The Bishop’s Tale by Margaret Frazer Read Free Book Online Page A

need his decision about something, and he had better be gathering up his wits to give it. And there was supper to go to. Tonight the family would dine in the parlor again, and he must be kind but firm and never in any way disrespect his position.
     
    Then tomorrow there was the funeral and the funeral feast, where he must be even more a pillar of the family and an honor to both the Crown and the Church, whose representative he was. He said a prayer for both his own endurance and Matilda’s.
     
    Someone had come to stand silently in front of him, waiting to be noticed. Beaufort drew a deep breath and brought his mind back to the problems of the moment, then dropped his hand into his lap and lifted his head.
     
    It was a relief to see Sir Philip there, who was inclined to talk only when he had something needful to say, and was to-the-point and sensible when he did.
     
    “Yes?” Beaufort asked.
     
    Sir Philip bowed deeply. “I regret the need to trouble your grace, but thought you might want to be forewarned that Sir Clement Sharpe has come.”
     
    “Is he in his usual humor?”
     
    “Very much so.”
     
    “You’ve spoken with him, then.”
     
    “Been insulted by him and turned the other cheek so he could insult it, too, would be a more accurate description.”
     
    Beaufort’s mouth quirked with appreciation. “I daresay so. I’ll take what steps I can to limit his… activities. And Sir Philip…”
     
    The priest paused in his bow of leave-taking. “My lord?”
     
    “There has been and there will be little chance to talk through these few days, so I may as well ask you here while we have the chance. What are your plans now that Master Chaucer is dead?”
     
    Two years ago, Thomas, at the death of his household priest, had asked Beaufort to recommend someone to replace him. Beaufort recommended Sir Philip, a minor member of his own household then, both because of the man’s clear intelligence and because of what he had made of his initially limited chances in life.
     
    Priest to a wealthy household was a position a man might comfortably have for life. Thomas had been pleased with him, and so far as Beaufort had been able to learn, so was the rest of the household, to the point where it appeared he could look forward to being priest to the earl of Suffolk now. One of several priests, of course, since the large household of an earl required more spiritual sustaining or more churchly show than a single priest could provide.
     
    Sir Philip tilted his head as if he found the question puzzling and unexpected. “Your will is mine in this, my lord. Of course.”
     
    “You have no preference?”
     
    “Only to trust to your judgment regarding where I can best serve.”
     
    The answer was impeccable, as everything Sir Philip did seemed to be. But it showed nothing of the man’s real desires. With a nod and a small gesture, Beaufort dismissed him. Sir Philip bowed and withdrew, going past Beaufort’s shoulder and out of sight toward the door.
     
    Beaufort brooded at the air in front of him for the length of a long drawn breath, then roused with a shake of his head and a grunt at his own unspecific dissatisfaction and set himself to the duties of the evening.
     
    Chapter 6
     
    After almost a month of damp chill and overcast skies, the funeral morning arrived sharply cold under an achingly blue sky.
     
    The funeral procession would form in the outer yard across the moat at mid-morning. Chaucer’s pall-draped coffin would be borne on a black cart drawn by black horses in procession to the church in the village, where Bishop Beaufort would conduct the funeral rites and the coffin be consigned to its tomb. Then the living would return to the manor for the feast, and the dead would remain, his soul already gone to heaven, his body to wait for Resurrection Day.
     
    At least with the new, bitter cold, the road would be more frozen, Frevisse thought as she partially opened a shutter in the parlor to see