Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin Read Free Book Online

the belly had been split open, as if by a spear, and...there were other injuries."
    There had been immediate uproar in the town. To save every man, woman, and child in Jewry from slaughter, they had been hurried to Cambridge Castle by the sheriff and his men, acting on behalf of the king, under whose protection the Jews were.
    "Even so, on the way, Chaim was seized by those seeking vengeance and hanged from Saint Radegund's willow. They took his wife as she pleaded for him and tore her to pieces." Prior Geoffrey crossed himself. "The sheriff and myself did what we could, but we were outdone by the townsfolk's fury." He frowned; the memory pained him. "I saw decent men transform into hellhounds, matrons into maenads."
    He lifted his cap and passed his hand over his balding head. "Even then, Master Simon, it might be that we could have contained the trouble. The sheriff managed to restore order, and it was hoped that, since Chaim was dead, the remaining Jews would be allowed to return to their homes. But no. Now onto the floor steps Roger of Acton, a cleric new to our town and one of our Canterbury pilgrims. Doubtless you noticed him, a lean-shanked, mean-featured, whey-faced, importunate fellow of dubious cleanliness. Master Roger happens"--the prior glared at Simon as if finding fault with him--" happens to be cousin to the prioress of Saint Radegund, a seeker after fame through the scribbling of religious tracts that reveal little but his ignorance."
    The two men shook their heads. The blackbird went on singing.
    Prior Geoffrey sighed. "Master Roger heard the dread word 'crucifixion' and snapped at it like a ferret. Here was something new. Not merely an accusation of torture such as Jews have ever inspired...I beg your pardon, Master Simon, but it has always been so."
    "I fear it has, my lord. I fear it has."
    "Here was a reenactment of Easter, a child found worthy to suffer the pains of the Son of God and, therefore, undoubtedly, both a saint and a miracle-giver. I would have buried the boy with decency but was denied by the hag in human form who poses as a nun of Saint Radegund."
    The prior shook his fist toward the road. "She abducted the child's body, claiming it as hers by right merely because Peter's parents dwell on land belonging to Saint Radegund. Mea culpa, I fear we wrangled over the corpse. But that woman, Master Simon, that hellcat, sees not the body of a little boy deserving Christian burial but an acquisition to the den of succubae she calls a convent, a source of income from pilgrims and from the halt and the lame looking for cure. An attraction, Master Simon." He sat back. "And such it has become. Roger of Acton has spread the word. Our prioress was seen taking advice from the money changers of Canterbury on how to sell Little Saint Peter relics and tokens at the convent gate. Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, auri sacra fames! To what do you not drive human hearts, cursed craving for gold!"
    "I am shocked, my lord," Simon said.
    "You should be, Master Simon. She has a knuckle taken from the boy's hand that she and her cousin pressed on me in my travail, saying it would mend me in the instant. Roger of Acton, do you see, wishes to add me to the list of cures, that my name might be on the application to the Vatican for the official sainting of Little Saint Peter."
    "I see."
    "The knuckle, which, such was my pain, I did not scruple to touch, was ineffective. My deliverance was from a more unexpected source." The prior got up. "Which reminds me, I feel the urge to piss."
    Simon put out a hand to detain him. "But what of the other children, my lord? The ones still missing?"
    Prior Geoffrey stood for a moment, as if listening to the blackbird. "For a while, nothing," he said. "The town had sated itself on Chaim and Miriam. The Jews in the castle were preparing to leave it. But then another boy disappeared and we did not dare to move them."
    The prior turned his face away so that Simon could not see it. "It was on