Текст книги "The Templar Knight"

Автор книги: Ян Гийу

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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 29 страниц)

Cecilia Rosa now recalled a story which she decided to tell Sister Leonore, at first a bit hesitantly, as she searched her memory.

It was about a maiden named Gudrun who was forced to agree to a bridal ale with an old man whom she loathed. But she loved a young man named Gunnar, and these two young people who loved each other never gave up the hope that they might marry. Their prayers eventually moved Our Lady so much that She sent them a wondrous salvation, and it was reported that they were living happily together to this day.

Sister Leonore had also heard that story, because it was well known at Varnhem, and Brother Lucien dwelled on it often. The salvation offered by Our Lady had put a little monk boy from Varnhem in the way of evil men. This monk boy had inadvertently and without blame killed the old man who was to have drunk the bridal ale with the maiden Gudrun. So in the presence of God’s love, and with a belief in this love that never failed, all sins could be diminished. Even a killing could become no sin at all if Our Lady had mercy on lovers who beseeched Her for support.

It was a very lovely story as far as it went. But Cecilia Rosa now objected that it was still not that easy to understand. Because the monk boy whom Our Lady sent to the young lovers’ rescue was Arn Magnusson. And not long afterward, he had been sentenced harshly for the sake of his own love, just as Cecilia Rosa had suffered from that same harsh judgment. For almost ten years now she had been brooding over the meaning of Our Lady’s response, though without being any the wiser.

Now Sister Leonore was struck mute. She had never imagined that Cecilia Rosa was the betrothed of this Arn, for Brother Lucien had not told her this sad part of the story. Naturally he had mentioned that the little monk boy in time became a mighty warrior in God’s army in the Holy Land. But he had viewed it only as a great and good thing, as though Our Lady had turned even this to a benevolent outcome. He had never told her what a high price love might have had to pay, although everything had ended so well for Gudrun and her Gunnar.

This first conversation, and all the others that followed later whenever they were alone, drew Cecilia Rosa and Sister Leonore closer to each other. And with Sister Leonore’s permission, after Cecilia Rosa assured her that there was no fear of betrayal, she confided everything to Ulvhilde Emundsdotter. Then there were three of them, who could sit together in the vestiariumon late winter nights working so industriously that even Mother Rikissa commended them.

They discussed the topic of love as if in a never-ending dance. Sister Leonore had once before, when she was the same age as Ulvhilde, been in love, but it had ended unhappily. The man she loved then had, for reasons that had mostly to do with money, been wed before God to an ugly widow whom he did not love at all. Sister Leonore’s father had scolded her for all her sobbing and told her not to take it to heart. Young women, he said, had no understanding in matters to do with marriage. Also, life was not over after the first youthful infatuation.

Sister Leonore was so convinced that the opposite was true that she had sought out a convent and was eager, after her first year as a novice, to take her vows.

However, now the Holy Virgin Mary had shown her that love was an act of grace that could be granted to anyone at any time. Possibly Our Lady had also shown that Sister Leonore’s stern father had been right when he spoke of the first infatuation of youth and that it did not mark the end of love.

They all giggled happily at this last remark as they imagined how astonished her old father would have been to find out that he’d been right, and in what manner he had been vindicated.

Both Cecilia Rosa and Ulvhilde seemed to be drawn into Sister Leonore’s sin through these conversations. When all three of them were together, they would immediately begin talking about their favorite subject. And their cheeks would grow hot and their breathing faster. Such forbidden fruit tasted heavenly, even though all they did was talk.

For Ulvhilde, what her two friends told her during these secret talks ended up changing her life. She had never believed in love. It was enjoyable to listen to these tales by firelight on cold winter nights, but they had nothing to do with real life. Just as she had never seen a wood nymph, she had never witnessed love.

She was very young when her father Emund was killed by Knut Eriksson; she was taken away in a sleigh with her mother and her little brothers. Some years later, when she no longer had any clear memory of her father, her mother took a new husband who had been given to her by a jarl in Linköping. Ulvhilde had never seen anything between her mother and this man that made her think of love.

