Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ann told her to bring some water to Luke who had woken, and Linnet left the kitchen gladly, her head spinning with what she’d been told.
Luke was sitting up, still very pale, and his eyes were struggling to focus. Linnet gave Benedict the water and the cloth and he wiped Luke’s face and hands carefully before offering him a prayer.
Luke bent his neck obediently, although it clearly caused him pain, then raised his head, as if searching the dark corners of the room for something.
Godfreyd came in, evidently called away from the table, and annoyed to be interrupted.
‘Ah, Luke, that horse gave you some hard kicks, how are you feeling now?’ The words were kind but the voice held no warmth.
Luke flinched at the sound, his eyes unable to focus. ‘Brother Godfreyd?’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘I want to go back to my cell. Let me go back to my cell.’ His voice was thin, and he was plainly terrified.
‘The Inspector’s gone, Brother Luke,’ Linnet said, hoping to reassure him, but it had no effect.
He sounded like the small boy he once was. ‘Please may I go back to my cell, please?’
Godfreyd shrugged. ‘If you can see well enough to get there, then why not. You’ll be bled again tomorrow.’
Luke pulled himself up and out of the bed, weak but determined. The monk and Linnet stood either side of him to support him, and he limped from the room, wincing but moving as fast as he could. Halfway to the cell, the monk was called away, leaving Linnet to help Luke the rest of the way.
Once he was settled, she turned to go but Luke called her back.
‘What do you mean the Inspector’s gone? Back to Durham with the report?’
‘No, he left a letter saying he was going on a pilgrimage to Ireland.’ She shrugged as if she had no explanation for how strange monks could be.
‘I wanted to go with him.’
‘Why?’
‘I wanted to get away from this cursed place.’
‘But he beat you, didn’t he?’ Linnet was too confused to think of a gentle way to say it.
‘Who? The Inspector?’ He laughed, surprised by the thought.
‘Or was it Guy?’
‘That strutting one with Lady Margaret?’ This time he laughed until he was coughing and then wincing, so she brought him some water.
Once he’d drunk it, he looked seriously at Linnet, his eyes seeing clearly for the first time since he’d woken up. Resolving to trust her.
‘It was Godfreyd. He wanted to—’ He stopped again and looked away.
She nodded, she knew what Godfreyd had wanted to do.
‘Anyway, I told him I was no sinner and I’d be talking to the Inspector.’
She could hear the pious tone, the small boy again, eager to tattle to the teacher.
‘Last thing I remember was him saying I wouldn’t be talking to anyone and then he started hitting me. And now the Inspector’s gone.’
He started weeping, a soft helpless sound.
‘You could tell the Prior though, couldn’t you?’
‘He said everyone knows about him, even the Prior, only the Inspector didn’t.’
Linnet thought about that. She supposed everyone did know about Godfreyd. Although she didn’t think anyone else had known about him and Tom. But this was surely different.
‘Anyway – leave me. I mustn’t have a woman in my cell.’
Luke’s arrogance was back, he must be feeling slightly better.
She left and went back to the kitchen. Guy came over and sat down with a pleasant smile.
‘So when do I get my money, Mary?’ he asked.
‘It wasn’t your money, it was mine.’ She had earnt it – she deserved it more than him.
‘Trouble is, I think your Prior is going to want to know about your past calling, don’t you?’
She laughed then. What could the Prior find out that was worse than the pair of them burying the Inspector like a pauper, with none of the rites for the dying, condemning him to an eternity of damnation?
Not to mention telling Lady Margaret that Guy had been in prison.
He wouldn’t seem quite the fine gentleman servant then, would he?
Guy pinched her leg savagely under cover of the table top. He thought she was laughing at him and she’d forgotten how much he hated that. He got up and went back to the masons, his smile fading.
Linnet was weary of it all, but what could she do to stop him?
When she went back to her room, Isabelle was already asleep, curled round the cat and clutching the mousie Tom made for her.
Linnet fitted herself into the space left and tried to sleep, but was kept awake for hours by thoughts of Guy, of Warham’s men, of what Oswyn had known about her, of poor beaten Luke and his enmity towards her. She hardly slept.
Awake too early, she went to the parlour to see the Prior before Guy had a chance to. She had no idea what she was going to say but she would not give up her new life here. She’d fought hard enough with the Inspector, and Guy could not be allowed to destroy everything again.
She was too late. The two men were by the fire, and the Prior looked grave.
‘Linnet, come in. This concerns you.’
So Guy was going to talk after all. She waited. How would he balance what he wanted to say without admitting his own wrongdoing? He adopted a pained expression of piety, but Linnet knew him too well to believe it. And the Prior wasn’t likely to be fooled.
‘I felt I need to say, Prior, that I am sure Linnet, or Mary, as I knew her, should not be staying here with you. Her past life was not so honest – she is not who she seems.’
The Prior glanced at Linnet and turned back to Guy. ‘Truly, my son? Are you sure this is the woman you knew? She is known as Linnet to us.’
‘Yes, she must have changed her name to come here.’
‘Linnet, what do you have to say?’
She looked at him, the man she’d buried a body with such a short time before.
‘I don’t know what he’s talking about, Prior, I never saw him before he came onto this island.’
Guy looked from one to the other and began to laugh with incredulity until silenced by the Prior’s stern look.
‘I think you must be confused. The time spent in the service of Lady Margaret has not kept you busy enough, perhaps?’
Guy flushed but outwardly restrained. ‘I’m sure Lord Edmund will be requiring me very soon.’
‘Well perhaps I can write to him and let him know that we’ve found you a useful visitor here? Or perhaps we found you surly to his Lady, dishonest with her perhaps? But I am sure you are wrong about Linnet – are you not?’
It was a bribe and a threat. Guy wavered for an instant, but preferment trumped revenge.
‘I must have been, forgive me, Father Richard.’
There was something in the way he looked between her and the Prior that gave her a sense of continuing danger.
He left, bowing his head briefly for a blessing on his travels but without saying anything more.
Once he had gone, the Prior looked at her thoughtfully.
‘Don’t say anything, Linnet, I know you were with him, but I need you as a scribe. I believe the Good Lord means us to employ the tools he gives us as we choose. Now, have you seen Luke since he has recovered?’
She nodded.
‘It wasn’t the Inspector who harmed him, was it? Enough is enough. I will have my Priory running smoothly.’
She left, the relief leaving her feeling weak with gratitude. She knew now that the Prior would not banish her from the island. She knew too much and he knew too much. And Luke would be avenged.
But Guy was waiting just outside.
‘I could find Warham’s men and tell them where to find you, Mary. If you don’t pay me what you owe me.’
And with a final pinch at her arm, and a shove, he left the courtyard for the stables and the guest room above them.