Epic Historial Collection (246 page)

Petranilla said: “You need a palace for entertaining bishops and archbishops, barons and earls.”

“We don't get many of those, nowadays. Earl Roland and Bishop Richard have been in France for much of the last few years.” King Edward had invaded northeast France in 1339 and spent all of 1340 there; then in 1342 he had taken his army to northwest France and fought in Brittany. In 1345 English troops had done battle in the southwestern wine district of Gascony. Now Edward was back in England, but assembling another army of invasion.

“Roland and Richard aren't the only noblemen,” Petranilla said testily.

“The others never come here.”

Her voice hardened. “Perhaps that's because you can't accommodate them in the style they expect. You need a banqueting hall, and a private chapel, and spacious bedchambers.”

She had been awake all night thinking about this, he guessed. That was her way: she brooded over things then shot off her ideas like arrows. He wondered what had brought on this particular complaint. “It sounds very extravagant,” he said, playing for time.

“Don't you understand?” she snapped. “The priory is not as influential as it might be, simply because you don't ever see the powerful men of the land. When you've got a palace with beautiful rooms for them, they will come.”

She was probably right. Wealthy monasteries such as Durham and St. Albans even complained about the number of noble and royal visitors they were obliged to entertain.

She went on: “Yesterday was the anniversary of my father's death.” So that's what brought this on, Godwyn thought: she's been remembering Grandfather's glorious career. “You've been prior here for almost nine years,” she said. “I don't want you to get stuck. The archbishops and the king should be considering you for a bishopric, a major abbey such as Durham, or a mission to the pope.”

Godwyn had always assumed that Kingsbridge would be his springboard to higher things but, he realized now, he had let his ambition wane. It seemed only a little while ago that he had won the election for prior. He felt he had only just got on top of the job. But she was right, it was more than eight years.

“Why aren't they thinking of you for more important posts?” she asked rhetorically. “Because they don't know you exist! You are prior of a great monastery, but you haven't told anyone about it. Display your magnificence! Build a palace. Invite the archbishop of Canterbury to be your first guest. Dedicate the chapel to his favorite saint. Tell the king you have built a royal bedchamber in the hope that he will visit.”

“Wait a moment, one thing at a time,” Godwyn protested. “I'd love to build a palace, but I haven't got the money.”

“Then get it,” she said.

He wanted to ask her how, but at that moment the two leaders of the nunnery came into the room. Petranilla and Cecilia greeted one another with wary courtesy, then Petranilla took her leave.

Mother Cecilia and Sister Natalie sat down. Cecilia was fifty-one now, with gray in her hair and poor eyesight. She still darted about the place like a busy bird, poking her beak into every room, chirping her instructions to nuns, novices, and servants; but she had mellowed with the years, and would go a long way to avoid a conflict.

Cecilia was carrying a scroll. “The nunnery has received a legacy,” she said as she made herself comfortable. “From a pious woman of Thornbury.”

Godwyn said: “How much?”

“One hundred and fifty pounds in gold coins.”

Godwyn was startled. It was a huge sum. It was enough to build a modest palace. “The nunnery has received it—or the priory?”

“The nunnery,” she said firmly. “This scroll is our copy of her will.”

“Why did she leave you so much money?”

“Apparently we nursed her when she fell ill on her way home from London.”

Natalie spoke. She was a few years older than Cecilia, a round-faced woman with a mild disposition. “Our problem is, where are we going to keep the money?”

Godwyn looked at Philemon. Natalie had given them an opening for the topic they had planned to raise. “What do you do with your money at present?” he asked her.

“It's in the prioress's bedroom, which can be reached only by going through the dormitory.”

As though thinking of it for the first time, Godwyn said: “Perhaps we should spend a little of the bequest on a new treasury.”

“I think that's necessary,” said Cecilia. “A simple stone building with no windows and a stout oak door.”

“It won't take long to construct,” Godwyn said. “And shouldn't cost more than five or ten pounds.”

“For safety, we think it should be part of the cathedral.”

“Ah.” That was why the nuns had to discuss the plan with Godwyn. They would not have needed to consult him about building within their own area of the priory, but the church was common to monks and nuns. He said: “It could go up against the cathedral wall, in the corner formed by the north transept and the choir, but be entered from inside the church.”

“Yes—that's just the kind of thing I had in mind.”

“I'll speak to Elfric today, if you like, and ask him to give us an estimate.”

“Please do.”

Godwyn was happy to have extracted from Cecilia a fraction of her windfall, but he was not satisfied. After the conversation with his mother, he yearned to get his hands on more of it. He would have liked to grab it all. But how?

The cathedral bell tolled, and the four of them stood up and went out.

The condemned man was outside the west end of the church. He was naked, and tied tightly by his hands and feet to an upright wooden rectangle like a door frame. A hundred or so townspeople stood waiting to watch the execution. The ordinary monks and nuns had not been invited: it was considered improper for them to see bloodshed.

The executioner was Will Tanner, a man of about fifty whose skin was brown from his trade. He wore a clean canvas apron. He stood by a small table on which he had laid out his knives. He was sharpening one of them on a stone, and the scrape of steel on granite made Godwyn shudder.

Godwyn said several prayers, ending with an extempore plea in English that the death of the thief would serve God by deterring others from the same sin. Then he nodded to Will Tanner.

Will stood behind the tethered thief. He took a small knife with a sharp point and inserted it into the middle of Gilbert's neck, then drew it downward in a long straight line to the base of the spine. Gilbert roared with pain, and blood welled out of the cut. Will made another slash across the man's shoulders, forming the shape of the letter T.

