Threads of Treason by Mary Bale Read Free Book Online Page B

flinch.
    ‘ Much has changed since you saw me last. I was just a boy then. I am a freeman, Abbess. You know I hail from East Anglia, but I have already given my lands to the monastery at St Edmundsbury, in turn they will look after me in my old age. In the mean time I make my living by the wool trade. I buy Abbot Scotland’s fleeces and sell them on for carding and spinning.’
    Therese was bursting with questions but she glanced at the Abbess and knew she must hold her counsel.
    They took seats at an oak table and broth was brought to them in wooden bowls. Therese barely glanced at the woman stooped over her burden of hot liquid, but she noticed that Abbess Eleanor could barely keep her line of sight averted in the manner required by her position.
    The servant sat down and pulled back the curtain of shawl she’d used to cover most of her face to reveal a woman well into middle age with pink translucent skin and deep, laughing blue eyes.
    ‘ Prioress Ursula!’ exclaimed Abbess Eleanor with surprise and pleasure.
    ‘ You are meant to be dead,’ said Therese.
    ‘ Hush,’ said Ursula. ‘And do not call me Prioress, for I no longer hold that position.’ They all hunched down and pulled closer to each other. She kept her voice low as she said, ‘There is treachery in every thread of that embroidery. I have had to hide myself against my accusers, here among those that are never noticed.’
    ‘ They say you are a traitor,’ said Abbess Eleanor as she looked about the room for any corners that might conceal snoopers, but they were alone and the doors were shut. These words did not sound like an accusation to Therese; it was more a statement of fact mixed with a question of validity. But she thought she knew the answer.
    ‘ You tried to stop the Impostor, didn’t you?’ she asked more loudly than she expected.
    ‘ I am not one of the treacherous ones. I have hidden away with the protection of my dear brother because I can trust no one.’ Ursula looked carefully at Therese. ‘You are right, Sister, I did try and stop her.’ Then she turned to Abbess Eleanor and asked: ‘Is she?’
    ‘ Yes,’ the Abbess replied. She said it with pride, but her pride was tinged with sadness when she added, ‘She’s the baby from Romney.’
    ‘ You’ve told her? Were you not forbidden to tell her?’ asked Ursula frowning.
    ‘ I have made a decision based on the changes in our circumstances. It became necessary to tell her for her own safety.’
    ‘ You too have come across danger?’
    Abbess Eleanor clearly decided she’d said too much to her old friend and looked down at the broth. Therese used the pause in conversation to down the broth before her, again forgetting to wait for the blessing.
    ‘ Only Sister Agnes knows I am alive,’ said Ursula. ‘You have to believe me, I did try to stop the girl with the ink. I don’t know how she got the key to the room. I chased her up the little tower at the end of the corridor and the silly girl threw herself off the top, but she pulled me after her.’ Ursula shook her head. ‘The poor girl broke my fall, but I was as conscious of this world as a stone. Agnes told them all I was quite dead and had me sent to the infirmary. It was a blessing that one of our other Sisters had recently gone to her Maker under totally natural circumstances and my body was swapped for hers, while Agnes called for my brother. She is the only one there who knows I am alive.’ Ursula turned to Therese and added, ‘Your ward has grown into a beauty.’
    ‘ You do her no favours by flattering her,’ said the Abbess with a flash of temper. ‘Her face is but a shell, it is her heart and soul that count.’
    ‘ I only say what I see,’ returned Ursula.
    The two women held each other’s gaze for a moment trying each to sum up the other’s honesty and integrity. Their faces broke into smiles and they hugged each other.
    ‘ Now tell me,’ said Ursula. ‘You must be here because of what happened at