Aleric Donnal’s notebook
Aleric Donnal’s notebook
I am renting a very pleasant furnished cottage on Harbour Steps in Tradmouth.
Its convenience suits me well for the moment until my return to France.
I travel to Fontescue Hall whenever I have any free time, to burrow like a mole into the family documents.
I fear I am growing more obsessed with Brother Anselm.
I imagine him as an energetic man in his thirties, the younger son of a gentry family and a former soldier, intelligent and eloquent.
He must have been persuasive to gain his prior’s consent to his travels.
His writings do not say, but reading between the lines, I have the impression that the prior too is sympathetic to the Lancastrian cause.
Today I encountered my sinner in the marketplace.
Despite an attempt to avoid me, I followed close and asked what he intended to do.
I counselled him to put all thought of pursuing the matter from his mind, but there was no reply.
I issued words of warning, saying that he must set his heart to resist all temptation.
I can only pray that he attended to my words.
I must travel again to Henry Tudor, for I hear the Duke of Buckingham has written begging him to hasten over the water. We are all united in our desire to save England from the tyranny of the usurper, Richard, and the House of York.
Why was the sinner uppermost in his thoughts at the time of such seismic political problems? This is something I am determined to discover.