A Mortal Bane(28)

“I see you used the key to lock the doors, but—

Letice again shook the key, pointed to the back door, pointed down the hall to the front door, shook the key, and finally held up one finger and shook that in Magdalene’s face. Magdalene frowned. Letice repeated the process. Magdalene’s eyes went wide. Locks were expensive, partly because the locking wards had to be reinvented for each lock. If two locks could be identical and use the same key, the locksmith could charge less, not to mention the convenience of needing fewer keys.

“One key,” she breathed. “One key for both doors.”

Even as she spoke, Letice held up another, even larger key, her eyes wide with hope.

“The key to the front gate! Oh, hurry, Letice. Unlock the door and we will go and try it.”

They were so excited that they nearly stuck in the doorway once the door was opened. Then they rushed down the path, with Dulcie, who had been watching Letice lock and unlock the door, following behind.

“Do it. Do it,” Magdalene urged and then held her breath as Letice inserted the front-gate key into the lock.

It turned with only a little difficulty. The latch clicked as Dulcie lifted it. The gate swung open.





Chapter Four



20 April 1139





St. Mary Overy Church



Although it was not easy, Magdalene waited long enough after Compline for the sky to be completely dark and, she hoped, all the monks to be sound asleep. Then she and Dulcie slipped through the unlocked gate, latching it after them carefully, and around the apse to the north entrance. She shivered as she walked up the stairs, wondering whether the monks had cleaned off the blood. Even if they had not, she told herself, it would be dry now and there would be no danger of carrying a stain if she stepped on it. But it was not that fear that made her shiver, and tears pricked her eyes when she thought of the agreeable man who was now dead.

Before they could even gather in her lids, a new fear sent them back to their source. Had Brother Paulinus ordered that the church itself be locked as well as the gate? She began to think frantically of a new place to hide the pouch concealed under her cloak, perhaps in the graveyard, but Dulcie had lifted the latch and swung the door open a little way before any sensible idea had a chance to form. Apparently the sacristan felt he had shut out the contamination by locking the gate between the Old Priory Guesthouse and the church and had either not dared or not felt the need to lock the church itself.

[page]When Dulcie shut the door, it was much blacker inside than outdoors, where even during the dark of the moon, starlight brightened the sky. Fortunately, once they had moved out into the chancel, the tiny lamp flickering on the altar gave Dulcie a sense of where she was. Taking Magdalene’s hand, she led her down along the wall and stopped. Magdalene assumed they were near the carving of Saint Christopher, but she could not see it at all and she did not dare ask Dulcie. Deaf as she was, the old woman often spoke too loudly. Magdalene reached up and began to feel around.

She soon found the curved stone frame around the carved image, then the head of the figure. Only a little way farther to the right was a smaller head. She slid her hand down, found the Child’s shoulder and, below that, the hollow bordered by His thigh. With her lip tight between her teeth, she pressed the pouch into the opening. She feared for a moment that it would fall all the way down, but it stopped and to her delight, it felt as if a tiny edge protruded from behind the Child’s thigh. If someone looked carefully, it would be found.

The breath Magdalene had been holding eased out and then caught again as light bloomed suddenly behind her. Dulcie tugged urgently at her skirt. Without even turning around, she followed the pull, sidling along the wall into the nave, where she knelt as if in prayer. Gritting her teeth to keep them from chattering with fear, she lifted her head.