Here Be Dragons - 1 by Sharon Penman (best ebook reader android TXT) 📗

81hied into the room. Joanna heard him gasp, and then he had spun ound, was seeking to block Maud's entry with an outstretched arm. She lunged past him, and then began to scream.There was a strong stench in the room, of wine and vomit and urine. Joanna could see part of the bed, see the overturned flagon on the floor. Wine dripped from the rim, had gathered in a sodden pool midst the rushes. Her mother's blonde hair swept the floor; the ends were trailing in the wine, matted and dark. The wine looked like blood to Joanna. She tried to take a step closer, but her knees gave way."A doctor, name of God, fetch a doctor!"A white arm dangled over the side of the bed, fingers tightly clenched. Cedric reached out, reluctantly grasped the wrist and quickly let it drop. "Nay, we do need a priest," he said huskily, and Maud fell to her knees by the bed, began a high keening wail. Cedric crossed himself, backed toward the door.Joanna found herself sitting on the floor by the hearth. She slid along the ground until she reached the table, crawled under. There she crouched, putting her hands up to her ears to shut out Maud's screams.MAUD had yet to move away from Clemence's body. She looked up as Cedric reentered the bedchamber, and her face contorted in fear, for he'd not summoned the village priest; the white-garbed monk at his side was JohnBrompton, Abbot of Jervaulx Abbey. He looked at the woman on the bed, shook his head slowly, and Maud sobbed, grabbed his arm."A mischance, Reverend Father, that is all ... I swear it! She wanted only to sleep ..."He disengaged her clutching fingers, gazed down at the empty wine flagons."She did take a sleeping draught?"Maud sobbed again. "Her nights were so bad, Abbot John. Last spring I went to the castle leech; he gave me henbane and white poppy. But she meant no harm to herself. You must believe that, must let her be buried in consecrated ground, I beg you ..."Her voice rose shrilly, and the Abbot said hastily, "Calm yourself, woman. You do disturb yourself for naught, I assure you. It is plain enough what happened. She was distraught, did misjudge the potion."Maud nodded dumbly, then snatched up his hand and, before he could withdraw, pressed it to her lips. He patted her shoulder, said, Do you wish Cedric to see the wainright about building a coffin?"She'd buried her face in her apron, only wept the harder, and he sighed, unfastened the crucifix that dangled from his belt, and aPproached the bed. As he did, he happened to glance toward the

82outer room, and for the first time he noticed Joanna, cowering under the table."God in Heaven, did you never think of the child?"Joanna watched as he knelt beside her, held out his hand. "Come to me, little one. That's a good lass . . ."He smelled of sweat and horses and garlic, but his voice was soft coaxing.Joanna wrapped her arms around his neck. She was trembling so violently that her teeth were chattering, and she bit down on her thumb, tasting blood in her mouth. "Mama . . .""She's in God's keeping now, lass. She's dead."CLINGING to the Abbot's hand, Joanna entered into the bailey of MiddlehamCastle. Ahead of her rose the limestone ashlar keep. She stared up at it, openmouthed, for it seemed to reach straight toward Heaven. A wooden stairway extended out into the bailey, led up into the keep, and she hesitated, dizzy at the thought of scaling those heights, but the Abbot gently propelled her forward, and she grasped the railing, began a slow, cautious climb.The great hall could easily have accommodated their entire cottage, so vast it was, with windows soaring toward the roof and an open hearth in the center of the floor. A woman was moving toward them, dressed in the softest blue woolJoanna had ever seen."I've been expecting you, Reverend Father. Is this the child?" "Aye. Joanna, this is the Lady Helweisa, wife to Lord Robert. Make your curtsy and then await me in the window seat."He watched as the child moved away, said, "She has not cried, not even yesterday when we buried her mother." Turning, he gratefully took the wine cup a servant was offering, followed Helweisa to the hearth."Tell me, Madame, what do you know of the girl's mother?" "Nothing, if truth be told. Guy, our bailiff, rented them the cottage, and all their dealings were with him. Neither my husband nor I concern ourselves with such minor matters. I did assume that the woman was a young widow or, more likely, a foolish girl who'd listened to the wrong man's blandishments."He nodded. "An all-too-common tale, I fear. The girl was very young, and the man was married. When her family discovered she was with child, they cast her out in disgrace.""How, then, did she pay the upkeep on the cottage?" "From what the old woman, Maud, told me, the girl's father paid the rent, saw that her needs were met.Not so much out of charity, ' fear, as to keep her from bringing further shame upon the family name

83lyiew enough to realize that a girl turned out to starve will buy her d with all she has left to barter, her body. But although they put d on her table, they denied her their forgiveness. The father said she dead in his eyes, and held to that, even upon his deathbed. The iHer son was no less rigid. The younger son was more sympathetic, but could not gainsay his father and brother, although he did take it upon, . se]f to write her of their father's death. The rest you know.""As you say, Reverend Father, a common tale, and likely to remain o as long as there be born men with glib tongues and silly chits willing to pay tnem heed.What mean you