Chapter Twenty-Nine #3
‘Wilful Murder, Oppression of the Poor, Withholding Labourer’s Pay and Sodomy,’ Father Thomas rattled off in a sing-song voice.
He went on, ‘For sins as bad as these, they have to make amends. Some are sent overseas.’ Father Thomas shuddered at the thought of banishment to foreign places.
‘Less talking and more scribing, I think.’
The voice from the door made them all turn to their pages, the two monks flustered as the Inspector came in.
He spent a few minutes examining their work then stalked out again.
Linnet was relieved for once that it was only herself and the monks in the Scriptorium – no duck, no raven, no disobedient child.
The Prior came in to look over the quires, nodding with satisfaction at the borders Linnet was working on. He told Linnet to come to his parlour after the next page was dry. The Inspector had work for her.
‘Take dictee.’ It was a bark rather than a request or suggestion. Linnet fumbled with her pens and ink and sat down at the desk with the fresh paper in front of her.
‘I am nearly finished with the arduous task of a full inspection of this Priory of Lindisfarne. The monks were lax in their dress and their knowledge of the scriptures, but my instruction has inspired them anew and they are now on the right path.
‘Do you have that, Linnet?’
She almost wrote his question down but stopped just in time, nodding. The Prior was in the shadows of the parlour but she could see him scowling at the Inspector’s verdict.
‘I leave the day after tomorrow but I am adding this postscript to the full inspection advising that the Scriptorium be purged of the woman scribe.’
Linnet tried to stay calm but hearing the venom in his voice as he dismissed her labours and her art was too much.
‘Keep scribing. I didn’t say you could stop.’ The Inspector’s face was triumphant and he was smirking with self-importance.
The Prior’s face was blank but his mouth gave a slight twitch. Marcus was about to say something, but the Prior quelled him with a look.
She looked back up at the Inspector. He was enjoying his power, knowing it couldn’t be questioned.
‘She is using her womanly ways to distract the monks from their work, leading them to gossip on profane topics and keeping them from their true vocation, serving the Lord.’
She was biting her lip as she scribed now, biting back the words she desperately wanted to say.
He had power – and the ear of the Bishop.
And the Prior wanted rid of her too, although he couldn’t have told the Inspector or he wouldn’t have taken such relish in telling her just now. How would she manage to stay?
‘Above all, a priory should be a holy place, a holy place without women except the common sort who keep the kitchen and the linen. The deaths in this place are a sure sign of the Lord’s displeasure.
Now I shall sign,’ he said, watching her finish.
He could have written this himself but he’d had her take his dictation so he could enjoy watching her write her own dismissal.
She stood up and, keeping her voice as low and calm as she could, addressed the Prior. ‘Where should I go now? Back to the Scriptorium or elsewhere?’
He had the grace to look ill at ease, and muttered, ‘The Scriptorium for now, Linnet. We’ll see what happens when the report is brought to the Bishop.’
‘But mind, no more of your idle talk,’ the Inspector said.
She nodded and went back to what had begun to feel like home. Father Thomas tried to share a jest with her but she hushed him and bent her head to the parchment, brushing away angry tears as she tried to work.
She could hear the others talking as she worked, but she wasn’t really listening.
Father Thomas was asking Cassian again about his family, about his poor wife.
Cassian had developed a real affection for Father Thomas, she thought.
She was idly drawing a rabbit in the margins as she half-listened, and she gave it Father Thomas’s sweet old face.
‘Now you mustn’t think like that, ’twas God’s will, that’s all, and that’s hard to take sometimes.’
‘Whether it was God’s will or no, I know I was the reason for her death.’
She looked over, startled, but Father Thomas didn’t look shocked by what Cassian had said, simply nodding and they returned to their work.
Once her panic had started to ebb, Linnet thought of something that she’d overlooked earlier. The Inspector had caught Isabelle prying and scolded her loudly. Now he’d humiliated her and suggested she leave and stop scribing. Why was he paying them both this attention?
He’d come in the Scriptorium when they’d been talking, talking about the Sanctuary Knocker, and then he’d summoned her, in effect to write her own dismissal. Was it possible Oswyn’s notes were about the Inspector? Or could it be Cassian? Had Cassian said something to him?
She found Isabelle and gave her a task to do. A short while later, Isabelle was skipping along, chatting to Father Thomas and a couple of others on their way to Compline, Pol hopping after her.