The Servant's Tale

5

THE WINTER’S BLACK cold had set in about St. Catherine’s Day, snowless and bleak under overcast skies until by then, at December’s end, all the world’s chill gray seemed settled into the nuns’ very bones as thoroughly as the rheum was into their chests and their general mood into petty quarrelsomeness.

Frevisse, huddled down into the several woolen and linen layers of her habit, was finding them poor comfort against that cold as she waited at the warming-room door for her sister nuns scurrying hunch shouldered and shivering along the cloister to join her for the morning chapter meeting. Their faces as they came were as red nosed and bleak as she knew her own to be. Morning Mass was finished and it was time for the daily chapter meeting, when the nuns gathered to discuss their priory’s business and grievances.

St. Frideswide’s was small enough, and poor enough, not to have a separate chapter house for these meetings. Instead, chapter was held in the same rectangular room in the cloister that served as warming room in winter and summer gathering place for the nuns’ late-afternoon hour of recreation when the weather was too rainy for walking in the garden. It had one of the priory’s few fireplaces, and this bitter winter Domina Edith had given permission for its daily use.

Frevisse opened the door to its warmth as the nuns reached her. They bustled through, hasty and out of step. Well behind them, coming at her own age-slowed pace, was Domina Edith, in company with Father Henry and Sister Juliana, this month’s chaplain, each holding her by a brittle elbow.

The prioress was old and had been ill. Frevisse knew there could be no hurrying her and went on waiting patiently until, looking up, Domina Edith gave her an acknowledging and dismissive nod. Frevisse gratefully stepped back into the room, closing the door to keep in what warmth there was from the high-burning fire on the hearth.

The other nuns were already gathered there, warming their hands and-by a stealthy lifting of black skirts-their shins, instead of taking their places on the eleven stools set in a double curve in front of the prioress’s chair facing the hearth.

Frevisse slipped in among them gladly until the sound of a hand on the door latch brought them all quickly around to go stand before their stools where they were supposed to be. She had noticed that the hand that never otherwise fumbled often fumbled with that latch on chill winter mornings, just long enough to give them all a chance to take their places.

Father Henry came in, Domina Edith still leaning on his arm, Sister Juliana behind them. He brought her to her chair and seated her.

There was something more than the usual deep respect in the nuns’ curtsies as he did so. This was Domina Edith’s first attendance at chapter in almost two weeks, a longer absence than ever before in all her more than thirty years in office. The rheum that was only a severe nuisance to the others had settled into her lungs and nearly killed her. Dame Claire had fought against it with all her skill in herbs and pungent plasters, aromatic steams, and strengthening brews, and had won. So now Domina Edith was come back to sit in her accustomed place, more pale and thin than she had been at winter’s beginning, wrapped in a warm furred robe, but her eyes reflecting her keen pleasure in returning to them.

Frevisse’s pleasure was equally keen. During her illness, Domina Edith’s place had been taken by Dame Alys, as was her right and duty as cellarer. But Dame Alys even at her best was ill-tempered, and was presently much worse, aggravated out of her limited patience by her own coughing, blowing, and spitting.

So in the few moments while the nuns seated themselves in a rustle of veils and skirts at Domina Edith’s gesture, Frevisse watched her prioress with relieved affection, then followed her gaze as it went past them to Sister Thomasine sitting in her chosen place as youngest and most determinedly humble of the nuns, at the far end of the stone bench built out from the lower courses of the wall, most distant from the fire.

The shrinking humility that had been Sister Thomasine’s promise of worthiness when she was a novice had eased after she was safely and forever the spouse of Christ; but now and again Domina Edith saw need to remind her that humility and comfort were not mutually exclusive. She crooked a finger at the girl now. Obediently Sister Thomasine rose and came to curtsy low in front of her. Leaning forward to spare her voice, Domina Edith said, “You’ve not yet caught this winter sickness, have you?”

“No, Domina,” Sister Thomasine whispered.

“And it was your voice almost alone that carried us through the services this morning, was it not?”

Sister Thomasine dared not lie, even in humility. “Yes, Domina.”

“Then you will sit in the place designated for you, there on your stool, near the warmth, that you may continue in health to raise your voice in praise to God so long as He allows.”