Ulvhilde had decided that if this was all she had lost in life on the outside, then she might as well stay in the convent forever and take her vows, since a consecrated sister still lived a better life than novice. The only thing that made her doubt the wisdom of spending the rest of her life like this, was the thought of vowing eternal obedience to Mother Rikissa. But she had hoped that a new abbess might come to the convent, or that she might move to one of the cloisters that Birger Brosa was going to build. For as things now stood, Cecilia Rosa would not remain at Gudhem for the rest of her life. They would be separated, and when that day came there would be nothing left for Ulvhilde to hold on to except her love of God.

The other two were shocked at Ulvhilde’s gloomy view of life. They urged her never to take the vows; she should venerate God and God’s Mother but do it as a free person. Then Ulvhilde countered that she had no life outside the walls because all her kinsmen were dead. Cecilia Rosa refuted her, saying that this was something they could change, that nothing of that sort was impossible as long as they both had a good friend in Queen Cecilia Blanca.

In her eagerness to persuade Ulvhilde to give up all thoughts of taking the vows, Cecilia Rosa now said things aloud that she had only thought silently before. She admitted that she was probably being selfish, unable to stand the idea of being left once again without a friend at Gudhem. Now that the words had been said she would have to make good her plan and speak to Cecilia Blanca the next time she came to Gudhem.

For Cecilia Rosa herself, however, there was something else to consider during these conversations. When she was first sentenced to twenty years behind the walls, she was no more than seventeen. At the time, when she then tried to imagine herself at the age of thirty-seven, she had pictured an aged and stooped old woman with none of life’s juices remaining. But Sister Leonore had just turned thirty-seven, and she glowed with strength and youth ever since love had blessed her.

Cecilia Rosa thought that if she refused to doubt, if she refused to lose hope, then the Holy Virgin Mary might reward her and allow her to glow at the age of thirty-seven just as Sister Leonore did.

That spring at Gudhem was like no other, either before or since. With the spring Brother Lucien began visiting again. Now there was much to do in the gardens, and it seemed as though Sister Leonore’s need for instruction was inexhaustible. Since Cecilia Rosa and Ulvhilde also were making more use of things grown in the gardens, it seemed well and proper that they were out tending the crops at the same time as the visiting monk, so that no one would believe that a man was left alone with either a sister or maiden at Gudhem.

Yet Cecilia Rosa and Ulvhilde were particularly unsuited for this intended supervision, since they were actually protecting the sinners by standing guard. In this way Sister Leonore and Brother Lucien spent more hours in blissful union than they otherwise would have dared.

One vexation, however, was that everything they had sewn during the winter had already been sold long before summer arrived. It was good for Gudhem’s silver coffers, but it also forced Cecilia Rosa and Ulvhilde to spend more time in the vestiarium. Brother Lucien had then explained to Sister Leonore how this problem could be remedied. She in turn told her two friends, for the two maidens never spoke to Brother Lucien themselves. If the goods they fabricated vanished too quickly, that was merely because the price was too low. But if they raised the price, then the goods would stay at Gudhem longer, they could give more attention to their work, and in the long run it would produce more silver.

This plan sounded like white magic and was hard to understand. But Sister Leonore came back from Brother Lucien with written pages and text that made it clearer. At the same time she told them how he had laughed about the yconomuswho worked at Gudhem. According to Brother Lucien it was quite clear that this stray canon from Skara had very little sense of money or bookkeeping, since he couldn’t even keep proper accounts.

All this talk about bookkeeping, and altering deals with figures and ideas as much as with the work of their hands intrigued Cecilia Rosa. She harped at Sister Leonore for an explanation, and the sister in turn nagged Brother Lucien so that finally he brought the account books from Varnhem and showed them how it would work.

It was as if a whole new world of utterly different ideas had opened up to Cecilia Rosa, and soon she ventured to take up her ideas with Mother Rikissa, who scoffed at first at all thought of this new plan.

But in the late spring after the long fast, Queen Cecilia Blanca usually came to visit, and during these visits Mother Rikissa always softened in the spine, if not in her heart. Eventually both parchment and books were ordered from Varnhem, which offered a more than willing Brother Lucien the opportunity to make extra trips. He also obtained Mother Rikissa’s permission to teach accounting to both the yconomus, the runaway canon Jöns, and Cecilia Rosa so as to help them put Gudhem’s affairs into order. The condition was that there would be no direct talking between Cecilia Rosa and Brother Lucien; all communication between them had to go via yconomusJöns, acting as intermediary. This led to annoying moments, since Cecilia Rosa grasped everything much more quickly than did the unwilling Jöns.

