Free Daughters of the Dagger 03 - Amber by Elizabeth Rose Page B

would never do it. And I can’t believe you would order such a thing.”
    “I’m not. Calm down.” The priest paced back and forth with his hand to his chin. “There must be another way from keeping her from becoming a nun. Such as … if she didn’t obey the vows. If that was the case and she came to me to confess it,” he looked up, “which she would, because she is so ever obedient when it comes to rules … then I would not forgive her but tell her she had to leave the Order for good instead.”
    “But she is determined and very structured. There is no way she would ever break her vows of chastity, poverty and obedience willingly.”
    “That’s why you’ve got to help her do it.”
    “What are you suggesting?”
    “Take her on the pilgrimage and … bring this along to tempt her.” He picked up the gown and jewels and shoved them into Lucas’ s hands. “These seemed to mean a lot to her. Get her to try them on for you, that should do it.”
    “Just because she tries on a nice gown and jewels doesn’t mean she’ll keep wearing them.”
    “Then do something to make sure she doesn’t take them off. And also do something to get her to break her other vow.”
    Lucas knew what other vow he was speaking of, and he couldn’t say it hadn’t entered his mind. “So you’re saying you want me to … defile a nun?”
    “Nay, you’re not going to defile her. And besides, she’s not a nun, she’s only a novice. Just do what it takes to make her come to you of her own free will and instead, she will bed you!”
    “The thought excited Lucas beyond measure. But the fact that the idea came from a deceitful priest with greed in his heart and that he was ordered to do it, made Lucas want to retch. The rebellious part of him now made him want to keep his hands off of her, and that made him more confused than ever.
    “Get out of my way,” said Lucas, shoving the gown under his arm and grasping onto the amber jewelry as he pushed past the priest. “Because if I stay here a moment longer, I swear I am going to punch you.”

Chapter 5
    Amber sat still and focused in the small room of the scriptorium, t rying to concentrate on illuminating the capital letter A on the script in front of her. Sister Ursula sat behind her on a stool inspecting finished works, and two monks she just met recently named Brothers Walter and Victor kept bent over their pages as they copied script faster than anyone she knew.
    She learned much about working in the scriptorium since she’d arrived, from the way the animal skins were turned into parchment and soaked in lime, to the way they were stretched to dry. The pages for the books were cut to the right shape and size, then smoothed down with a pumice stone before her work even started. She had to rule the lines on the pages by first pricking the pages to indicate the spacing for the lines.
    She had h orns of colored ink on her workbench as well as gold leaf for gilding. She’d used glair, or the sticky substance from the bottom of a bowl of whipped egg whites for her binding element, trailing it out with her quill made of a sharpened goose feather to make the curly intricate designs. Then she’d added a dove to the artwork. It had dried enough now, and she leaned forward to blow her breath on it to make it tacky again and ready for gilding.
    She picked up her gilder’s tip, carefully balancing the very thin sheet of gold leaf and dropping it over the parchment where it almost seemed to jump into place. She used her thumb to press it down with a clean piece of silk, and picked up her burnishing tool which was naught more than a dog’s tooth mounted on a handle. She burnished the edges and top of the gold to make it shine. Then she picked up her soft ermine-haired brush and swept away the excess gold to reveal her work of art.
    Amber was trying her hardest to concentrate, but found it difficult after what she saw earlier today. She knew it wasn’t right for a priest to have such