Chapter Twenty-Four
She couldn’t have been asleep more than an hour when Tibet woke her, jumping full on her chest. She put her hand up to stroke him only to touch – urgh – a live mouse which he’d dropped on her. She almost screamed but pushed the cat and its prey off the bed.
The cat looked offended to be pushed away after offering her the mouse, but sat by the bed washing itself while the mouse quickly escaped.
She was fully awake now. She could hear the monks coming back from Nocturnes.
She looked out of the window and could see a few stragglers at the back.
Most had already gone up the dormitory stairs for a few hours’ sleep before the next service.
One of the monks at the back, much taller than the rest – it had to be Godfreyd – held back one of the others, and after a short conversation, they hurried to the stables, Godfreyd pulling the other who was reluctant, she could tell.
She slipped out of bed and crept across to the courtyard.
The two monks were talking quietly, but she could see Godfreyd leaning threateningly over the other monk.
She immediately thought of the time when she’d seen him and Tom in the same place, but their bodies had told a very different story.
Then the two men had been standing close and reaching out to each other.
Now Godfreyd was forcibly holding the other monk with one hand while reaching under his habit urgently.
The other monk was talking very quietly, protesting ‘no, no, no’ but with no hope of Godfreyd heeding him. As he turned his face, Linnet recognised him. It was Luke.
She gasped aloud and he heard. He looked at her with shame and rage but Godfreyd hadn’t seen her, busy with his sin.
She left as quickly and quietly as she could.
Could she use this against Godfreyd? But as he’d said – who would believe her?
As she slipped through the courtyard, keeping to the shadows, she thought she saw another monk, walking quickly from the stables towards the dormitory. It was too dark to see who it was.