Ken Follett - World Without End

Caris pulled the door shut, to delay him a second longer. Then she dashed along the cloisters and darted into a recess, pulling Mair with her.

They were at the foot of the stairs that led to the monks’ dorm. Mair’s scream would have awakened the men, but they might be slow to react. “Tell the monks what’s happening!” Caris yelled at Mair. “Go on, run!” Mair dashed up the stairs.

Caris heard a creak, and guessed that the library door was opening. She listened for the sound of footsteps on the flagstones of the cloisters, but Gilbert must have been a practised burglar, for he walked silently. She held her breath and listened for his. Then a commotion broke out upstairs.

The thief must have realized then that he had only a few seconds to escape, for he broke into a run, and Caris heard his tread.

She did not care greatly for the precious cathedral ornaments, believing that gold and jewels probably pleased the bishop and the prior more than they pleased God; but she had taken a dislike to Gilbert, and she hated the idea that he might get rich by robbing the priory. So she stepped out of her recess.

She could hardly see, but there was no mistaking the running steps hurtling towards her. She held her arms out to protect herself, and he cannoned into her. She was knocked off balance, but grasped his clothing, and they both fell to the ground. There was a clatter as his sack of crucifixes and chalices hit the paving stones.

The pain of the fall enraged Caris, and she let go of his clothes and reached for where she thought his face might be. She encountered skin and dragged her fingernails across it, digging deep. He roared with pain and she felt blood flow under her fingertips.

But he was stronger. He grappled with her and swung himself on top. A light appeared from the head of the monks’ stairs, and suddenly she could see Gilbert – and he could see her. Kneeling astride her, he punched her face, first with his right fist, then with his left, then with the right again. She cried out in agony.

There was more light. The monks were stumbling down the stairs. Caris heard Mair scream: “Leave her alone, you devil!” Gilbert leaped to his feet and scrabbled for his sack, but he was too late: suddenly Mair was flying at him with some kind of blunt instrument. He took a blow to the head, turned to retaliate, and fell beneath a tidal wave of monks.

Caris got to her feet. Mair came to her and they hugged.

Mair said: “What did you do?”

“Tripped him up then scratched his face. What did you hit him with?”

“The wooden cross off the dormitory wall.”

“Well,” said Caris, “so much for turning the other cheek.”

Gilbert Hereford was tried before the ecclesiastical court, found guilty and sentenced, by Prior Godwyn, to an appropriate punishment for those who robbed churches: he would be flayed alive. His skin would be cut off him, while he was fully conscious, and he would bleed to death.

On the day of the flaying, Godwyn had his weekly meeting with Mother Cecilia. Their deputies would also attend: sub-prior Philemon and sub-prioress Natalie. Waiting in the hall of the prior’s house for the nuns to arrive, Godwyn said to Philemon: “We must try to persuade them to build a new treasury. We can no longer keep our valuables in a box in the library.”

Philemon said thoughtfully: “Would it be a shared building?”

“It would have to be. We can’t afford to pay for it.”

Godwyn thought regretfully of the ambitions he had once had, as a young man, to reform the monastery’s finances and make it rich again. This had not happened, and he still did not understand why. He had been tough, forcing the townspeople to use and pay for the priory’s mills, fishponds and warrens, but they seemed to find ways around his rules – like building mills in neighbouring villages. He had imposed harsh sentences on men and women caught poaching or illegally cutting down trees in the priory’s forests. And he had resisted the blandishments of those who would tempt him to spend the priory’s money by building mills, or waste the priory’s timber by licensing charcoal burners and iron smelters. He felt sure his approach was right, but it had not yet yielded the increased income he felt he deserved.

“So you will ask Cecilia for the money,” Philemon said thoughtfully. There might be advantages in keeping our wealth in the same place as the nuns’.”

Godwyn saw which way Philemon’s devious mind was leading him. “But we wouldn’t say that to Cecilia.”

“Of course not.”

“All right, I’ll propose it.”

“While we’re waiting…”

“Yes?”

“There’s a problem you need to know about in the village of Long Ham.”

Godwyn nodded. Long Ham was one of dozens of villages that paid homage – and feudal dues – to the priory.

Philemon explained: “It has to do with the landholding of a widow, Mary-Lynn. When her husband died, she agreed to let a neighbour farm her land, a man called John Nott. Now the widow has remarried, and she wants the land back so that her new husband can farm it.”

Godwyn was puzzled. This was a typical peasant squabble, too trivial to require his intervention. “What does the bailiff say?”

“That the land should revert to the widow, since the arrangement was always intended to be temporary.”

“Then that is what must happen.”

“There is a complication. Sister Elizabeth has a half-brother and two half-sisters in Long Ham.”

“Ah.” Godwyn might have guessed there would be a reason for Philemon’s interest. Sister Elizabeth, formerly Elizabeth Clerk, was the nuns’ matricularius, in charge of their buildings. She was young and bright, and would rise farther up the hierarchy. She could be a valuable ally.

“They are the only family she’s got, apart from her mother, who works at the Bell,” Philemon went on. “Elizabeth is fond of her peasant relatives, and they in turn revere her as the holy one of the family. When they come to Kingsbridge they bring gifts to the nunnery – fruit, honey, eggs, that sort of thing.”

“And…?”

“John Nott is the half-brother of Sister Elizabeth.”

“Has Elizabeth asked you to intervene?”

“Yes. And she also asked that I should not tell Mother Cecilia of the request.”

Godwyn knew that this was just the kind of thing Philemon liked. He loved to be regarded as a powerful person who could use his influence to favour one side or the other in a dispute. Such things fed his ego, which was never satisfied. And he was drawn to anything clandestine. The fact that Elizabeth did not want her superior to know about this request delighted Philemon. It meant he knew her shameful secret. He would store the information away like miser’s gold.

“What do you want to do?” Godwyn asked.

“It’s for you to say, of course, but I suggest we let John Nott keep the land. Elizabeth would be in our debt, and that cannot fail to be useful at some point in the future.”

“That’s hard on the widow,” Godwyn said uneasily.

“I agree. But that must be balanced against the interests of the priory.”

“And God’s work is more important. Very well. Tell the bailiff.”

“The widow will receive her reward in the hereafter.”

“Indeed.” There had been a time when Godwyn had hesitated to authorize Philemon’s underhand schemes, but that was long ago. Philemon had proved too useful – as Godwyn’s mother, Petranilla, had forecast all those years ago.

There was a tap at the door, and Petranilla herself came in.

She now lived in a comfortable small house in Candle Court, just off the main street. Her brother Edmund had left her a generous bequest, enough to last her the rest of her life. She was fifty-eight years old, her tall figure was now stooped and frail, and she walked with a stick, but she still had a mind like a bear trap. As always, Godwyn was glad to see her but also apprehensive that he might have done something to displease her.