Bone of Contention Read Free

your business is finished, you can leave through the abbey gate.”
    “Thus I will not be seen to enter a whorehouse every night and your clients will remain unaware of my visits.” Father Etienne nodded. “Lord William often speaks of how clever you are and how useful. He is not mistaken, I see.”
    “He is always generous in his judgments,” Magdalene said noncommittally. Since a number of her more anxious clients used that path the idea was not as clever as the priest thought, but Magdalene never spoke of her clients voluntarily. “But I must ask you for one more indulgence,” she continued. “Lord William pays me a monthly fee for entertaining any of his men that he gives permission to come here. I will have to ask you to beg them not to use that privilege while I am away.”
    “That I can do, and most willingly.” He frowned. “In any case, I think Lord William is recalling most of the men to Oxford. Sir Niall Arvagh and his troop have already returned to Oxford. I think Lord William plans to have the men camp well outside of the city—the weather is warm enough for them to live in tents.” He shrugged. “The city is, indeed, so crowded that not only the houses are filled but the churches and churchyards.”
    He went on to expand on the problems raised by the new eagerness to attend on the king. Magdalene listened only enough to be sure he was repeating what she already knew. She had heard about the crowding in the city from those of William’s men who had been sent away from Oxford and had stopped in at the Old Priory Guesthouse.
    Half the tradesmen in the city had been displaced or had men quartered on them. Magdalene wondered where she would stay and felt a new prick of anxiety. Would William want her to live with him? His primary use for her was a safe house to conduct political business. Any man from any party can come to a whorehouse without raising suspicion. However William did occasionally wish to lie with her. She had always agreed, although he was a terrible lover, driving to his own quick satisfaction, usually without foreplay or consideration for his partner.
    On the other hand, William was most moderate in his sexual demands. He was far more interested in politics and the management of his many estates than in the pleasures of the flesh, but if he were very anxious it was possible he might feel the need for continued physical comfort. Magdalene swallowed uneasily. She was very fond of William, in fact she loved him, but…not that way.
    The thought brought to mind the man she did love…that way, and Magdalene swallowed again. Bell. Sir Bellamy of Itchen, as clever as William and just as proud, although he did not come near William in wealth and power and made his living as one of the bishop of Winchester’s knights. Bell would have a fit when he heard she had agreed to go to William in Oxford, and if he heard she was living with William…Magdalene managed to restrain a shudder.
    She had warned Bell when she finally allowed him into her bed that from time to time there would be, must be, other men, that their coupling could only be for a temporary pleasure, not a symbol of any permanent bonding. She had insisted from their first meeting that she was by profession a whore and would not change.
    Magdalene did not sigh because she was aware that Father Etienne was looking at her while he talked, but she felt like sighing. Bell gave lip service to acceptance of her profession. Perhaps his head even acknowledged the truth of her warnings, but she feared his heart did not. Well, he would either learn to control his jealousy or they would come to a parting of the ways.
    A funny hollow feeling in Magdalene’s midsection made her shift on her seat. That was wrong, she told herself. To become attached, to desire too much to please, that way lay disaster. She could never again be one man’s woman. Three men were dead from trying to keep her. And, because she had been a whore for many years, even if