According to Brother Lucien, whose skill at keeping books was shared by every other brother at Varnhem, the state of Gudhem’s affairs was lamentable. Actually there was no lack of income; that wasn’t the problem. But there was no balance between how much of the income was in silver and how much was in outstanding invoices or in goods already received but not sold. Jöns the yconomusdidn’t even know how much silver they had. He said that he usually estimated it by the number of handfuls. If there were more than ten handfuls, he knew from experience that would last a good while without any more coming in, but if there were fewer than five handfuls then they would have to bring in more.

It also turned out that Gudhem was due rent payments that hadn’t been made in many years because they’d simply been forgotten. In everything that Brother Lucien discussed, Cecilia Rosa was as quick to learn as yconomusJöns was stubborn and obtuse. He was sure that what had been good enough in the past would be good enough in the future. To such talk Brother Lucien could only shake his head. He said that Gudhem’s income might be almost doubled if they had orderly bookkeeping, and that it was a sin to administer God’s kingdom on earth as badly as it was being done at Gudhem. Such remarks incited Mother Rikissa’s wrath, although she still didn’t know what she would do about the matter.

That spring, though, Brother Lucien and Sister Leonore had many hours to themselves, so many that it was soon visible in Sister Leonore’s waistline. She understood that now it was only a matter of time before her crime was revealed, and she wept in anguish. Even Brother Lucien’s visits could not console her.

Cecilia Rosa and Ulvhilde had seen what was going on; the rapid sale of everything they had sewn during the winter, however, gave the three a reason to spend extra time together in the vestiarium. Cecilia Rosa then tried to be smart and think like a man without resorting to whining; at least she tried to think the way her friend Cecilia Blanca would have done.

Soon everyone would know that Sister Leonore was with child. Then she would be excommunicated and cast out of Gudhem. Since a man had to be involved in the sin, Brother Lucien would not escape either.

The couple ought to flee before they were forced out and excommunicated.

They would be excommunicated anyway if they fled, Sister Leonore objected.

Well, better to flee together before that happened. The question was only how to do it. One thing was clear: a runaway nun out on the road would soon be caught, and even sooner if she was traveling with a monk, Cecilia Rosa reasoned.

They turned the problem over and over; then Sister Leonore talked to Brother Lucien about the matter, and he told her about cities in the south of the kingdom of the Franks where people could obtain asylum. People like themselves, who were believers and devoted to God in everything except what had to do with earthly love. But traveling to the south of France without money and in the clothing of a nun and monk would not be easy.

The three women could make garments that looked like worldly clothes in the vestiarium. Obtaining silver for the journey was another matter. Cecilia Rosa mentioned that Gudhem’s accounts were in such a shambles that nobody would miss a couple of handfuls of silver.

But stealing from a cloister was a sin worse than the one Sister Leonore had already committed. She begged in despair that no one should steal for her sake; she would rather go out on the road without a single penning. She thought that such a theft would be a real sin, unlike her love and the fruit that it had produced, which she no longer viewed as a sin at all. If only she could get to the south of France that sin would be dissolved into nothingness. But stealing from the house of the Holy Virgin Mary could never be forgiven.

Queen Cecilia Blanca sent word to Gudhem three days in advance to announce her visit. The arrival of the messenger came as a relief for the three who were privy to Gudhem’s great secret—Sister Leonore was now in her third or fourth month; but the message imposed a heavy burden on Mother Rikissa. Archbishop Stéphan had died, to be sure, but as far as she knew the new Archbishop Johan was just as much in the king’s pocket. Mother Rikissa was thus still subject to the slightest whim of Queen Cecilia Blanca. And because of this the cursed Cecilia Rosa was still just as big a threat to Mother Rikissa. Vengeance was not something she worried about; she knew how she would take her revenge. But excommunication was a greater threat to her than anything else. And she could be excommunicated by the archbishop if the two Cecilias truly set their minds to it.

