Kindle - Winter Heart (8 page)

Had “evil” been too strong a word to give to Sister Elianor?  She was afraid she could not find a lesser.  There was too much wrong about him.  What he had done, he had not done from stupidity.  He had set about most cunningly to get what he wanted, never troubling to look past his own greed to any feeling for the people whose lives he was destroying.  Too many men had greed for more than they needed, cared nothing for what harm they did along their way, cared nothing about who they left hurt, impoverished, and desperately without life’s needs.  Nothing mattered except their own excessive greed be satisfied. 

Except of course such greed could never be satisfied.  Greed beyond need fed on itself, creating ever-greater hunger for more.  A hunger never able to be satisfied because it devoured even as it fed.  Devoured mind and soul as surely as disease devoured a body unless a balance could be found. 

John Adirton had never sought that balance.  He had outright murdered his wife and Henry Barnsley, and left the Kelmstowes ruined past apparent mending.  All so he could have more.  Never mind that the less he left to others barely let them go on living. 

There was a rot in John Adirton’s soul that let him see only his own necessity and feel nothing for anyone else’s.  There were so many ways to be cruel in the world.  Adirton had turned aside from none.

It was just as well that he would hang.

Blessedly, at that moment the bell began to ring for None.  Frevisse made to rise, found a weight on her lap, and sank back, surprised to find the cat curled there.  It knew as well as she did what the bell meant but gave no sign it meant to move.  If anything, it settled more heavily, as if defying her to push it off her lap.  She nearly did, but paused.  Just as there were cruelties in the world, so there were kindnesses, great and small.  Great ones might be few and far between, but small ones came daily and often.  Christ had said “As long as you did such to one of my least brothers, you did so to me” without saying where “least” left off.  And with silent laughter at herself, Frevisse gathered up the defiantly boneless beast, rose to her feet, and gently put it down where she had been sitting, leaving it to re-curl and settle itself on the warmed cushions as she left the room, called to prayers in which she hoped to find her peace.

Margaret Frazer is the award-winning author of more than twenty historical murder mysteries and novels. She makes her home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, surrounded by her library of books, but she lives her life in the 1400s. In writing her Edgar-nominated Sister Frevisse (
The Novice's Tale
) and Player Joliffe (
A Play of Isaac
) novels she delves far inside medieval perceptions, seeking to look at medieval England more from its point of view than ours. "Because the pleasure of going thoroughly into otherwhen as well as otherwhere is one of the great pleasures in reading."

She can be visited online at http://www.margaretfrazer.com.

Beginning in the year of Our Lord's grace 1431, the Sister Frevisse mysteries are an epic journey of murder and mayhem in 15th century England.

The Novice's Tale

The Servant's Tale (Edgar-Award Nominee)

The Outlaw's Tale

The Bishop's Tale (Minnesota Book Award Nominee)

The Boy's Tale

The Murderer's Tale

The Prioress' Tale (Edgar-Award Nominee)

The Maiden's Tale

The Reeve's Tale (Minnesota Book Award Nominee)

The Squire's Tale

The Clerk's Tale

The Bastard's Tale

The Hunter's Tale

The Widow's Tale

The Sempster's Tale

The Traitor's Tale

The Apostate's Tale

In the pages of Margaret Frazer's national bestselling Dame Frevisse Mysteries the player Joliffe has assumed many roles on the stage to the delight of those he entertains. Now, in the company of a troupe of traveling performers, he finds himself double cast in the roles of sleuth and spy...

A Play of Isaac

A Play of Dux Moraud

A Play of Knaves

A Play of Lords

A Play of Treachery

A Play of Piety

Available Now as Kindle E-Books

Neither Pity, Love, Nor Fear (Herodotus Award Winner)

Strange Gods, Strange Men

The Simple Logic of It (A Bishop Pecock Tale)

The Witch's Tale (Sister Frevisse Mystery)

The Midwife's Tale (Sister Frevisse Mystery)

Volo te Habere...

This World's Eternity

Shakespeare's Mousetrap

The Death of Kings

The Stone-Worker's Tale (Sister Frevisse Mystery)

Winter Heart (Sister Frevisse Mystery)

Cover Art: Gustav Courbet - Poor Woman of the Village, 1866.

Cover Design: Justin Alexander