VESPERS: Historical Mysteries Collection by Gaskell Denvil Barbara

Author:Gaskell Denvil, Barbara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gaskell Publishing
Published: 2021-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty Two

While Jetta lay awake but still in bed the following morning, Dominic rode briskly northeast and headed for St. John’s woods and the great stone convent and its grounds. Three guards, his chief groom and his principal secretary rode behind, bright in green and gold livery.

“Tis almost as if you’re off to battle already,” Ned said, as they arrived at his home with a snort from the tired horses.

Dom dismounted, drinking the ale Ned brought out to him. “Are you coming. I’ve no objection if you’ve changed your mind.”

“Just like my trees, I never bend backwards,” Ned grinned. “I’m ready and I’m coming.”

The small party then rode west, riding more slowly towards the Covent. The fields of neat growth lay under the late July sunshine, cabbage, parsnip, carrots and onions, a long strip growing garlic, and hemp grew massed across the rise, used for most of the sisters’ clothes and their bedding. Fruit trees grew off into the sun blaze, and beyond that as the slope slipped into the gentle valley were the rows of vines and wheat.

Several of the nuns, bent to the knees, were working amongst the stretches of such enthusiastic growth, sweating in the avid heat beneath the thick habits of their holy orders. The day was too hot for such clothes.

But it was beyond the perfumes of fruit and growth that Dominic led his men and dismounted at the convent doors. As usual they were closed and only the tiny, barred window within one door was opened as Dominic knocked.

“You may remember me,” he said at once, “I’ve an important matter to discuss with your abbess. My guards will remain outside, I promise, only one man will accompany me.”

Almost immediately another sister unlocked the door, Dominic marched in with Ned beside him.

Abbess Adelina sat calmly behind her small table, hands neatly clasped in her lap with the great carved wooden cross covering the wall behind her. A small window welcomed the sunshine. “Please sit,” she told them both. “You, my lord, found conversation difficult the last time you were here. It would appear that your religious faith does not always coincide with the deep and true faith that we preach here. But if you have some of your ungodly actions or opinions to confess, I am willing to hear your confession.”

“Not at all what I had in mind, I assure you,” Dominic grinned. I’m here to ask a question which I consider of utmost importance – not to you but to me and to another person most intimately involved. I can see no reason for you to deny the knowledge, since the answer should bring you neither trouble nor benefit.”

The abbess sighed. “You ask again about the girl Jetta, so many years ago. Yes, I knew her, but not well. I was a senior and took the daily service at Prime while she was an adopted child known for her bad behaviour, training to join the convent but with very little chance of success.”

“I am interested only in her identity,” Dominic said.

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