Forsaken Soul

Chapter Thirty-Five

Brother John was a wiry man, well over a foot taller than the woman who accompanied him, but he was having difficulty keeping pace with the tiny prioress of Tyndal.

She glanced behind and said with a hint of impatience, “Did you not say that Sister Juliana begged you to bring me quickly?”

“Aye,” he panted as he raced after her.

“What brought about this plea? Did you question her as I asked? Was it that?”

“I do not know the cause, my lady. I did question her.”

“Do we have God’s creature or Satan’s in our anchorage?”

Although sweat was now beading on his gaunt face, a sweet look conquered his usual somber expression. “God’s, I think.”

“Yet you would agree that her behavior is most strange.”

“Many holy women have behaved in ways men have found questionable. Beatrice of Nazareth cinched her waist with a girdle of thorns and even feigned madness to show the depth of her ecstasy, but Jesus favored her by speaking in Latin only. Saint Mary of Egypt lived over five decades on herbs alone. Saint Euphrosyne dressed herself as a man and lived chastely with other monks in a monastery for almost four.” He gulped in a breath. “I find no fault in our own sister here.”

“How do we know she does not commune with Satan in secret?”

“After I spoke with her, I hid and watched her from the squint that opens into the church. She prays, either on her knees or lying with her face pressing into the ground. I did see her shake once as if convulsing, but her expression glowed with a most holy joy afterward.”

“Does she eat or sleep?” Eleanor’s pace did not slow.

“A rat ate the meal placed on the floor just inside the door. As for rest, God may grant it to her in some marvelous way, but I never saw her lie on her bed. Not that I was there for long…”

“She has asked to be given nothing to eat that was once living flesh, including both fish and fowl. Although we all should reject venison and other such meat to keep our bodies free from lust, I have heard that such extreme renunciation may suggest unorthodoxy. Those of the Cathar heresy often denied themselves in a similar way, did they not?”

“She strives to follow the desert fathers who fasted in a similar manner, not to deny or punish the body, but to cleanse it of those sins that drove Adam and Eve from Eden. I myself see no problem with her wish to live as if Lent must extend the length of her days on earth.”

“What of her sleepless nights at the window, waiting to attend all those souls in pain?”

“Satan and his imps may have claimed the night as theirs, but is not God mightier than evil?” He stopped for a moment but his prioress did not and he hurried to catch up. “Not one frail woman has suffered ill effects. I would suggest that God smiles on her and protects those who come to hear His words, spoken through her mouth. She may be unusual in greeting seekers to come to her window only after the sun sets, but other anchoresses have ministered to the suffering who prostrate themselves at the curtained window during the night. Her ways are not without precedence.”

“And her resistance to having any woman serve her? What is the point of that?”

The monk brushed the burning sweat from his eyes. “Sister Juliana told me that the women sent by our sub-prioress do not understand that she does not want to hear their voices while she is listening for God’s. A few have tried to tell her when to eat or sleep, while others frown or wince and in other ways express silent criticism of behavior they find troublesome or incomprehensible. Some have even tried to gossip and chatter with her, finding the solitude of an anchorage uncomfortable.”

“She wants a monk to serve her. Did she tell you that?”

“My lady, have mercy on me!” The monk bent forward, hands on knees. “God has given you a fleet foot whereas I have ever been a sluggish man and find it difficult to answer your concerns properly when I lack the breath to do them justice.”

Eleanor skidded to a stop. “Forgive me, Brother, for my thoughtlessness.”

The monk did his best to smile while gasping for air.

“Let us sit over there in the garden and rest before we see Sister Juliana.” She gestured toward a bench, hesitating briefly. Rarely did she come here without remembering the day, soon after she had first come to Tyndal, that a dead monk was found nearby. She prayed Brother John had forgotten.

The monk settled on a corner of the bench, apparently more grateful for the chance to rest than unsettled by any distressing memory. When his breathing returned to normal, he continued. “Had I not heard of Saint Euphrosyne or Christina of Markyake who lived chastely with the hermit Roger, albeit hidden in a miserable hole from which only he could release her, I might have questioned this desire more. Yet I find nothing lewd in her request. She seems to think men more peaceful creatures.” He pondered that for a silent moment. “I wonder what our new king would have to say about that.”

“Then it seems we must ask God to send her a woman with a man’s nature,” she replied.

A rustling sound came from the shrubbery a foot or two away, startling the prioress, but it was only the hospital cat. Trailing behind the creature were two kittens, one of which bore the distinctive markings of the prioress’ own orange tabby.

Brother John smiled. “You ask for a difficult resolution, my lady.”

A small bird landed a short distance away.

“We must continue to believe in miracles,” the prioress replied.

The cat hunched into the hunting pose. The kittens mimicked their mother.

The monk bent his head in modest agreement. “I shall add my prayers to yours.”

The bird flew off, accompanied by the high chirps of feline annoyance.

Eleanor rose. “Perhaps we should continue to the anchorage,” she said. “How did Sister Juliana learn that you were watching her?”

This time, Brother John kept pace. “I do not know how she could have discovered me, my lady, for I crouched close to the wall and held my breath when I thought she was near. Nevertheless, when she threw herself on her knees near the squint, begging that I send for you and crying that her soul was cursed, I did not ask questions but came for you at once.”

“We shall soon find out the source of her pain, Brother.” Then the prioress looked back at the kittens. They had forgotten all birds and were now engaged in an intense new hunt for bugs.

Suddenly Eleanor knew she had a solution to at least one of her problems.