Ulvhilde looked as though she’d been struck by lightning. She sat there completely pale, straight-backed, and suddenly stone-cold sober. For even if she wasn’t as cunning as her two older friends, she could see that what the queen had said might mean that her life could be changed as if by magic.
Her next thought was that in that case she would have to leave her dear Cecilia Rosa, and then the tears came.
“I refuse to leave you here alone with that witch Rikissa, especially now that Sister Leonore…” she sniffled, but was immediately interrupted by Cecilia Rosa, who laid a warning finger across her lips. She quickly moved to Ulvhilde’s side at the table and took the girl in her arms.
“Hush, hush, my dear little friend,” Cecilia Rosa whispered to her. “Remember that I was separated from my dear Cecilia Blanca once in the same way, and here we now sit, the dearest of friends. Remember too that when we see each other on the outside we’ll be younger than Sister Leonore is now. And by the way, don’t say anything else about this matter to your queen.”
Cecilia Blanca cleared her throat and rolled her eyes as if to show that she might already have understood too much. Then she excused herself and went into her own rooms on the ground floor to “fetch a few trinkets,” as she said.
While she was gone Cecilia Rosa stroked Ulvhilde’s hair as the young girl continued to cry.
“I know what you’re feeling now, Ulvhilde,” whispered Cecilia Rosa. “I have felt the same. The day I understood that Cecilia Blanca would leave this Godforsaken place, I wept with joy for her sake but also with sorrow because I would be alone for a time which then seemed like an eternity. But the days no longer seem endless, Ulvhilde. I can now see that my penance will one day end.”
“But if you’re left alone with the witch…” Ulvhilde sniffled.
“I’ll be all right. I can manage. If you think about our secret here at Gudhem, the one only you and I and Sister Leonore know about, isn’t it a miracle of God that love is so strong? And isn’t it just as wondrous what Our Lady can do for someone who never loses faith and hope?”
Ulvhilde seemed to take some solace from this. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and pluckily poured a little more mead for herself, although she had already drunk more than enough.
Cecilia Blanca returned with long strides and slammed a leather purse down on the table. From the sound it was clear what the leather purse contained.
“Two handfuls, approximately,” Cecilia Blanca said with a laugh. “Whatever wily female plans you have, dear friends, make damned sure you succeed!”
At first the other two were shocked by their queen’s audacious, manly speech. Then all three women burst into uncontrollable laughter.
They hid the leather purse with the hundred silver penningsin a crevice in the cloister wall out by the gardens and described the spot exactly for Sister Leonore. They sewed the necessary garments piece by piece and let Sister Leonore herself hide them where she pleased outside the walls.
And when the summer was winding toward its end, Brother Lucien again made visits to Gudhem because he thought that there were important things about the harvesting, and about how to handle the fresh herbs, which Sister Leonore had not yet fully grasped.
This time he brought along a little book that he had made himself, in which most of what he knew could be read. And he gave this book to Cecilia Rosa along with a greeting. Though he never spoke to her, he wanted to thank her for keeping their secret. It was not easy to read everything in the little book; Sister Leonore had to carry questions between the giver and the receiver a few times until most of it had been explained.
One evening when the summer was approaching harvest time, when the apples had begun to turn sweet, when the moon reddened in the evening and the black earth smelled of moist ripeness, and it was now obvious in what blessed condition Sister Leonore found herself, Cecilia Rosa and Ulvhilde accompanied her to the back gate that led out to the gardens. All three of them knew where the keys were hidden.
They opened the little wooden gate very carefully, because it was a bit creaky. Out there in the moonlight Brother Lucien was waiting in his new worldly clothes. In his arms he had a bundle of clothes that Sister Leonore would wear all the way to the south of France, if they could make it that far before she had to give birth.
Hastily the three women embraced one another. They blessed each other but none of them cried. And so Sister Leonore vanished into the moonlight; Cecilia Rosa closed the little wooden gate quietly and carefully, and Ulvhilde silently locked it. They went back to the vestiariumand continued their work as if nothing had happened, as if Sister Leonore had only left them a little earlier than normal this evening, even though there was still much sewing to be done.
But Sister Leonore had left them forever. And afterward there was much grumbling and many harsh words. But for Cecilia Rosa her absence left a great emptiness, since she both feared and hoped that for the second time she would soon be alone at Gudhem.
Chapter 7
Autumn and winter were the time for rest and healing in the Holy Land. The land itself, like many of its warring inhabitants, seemed to be recovering from its wounds during this time when enemy armies could make no headway. The roads around Jerusalem turned into mud; wagons that were too heavy got stuck, and on the bare and windswept hills outside the holy city there was often thick, slushy snow. Together with the violent wind it would make any enemy siege more miserable for the besiegers than for the besieged inside.
In Gaza it often rained, but the weather could also be sunny and cool, like the Nordic summers. Snow had never been seen there.
The autumn and winter days following the remarkable, miraculous victory at Mont Gisard were at first filled with two tasks that were of greater concern for fortress master Arn de Gothia than all the everyday work. First, he had a hundred Mameluke prisoners who were more or less battered; and second, he had almost thirty wounded knights and sergeants in the north wing of the fortress.
Two of the captives were men who could not be locked in with the others in one of Gaza’s grain stores. They were Saladin’s younger brother Fahkr and the emir Moussa. Arn had them quartered in private rooms, and he ate the midday meal with them every day instead of with his knights down in the refectoriumby the fortress courtyard. He knew that this behavior prompted some amazement among his close brothers, but he had not explained to them how important Fahkr was.
In all of Outremer and the surrounding lands, everyone acted in the same way when it came to prisoners, whether they were followers of the Prophet or Christians or something else. Important prisoners like Fahkr and emir Moussa were exchanged or released when ransomed. Prisoners who could not be exchanged were usually beheaded.
The captives in Gaza were mostly Mamelukes. The simplest thing would have been to find out which of them had earned their freedom and were rewarded with property, and which of them were still slaves. The result would be either death or, in the best case, the position of master of a whole region in one of Saladin’s many lands.
Those who were still slaves ought to be beheaded at once. They were just as worthless as prisoners as Templar knights were, since they could never be ransomed. Besides, it was unhealthy to keep too many prisoners in close quarters, because they could easily spread disease. Killing them was the most hygienic solution, and also the wisest in terms of economical administration.