Chains of Folly Read Free

have I to do with this?” She wondered suddenly if Bell’s love had turned to hate as it sometimes did and he was attempting somehow to involve her in the death. “My women are all here safe and sound, and I certainly would not wish to embarrass or annoy the bishop of Winchester who has been kind to me.”
    Bell grimaced. “You have nothing to do with the woman or her death, but she was dressed as a whore and the bishop bade me ask if you would discover who she was and why she was brought to his bedchamber.”
    “The bishop sent you here?”
    Flushed again, Bell said, “He thought it very funny. He said he had a mission for me that he was sure I would enjoy.”
    Magdalene said nothing, and after a moment Bell went on. “There is something else, something that could be very bad in these times. The woman was carrying a letter addressed to Winchester from Robert of Gloucester.”
    “What?” Magdalene said again. This time as if she could not believe her ears. “It cannot be real. Where would a whore get a letter from Robert of Gloucester addressed to the bishop of Winchester?”
    “It is real enough. Winchester recognized the seal. He saw it often enough before Gloucester cried defiance. As to how she got it, there are a number of answers to that, but the simplest is that it was given to her to deliver to Winchester.”
    Magdalene stared at him for a long moment, slowly shaking her head and then said, “I cannot believe it. If the letter was meant to be given secretly to the bishop, all the messenger had to do was go to his house and ask for audience. Winchester is well known for listening to petitions.”
    “Unless the messenger who had the letter from Gloucester was already known as Winchester’s enemy.”
    “Even so, to entrust such a thing to a common whore—”
    “I think she was better than that,” Bell said. His lips tightened as he added, “Not so grand and rich as you, but not out of the common stews.”
    Magdalene almost smiled at the painful admission, but managed to control her lips and only nodded acceptance. She knew he had said it to hurt her, but it did not. Indeed, it gave her the only glimmer of hope she had felt since he had rolled his armor in his gambeson in Oxford and walked away.
    If only she could bring Bell to accept what she was—to acknowledge that nothing could change the fact that she had been a whore for many years and, for a favored few, still plied the trade—perhaps they could come to a modus vivendi. No, she would not allow herself even to think about it.
    “How was she dressed?” she asked, sternly quelling a hope she should not feel. “What did she look like?” And then before he could answer, she added, “No. Stay for dinner with us and tell everyone. It is possible that Diot will recognize her, or Letice, although Letice does not mingle much with the other whores. Among her people, whoring is a respectable trade, so she is welcome to them and she finds those who practice the trade here disgusting because of their filth and crudity.”
    “Stay for dinner? But…but…”
    Bell’s heart seemed to squeeze hard in his breast and then began to pound. His constant longing for Magdalene in the three weeks since he had broken with her was like the ache of a wound that had never healed. Before parting with her, he had managed to blind himself to the fact that she still serviced William of Ypres. He had told himself she performed an unwelcome duty, bowing to William’s power. But then she had confessed it was not only duty. That she should share her body, he had been able to ignore; he did not see it happen. But that he must share her heart—that he could not bear. He started at Magdalene’s voice.
    “Why not? You are on the bishop’s business and if we say so, no one will expect you to stay or even come back tonight.”
    He rubbed his hands nervously along the sides of his tunic. “Well…”
    “It would be much better for the women to hear all the details exactly