A Mortal Bane(139)

“Hmm, yes. You mentioned that before. I had forgot it, and the bishop said to try goldsmiths with names beginning with S. Well, there cannot be so many goldsmiths in Southwark. I think I will try here before I go back to London.”

At that point Dulcie brought in a large pasty, a platter piled high with cold meat, and another with rounds of bread well smeared with dripping. There had been no time to prepare a hot meal, but all had excellent appetites because of their unaccustomed labor and no one complained when Magdalene served out generous portions. Conversation was also suspended while all devoted themselves to their food.

Bell went out as soon as he was finished, Ella pursuing him to the gate to get the key he had again forgotten. She returned after hanging it in its usual place, full of righteousness, and the other women dutifully hid their smiles until she went off to her room. It was not easy to get an idea into Ella’s head, but once it was there—like avoiding knives and the river and locking the house—it was there for good. Magdalene then exclaimed with exasperation because she had pulled in the bell cord before they left to clean the church and had forgotten to tell Bell to push it out again. Letice went to take care of that, and the rest of them cleared the table and set the room to rights.

They were hardly done before the bell pealed. Magdalene sighed. “God knows, I hope the church can be reconsecrated tomorrow and that this never happens again. I feel as if we have been running hard all day long and cannot catch up.”

The client was Sabina’s Master Mainard, and he came in with Letice, his hood, as usual, pulled so far over his head that his face was invisible and his greeting muffled. Sabina recognized either his step or the muffled voice, went to him at once and took his hand with real affection. Magdalene watched them go to Sabina’s chamber, their heads bent toward one another.

“We are going to lose her,” she said softly to Letice. “Between her pity for him and his kindness and passion for her, she will agree to go with him.”

[page]Letice cocked her head to the side, pointed to Sabina’s room and made a cutting gesture, then a query gesture.

“Of course I will let her go,” Magdalene said. “If she begins to hate her work, she will be useless here, and I think Master Mainard will give her everything any woman could desire. Her blindness is precious to him, and there are not many men of whom that can be said. But where am I to get another Sabina?”

Letice uttered her silent laugh, made a gesture of closing a door, then turned about and pretended to open another.

Before Magdalene could reply, the bell pealed again and she gestured to Letice and went to answer it. Ella’s client was all agog at the news of the second murder and the desecration of the church. He stayed talking until the bell pealed a third time, when he finally went off to Ella’s room. Magdalene felt as if she could not bear to make conversation with another person, but Letice came out to greet her client herself and brought him in, wiggling her hips and making suggestive gestures with her fingers. He did not even glance at Magdalene but followed Letice immediately into her room, leaving Magdalene to bless her woman’s kindness and perception. She stared around blankly for a moment, knowing she was too tired and overwrought to work, and decided that this once she would indulge herself and lie down while her women were occupied with their clients.

She was asleep as soon as she removed her shoes, lay down on the bed, and pulled the coverlet over her. The knowledge of the two deaths weighted her spirit, evoking bitter memories, and pressed her deep into sleep. From time to time, she dreamed she heard a bell ring somewhere, but the sound was always cut off before she could force herself awake to respond to it, and she continued to sleep, hardly stirring.