Cecilia Rosa understood full well that Mother Rikissa’s present mental state was advantageous for certain conversations. She sought out Mother Rikissa in the abbess’s own rooms and bluntly laid out her plan: she herself would take over all the activities for which yconomusJöns was now responsible at Gudhem. She would put the bookkeeping in order and this would improve Gudhem’s standing. The yconomuswould then have more time for the trips to marketplaces that now took up an unreasonable number of hours, since he claimed he had far too many other things to do.

Mother Rikissa feebly tried to argue that no one had ever heard of a woman being yconomus, and that was indeed why it used the masculine form of Latin.

Without hesitation Cecilia Rosa replied that women were particularly well suited to taking care of such work at a convent, as it was not manual labor. And as far as the gender of the Latin word, all they had to do was change it to “ yconoma.”

So that was what she wanted her job at Gudhem to be called from now on, yconoma. When Mother Rikissa seemed about to give in, Cecilia Rosa quickly pointed out that the yconomawas naturally the one who would decide where the man Jöns would be sent in the future. He would travel with messages from Gudhem but not take part in any trading, since his decisions had proved to be greatly lacking.

Mother Rikissa was now very close to anger, as was clearly apparent since she was sitting motionless and hunched up, rubbing her left hand on her right—all signs that in previous years had been a bad omen at Gudhem, since it presaged shouts about the scourge and the carcer.

“God will soon show us whether this was a wise decision or not,” she said when she had regained some control over herself. “But it shall be as you wish. You will have to pray with humility about this change and not let anything go to your head. Remember that what I give you can just as easily be taken away in an instant. For I am still your abbess.”

“Yes, Mother, for now you are my abbess,” said Cecilia Rosa with feigned humility so that the concealed warning in her words would not sound like a threat. Then she bowed her head and left. When she closed the door to Mother Rikissa’s rooms, she made an effort not to slam it. But silently to herself she hissed, for now, you witch.

When Queen Cecilia Blanca came to visit this time she brought her firstborn son Erik with her, and she was obviously pregnant again. The meeting of the two Cecilias was more poignant than ever, because they were both now mothers. Cecilia Blanca also brought tidings of both her son Magnus and of Arn Magnusson.

Her son Magnus was a plucky lad who climbed trees and fell off horses, but he never injured himself. Birger Brosa claimed that he could already see in the boy that he would be such a good shot with a bow and arrow that only one man would be able to match him; there was no doubt about his father’s identity.

According to the latest news from Varnhem, Arn Magnusson was in good health and still carrying out his calling in Jerusalem, among bishops and kings. To Cecilia Blanca this meant that his life was not in danger, for among bishops and kings there were no terrible foes. She could both be happy about this and thank Our Lady for Her high protection.

To Cecilia Blanca’s question about whether Rikissa were still behaving herself Cecilia Rosa replied in the affirmative, but also explained in no uncertain terms that this state of calm might soon be at an end. For there was a big problem and great danger.

But about this matter she would prefer to speak alone with the queen.

They went upstairs in the hospitiumand lay down on the bed where they had said goodbye on the last night they had both been captives at Gudhem. Now they once again took each other’s hands and lay silent for a while, musing and staring up at the ceiling.

“Well?” said Cecilia Blanca at last. “What is it that only my ears should hear?”

“I need silver money.”

“How much and for what purpose? Of all that you lack here at Gudhem, the need for silver money is probably something that seems the least important,” said Cecilia Blanca, surprised.

“Our simple yconomus, whom I will soon be replacing, by the way, would say two handfuls of silver. That will be enough for a long journey to the south of the Frankish kingdom for two. I should think that a hundred Sverker coins would be sufficient. I beg you sincerely for this, and I will pay you back someday,” said Cecilia Rosa.

“You and Ulvhilde aren’t planning to run away, are you? I don’t want that, I don’t want to lose my dearest friend! And remember that we’re not old yet, and that half your penance has already been served,” the queen replied uneasily.

“No, I’m not asking for my own sake or for Ulvhilde,” said Cecilia Rosa with a little laugh, since she couldn’t help thinking of herself and Ulvhilde wandering on foot, holding hands all the way to France.

“Do you swear it?” asked the queen dubiously.

“Yes, I swear it.”

“But you can’t tell me what this matter involves?”

