A Killing Season

Chapter Nineteen

Prioress Eleanor followed the servant through the narrow passageways of the castle keep. Perhaps the sea breeze cooled this place in summer, she thought, but the wind from the winter sea, howling through the windows, pierced her to the very bone this night. She ached so painfully from the cold that she longed for the moment when it numbed her.

With the unexplained deaths of the baron’s sons, there had been much talk of Satan residing here, but now she doubted it. The Prince of Darkness might be foul; he was not witless. Preferring heat, he resided near Hell’s flames and would therefore eschew this place, leaving the castle to those disgraced imps he had banished to realms of eternal ice. Would she ever be warm again?

The servant stopped at a wooden door and knocked.

A voice from within gave permission to enter.

Opening the door, the servant bowed and gestured for Eleanor to proceed inside.

The chambers were brightened by flickering candles impaled on two tall iron candlesticks which rested on minutely detailed lion’s feet. A raging fireplace provided heat. Despite the chill she suffered, the intensity of the dancing fire struck the prioress with uncomfortable strength. She turned away and sought her hostess.

The remaining shadows struggled against the light and teased cruelly with the gaunt face of the woman sitting in a deeply carved chair.

“You are kind to see me.” Margaret’s words were devoid of warmth.

“I was told your plea was urgent.” Eleanor replied with gentleness, hoping to soften the wife’s clearly troubled spirit.

“Come closer to me. I would speak in confidence.”

Eleanor walked to the lady’s side. Some might say those words were haughty, she thought, but she heard profound suffering hidden within the command.

Lady Margaret began to weep. The jagged sound of her sobs confirmed she was a woman unaccustomed to emotion breaking through her resolve. “I have sinned most grievously.” She spat out the words.

Eleanor took the lady’s hand and cradled it gently in her own. “You are not alone in this. Be comforted, for God brings solace to those who wish it.”

The woman showed no sign of being soothed, yet neither did she flinch from the soft touch. Her unblinking eyes stared at the prioress.

For a moment, Eleanor wondered if she was looking into two black holes leading to Hell.

“I long to die.”

“Why?” Although she ought now to call for Brother Thomas, and urge the lady to seek penance for such a desire, Eleanor had learned from the anchoress at Tyndal that a woman’s hardest confessions often flowed more easily into repentance when she could speak first to another daughter of Eve.

“Look at me! I am a woman beset with lust, unfaithful in spirit to her husband, and the lowest of all God’s creation. This wickedness must be why God is slaying the sons of my womb!” Tearing her hand away, she pressed both palms against her eyes and wailed.

Eleanor saw a servant hovering near the fireplace. It was not the lady’s usual maid. “Leave us,” she commanded. The despair of their mistress should not become the subject of gossip.

As soon as the girl slipped away and had shut the door, the prioress found the pitcher of wine and poured a small measure into a cup. Returning to the baron’s wife, Eleanor lightly touched the woman’s arm. “Drink,” she said, leaving no doubt she expected obedience.

Lady Margaret’s face reddened, and then she nodded. With a swift gesture she brushed the moisture from her cheeks and took the proffered drink, sipping at it until the mazer was empty.

Eleanor refilled it and handed the cup back. “We all suffer lust. It is one of several curses with which God burdened the first woman. Yet you told me earlier that you came to your husband a virgin and did refuse all temptations while he was gone. Did you speak the truth?”

Margaret looked away. “I’ll not deny temptation, but I fled from it. Now that my lord is home, I have lost all strength to resist.” She glanced back at the prioress. “I saw your expression at supper. You recognized my wickedness, and I do confess that I longed to lure Sir Hugh into my bed.”

“Did my brother join you there for sport?”

“He is more virtuous than I.”

Eleanor said nothing. Many proclaimed that a woman so lacking in virtue must be denied all sympathy. God forgave, however, and so would she. As for her brother, men were often called the victims of woman’s rampant lust. It was conventional wisdom she had cause to doubt, and she hoped he had been kind in his refusal. The shame Lady Margaret suffered from such public longing was humiliation enough without a man treating her like a common whore.

As for her own right to condemn, Eleanor owned none. She herself had itched with lust for Sir Leonel and had coupled often enough with incubi disguised as Brother Thomas in her dreams.

“My brother is not a saint,” she said, “and may well have been tempted, but your virtue is renowned and he would have assumed that tonight was God’s test of his own. Being a soldier, not a poet, he cannot transform lust into verse, praising your beauty like Solomon did. His only recourse is to turn his back and walk away. Knowing my brother, he would choose to suffer rather than insult your honor by approaching your chambers. He was well aware that your door would have been barred to him had he tried.”

Margaret hid her reaction by drinking more wine.

