Free Threads of Treason by Mary Bale Page B

him.
    ‘ Did you see that?’ he asked breathlessly when he arrived.
    ‘ What?’ asked Eleanor, not bothering to hide her irritation at having to talk to this filthy man.
    ‘ Rufus and his knights.’ He plucked at a stained bandage about his wrist.
    ‘ Prince William to you,’ she said stiffly.
    ‘ You didn’t get to see Lanfranc again, did you?’
    ‘ I have no intention of discussing my actions with you.’ She turned away.
    ‘ I knew you didn’t.’
    She turned back and glared at him. ‘Who has paid you to follow me today?’ He crumpled into a humble slump and peeped up at her with a wily twinkle in his eye. She wanted to poke it.
    ‘ Alfred told me to keep an eye on you,’ he said. ‘I would rather see your Norman bones rot in a pit, but Alfred thinks you’re all right.’
    ‘ Look what we give you,’ said Eleanor making a grand arch with her arm, embracing all the new building works for the cathedral.
    ‘ We had perfectly good churches before you lot came along. This is The Conqueror’s penance. With all the bloodshed he’s caused the church has conned him into all this building for the sake of his soul. And he wouldn’t have cared less if they hadn’t tried to excommunicate him all those years ago for marrying his cousin.’
    ‘ She wasn’t his cousin.’
    ‘ Old Lanfranc got him off that one, didn’t he? That’s why he’s here. That old Italian. Got the top job for putting matters right with the Pope.’
    ‘ You are wrong. Archbishop Lanfranc is a very humble, religious monk. He didn’t want to come here.’
    ‘ Well then, perhaps the Pope thought he’d better send him here to keep an eye on the old sod.’
    Eleanor went to clout the man’s ear for calling King William an ‘old sod’. She could have him flogged, of course, but part of her couldn’t help but agree with Agid’s sentiment. She too hoped Lanfranc could control the King’s warring. He had, after all, managed to get him to sign up to the church’s peace movement last year. And, anyway Agid had disappeared again, so she carried on walking. She was soon aware of the beggar at her heels again.
    ‘ Do you know,’ he whispered, ‘that old Italian monk you hold up so high struck off some of our Anglo-Saxon saints from the calendar.’
    ‘ Perhaps,’ said Eleanor, her temper rising again, ‘he thought you had enough holidays.’
    Agid laughed. ‘You’re not so bad, Abbess.’
    Already they stood at the gates of St Augustine’s.
    ‘ Now if you’ll excuse me, you can tell Alfred that I’m in the best of health.’
    ‘ There’s one more thing you ought to know about Lanfranc, but that isn’t for me to tell you.’
    ‘ What is that?’
    ‘ Ask your own archbishop – Odo of Bayeux.’ With that Agid melted into the throng.
    Eleanor called, ‘Wait.’ But she received no reply.
    * * *
    Therese and the other nuns left the church after vespers by the priest’s door on the north side of the church. Prioress Ethelburga had explained earlier that she had decided the builders should clean up the cloisters before a final spring clean by themselves. Perhaps, thought Therese, Richard of Caen had been mellowed by Agnes’s vitals into agreement. Anyway, the work was continuing into the evening. Nor did Ethelburga think it seemly for the nuns to go through the dorter while builders were in the compound.
    The setting sun gave the church a heavy shadow and this chilled the air about them so they wrapped their semi-circular cloaks tight and pulled their hoods over their veils. Therese felt a strange freedom from just standing outside the convent compound. With her head bowed she followed the others towards the gatehouse. The building site end of the church was quiet, with all the builders in the cloister.
    She felt the thrumming of hooves through the hillside before glancing sideways and seeing riders coming towards them. Prioress Ethelburga looked alarmed and waved at the nuns, telling them to wait where they were while she