“No, I don’t want to, dear Cecilia Blanca. Perhaps someone will come and tell you that this money was used for a grave sin, and malicious tongues will try to involve you in this sin. But if you know nothing about it, then you are without sin. That’s what I thought, anyway,” said Cecilia Rosa.

They lay silent for a while as Cecilia Blanca thought it over. But then she giggled and promised to take the money from her own traveling funds, since the amount was so small. But she reserved the right to be told someday what this sin entailed; so that she was innocent of any involvement, although she was providing the money. At least she wanted to find out eventually, when it was all over.

Cecilia Rosa promised to tell her at some later time.

Because the second matter that Cecilia Rosa wanted to discuss dealt with Ulvhilde, she thought it would be better if all three of them spoke together. So they got up from the bed, kissed each other, and went down to the queen’s table and her attendants.

On this first evening of her visit Cecilia Blanca had decided that Rikissa would be allowed to stay behind the walls, since it seemed to her such a bother to hold a banquet for her queen. In this way the dear friends and Ulvhilde could spend a much more amusing evening together. The queen had minstrels in her retinue, and they performed merrily as the feast was consumed. There were only women in the hall; the queen’s guards had to remain outside the hospitium, taking their own repast in their tents as best they could. For as Cecilia Blanca said, she had learned quickly as queen that men were bothersome to have at table. They talked so loudly, got so drunk, and had to show off if they were in the presence of too many women and maidens, with no king or jarl.

But all the women were now eating and drinking like men, whom they mimicked with the greatest mischief. For example, the queen could still perform a number of tricks she had played when she was to be scourged at Gudhem, belching and breaking wind thunderously. Which she now repeated as she stretched and scratched her bottom and behind her ears as some men were in the habit of doing. All the women had a good laugh at this.

When all the food was consumed, they kept some mead on the table and Cecilia Blanca sent all her ladies-in-waiting to bed so that she and her friends at Gudhem could more easily converse about serious matters. For the queen understood the need for secrecy, since what concerned Ulvhilde Emundsdotter could become quite serious.

Cecilia Rosa began. At the time when Ulvhilde came to Gudhem there was great unrest in the country; all three of them remembered that. And as the blessed Fru Helena Stenkilsdotter made them all realize, a woman was unwise to run like a goose after friends and enemies when war could turn everything upside down in the blink of an eye.

Now all of Ulvhilde’s kinsmen were dead on the fields of blood outside Bjälbo and in the battles that followed, when the Folkungs and Eriks were victorious. That was when a message came to Gudhem that for Cecilia Rosa and her dear friend Cecilia Blanca had been like the loveliest dream. But Ulvhilde belonged to those for whom the fields of blood were the blackest of all nightmares.

Since then it was as though everyone had forgotten about Ulvhilde here at Gudhem. There was no one to ask after her, and no one could plead her cause or demand her rights. And even if it was hard to know what payment had been made on Ulvhilde’s behalf during the bloody mess that existed back then, it was inconceivable that Rikissa would have cast out a relation out of hand.

But now was the time to settle accounts, Cecilia Rosa concluded, reaching for her tankard of mead.

The queen said, “Now, as your queen but above all as your dearest friend, I would like to know what exactly you have in mind.”

“It’s very simple,” said Cecilia Rosa, collecting herself as she drank calmly. “Ulvhilde’s father died. Then her little brother and her mother inherited. But later her brother died on the field of blood. After her mother died too…”

“Ulvhilde was the sole heir!” said the queen. “As I understand the law, that is true. Ulvhilde, what was the name of the estate they burned down?”

“Ulfshem,” said Ulvhilde in terror, for what was now being discussed was something she hadn’t heard even from her dear friend Cecilia Rosa.

“Folkungs now live there. They took over Ulfshem as a prize of victory. I know the people who live there,” said the queen pensively. “But in this matter we have to proceed cautiously, dear friends. Very cautiously, since we want to win. The law is clear, it cannot be anyone but Ulvhilde who inherits Ulfshem. But laws are one thing, and men’s conceptions of what is right and reasonable are not always the same. I can’t promise you anything for certain, but it will please me greatly to try and create order in this matter. I will first speak with Torgny Lagman in Eastern Götaland. He is also a Folkung and is close to us. Then I will talk to Birger Brosa, and when I’m done with these two I will take my case to the king. You both have your queen’s word on this!”