Will then changed his knife, selecting one with a long, thin blade. He inserted it carefully at the point where the two cuts met, and pulled away a corner of skin. Gilbert cried out again. Then, holding the corner in the fingers of his left hand, Will began carefully to cut the skin of Gilbert's back away from his body.

Gilbert began to scream.

Sister Natalie made a noise in her throat, turned away, and ran back into the priory. Cecilia closed her eyes and began to pray. Godwyn felt nauseated. Someone in the crowd fell to the ground in a dead faint. Only Philemon seemed unmoved.

Will worked quickly, his sharp knife slicing through the subcutaneous fat to reveal the woven muscles below. Blood flowed copiously, and he stopped every few seconds to wipe his hands on his apron. Gilbert screamed in undiminished agony at every cut. Soon the skin of his back hung in two broad flaps.

Will knelt on the ground, his knees an inch deep in blood, and began to work on the legs.

The screaming stopped suddenly: Gilbert appeared to have passed out. Godwyn was relieved. He had intended the man to suffer agony for trying to rob a church—and he had wanted others to witness the thief's torment—but, all the same, he had found it hard to listen to that screaming.

Will continued his work phlegmatically, apparently unconcerned whether his victim was conscious or not, until all the back skin—body, arms, and legs—was detached. Then he went around to the front. He cut around the ankles and wrists, then detached the skin so that it hung from the victim's shoulders and hips. He worked upward from the pelvis, and Godwyn realized he was going to try to take the entire skin off in one piece. Soon there was no skin left attached except for the head.

Gilbert was still breathing.

Will made a careful series of cuts around the skull. Then he put down his knives and wiped his hands one more time. Finally he grasped Gilbert's skin at the shoulders and gave a sudden jerk upward. The face and scalp were ripped off the head, yet remained attached to the rest of the skin.

Will held Gilbert's bloody hide up in the air like a hunting trophy, and the crowd cheered.

 

Caris was uneasy about sharing the new treasury with the monks. She pestered Beth with so many questions about the safety of their money that in the end Beth took her to inspect the place.

Godwyn and Philemon were in the cathedral at the time, as if by chance, and they saw the nuns and followed them.

They passed through a new arch in the south wall of the choir into a little lobby and halted in front of a formidable studded door. Sister Beth took out a big iron key. She was a humble, unassuming woman, like most nuns. “This is ours,” she said to Caris. “We can enter the treasury anytime we like.”

“I should think so, since we paid for it,” said Caris crisply.

They entered a small, square room. It contained a counting table with a stack of parchment rolls, a couple of stools, and a big ironbound chest.

“The chest is too big to be taken out through the door,” Beth pointed out.

Caris said: “So how did you it get in here?”

Godwyn answered: “In pieces. It was put together by the carpenter here in the room.”

Caris gave Godwyn a cold look. This man had tried to kill her. Ever since the witchcraft trial she had looked at him with loathing and avoided speaking to him if at all possible. Now she said flatly: “The nuns will need a key to the chest.”

“Not necessary,” Godwyn said quickly. “It contains the jeweled cathedral ornaments, which are in the care of the sacrist, who is always a monk.”

Caris said: “Show me.”

She could see that he was offended by her tone, and had half a mind to refuse her, but he wanted to appear open and guileless, so he conceded. He took a key from the wallet at his belt and opened the chest. As well as the cathedral ornaments, it contained dozens of scrolls, the priory's charters.

“Not just the ornaments, then,” Caris said, her suspicions vindicated.

“The records, too.”

“Including the nuns' charters,” she persisted

“Yes.”

“In which case we will have a key.”

“My idea is that we copy all our charters, and keep the copies in the library. Whenever we need to read a charter, we consult the library copy, so that the precious originals can remain under lock and key.”

Beth hated conflict, and intervened nervously. “That sounds like quite a sensible idea, Sister Caris.”

Caris said grudgingly: “So long as the nuns always have access to their documents in some form.” The charters were a secondary issue. Addressing Beth, rather than Godwyn, she said: “More importantly, where do we keep the money?”

Beth said: “In hidden vaults in the floor. There are four of them—two for the monks and two for the nuns. If you look carefully you can see the loose stones.”

Caris studied the floor, and after a moment said: “I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't told me, but I can see them now. Can they be locked?”

“I suppose they could,” said Godwyn. “But then it would be obvious where they were, which would defeat the purpose of hiding them under flagstones.”

“But this way the monks and nuns have access to one another's money.”

Philemon spoke up. He looked accusingly at Caris and said: “Why are you here? You're the guest master—nothing to do with the treasury.”

Caris's attitude to Philemon was simple loathing. She felt he was not fully human. He seemed to have no sense of right and wrong, no principles or scruples. Whereas she despised Godwyn as a wicked man who knew when he was doing evil, she felt that Philemon was more like a vicious animal, a mad dog or a wild boar. “I have an eye for detail,” she told him.

“You're very mistrustful,” he said resentfully.

Caris gave a humorless laugh. “Coming from you, Philemon, that's ironic.”

He pretended to be hurt. “I don't know what you can mean.”

Beth spoke again, trying to keep the peace. “I just wanted Caris to come and look because she asks questions I don't think of.”

Caris said: “For example, how can we be sure that the monks don't take the nuns' money?”

“I'll show you,” said Beth. Hanging on a hook on the wall was a stout length of oak. Using it as a lever, she prized up a flagstone. Underneath was a hollow space containing an ironbound chest. “We've had a locked casket made to fit each of these vaults,” she said. She reached inside and lifted out the chest.