The Prioress’ Tale Read Online Free PDF

his saddle into Frevisse’s hands as if only too willing to be rid of her as Sir Reynold shouted, “You fool! Don’t let her go!” But Frevisse noticed that he did not fully loose her until he was sure that Frevisse safely had her. Only then did Benet let her go, but if the girl noticed, it made no difference to her. The moment she was on her own feet, she twisted free of Frevisse and the cloak, flinging the cloak from her as she spun around to snarl up at Benet, “You ever touch me again, I’ll kill you!”
    Raw color surged across Benet’s face and Frevisse urged the girl away from him toward the cloister door as behind them Sir Reynold ordered, “Someone stop them both!”
    Another rider swung his horse in front of them, and Frevisse jerked the girl to a stop and her own head back to look up at him, ready to demand he let them pass; but he was Sir Hugh, one of the few of Sir Reynold’s men she knew by name, another Godfrey, fair-haired where most Godfreys were dark but large-built like Sir Reynold and as close to being his next in command as anyone was in the rough order among the men. He sat looking down from his horse’s height at them with an easy smile that said any try they made to pass him would only pleasure him, and Frevisse, feeling the girl trembling with fury or fear under her hand, tightened hold on her, willing her to stand steady. Neither fear nor fury would serve any better now than Frevisse’s own desperation to reach the cloister’s safety before somebody’s rashness made more trouble than there already was.
    From the cloister doorway beyond Sir Hugh and out of Frevisse’s sight, Lady Eleanor’s clear voice inquired, raised to carry over man and horse and across the yard, “Pray, what’s toward here? Hugh? Reynold? What are you about?”
    Before they could answer, Domina Alys flung back angrily, “These fools have grabbed a girl to marry to Benet, but she doesn’t want him.”
    “A girl?” Lady Eleanor’s voice rose in sharper inquiry. “Hugh, move. I can’t see anything.”
    Sir Hugh’s head had turned from her to Domina Alys and now back again, but he did not shift his horse, and impatiently Lady Eleanor slapped its flank, repeating, “Move, I said.”
    Grudgingly, Sir Hugh pulled back from her way.
    And Benet, before anyone else could do anything, dismounted and in a single swift movement caught up the fallen cloak and put himself between the girl and Sir Hugh, holding out the cloak to her with one hand, holding out his other toward the cloister door as a lord at the height of manners would do to make way for a lady.
    “Benet, you idiot,” Sir Hugh muttered. His leg tensed as if he would urge his horse forward, but Lady Eleanor, equally low, said quellingly, “Hugh,” and he held where he was, while Benet—as if he more than half expected to have his words shoved back down his throat—said stiffly, with a slight bow, his eyes on the girl’s face, “My lady, this way, if it please you.”
    The girl would have drawn back from him, but Frevisse wasted no time on hesitation or revulsion, simply pushed her toward Lady Eleanor and the cloister door. Sir Hugh spat out a word that she chose not to hear. Behind them Sir Reynold swore, “You’re a fool, Benet!” and louder with rising anger, “There’s no use to this, you women! She can go in, but she’s not coming out again except to marry him! Be sure of it!” while Benet said low and in a rush, as they passed him, “Joice, this isn’t what I meant to happen. This isn’t how I meant for it to be.”
    The girl turned a fierce and disbelieving stare on him. “But it
is
this way, isn’t it?” she hissed. “And you can’t
unmake
it, can you?” And as he recoiled from the force of her anger, she snatched the cloak from him and swept on past Lady Eleanor into the cloister, followed by Frevisse who gave a grateful look at Lady Eleanor, who nodded acknowledgment and followed them both, shutting the door behind them,