Chambers of Death Read Online Free PDF Page B

some.”
    Thomas nodded and cheerfully sat down with the man.
    “You honor courtesy by asking no questions, Brother, but I must confide my whole story to my father in due course. Until then, I confess a wicked but delightful pleasure in telling my sister-in-law nothing.” Huet poured the amber liquid into two pottery cups and passed one to the monk. “Despite her oft-repeated abhorrence of any hint of sin, Mistress Constance would take a knife to my soul if she thought she could learn the reasons for my return. In fact, my sins are dull enough, but she is convinced they are so loathsome that I have seen her salivate while imagining the horror.”
    Thomas grinned.
    “I should not accuse my elder brother’s wife of hypocrisy, for I do believe she honestly fears Hell, but I have oft wondered if she protests the evil in others just a bit too eagerly.” He cut into the cheese wheel and dug out a crumbly orange chunk to offer the monk.
    “Does your brother share this eagerness?”
    “Ranulf reminds me of our dead mother in his ardent faith, although she chose to follow Our Lord’s more charitable commands. As his example, my brother took the desert fathers. Like them, he roars against sin.”
    “I am surprised he did not wish to enter a monastery.”
    Huet chuckled. “Ranulf suffers from lust, Brother. He was wise enough to know he must marry for he is incapable of celibacy.”
    Remembering the look Mistress Constance gave him, Thomas hoped the wife pleased Ranulf more in the marital bed than the husband obviously satisfied his wife. “I grieve that they have found so little peace in God’s love,” he replied gently.
    “And you show more charity than I ever have, Brother. Yet, for all his faults, my brother is kin to whom I owe a dutiful love. Ever since their marriage, however, he has grown more rigid in his ways, a change that I blame on her influence.” He shrugged. “Did you look closely at her beady eyes? I have seen rats with a sweeter gaze. Whenever I meet her, I am transformed into a hunting cat and feel compelled to bat at her like prey.” He bent his fingers into claws and swatted at a piece of bread.
    “I heard that!” Hilda marched in from the courtyard and tossed her chosen fowl to a young girl for plucking and gutting. “Be careful, lad, or your father will take you to task for tormenting her,” she said, glancing over her shoulder as she picked up a heavy knife.
    “I doubt he’ll pay me much mind, except to demand I prove myself no wastrel despite the abandonment of my studies. My father has enough to worry him with his new wife.” Huet bit his lip as if he had not meant to say the last aloud, especially in a stranger’s hearing.
    Although his curiosity was pricked, Thomas pretended to have heard nothing of interest.
    “I’ll not make ill comment about Mistress Luce,” the cook snorted, then looked down at one naked bird just placed on the table. She picked it up and tossed it back to the girl. “There are still pin feathers on this! Did I not teach you to singe them? Are you asleep?”
    Comparing the woman’s words to her tone, Thomas decided Hilda had been quite artful in expressing an unfavorable opinion of her mistress without the danger of condemnation.
    “But your sire has a right to an explanation,” the cook continued, and to add emphasis, she cracked through the joint of a chicken thighbone with a mighty thwack.
    “Aye, but I confess I have yet to find the words.”
    “Talk to Mistress Maud, then. She’s come to help the mistress and always did have a weakness for you despite your wicked tricks. She’ll find a way for you to soften up the master.”
    “Our good cook thinks me awfully bad,” Huet whispered loudly to Thomas.
    “Only when he was a boy and would slip into the kitchen to steal bites of my pastry.”
    For just a moment, Thomas saw a little boy reflected in the man’s eyes.
    “I thought she’d blame the mice,” Huet said.
    The cook put her hands on her