Free Changeling by Philippa Gregory Page A

not to marry and did me the great favour of putting me in charge of this nunnery, and I came in, took my vows, and started my service as their Lady Abbess.’
    ‘How old are you?’
    ‘I am seventeen,’ she told him.
    ‘Isn’t that very young to be a Lady Abbess?’
    The half-hidden mouth showed a wry smile. ‘Not if your grandfather founded the abbey and your brother is its only patron, of course. The Lord of Lucretili can appoint who he chooses.’
    ‘You had a vocation?’
    ‘Alas, I did not. I came here in obedience to my brother’s wish and my father’s will. Not because I feel I have a calling.’
    ‘Did you not want to rebel against your brother’s wish and your father’s will?’
    There was a moment of silence. She raised her head and from the depth of her hood he saw her regard him thoughtfully, as if she were considering him as a man who might understand her.
    ‘Of course, I was tempted by the sin of disobedience,’ she said levelly. ‘I did not understand why my father would treat me so. He had never spoken to me of the abbey nor suggested that he wanted a life of holiness for me. On the contrary, he spoke to me of the outside world, of being a woman of honour and power in the world, of managing my lands and supporting the Church as it comes under attack both here and in the Holy Land. But my brother was with my father on his deathbed, heard his last words, and afterwards he showed me his will. It was clearly my father’s last wish that I come here. I loved my father, I love him still. I obey him in death as I obeyed him in life.’ Her voice shook slightly as she spoke of her father. ‘I am a good daughter to him; now as then.’
    ‘They say that you brought your slave with you, a Moorish girl named Ishraq, and that she is neither a lay sister nor has she taken her vows.’
    ‘She is not my slave; she is a free woman. She may do as she pleases.’
    ‘So what is she doing here?’
    ‘Whatever she wishes.’
    Luca was sure that he saw in her shadowed eyes the same gleam of defiance that the slave had shown. ‘Lady Abbess,’ he said sternly. ‘You should have no companions but the sisters of your order.’
    She looked at him with an untameable confidence. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘I don’t think you have the authority to tell me so. And I don’t think that I would listen to you, even if you said that you had the authority. As far as I know there is no law that says a woman, an infidel, may not enter a nunnery and serve alongside the nuns. There is no tradition that excludes her. We are of the Augustine order, and as Lady Abbess I can manage this house as I see fit. Nobody can tell me how to do it. If you make me Lady Abbess then you give me the right to decide how this house shall be run. Having forced me to take the power, you can be sure that I shall rule.’ The words were defiant, but her voice was very calm.
    ‘They say she has not left your side since you came to the abbey?’
    ‘This is true.’
    ‘She has never gone out of the gates?’
    ‘Neither have I.’
    ‘She is with you night and day?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘They say that she sleeps in your bed?’ Luca said boldly.
    ‘Who says?’ the Lady Abbess asked him evenly.
    Luca looked down at his notes, and Brother Peter shuffled the papers.
    She shrugged, as if she were filled with disdain for them and for their gossipy inquiry. ‘I suppose you have to ask everybody, everything that they imagine,’ she said dismissively. ‘You will have to chatter like a clattering of choughs. You will hear the wildest of talk from the most fearful and imaginative people. You will ask silly girls to tell you tales.’
    ‘Where does she sleep?’ Luca persisted, feeling a fool.
    ‘Since the abbey became so disturbed she has chosen to sleep in my bed, as she did when we were children. This way she can protect me.’
    ‘Against what?’
    She sighed as if she were weary of his curiosity. ‘Of course, I don’t know. I don’t know