He shrugged. 'Even old celibates get lusty. She was a fine-looking girl. I tried to get her to romp with me, I'll not deny it.'
'You who are charged with keeping discipline in this house, and told me yesterday that discipline is all that keeps the world from chaos?'
He stirred uneasily in his chair. 'A tumble with a warm girl's a different matter from unnatural passions that rot the relations monks should have with each other,' he said sharply. 'I'm not perfect, nobody is except the saints and not all of them.'
'Some would say, Prior Mortimus, those words make you a hypocrite.'
'Oh come, Commissioner, aren't all men hypocrites? I wished the girl no harm. She rejected me quickly enough, and that old pederast Alexander reported me to the abbot. I felt sorry for her afterwards,' he added in a quieter voice, 'drifting about the place like a wraith. I never talked to her again, though.'
'Did anyone take her by force, that you know of? Goodwife Stumpe believes someone did.'
'No.' His face darkened. 'I wouldn't have stood for that.' He let out a long breath. 'It was bad, seeing her yesterday. I knew her at once.'
'So did Goodwife Stumpe.' I folded my arms. 'Brother Prior, your fine feelings amaze me. I can hardly believe this is the same man I saw kick a cripple not half an hour ago.'
'A man's place in the world is hard, a monk's most of all. He has obligations set by God, and fierce temptations to resist. Women — they're different, they deserve a peaceful life if they behave. Orphan was a good girl, not like that malapert Guy has working for him now.'
'She too had an approach from you, I hear.'
He was silent a moment. 'I wasn't fierce with her, y'know. Orphan. When she turned me away I didn't press her.'
'But others did. Brother Luke.' I paused. 'Brother Edwig.'
'Aye. Brother Alexander reported them too — though his own greater sins were to find him out,' he added maliciously. 'The abbot dealt with Brother Luke and told Brother Edwig to leave her be. And me as well. He doesn't often give me orders but he did then.'
'They tell me, you know, that you and Brother Edwig run this place.'
'Someone has to, Abbot Fabian's always been more interested in hunting with the local gentry. We see to the dull things that keep the monastery going.
I wondered whether to mention the monastery's financial affairs, or land sales in general, to see how he reacted. But no, I should not warn any of them till I had evidence to hand.
'I never believed she'd stolen those cups and run away, you know,' he said quietly.
'You told Goodwife Stumpe she had.'
'It was how it looked, and it was the line Abbot Fabian told us to take — he bestirred himself over that. I hope ye find who put her in there,' he added grimly. 'When ye do I wouldn't mind five minutes alone with them myself.'
I stared at his face, full of righteous anger. 'I imagine you would enjoy that,' I said coldly. 'And now you must excuse me, I am late for an appointment.'
===OO=OOO=OO===
Alice was waiting in the infirmary kitchen, a pair of stout overshoes on her feet and an old wool coat beside her. 'You need something warmer than that,' I said. 'It will be cold out there.'
'It will suffice,' she said, wrapping it round her. 'It was my mother's and it warmed her for thirty winters.'
We set out for the gate in the rear wall, following the path Mark and I had taken the day before. I was disconcerted to realize she was a good inch taller than me. Most men are, because of my bent back, but usually I can look women in the eye. I pondered on what it was that had attracted both Mark and me to Alice, for she was no conventional beauty, demure and pale. But simpering blonde maids had never attracted me; it was the spark of one strong spirit meeting another I had always yearned for. My heart lurched anew at the realization.