“There is another matter at issue here. You said your husband has refused to honor his responsibility to the marriage bed. Even though the Church might long for us all to remain celibate, it recognizes that it is better to marry when we are incapable of choosing the higher virtue. Thus it is the obligation of both husband and wife to embrace each other in mutual satisfaction. His failure to honor this obligation encourages sin.” She raised a questioning eyebrow. “Might he have decided to take vows?”

Margaret shook her head. “He has not said so.” Her lips twisted into a sour smile. “That means nothing for he has refused to speak to me since his return.”

“Even so, if entrance into a monastic life was his wish, he would surely have sent a message informing you of those intentions.” At least he should have done so if he felt any affection or a scrap of kindness toward his wife. Eleanor tried not to betray her disapproval of the baron, but Brother John, a man of unquestioned faith, had wept bitterly over the pain he was inflicting when he told his wife of his longing for the cloister. “Was your marriage a happy one in the past?”

“Before my lord took the cross, it was.” Margaret’s eyes became unfocused with wistful memory. “We found deep joy in each other and were blessed with many sons…” She began again to weep, but these sobs were muted.

“How long was Baron Herbert gone?” Eleanor asked the question as much out of mercy as curiosity.

“He left England before King Edward and set sail from Outremer in advance of our lord’s return. He did not travel directly home. He first stopped in Solerno, and then Rome before going to Paris.”

An interesting journey, Eleanor thought. The stop in Rome was understandable for anyone of Christian faith. Solerno was a more curious choice. Paris suggested troubling reasons of a more secular nature.

As for the stay in Solerno, the renowned medical school was a likely cause. The possibility that he had become impotent did occur to her, but surely the excellent physicians there would have told him whether or not his condition was hopeless. He would not have needed to seek medical advice elsewhere, especially in Paris. Since Baron Herbert had not shared a bed with the Lady Margaret since his return, however, there was no reason to ask her if he was still virile.

After Rome and Solerno, he could have sailed from Italy, a much faster route to England. If he did not need the services of doctors in Paris, there was one other reason men went there. That was to sell their loyalty to the French king.

Yet the baron had made no attempt to hide his visit. This fact boded well, leading the prioress to doubt he had any intent that reeked of treachery. The many relics available in Parisian churches suggested he was probably satisfying a vow made during his sojourn in Outremer.

All considered, nothing about the baron’s journey home explained why he had banished both wife and sons from his favor. Eleanor was left with the same obvious conclusion with which she had started: Baron Herbert had an unknown reason for delaying his return for as long as possible.

“My brother also traveled by land rather than sailing,” she said at last. “Our family may have regretted the choice, but he had many adventures as a result. Our patience has been rewarded with his fine tales.”

“You are fortunate. When my lord arrived at our gates, he counted the number of sons awaiting him, then turned his back on us all with no explanation. He lives apart, and although we have begged audience with him, he always refuses. Any messages are sent through Sir Leonel.” She looked away. “That is a harsh task to demand of the young man. Yet he balances his duty to my husband with respect and compassion toward us.”

“Sir Leonel seems a worthy man. I have heard that he fought valiantly at your husband’s side. Was he not knighted for his valor?”

Margaret nodded. “My husband was rightfully proud when King Edward chose to honor our family by including our nephew in the ceremony.” She sighed. “I fear my lord has found his nephew to be a better son than those I gave him.”

“If he found fault with any, surely it was because most were unformed boys when he left. With such a noble sire, they must have grown into worthier men.”

“Before he left for Outremer, he called them all sniveling creatures because not one showed any longing to wield a sword.” The lady’s laugh was sharp. “Only our eldest, the heir who died of a fever before my husband’s return, inspired any praise and that was faint enough. My husband said of him that he might wield accounting rolls well enough, but they would be soft swords were this castle attacked.”

A hard man, Eleanor thought. Although her own father was an experienced and skilled warrior, Baron Adam never condemned his youngest son who had always preferred farming to battle. His only other son, however, had proven his mettle in war.

Unlike her father, this baron had not known most of his sons as men, first because of his absence in the cause of capturing Jerusalem for Christian sovereignty and next because of his inexplicable delay in returning. His knowledge of them remained that of babes clinging to their mother’s robe. Did he fail to understand that boys eventually matured?

“I had hoped that Raoul at least might find favor with his father when he came home. He has grown into a man who reminds me much of my husband when I first knew him.”

Eleanor raised an eyebrow at this unexpected remark. “How so?”

“Our youngest keeps his own counsel, then acts with swift, firm purpose. Although his demeanor is stern, this mother knows he owns a loving heart. I fear he mocks what he should not, but his father’s faith deepened only after God had proven His favor with so many sons.”

