down. ‘He is an enigma…’

‘An enigma? Huh.’ I remarked emptily and then sighed. ‘Reverend Mother, even if any view I might have of him changed, it is better if he does not know me.’

Her brows drew together as if something I said displeased her, but as quickly smoothed out again.
‘Do you think he recognises you?’

I could not he
lp the bitterness in my reply. ‘I am different now. Very different,’ I said gesturing to my wound and my hair. ‘
And in truth I have been at pains to change my voice as well.’

‘Would it r
eally matter if he remembered?
It might be what God wants for you both.’

I gave
a small laugh, acrid and dry.
‘Reverend Mother, it is not what
I
want
.’

Isn’t it?

A bell tolled. ‘Sext. I must get back to the manor. Mother
, I would speak
with you again before I leave. May I see you on the morrow?
It will be after Vespers.’

‘Of course dear child,
I t
hink we have much more to say.
But can I ask you to go back to the manor with an open mind and an open heart?’

‘I’m not sure I can do either, Reverend Mother.’

The time for an open heart ended
when he sold me
and I wished only to find my way
out of England and into Wales to find my son but it was not for Beatrice to know this, not yet.
I
knelt and kissed her fingers and felt her hand on my head as she offered a quick blessing.

‘
Go into th
e kitchens and calm the cook.’
His voice barked at me.

‘Good day to you t
oo, Sir Guy,’
I muttered without even looking at him.

He grab
bed my wrist as I pushed past.

‘If you’d been here, the house would have been calm and the kitchen under control.’

‘If you h
adn’t arrested Owen
, the
cook wouldn’t need soothing,’
I ret
aliated, jerking my hand away.

I slid by him, knowing it was an unjust comment, that if Reverend Mother was
to be believed, Owen was probably already a
man
on the run far from here
.

Ellen seemed lost,
leaning against the
wall with a cloth to her eyes.
I took her by the elbow and led her outside
into the yard
, conscious that Gisborne had followed me and even now,
was watching from a distance.

I turned Ellen aside, my arm around her, and whisp
ered, ‘Pull yourself together. Owen’s life depends on it.
He will
live
but it i
s our secret.’
She tried to pull away, surprise and shock in
her action, but I held tight. ‘T
ell no one
what I have told you. Remember it is his life.’

She dabbed her eyes and nodded and I
pushed her toward the kitchen.
‘Cook
,
Ellen, better than
you have
ever
done
.’

She bobbed a curtsy at Guy as she squeezed by him whereas I just strode on unconcerned to the hall w
here long trestles had been set.
The head table had prodigiously carved chairs as well as a fine embroidered linen cloth I had pilfered from what loo
ked like Church accoutrements.
It had been in a chest in Gisborne’s chamber and I thought nothing of purloining it for un-ecclesiastical use.

He had said he wanted platter
s and not trenchers and so I
found a
collection of pewter, enough for the
noblemen
who would sit with Prince John.
The rest of the guests would be seated do
wn the long sides of the Hall.
Behi
nd the high table hung banners in Prince John’s and
colours and my flowers bloomed in their churns.

The walls were hung with mo
re pennants and the manor’s men-at-
a
rms were clean and polished.
I thought that whilst I lang
uished at the Abbey,
Gisb
orne had been a very busy man.
I ordered the huge
hall
fire lit and the flago
ns on the tables to be filled.
I spoke to servants and gave th
em orders, Gisborne having brought in extra villagers, cleaning
them up for this occasi
on.
Indeed I wondered why he needed me at all as everything seemed to be
proceeding smoothly.
But I remembered Ellen in the kitchen and hurried back to find her once mor
e well in control of the food.
I
encouraged her with a smile
and decided it was
time to wash and change into clothing more suited to the proceedings.