A Mortal Bane(75)

Before she could control her reaction, Magdalene’s eyes had dropped. Furious with herself, she raised them at once, but she knew Bell had seen her response to his flattery. She stared at him defiantly.

“Do not dignify it with such a description. To desire me is simply stupid, not bravely foolhardy.”

As he was about to reply, another door opened. This time two pairs of footsteps went down the corridor toward the back door. Bell glanced over his shoulder and saw that the light beyond the oiled parchment covering the window was dimmer. He frowned, considering whether he wanted to ask to share their evening meal and decided not to provide more fuel to any burning suspicions about his relationship with Magdalene and her women. He got to his feet, then leaned forward and touched her face.

“I will yield to you insofar as to go now—taking, as an excuse for coming, that list of clients you said you had written out for me, but do not believe I have yielded altogether.”





Chapter Ten



22 April 1139





Prior’s House, St. Mary Overy Priory



Magdalene woke smiling on Saturday morning. She lay abed for a few moments considering her good spirits. There were some reasons. Both Sabina’s and Letice’s clients had not only been their usual pleasant selves, but had innocently cleared themselves of being involved in Baldassare’s death. The master leatherworker had been at a guild function on Wednesday night until nearly midnight, and the mercer had arrived in London only on Thursday with a cartload of fleeces for his factor. And neither man knew Baldassare. Magdalene had taken pleasure in noting these facts and drawing a line through their names on a copy of the list she had given Bell.

The name first brought a smile back to her lips and then made her bite them. She could not deny that she was sorry she had to refuse him. She had been celibate for a long time and was not really as indifferent to the delights of a good futtering as she pretended. No, she could not, she must not, accept him. But to turn him away….

She did not need to do that yet, Magdalene told herself. He had already accepted the fact that she could afford no relationship with the man investigating the murder. Until she and her women were cleared of Baldassare’s death, she could put him off. Later, if she could convince him that he could not own her, that she could and would take other men…he would not need to know that he was the only one.

[page]She sighed. No matter what she said, Bell might grow jealous. Magdalene sat up abruptly, recalling that she had been talking about William when Bell suddenly asked her price—and she had mentioned William again when Bell became enraged. Was he jealous already? Of William?

Ridiculous! Bell knew what William had done for her, what she owed him. God knew to what depths she might have fallen if not for William’s support. If Bell was jealous of William, she must have nothing to do with him, not even as a one-time client. Then Magdalene bit her lip again. It was not so simple; if she drove the bishop’s knight to hatred, he could do her infinite harm.

Throwing back the covers and swinging her legs down, Magdalene uttered an exasperated sigh. It was useless to think about this. For now, she had a good excuse to refuse to take him as a client. As she got out of bed, she resolved firmly to put Bell out of her mind. That was easier to resolve than to accomplish, Magdalene found. Somehow, the mechanics of preparing for the day—chewing a green twig into a brush to clean her teeth, washing her face, neck, and hands, pulling on clothing—kept bringing Bell to her mind. However, emptying her inner pocket of coins to be transferred to the strongbox locked in the bottom of her chest turned her thoughts into more profitable paths.