Sister Thomasine curtsied again, even more deeply, whispered, “Yes, Domina,” and went to her stool, head bowed.

Irk twitched at Frevisse; so much insistent modesty wore at her nerves.

“Now,” murmured Domina Edith. “In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.”

Crossing themselves along with her, her nuns all bowed their heads for the prayer to the Holy Spirit for guidance and blessing in this meeting. Then Father Henry read the chapter of St. Benedict’s Rule designated for the day, first in his stumbling Latin and then again in English. The Rule was short, only seventy-three chapters, and most chapters only a paragraph or two in length, so that with reading one chapter a day, it was heard in its entirety three times a year. Chapter 72, to be read on April 30, August 30, and this day, December 30, dwelt on the “good zeal” that nuns should have. “‘Thus they should anticipate one another in honor,’” read Father Henry, “‘most patiently endure one another’s infirmities, whether of body or of character; vie in paying obedience one to another-no one following what he considers useful for himself, but rather what benefits another…’”

At the end he did not offer his usual commentary. He was almost over his rheum but his deepening complexion as he read showed that the need to cough was still with him, and at the last he settled for blessing them quickly with hand and soundless lips before going out. When he was gone, Domina Edith looked at her nuns, noted that Sister Emma’s hand was up in request to speak, and nodded to her.

Sister Emma stood up and Frevisse settled herself resignedly. Sister Emma was sure of her voice’s charm; she always went the longer way around to what she meant to say, and even today, rough with her cold, she was plainly going to be no different than usual.

“We’re all-” Sister Emma cast a glance at Sister Thomasine sitting serenely without a handkerchief. “-almost all-of us most grievously suffering together with our aches and rheums. But rather than lessening our duty to be concerned and careful for one another, our mutual trial but increases the need for consideration. Time and again these past days I’ve passed in the cloister walk where someone has failed to tread out their sputum on the pavement. The treading out of sputum is a thing St. Benedict himself mentioned in our Rule, and so it seems surely a matter that needs speaking to now, that we may live in decency and good respect with one another. After all, ‘The wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors rooted out of it.’”

Only one proverb and fewer than three times the number of words necessary to make her point, Frevisse thought; Sister Emma’s cold must be troubling her sorely indeed to make her so brief.

With all solemnity Domina Edith agreed on the necessity of good manners among themselves no matter how grievous their bodily discomforts were, and pronounced that good manners should prevail. Sputum should be promptly trod out by the spitter as provided for in the Rule. “And aught else?” she asked.

And inevitably there was. This was the time when accusations and confessions of faults were to be made and discipline and penance given. There came the usual mentions of small rudenesses needing pardon, and confessions of minor lapses troubling consciences, interspersed with coughing and sneezing. Quietly, giving no space for little matters to spread into great ones by too much talking, Domina Edith judged and settled while Frevisse, her back near the fire, sank into a warm lethargy. All too soon she would have to bestir herself back to duties in the cold world, so for just now she was enjoying being able to be still and warm while the chapter meeting ran its way.

The meeting shifted to reports on matters at the priory in general.

Dame Alys stood up, snorted, hacked, and said, “The pig we’ve fattened for the villeins’ penny ale this Christmastide was slaughtered yesterday and dressed out at near to fifty pounds, more than we’d thought it’d be. Though whether there’ll be cider enough is another matter. Dame Frevisse has seen fit to be giving it to people in the guesthall without asking my leave or need in the matter and if that goes on, I don’t know where we’ll be.”

Frevisse, roused from her comfort, cast quickly through her mind and realized Dame Alys was talking about yesterday when Meg had brought her some cider from the kitchen. She could make some sort of defense of that, but on the whole it was better that Dame Alys’s displeasure should fall on her rather than on Meg’s overburdened head.

Domina Edith asked, “Have you answer for that, Dame Frevisse?”

Frevisse rose. “No, my lady.”

Domina Edith sighed and said, “We must observe the rules set down for all our good, especially for the kitchen since food is scarce this winter and costly, not even to be given to guests without Dame Alys being asked first and her permission given. In penance you shall go without your portion of cider at supper these next three days and apologize to Dame Alys for failing in courtesy to her.”

