But in the late spring after the long fast, Queen Cecilia Blanca usually came to visit, and during these visits Mother Rikissa always softened in the spine, if not in her heart. Eventually both parchment and books were ordered from Varnhem, which offered a more than willing Brother Lucien the opportunity to make extra trips. He also obtained Mother Rikissa’s permission to teach accounting to both the yconomus, the runaway canon Jöns, and Cecilia Rosa so as to help them put Gudhem’s affairs into order. The condition was that there would be no direct talking between Cecilia Rosa and Brother Lucien; all communication between them had to go via yconomusJöns, acting as intermediary. This led to annoying moments, since Cecilia Rosa grasped everything much more quickly than did the unwilling Jöns.
According to Brother Lucien, whose skill at keeping books was shared by every other brother at Varnhem, the state of Gudhem’s affairs was lamentable. Actually there was no lack of income; that wasn’t the problem. But there was no balance between how much of the income was in silver and how much was in outstanding invoices or in goods already received but not sold. Jöns the yconomusdidn’t even know how much silver they had. He said that he usually estimated it by the number of handfuls. If there were more than ten handfuls, he knew from experience that would last a good while without any more coming in, but if there were fewer than five handfuls then they would have to bring in more.
It also turned out that Gudhem was due rent payments that hadn’t been made in many years because they’d simply been forgotten. In everything that Brother Lucien discussed, Cecilia Rosa was as quick to learn as yconomusJöns was stubborn and obtuse. He was sure that what had been good enough in the past would be good enough in the future. To such talk Brother Lucien could only shake his head. He said that Gudhem’s income might be almost doubled if they had orderly bookkeeping, and that it was a sin to administer God’s kingdom on earth as badly as it was being done at Gudhem. Such remarks incited Mother Rikissa’s wrath, although she still didn’t know what she would do about the matter.
That spring, though, Brother Lucien and Sister Leonore had many hours to themselves, so many that it was soon visible in Sister Leonore’s waistline. She understood that now it was only a matter of time before her crime was revealed, and she wept in anguish. Even Brother Lucien’s visits could not console her.
Cecilia Rosa and Ulvhilde had seen what was going on; the rapid sale of everything they had sewn during the winter, however, gave the three a reason to spend extra time together in the vestiarium. Cecilia Rosa then tried to be smart and think like a man without resorting to whining; at least she tried to think the way her friend Cecilia Blanca would have done.
Soon everyone would know that Sister Leonore was with child. Then she would be excommunicated and cast out of Gudhem. Since a man had to be involved in the sin, Brother Lucien would not escape either.
The couple ought to flee before they were forced out and excommunicated.
They would be excommunicated anyway if they fled, Sister Leonore objected.
Well, better to flee together before that happened. The question was only how to do it. One thing was clear: a runaway nun out on the road would soon be caught, and even sooner if she was traveling with a monk, Cecilia Rosa reasoned.
They turned the problem over and over; then Sister Leonore talked to Brother Lucien about the matter, and he told her about cities in the south of the kingdom of the Franks where people could obtain asylum. People like themselves, who were believers and devoted to God in everything except what had to do with earthly love. But traveling to the south of France without money and in the clothing of a nun and monk would not be easy.
The three women could make garments that looked like worldly clothes in the vestiarium. Obtaining silver for the journey was another matter. Cecilia Rosa mentioned that Gudhem’s accounts were in such a shambles that nobody would miss a couple of handfuls of silver.
But stealing from a cloister was a sin worse than the one Sister Leonore had already committed. She begged in despair that no one should steal for her sake; she would rather go out on the road without a single penning. She thought that such a theft would be a real sin, unlike her love and the fruit that it had produced, which she no longer viewed as a sin at all. If only she could get to the south of France that sin would be dissolved into nothingness. But stealing from the house of the Holy Virgin Mary could never be forgiven.
Queen Cecilia Blanca sent word to Gudhem three days in advance to announce her visit. The arrival of the messenger came as a relief for the three who were privy to Gudhem’s great secret—Sister Leonore was now in her third or fourth month; but the message imposed a heavy burden on Mother Rikissa. Archbishop Stéphan had died, to be sure, but as far as she knew the new Archbishop Johan was just as much in the king’s pocket. Mother Rikissa was thus still subject to the slightest whim of Queen Cecilia Blanca. And because of this the cursed Cecilia Rosa was still just as big a threat to Mother Rikissa. Vengeance was not something she worried about; she knew how she would take her revenge. But excommunication was a greater threat to her than anything else. And she could be excommunicated by the archbishop if the two Cecilias truly set their minds to it.
Cecilia Rosa understood full well that Mother Rikissa’s present mental state was advantageous for certain conversations. She sought out Mother Rikissa in the abbess’s own rooms and bluntly laid out her plan: she herself would take over all the activities for which yconomusJöns was now responsible at Gudhem. She would put the bookkeeping in order and this would improve Gudhem’s standing. The yconomuswould then have more time for the trips to marketplaces that now took up an unreasonable number of hours, since he claimed he had far too many other things to do.
Mother Rikissa feebly tried to argue that no one had ever heard of a woman being yconomus, and that was indeed why it used the masculine form of Latin.
Without hesitation Cecilia Rosa replied that women were particularly well suited to taking care of such work at a convent, as it was not manual labor. And as far as the gender of the Latin word, all they had to do was change it to “ yconoma.”
So that was what she wanted her job at Gudhem to be called from now on, yconoma. When Mother Rikissa seemed about to give in, Cecilia Rosa quickly pointed out that the yconomawas naturally the one who would decide where the man Jöns would be sent in the future. He would travel with messages from Gudhem but not take part in any trading, since his decisions had proved to be greatly lacking.
Mother Rikissa was now very close to anger, as was clearly apparent since she was sitting motionless and hunched up, rubbing her left hand on her right—all signs that in previous years had been a bad omen at Gudhem, since it presaged shouts about the scourge and the carcer.
“God will soon show us whether this was a wise decision or not,” she said when she had regained some control over herself. “But it shall be as you wish. You will have to pray with humility about this change and not let anything go to your head. Remember that what I give you can just as easily be taken away in an instant. For I am still your abbess.”
“Yes, Mother, for now you are my abbess,” said Cecilia Rosa with feigned humility so that the concealed warning in her words would not sound like a threat. Then she bowed her head and left. When she closed the door to Mother Rikissa’s rooms, she made an effort not to slam it. But silently to herself she hissed, for now, you witch.