An interesting assessment, the prioress thought, and quite different from my brother’s. This Raoul was no sniveling creature, yet the lady’s opinion was softened with a mother’s vision.

Margaret frowned. “It is a pity that Umfrey is now my husband’s heir. He has no love for swords and is best suited to a place in the Church. With only two sons left, and Umfrey ill-suited to the task, Raoul may have to remain here, providing his brother with the strong arm and wily spirit needed to survive in this sinful world. That grieves me. We had wished to give one son to God’s service.”

“What of Sir Leonel? Will he remain with this family that raised him?”

“Unless he finds a place amongst the king’s men, he has few choices. Leonel’s father, my lord’s only brother, gambled inordinately, and my husband was forced to sell Leonel’s lands to pay the sire’s debts. Truth be told, my husband sold some of his own patrimony as well to save the family honor. Since this meant there was less to give to the Church, the call to take the cross won my husband’s heart more firmly. If he could not buy fine plate for God’s altar, he knew he should give his soul to the cause in Outremer.”

“Your husband is a worthy man, generous to both kin and God.”

Margaret turned her face away.

Eleanor suspected the lady had disagreed with both the baron’s choices but also concluded that the opposition was never given voice. If she did not speak of this to the baron, she would never admit it to any stranger.

“As for the future,” Margaret said, “Umfrey will find some work for his cousin to perform here, after my husband’s death, unless my lord begs the king for a small favor. Although Leonel did bring wealth back from Outremer, it was too little to buy enough good land to support the needs of a knight of his rank.”

Eleanor was reminded of a young man she met last summer whose father lost all by supporting Simon de Montfort. It is difficult, she recalled, to be sired by a father of noble birth, then be left nothing with which to provide a suitable living. Leonel had shown only grace, from what she had heard, but he must still suffer from the loss of his estate.

“Perhaps the king will grant him more than a simple living,” the prioress said. “Unlike his father, your nephew has behaved with honor and showed bravery in God’s cause.”

“For the time being, he shows no inclination to leave my husband’s side, nor, it seems, does my lord wish him to do so. Perhaps this is selfish of me: I do not long for the day when he must depart. The young knight lightens our cruel sorrow under the weight of my husband’s silence.”

Eleanor asked herself what else she could say to comfort this woman. Although there must be a reason why the baron had chosen to act as he had, she saw no cause. Nor did the Lady Margaret seem to know more than anyone else.

Unless the wife was hiding something, this treatment of Herbert’s sons was unwarranted and illogical. Although the baron might have held his young, unformed sons in contempt before he left, most fathers would be willing, even eager to see how they had grown into men after such a long absence.

Was Baron Herbert so rigid in his expectations that he refused to grant them a chance to prove themselves? Had he learned something troubling about them, of which even his wife had no knowledge? Or had something else happened in Outremer to make him this unbending in his contempt? Hugh might know, but Eleanor doubted it. He had seemed as perplexed as she about what was happening here.

There was only one thing she might say, based on conclusions made after seeing her own brother so changed on his return, as well as other crusaders who had come to Tyndal Priory for healing. Her words might bring little comfort, but they could result in patience.

“From all you have said,” the prioress said, “your husband has changed greatly during those many years of your separation. I have witnessed the same in my brother, although I saw him little enough after our mother’s death. Greeting him when he returned from Outremer, I felt as if I were seeing his face in a mist. The image was recognizable, yet not as clear as it had been. Although I delight in my beloved brother, he has become a stranger in small ways. In the midst of conversation, for instance, he may fall silent and walk away as if he forgets that I am in his company.”

Margaret tilted her head, listened, but said nothing.

“War is a man’s lot. They grow up with it, learn the skills to survive, and then do battle. I overheard my father once say to a friend, that no one could understand what war was like except another man who had also fought.”

“We suffer as well.”

“My aunt agrees and once told me that women often do experience the havoc of war, but our pain is different and should remain unspoken. When husbands return from battle, changed beyond recognition, we must greet them with patience and charity. It becomes our duty to teach men the strength of the meek and pray they hear what God has taught us. If they do not, a wife is left with only the comfort God may grant, and she must pray for eventual peace in her husband’s soul.”

The lady looked away. “I do not have that fortitude you tell me the meek should own.”

“I think you do,” Eleanor said, reaching out to lightly touch the wife’s wrist. “You have shown just such courage during the long years of your lord’s absence.”

Suddenly the door to the chamber crashed open.

Both women jumped to their feet.

A servant rushed in and gestured wildly, his mouth opening and closing without sound.

“Speak!” Margaret ordered.

“My lady, I have sorrowful news. Your son, Umfrey, has been found dead in the chapel!”

The baron’s wife screamed.