World Without End by Ken Follett

Author:Ken Follett
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Sagas, Suspense, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780451418449
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2012-10-01T22:00:00+00:00

44

Gilbert Hereford was tried before the ecclesiastical court, found guilty, and sentenced, by Prior Godwyn, to an appropriate punishment for those who robbed churches: he would be flayed alive. His skin would be cut off him, while he was fully conscious, and he would bleed to death.

On the day of the flaying, Godwyn had his weekly meeting with Mother Cecilia. Their deputies would also attend: Subprior Philemon and Subprioress Natalie. Waiting in the hall of the prior’s house for the nuns to arrive, Godwyn said to Philemon: “We must try to persuade them to build a new treasury. We can no longer keep our valuables in a box in the library.”

Philemon said thoughtfully: “Would it be a shared building?”

“It would have to be. We can’t afford to pay for it.”

Godwyn thought regretfully of the ambitions he had once had, as a young man, to reform the monastery’s finances and make it rich again. This had not happened, and he still did not understand why. He had been tough, forcing the townspeople to use and pay for the priory’s mills, fishponds, and warrens, but they seemed to find ways around his rules—like building mills in neighboring villages. He had imposed harsh sentences on men and women caught poaching or illegally cutting down trees in the priory’s forests. And he had resisted the blandishments of those who would tempt him to spend the priory’s money by building mills, or waste the priory’s timber by licensing charcoal burners and iron smelters. He felt sure his approach was right, but it had not yet yielded the increased income he felt he deserved.

“So you will ask Cecilia for the money,” Philemon said thoughtfully. “There might be advantages in keeping our wealth in the same place as the nuns’.”

Godwyn saw which way Philemon’s devious mind was leading him. “But we wouldn’t say that to Cecilia.”

“Of course not.”

“All right, I’ll propose it.”

“While we’re waiting…”

“Yes?”

“There’s a problem you need to know about in the village of Long Ham.”

Godwyn nodded. Long Ham was one of dozens of villages that paid homage—and feudal dues—to the priory.

Philemon explained: “It has to do with the landholding of a widow, Mary-Lynn. When her husband died, she agreed to let a neighbor farm her land, a man called John Nott. Now the widow has remarried, and she wants the land back so that her new husband can farm it.”

Godwyn was puzzled. This was a typical peasant squabble, too trivial to require his intervention. “What does the bailiff say?”

“That the land should revert to the widow, since the arrangement was always intended to be temporary.”

“Then that is what must happen.”

“There is a complication. Sister Elizabeth has a half brother and two half sisters in Long Ham.”

“Ah.” Godwyn might have guessed there would be a reason for Philemon’s interest. Sister Elizabeth, formerly Elizabeth Clerk, was the nuns’ matricularius, in charge of their buildings. She was young and bright, and would rise farther up the hierarchy. She could be a valuable ally.

“They are the only family she’s got, apart from her mother, who works at the Bell,” Philemon went on.

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