Somewhat stiffly, Frevisse said, “I beg your pardon for my failure, Dame Alys.”

Dame Alys, blowing her nose, nodded ungraceful acceptance and said to the room at large, “If there’s to be spiced cider for the villeins’ wassailing in the orchard on Twelfth Night, we must mend our ways. Even so there may not be enough to see us through to Lent.” She raised meaningful eyebrows at Frevisse.

Dame Perpetua, as always, expressed her regret that such frivolity as wassailing continued to be encouraged by the priory among the villeins. No matter how old the custom, it seemed to have little to do with holy days from any Christian view she had read. Domina Edith, as always, agreed with her without providing for reform, and asked for the rest of her obedientiaries to report.

One after another, they said omnia bene, all was well, except Dame Claire who was concerned that her supply of horehound for sore throats might not be sufficient for the winter.

At the last it was Frevisse’s turn since her office of hosteler was least among the obedientiaries. Very briefly she reported that there were no people in the new guesthall and nine people in the old: Lord Lovel’s villein, Barnaby Shene, who was seriously hurt, his wife and two sons tending to him, and five travelers, including a sick child.

“He awoke in the night with a sore throat and has a cough and fever this morning. They will be staying until he is well enough to travel, by your leave, Domina.”

Domina Edith nodded her approval and looked at her nuns. “Is there aught else that must be said now?” she asked. After quick glances among themselves, they all shook their heads. She smiled. “Then let me only remind you that no matter how ill or well we are feeling-or sounding-we must remember before all else that what matters more than our feelings are our prayers and singing in the daily services, especially at this holy time of year. It is our souls’ grace and God’s worship we are supposed to be accomplishing. It is our inward being, not our outward seeming, that matters most to God. Remember that, rather than dwell on our imperfections.”

She was more pale than when she had come in, her aged skin pulled thin over her face’s bones, her body sunk deeply into her cloak. Frevisse knew that Dame Claire was poised to go to her the moment she dismissed them to their day’s work.

But a discreet knock at the door turned all their heads toward it, and Domina Edith said, “Enter.” Her voice had no strength behind it and she gestured to Dame Alys to call again.

At Dame Alys’s booming croak, the lay woman who was supposed to keep watch at the outer door into the cloister put her head in to say, “It’s Roger Naylor, my lady, craving word with you as soon as might be.”

A stir of curiosity passed among the nuns. Naylor was the priory’s steward, in charge of their properties and the other worldly matters necessary to sustain St. Frideswide’s spiritual life. Occasionally, as his duties necessitated, he came into the cloister to confer with Domina Edith. Now, at her nod, he entered the room.

He was a dour-faced man whom Frevisse had come to know a little since her hosteling had begun to take her out of the cloister more. She was not sure she liked him but knew that his long, lined, rarely smiling face fronted a mind not only keen to St. Frideswide’s best advantage but mostly fair in pursuing it.

He came now the length of the room to kneel on one knee before Domina Edith, who left him there as she said in her soft voice, “There must be more than usually grievous trouble, Master Naylor, that you presume to come here. What is it?”

“Not so much trouble yet, my lady, as trouble to come if it’s not dealt with now. Do you know who bides in your guesthall this while?”

Domina Edith frowned, both at his words and the general stir among her nuns. “Yes, we know who bides in our guesthall. A man hurt maybe to his death though he yet lives, and his family tending to him, and five travelers who are staying on because of a sick child among them.”

“It’s not plain travelers they are, though they’re surely minded to keep you thinking they are. But I heard two of the men talking in the stable. They’re players. For all they’d have us think they’re honest folk, that’s all they are and nothing better.”

Domina Edith said, “You may rise, Master Naylor,” and looked with mild questioning at Frevisse. “Did you know this, Dame?”

“That they were players? I knew. They never sought to hide it from me, Domina.”

“But you never said so!” Sister Fiacre’s shocked voice broke in, as unexpected as it was seldom heard. She had always been given to nerves and flutterings, mostly expressed in hand wringings or, if very sorely distressed, in tears. These months past an illness had been draining her to the point where much was forgiven her. Now she so far forgot herself to exclaim, “If you knew what they were, you should have said, Dame Frevisse!”

