When the other women at Riseberga—six nuns, three novices, and eight lay-sisters—went to completoriumthat evening, Cecilia Rosa went instead to her bookkeeping chamber. Her first hour of freedom began with work.
That autumn Cecilia organized an expedition down to Gudhem to purchase all sorts of useful and lovely plants that could only travel in the fall so that they wouldn’t die on the way. She also needed many things for sewing and dyeing cloth. All such matters had been worked out long ago at Gudhem, while Riseberga up in Nordanskog was only in the beginning stages of its operation. Because Cecilia Rosa would be bringing a great deal of silver along for payment, Birger Brosa had arranged for her to have armed horsemen accompany her south to Lake Vättern. Then Norwegian seafarers would take her across the water, and Folkung riders would again escort her from the lake to Gudhem.
She too traveled on horseback. Since she had been a good rider at the age of seventeen, it didn’t take her long to regain her previous skill on horseback, although her body did ache.
As she approached Gudhem with her retinue, she stubbornly insisted on riding in front because she was an yconomaand used to making decisions. The armed horsemen were only her escort. But she was surprised at how mixed her feelings were. Gudhem was situated in a beautiful location, and it was lovely to see even at a distance. In the middle of autumn like this, many roses were still blooming along the walls; they were the kind she would try to buy for the beautification of Riseberga, along with other flowering plants.
There was no place on earth she had hated as much as Gudhem; that much was true without a doubt. But what a remarkable difference there was in approaching Mother Rikissa’s realm as a free woman rather than as one who had to obey her every demand.
Cecilia Rosa told herself that she was here strictly for business and to obtain the best for Riseberga. There was no reason to seek out a quarrel with Mother Rikissa or to make a special effort to show the abbess that her power had been broken. As she rode down the last graveled lane toward Gudhem, Cecilia Rosa imagined behaving toward Rikissa as if they were now equals: the abbess from Gudhem and the yconomafrom Riseberga, who were going to transact business to the best of their ability and nothing more. But she did scowl a bit when she recalled Mother Rikissa’s lack of understanding when it came to business dealings.
But nothing came of her imagined encounter with the abbess. Mother Rikissa lay dying, and Bishop Örjan from Växjö had been called to the deathbed to hear her confession and give her extreme unction.
Upon hearing this news, Cecilia Rosa at first considered leaving Gudhem. But the journey had been long and difficult, and life in both Gudhem and Riseberga would go on long after everyone who now lived there was dead. So she changed her mind and took lodging in the hospitium, where she and her companions were welcomed as if they were any other travelers.
Early that evening the bishop, whom she did not know, came to see Cecilia Rosa and asked her to accompany him into the cloister to visit the abbess one last time. Mother Rikissa herself had requested this last favor from Cecilia Rosa.
To refuse the last wish of someone who was dying when it would be so easy to comply was of course out of the question. Reluctantly Cecilia Rosa followed Bishop Örjan to Mother Rikissa’s deathbed. Her reluctance was not on account of death, as she had seen much of that in the convent, where many old women came to live out their last days and then die. Her reluctance was because of the emotions she feared she would discover in her heart when faced with Mother Rikissa’s death. To exult over her death would be a difficult sin to forgive. But what other emotions could she feel for a person who was evil incarnate?
With the bishop lamenting and praying at her side, Cecilia Rosa entered Mother Rikissa’s innermost sanctum. The abbess lay there with the covers pulled up to her chin and with a candle burning on either side of the bed. She was very pale, as if the Grim Reaper were already squeezing her heart with his cold skeletal hand. Her eyes were half shut.
Cecilia Rosa and the bishop fell at once to their knees beside the bed and said the obligatory prayers. When they finished praying, Mother Rikissa opened her eyes a little. Suddenly she stuck a claw-like hand out from under the covers and grabbed Cecilia Rosa by the back of the neck with a strength that was not at all like that of someone who was dying.
“Cecilia Rosa, God has called you here in this hour so that you will forgive me,” she snarled, and her strong grip relaxed a bit around Cecilia Rosa’s neck.
For a brief moment Cecilia Rosa felt the same icy terror that she had always associated with this evil woman. But then she collected herself and removed without undue firmness Mother Rikissa’s hand from her neck.
“What is it that you want me to forgive you, Mother?” she asked, her tone betraying no emotion.
“My sins, and mostly my sins against you,” whispered Mother Rikissa as if she had suddenly lost most of her surprising strength.
“Like when you whipped me for sins that you knew I hadn’t committed? Have you confessed to that evil?” Cecilia Rosa asked coldly.
“Yes, I have confessed these sins to Bishop Örjan who is at your side,” replied Mother Rikissa.
“Like when you tried to kill me by keeping me in the carcerin the wintertime with only a blanket? Did you confess to that too?” Cecilia Rosa went on.
“Yes, I have…confessed to that too,” said Mother Rikissa. But then Cecilia Rosa couldn’t help noticing how Bishop Örjan, still on his knees at her side, made a restless movement. She glanced at him at once and couldn’t avoid seeing his look of surprise.
“You’re not lying to me on your own deathbed after you’ve confessed and received extreme unction, are you, Mother Rikissa?” Cecilia Rosa asked in a soft tone, though she felt as hard as iron inside. In Mother Rikissa’s red glowing eyes she again saw the slitted pupils of the goat.
“I have confessed to all that you have asked me about. Now I want to have your forgiveness and your prayers before my long journey, for my sins are not insignificant,” Mother Rikissa whispered.
“Have you also confessed to trying to kill Cecilia Blanca in the carcerduring the hard winter months?” Cecilia Rosa continued implacably.
“You’re torturing me…show some mercy to me on my deathbed,” Mother Rikissa panted. But she spoke in such a way that Cecilia Rosa had the impression it was all a sham.
“Have you or have you not confessed that you tried to take my life and Cecilia Blanca’s by using the carcer?” Cecilia Rosa asked, because she had no intention of yielding. “Poor sinner that I am, I cannot forgive such sins if I don’t know that they have already been confessed. You understand that, don’t you, Mother?”
“Yes, I have confessed these grave sins to Bishop Örjan,” Mother Rikissa said then, but this time without panting or whispering. Instead some impatience could be heard in her voice.
“That is your dilemma, Mother Rikissa,” said Cecilia Rosa coldly. “Either you’re lying to me now when you say that you have confessed this to Bishop Örjan. And then of course I cannot forgive you. Or else you have actually confessed to these mortal sins, for it is a mortal sin to attempt to take a Christian’s life, even worse if you are in service to God’s Mother. If you have indeed confessed these mortal sins, then Bishop Örjan could not forgive you. And lastly, who am I, a poor sinful penitent under your whip for so many years, to forgive that which even the bishop and God Himself cannot forgive?!”
With these words Cecilia Rosa stood up abruptly as if she knew what was about to happen. Mother Rikissa twisted violently in the bed and once again reached out her hands for Cecilia Rosa as if trying to grab her around the neck. This caused the blanket to fall off her, and a revolting stench spread through the room.