Frevisse went, joining the other nuns in the cloister walk in time to see Domina Elisabeth come from her stairs, going toward the outer door to greet her brother in the yard and welcome him in. Dame Perpetua and Dame Margrett, as the eldest and youngest of the nuns, went with her while the rest of them lined together along the cloister walk in readiness for their own greeting. Elbows jostled as they placed themselves, straightening veils and shaking out skirts, Dame Amicia giggling a little, before they tucked hands into opposite sleeves and went still, a place left for Dame Claire who hurried into it, twitched at her skirts and veil, and joined them in stillness.
The outer door had been left open. Whoever had been set to watch for Abbot Gilberd’s arrival had given good forewarning: for a few moments all was as still in the guesthall yard as in the cloister now. Then came the clatter of hooves on cobbles that would be the abbot on his mule and his men on their horses riding through the gateway. When that stopped, Domina Elisabeth’s voice and then a man’s could be heard giving greeting to each other, although the words were lost along the passageway. Then it was not words but Abbot Gilberd and Domina Elisabeth themselves coming along the passageway and into the cloister walk, and at sight of Abbot Gilberd, the nuns all together and with bowed heads sank in low curtsy to him, holding there a short moment until he said, “Rise, my good women.”
They all rose together, and he raised his right hand and said a blessing over them. He was a large man, both in height and width, and made larger by the amply pleated long gown and surcoat he wore. They were correctly Benedictine black but their wool was closely woven and richly sheened, with black velvet edging the lower hems and the hanging sleeves of the surcoat, while black budge-lambs’ wool-circled his throat.
All of that added to the authority of his blessing that Domina Elisabeth, Dame Perpetua, Dame Margrett, and Father Henry had probably received in the yard, because they simply waited behind him until he had done, Domina Elisabeth only then coming forward to say, “If you would please to come this way, my lord,” with a small beckon toward the stairs to her rooms.
“I would, my lady,” he returned and swept up the stairs and out of sight, leaving her and Father Henry to follow him, Dame Margrett trailing in their wake.
In the cloister walk straight spines went slack, heads lifted, and there were sighs of relief heaved before-like birds startled apart-the nuns all scattered to their next tasks. Dame Claire said at Dame Amicia, “I have the costmary for the water,” while Dame Amicia said to Dame Juliana, “Are the cakes ready to go up?”
“The cakes and the wine both,” Dame Juliana replied. “We’ll fetch them. Sister Helen, come.”
Dame Perpetua and Dame Thomasine were starting away toward the church, to make certain one more time that everything would be perfect to Abbot Gilberd’s eye when he attended the next Office. Frevisse asked, “How many men came with him?”
“Six,” Dame Perpetua answered without pause in her going.
Six was not as bad as it might have been, Frevisse thought. In truth, it was quite moderate for an abbot. Had he taken some thought for this being just after Lent? Or perhaps Domina Elisabeth had been bold enough to say something in her message to him.
Frevisse paused in her going to say to Dame Johane, “Are you grateful now you only have to watch Sister Cecely, instead of scurry with the rest of us?”
Bent over to pull from the shadows the stool she had pushed out of sight into the guest parlor, Dame Johane replied, “Grateful until I have to see her up to face the abbot.”
“I won’t go!” Sister Cecely declared from beyond the doorway.
“Then you’ll be dragged,” said Frevisse coldly. “Abbot Gilberd brought men enough for that.”
Leaving Sister Cecely to think on that, Frevisse went yet again to the guesthall, as uneasy as everyone else that all be well for the abbot and happy to find that Luce had everything well in hand. Ela was awake, Luce said, but content to stay in the kitchen if she was not needed otherwhere. Even better, Luce said that one of the abbot’s men had told her that there was a cart coming, on Abbot Gilberd’s orders, bringing supplies of both food and drink. “The fellow said it should be here this afternoon some time.”
Frevisse breathed a prayer of thanks and relief and said, “Be certain to tell Ela. She’ll rest the better knowing it.”
Luce gave a wide smile. “Already did.” She gave a twitch of her head toward the best chamber’s door. “They’ve already shifted in whatever was on the pack mule that came with them. Making themselves quite to home, they are.”
“Good. So long as they do the work themselves,” Frevisse said, her tartness not entirely in jest; but when she went to see what was toward in the room, she spoke mildly enough to the servant overseeing his fellows’ work. The pack mule must have been well-laden. A finely woven red and yellow carpet was on the floor beside the bed and another one was laid over the otherwise plain table where the nunnery’s pewter pitcher and goblets, brought especially from the cloister, had been removed in favor of Abbot Gilberd’s silver ones. Frevisse did not wait to see what else might come out of the two small chests sitting open on the floor. Having ascertained that the abbot’s men were content at what they were doing, she crossed the hall to where Rowcliffe and his cousin Symond had drawn themselves well aside from the abbot-bustle.
They were too near to Breredon’s door for her liking, but there was only so much space in the hall; she could hardly ask them to sit in the kitchen or on the roof, but she did ask them where the men were who had come with them, not having seen them today.
“Told them they could stay in the stable,” Rowcliffe said. “You’ve enough going on here without them underfoot, too.”
She thanked him for that, and he offered, “You can have the rest of us out of your way if your abbot will hand over Edward and the deeds. Let him do that and we’ll be gone. Is he dealing with the…” He thought better of whatever he had been going to call Sister Cecely and changed to, “When can we talk with him?”
“That’s for him to say, not me. He’s with our prioress at present.” And although perhaps she should not, she added, “Soon can’t be too soon for me, as well as for you.”
Rowcliffe gave an appreciative grunt at her bluntness, Symond openly chuckled, and she went on to see how Breredon did.
The best that could be said was that he was better, but given how bad he had been, “better” was not anywhere near to “well.” At least he was lying on his back, stretched out the length of his bed, instead of huddled in sickness and pain, but because he looked to be sleeping and his man Coll was asleep on a pallet beyond the foot of the bed, Frevisse saw him only from the doorway while asking Ida very quietly how he did.
“Whatever it was, he’s at last resting quietly,” the woman said. “He’s kept a little broth down, too.”
Contented with that, Frevisse left her, going to see what Mistress Lawsell’s present complaint might be and found the woman very mellow, watching her daughter and Jack Rowcliffe sitting on the bed playing chess on the hall’s battered board. He and Elianor made to stand up when they saw Frevisse, but she put out a hand to stop them, saying, “If you jostle the board, she’ll say you did it because you’re losing.”
“I’m not losing,” Jack said with easy confidence.
“Yes, he is,” said Elianor pleasantly.
“Now, Elianor,” her mother chided in soft warning, but whether against boasting or against winning a game from a young man, Frevisse could not tell. She guessed the latter and guessed, too, that it would make no difference to Elianor.
Leaving them, she had just time to tell Luce to collect the pewter pitcher and goblets from the abbot’s chamber and bring them back to the cloister at her first chance. Then the cloister bell summoned her to Sext. The Office was sparsely attended. Neither Domina Elisabeth nor Abbot Gilberd nor Dame Margrett came. The nuns in their stalls looked at each other, made uncertain by the lack of their prioress, until Dame Juliana drew a steadying breath and began the Office.