Frevisse retorted crisply, “I’ve not made it custom to tell more than how many guests we have and why they’re here. Chapter meetings aren’t for gossip.”

“But traveling players!” Dame Alys croaked. “They’re not decent. Not fit to be inside our honest walls, for certain.”

She glared at Roger Naylor for confirmation. Frevisse was amused to see him torn between agreeing with Dame Alys and disliking her support. As cellarer, Dame Alys had the right to interfere in his office, and often did.

Gazing somewhere over Domina Edith’s left shoulder, he only said, “I’d like to know whether their boy is truly ailing, or shamming so they can linger long enough to choose what to steal.”

“Dame Frevisse?” Domina Edith’s neutral tone gave Frevisse both permission to answer that and a warning to keep watch on her ready tongue.

“The boy is truly ill, with a cough, inflamed throat, and fever. If he stays warm and quiet, he should better quickly, but the raw weather would be dangerous for him now.”

“And you’re sure he’s not shamming?” Naylor insisted.

Dame Claire stood up. At Domina Edith’s nod she said with the assurance of authority, “I saw him this morning. There is no doubt of his illness.”

“And beyond that,” Frevisse said, unable to restrain herself, “you do wrong to suspect folk who’ve done a service to a hurt man and no harm that we know of.”

“They’re lordless men,” Naylor replied. “Answerable to no one and belonging nowhere. Their sort are never to be trusted.”

“Some players have a patron who answers for them,” Domina Edith said with a questioning look at Frevisse.

Frevisse shook her head. “They’ve mentioned no one to me.”

“And surely they would have if they belonged to someone,” Dame Alys put in.

Sister Fiacre rose to her feet with unusual fierceness. “And even that’s no surety. My lord father was patron to some, but when my brother inherited the lordship he turned them off because he found they were misusing our name to base ends. All such are of a kind and none of them honest!”

So long a speech left her breathless. As much in need as in embarrassment, she pressed her sleeve over her mouth and, coughing, sat down.

“That’s no more fair a thing to say than that all stewards are thieves because some are,” Frevisse retorted, meaning it a jibe as much at Naylor as she did at Sister Fiacre. “All we know of these folk is that they did an honest service to a hurt man and have asked for the shelter the Rule binds us to give them and are kept here by a sick child. It’s unjust to assume they are other than they’ve shown themselves to be.”

“By the time they show what they are, it will be too late,” Naylor responded. “Give them a medicine for the child and maybe an extra blanket and send them on their way.”

They had both forgotten Domina Edith and were speaking directly at each other. Frevisse said, more sharply than she intended, “Better we be wronged by them than that we wrong them without cause.”

“They’re gadelings.”

“Lordless, yes, but not without a living. They were employed at Fen Harcourt over Christmas, and have work in Oxford when they reach there.”

Domina Edith raised her hand. “Enough.”

Naylor closed his mouth over what he was about to say. Frevisse, startled to realize how heated she had become, bowed her head, tucked her hands into her sleeves and subsided. Dame Alys trumpeted into her handkerchief, letting her red-faced glare take the place of words, while Sister Fiacre wrung her hands silently.

“It is not our place to judge these people,” Domina Edith said. “There is no harm in keeping some small watch on them, which you may set if you so wish, Master Naylor, so long as it is done without offense to them. But we have offered them shelter and are bound by the Rule to give it so long as it is fit and they do us no wrong. Indeed, they may do us a good. This is a season when the Holy Church bids us make merry. Do you think it possible, Dame Frevisse, that they would perform for us? A play suitable to the place and season tomorrow or the next day maybe, if they stay so long?”

“Oh, yes, please!” Sister Amicia exclaimed with a glad clap of her hands. Then she covered her mouth in shock at her breach of manners.

“Three paternosters on your knees before the altar, Sister Amicia, before this evening’s Compline,” Domina Edith said without even looking at her. Sister Amicia’s flares of frivolous enthusiasm were familiar to all of them. “Dame Frevisse?”

“Yes,” Frevisse said. “I think they would willingly do that. I’ll ask them and then tell you what they say.”

“Do so. And that, I think, ends this morning’s business.” Domina Edith raised an unsteady hand in a gesture that included all of them. “Go with God’s blessing on you and your duties through the day.”