Page 15 of Sacred Virtues
His expression doesn’t change, so I press on.
“I’ll help where I can. You can put me to work here. I want to make a difference too. It also means we can be together . . .”
He runs his hand down his face and my stomach drops that he doesn’t seem thrilled at my idea.
“It’s not that simple, Emmett.”
“It seems very simple to me,” I shout.
“My vows. The very virtues?—”
“Oh, please! You’ve already broken them! But instead of doing it with love and joy, when I’ve offered myself to you, you’ve taken what you needed and then acted like you can’t stand the sight of me. Does that please your God? You know you desire me as much as I want you, you just need to accept that fact. I won’t tell anyone and we can be discreet. Do you think you’re the only one here who doesn’t take their vows as seriously as you should?”
His eyes widen and his mouth forms an O. I realise I’ve gone too far. I have no desire to get Brothers Sean and Francis into trouble.
“What do you mean?” he demands.
“Nothing. I’m just saying it in general terms. In a house of a hundred men there must be opportunities. Plenty of places where secrets can be kept that even you don’t know about.” My heart races a little that he might question me further, and his eyes narrow like he’s thinking through what I’ve said. A sudden knock on the door breaks the tense silence and a second later Abel opens it.
“Brother Matthew to see you,” he announces, and with just a quick and puzzled glance at me, he waves him in. He’s not alone. Behind him are Ethan and Evan Brookes, all of them looking deeply worried.
“Is it your father? Has he taken a turn for the worse?” Theobald says, his gaze swinging between them.
“It’s worse even than that,” Evan says and then looks at his brother who takes over speaking.
“We thought we might be able to clean up the workshop. Mostly, we’ve served the abbey, and well, with things being as they are, work is slow. We thought we could turn the workshop into a temporary infirmary. You know, to help out. We were clearing some things out and Ma came to ask us what we’re doing. So of course we explained. And then she told us. You know it’s just our cottages and the workshop along the lane there? What we didn’t know is that they’re on abbey land. They belong to the abbey. If you close we not only lose our livelihood but our homes as well.”
Theobald’s skin goes grey and he seems to age a decade within a few seconds.
“Are you sure?” he asks with some hope, but Ethan nods his head. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea. They aren’t listed in with the abbey buildings, and you don’t pay rent like the tenant farms do.”
“Ma said it was a strange agreement going back to when the abbey was built. The stonemasons were allowed to live in the cottages rent free and maintain the building, receiving a small stipend for their work.”
Theobald stands and frowns, then he crosses the room to a chest where he takes out a large rolled map. We move a few tomes on his desk to make room, and lay it out on the linen covering. He looks at it intently, tracing where I assume the cottages are, as if somehow it can give him an answer. I look over his shoulder and something strikes me as odd.
“I’ll be right back,” I say quickly and leave the office. I run up the narrow stairs to my room and retrieve my map from my saddle bags. I race back as quickly as I can and unfold the map next to the other one.
“This is the map I was given, the one the pension settlement is based on. Those cottages aren’t shown on here.” I poke the map in the right place to show them.
“I don’t understand it,” Theobald says, looking puzzled.
“I think this was drawn up after the official visits last year. It was done from the records. If the cottages weren’t listed in the abbey records then they weren’t included.”
Theobald shoots me a surprised but kindly look before turning back to the map, his eyes roving over them both.
“Here and here.” He indicates another few buildings. “These are storage barns and outbuildings; they aren’t showing either. And the boundaries don’t line up. Look, in this one the boundary crosses the river, but in the king’s version the boundaryisthe river, and over where your cottages are there doesn’t look to be a boundary at all.”
While he’s talking and pointing out discrepancies an idea starts to form.
“One of my jobs here is to check the map and the boundaries. What if I say the boundary is here?” I trace a line on the map that stops short of the cottages where Ethan and his family live. “Make you outside of the abbey grounds?”
I’m met with stunned silence, so I press on.
“You’re stonemasons, right? Can you move buildings and rebuild them?” I receive nods from both Evan and Ethan. “What about these buildings that aren’t on my map? Can you make an infirmary out of them? We don’t have much time. I’m going to ask for a few more weeks for negotiations, but would that be enough?”
Ethan looks from me to Theobald, his mouth opening and closing as if he can’t form any words.
“Well, is it?” Theobald asks him.
