Page 5 of Bold Angel
“Aye. There are times I wish I could be as content as she.”
Beatrice walked toward her. “You will learn. One day you will be able to accept things as they are.”
“One day I will leave, Beatrice. You will see. One day I will strike out on my own.”
“For now you had better strike out for the chapel. They will be watching you closely for a while.”
Caryn sighed. “I suppose you are right.” She climbed up from the floor. “Sister Agnes seems to find a secret joy in my failings.” Tossing off the blanket, she pulled on her coarse woolen tunic, trying to ignore the scratchy feel against her skin.
They started down the hall, but the sound of someone banging on the oaken door in the entry stayed their movements. Curiosity turned Caryn in that direction. “Who do you suppose it could be?”
“’Tis not our concern. Come. We will be late.”
But Caryn started walking toward the door, forcing Beatrice along in her wake. Even before the tiny nun hurrying to answer the knock could pull the door open, armored men poured into the entry.
“’Tis the Lord of Malvern Castle—Stephen de Montreale,” Beatrice whispered with a gasp of surprise, recognizing the tall blond man richly clothed in crimson who strode in at the head of his men. “My father spoke of him often, usually with loathing.”
Malvern.Caryn knew of him—what Saxon did not? She knew he’d made a bloody raid on Beatrice’s village, and that fear of Norman swine like him was part of the reason Beatrice was there. Malvern was hated, Caryn knew, by most of her Saxon kinsmen, and his ruthlessness was legend.
“I have come for your novices,” he said to the abbess, who stood angrily before him. “The women who have not yet spoken the vows. You will bring them forth at once.”
“What do you want with them?” The abbess eyed him warily.
“There is work to be done at Malvern. I am in need of extra hands and you have more than enough.” He wastall and lithe yet muscular and solidly built. His shoulders were broad, his hips lean, his face almost perfect. Had it not been for his slightly too-pointed nose and hard male mouth, he might have looked pretty. As it was, he merely looked handsome, yet there was a cruel air about him.
“These girls are under the protection of the church,” the abbess countered.
“They will soon be under my protection.”
“But—”
“You will do as I say.” When she still didn’t move, he added, “Now!”
Caryn turned as Sister Agnes walked up with a cluster of nuns.
“What goes on?” Agnes asked. “Why is Lord Stephen here?”
“He has come for the novices.”
“The novices? What does he want with them? By what authority—”
“He is Malvern,” Caryn said. “He needs no authority but his own.” She turned to Sister Beatrice. “Whatever happens, you must keep Gweneth away. She is still in her cell. You must see her hidden safely away.”
Beatrice glanced at the men, nodded and turned to leave, but Caryn caught her arm. “If anything goes awry, promise me you will see to her safety.”
“What could—”
“Promise me!”
“You have my word.” As the men began to move through the halls, Beatrice hurried toward the rear of the convent. The women who wore no veils were roughly rounded up and hauled toward the front, Caryn among them. She nervously glanced to the rear of the convent, but neither Beatrice nor Gweneth appeared.
“These are the only ones,” the abbess said to Malvern, obviously distraught. “Just these six girls.”That she intended to spare Gweneth made Caryn regret some of the harsh thoughts she’d had about the older woman.
“Six will be enough for our needs.” Malvern surveyed the young women, none beyond eighteen years. A knight near the great oaken door eyed them with relish and chuckled gruffly.
“How am I to explain this?” the abbess asked. “What will their parents say?”
Malvern’s face turned hard, his nose suddenly looking beaklike and pointed. “Explain to the Saxon swine that we are well aware of what goes on inside these walls. These so-called convents are havens for the daughters of the very Saxon landlords whose treachery continues to plague us. Places like this breed unrest and discontent. They harbor cults of sedition, and shelter the king’s enemies. You are lucky William is a man of God, else he would likely order this place and its like burned to the ground.”