Ulvhilde looked as though she’d been struck by lightning. She sat there completely pale, straight-backed, and suddenly stone-cold sober. For even if she wasn’t as cunning as her two older friends, she could see that what the queen had said might mean that her life could be changed as if by magic.

Her next thought was that in that case she would have to leave her dear Cecilia Rosa, and then the tears came.

“I refuse to leave you here alone with that witch Rikissa, especially now that Sister Leonore…” she sniffled, but was immediately interrupted by Cecilia Rosa, who laid a warning finger across her lips. She quickly moved to Ulvhilde’s side at the table and took the girl in her arms.

“Hush, hush, my dear little friend,” Cecilia Rosa whispered to her. “Remember that I was separated from my dear Cecilia Blanca once in the same way, and here we now sit, the dearest of friends. Remember too that when we see each other on the outside we’ll be younger than Sister Leonore is now. And by the way, don’t say anything else about this matter to your queen.”

Cecilia Blanca cleared her throat and rolled her eyes as if to show that she might already have understood too much. Then she excused herself and went into her own rooms on the ground floor to “fetch a few trinkets,” as she said.

While she was gone Cecilia Rosa stroked Ulvhilde’s hair as the young girl continued to cry.

“I know what you’re feeling now, Ulvhilde,” whispered Cecilia Rosa. “I have felt the same. The day I understood that Cecilia Blanca would leave this Godforsaken place, I wept with joy for her sake but also with sorrow because I would be alone for a time which then seemed like an eternity. But the days no longer seem endless, Ulvhilde. I can now see that my penance will one day end.”

“But if you’re left alone with the witch…” Ulvhilde sniffled.

“I’ll be all right. I can manage. If you think about our secret here at Gudhem, the one only you and I and Sister Leonore know about, isn’t it a miracle of God that love is so strong? And isn’t it just as wondrous what Our Lady can do for someone who never loses faith and hope?”

Ulvhilde seemed to take some solace from this. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and pluckily poured a little more mead for herself, although she had already drunk more than enough.

Cecilia Blanca returned with long strides and slammed a leather purse down on the table. From the sound it was clear what the leather purse contained.

“Two handfuls, approximately,” Cecilia Blanca said with a laugh. “Whatever wily female plans you have, dear friends, make damned sure you succeed!”

At first the other two were shocked by their queen’s audacious, manly speech. Then all three women burst into uncontrollable laughter.

They hid the leather purse with the hundred silver penningsin a crevice in the cloister wall out by the gardens and described the spot exactly for Sister Leonore. They sewed the necessary garments piece by piece and let Sister Leonore herself hide them where she pleased outside the walls.

And when the summer was winding toward its end, Brother Lucien again made visits to Gudhem because he thought that there were important things about the harvesting, and about how to handle the fresh herbs, which Sister Leonore had not yet fully grasped.

This time he brought along a little book that he had made himself, in which most of what he knew could be read. And he gave this book to Cecilia Rosa along with a greeting. Though he never spoke to her, he wanted to thank her for keeping their secret. It was not easy to read everything in the little book; Sister Leonore had to carry questions between the giver and the receiver a few times until most of it had been explained.

One evening when the summer was approaching harvest time, when the apples had begun to turn sweet, when the moon reddened in the evening and the black earth smelled of moist ripeness, and it was now obvious in what blessed condition Sister Leonore found herself, Cecilia Rosa and Ulvhilde accompanied her to the back gate that led out to the gardens. All three of them knew where the keys were hidden.

They opened the little wooden gate very carefully, because it was a bit creaky. Out there in the moonlight Brother Lucien was waiting in his new worldly clothes. In his arms he had a bundle of clothes that Sister Leonore would wear all the way to the south of France, if they could make it that far before she had to give birth.

Hastily the three women embraced one another. They blessed each other but none of them cried. And so Sister Leonore vanished into the moonlight; Cecilia Rosa closed the little wooden gate quietly and carefully, and Ulvhilde silently locked it. They went back to the vestiariumand continued their work as if nothing had happened, as if Sister Leonore had only left them a little earlier than normal this evening, even though there was still much sewing to be done.