Chapter Twenty-Two #2
The Lady dismounted gracefully and greeted Guy with warmth, a friendly face on the island, but was rather disdainful towards the Prior and the Inspector, perhaps a touch of timidity she was covering up.
She demanded to see her room and her maid came running out shortly afterwards, sent on a quest for more blankets, more candles, more rushes.
Linnet thought back to Lady Margaret’s room in the nunnery. Nothing on this island was going to satisfy her.
Once the maid had hurried back, laden with all she could find to make her mistress at ease, the Lady herself emerged, graciously allowing the Prior to take her into his parlour.
Guy followed them, glancing around to catch sight of Linnet again, to make sure she didn’t forget he was watching her, even if he was preoccupied with his advancement.
Jack had caught his eye too, but they did not acknowledge each other. Jack must have realised Guy was rewriting his history again, and wouldn’t want to be seen talking with the masons. He didn’t look offended. He knew how it was.
Linnet went back to the Scriptorium. She didn’t want to be caught by Jack. Doubtless he would confront her again now that Guy was on the island, and she didn’t know what to say to him.
The room was empty, a neat stack of Gospel quires, a few ink blots and some scattered pens showing where Luke had been. Maybe Godfreyd wanted him again.
Isabelle appeared at the doorway, she looked frustrated but her colour was better than before. She was still coughing a lot and moving a lot more slowly than usual.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘The Prior won’t let me take his duck.’ The indignation flowed from every inch of her.
‘Well why should he?’ She was trying not to smile.
‘I wanted to keep the duck safe from that Lady. She had duck-down feathers in her room, I saw.’
Linnet was impressed by how much the child had observed.
‘And he wouldn’t let you?’
‘He waved me away. Anyways, he wants you in there. You can get the duck out, can’t you, Linnet?’ Isabelle would have said more but the coughing overtook her again and she slowly walked back to the warmth of the kitchen.
The duck was the first thing Linnet looked for when she went into the room, still nested by the fire, still trying not to be seen. In the late afternoon light, with the flickering candles, she didn’t think anyone would find the duck unless they were looking for it.
‘Ah, Linnet.’ The Prior was in a welcoming mood, resolved on charming Lady Margaret. Good luck with that endeavour, Linnet thought sourly.
‘You wanted me, Father?’ she asked, trying not to catch anyone else’s eye.
‘The Lady wanted to thank you again for your work on her prayer book,’ he said smoothly.
She smiled courteously at her. Lady Margaret didn’t look thankful so much as annoyed. Her robe was very elegant, too grand for travelling, surely, so she must have changed. Linnet tried to think what the Lady was wearing when she arrived, but she rarely noticed clothes.
‘I love that little book, I keep it with me always.’ The words were full of praise, but the manner showed little sincerity.
She spoke a few lines, looking at the Prior but speaking to Guy.
Maybe she had more than one purpose in bringing her husband a secretary.
Linnet and Guy used to laugh at the way he could get the gentry to believe anything he told them.
She was on the edge of laughing aloud now and avoided catching his eye.
‘The Lady wishes us to make her a little book of how to look after a hawk, for her Lord as a gift.’
‘But he’s not to know about it, or I’ll not pay!’ Her attempt to amuse was met by an awkward silence. Linnet wondered if she’d paid full price for the prayer book or found some excuse to hold back a few coins.
‘Can you compile such a book, Linnet?’
‘Yes, Father, I’ll begin immediately.’ She could use the text in the book of ‘Hawking and Hunting’. It would give her the chance to see it properly. She would put the Percy coat of arms at the start.
The Prior and Lady Margaret discussed the price, and Linnet took note of the agreements – no gilt on this one, just plain ink drawings to join the text.
The Prior unlocked his book cupboard and gave Linnet the book of ‘Hawking and Hunting’, with strict instructions to be careful with it. As if she needed those.
They left for the Refectory, still talking about the book Linnet would be making, but seeing no need for her to participate.
Alone in the room, Linnet determined to rescue the duck. It could sit in a corner of her room, at least until Lady Margaret left. She picked it up, heavier than she was expecting, but so, so soft.
The duck tucked its head under its wing, hiding from whatever was happening. Sadly, she wished she could do that too.
Lifting the duck up, Linnet saw it had been sitting on something. Something familiar. It was Oswyn’s household book. She grabbed it quickly, hoping the Prior would be too busy to see it was gone.
She was finally holding the book she’d been looking for but where could she put it? Her room wasn’t safe, that’s where it had been taken from. Where could she take it so she could get it later without arousing suspicion? She was also still holding the duck and the ‘Hawking’ book.
Both in the Scriptorium for now then, the place she could hide a book without it looking suspicious – and enough dark corners to plant a duck.
Luke was working, his head down and he didn’t see her, as she came in carrying the duck and settled it on a pile of soft rushes. The wing had mended but it still didn’t seem to want to waddle off.
She had the household book under her skirts and set it down in a dark corner, with a pile of parchment and some half-completed quires, leftovers from the last time a Prior had tried to establish a scriptorium on this tiny island.
She told Luke about the book of hawking for Lord Edmund that she would be working on, but he needed to continue with the Gospel.
‘I think we should only work on God’s words, not man’s,’ Luke said, piously.
She was sure he didn’t think a woman should be scribing at all, but while the Prior had her doing his bidding, he wouldn’t say it out aloud.
Fine, she wouldn’t show him the wonders of the hawking book then, she was itching to look at all of it.
She wouldn’t tell him it was the work of Abbess Juliana Berners either.
Luke told her there would be two more monks starting soon. He thought they could read but he wasn’t sure.
Linnet sighed. They might copy the shapes well enough even if they couldn’t read, but without the meaning, errors would certainly creep in. She would have to oversee all their copying.
Before she started again on her drawing, she looked again through the ‘Hawking’ book. Past the instructions for birds and past the hunting talk, there were the terms of venery.