He moved behind the chair on which she sat.
'I will put a question to you, Mistress.'
'I listen in all humility.'
'You tell me that you have been chaste since the voice of God whispered in your ear.'
'That is so, sir.'
'Then here is my question…'
Melhuish groped for the words. It was not a matter he had ever raised with a woman before and it tested his resolve. When he spoke with other female parishioners in the privacy of his vestry, it was usually to scold them for not attending church or to advise them on the proper Christian upbringing of their children. Duty was now compelling him to climb into bed with a married couple and effect their union. It was a foreign country to him and he did not know the language.
'Here is my question, Eleanor,' he said nervously. 'If there came a man with a sword who would strike off your husband's head if you did not take that worthy fellow back into your bed, tell me, in all conscience, for you say you will not lie, what would you do?'
'I will answer you true, sir.'
'Would you let Humphrey Budden commit the act of love with you-or have his head cut off?'
'I would rather see him being killed.'
'That is cruelty itself, woman!'
'I cannot help it, sir,' said Eleanor calmly. 'We must turn our back on all uncleanness.'
'God has ordained love between man and wife.'
'I have submitted to His purpose three times.'
'Is that all?' said the vicar in surprise. 'Yet Humphrey spoke of daily indulgence.'
'I mean that I have shared my bed with three husbands, sir. They did not find me wanting in love.'
'Until now, sister.'
'Times have changed.'
Miles Melhuish was losing control. The aim of his examination was to put sufficient pressure on Eleanor Budden to make her see the error of her ways but she was blithely unconcerned when he chastised her. What she always came back to was the word of God and it was on that subject that he must confound her. Countless years of unremitting prayer had given him his own privileged access to divine command and he felt that he knew the timbre of the
Lord's voice more intimately than any lacemaker's wife, however much she might protest her devotion. 'When did God first talk with you?' he said.
'This se'n night since.'
'And where were you at this time?'
'Buying fish at the market, sir.'
Miles Melhuish started. 'The Lord spoke to you amid the smell of mackerel?'
'I heard Him as clear as day.'
'And what words did He use in that marketplace?'
'He said: 'Put aside your husband and follow me.' God called me by name and I obeyed Him straight.'
'What did you then do?'
'Return to my house and go up to the bedchamber. We have a crucifix on the wall so that Jesus may watch over us. I then proclaimed my mission.'
'How was that done, good lady?'
'That is the wonder of it,' she said with a shrug of her shoulders that made her breasts bob invitingly. 'I do not know what befell me next. But when I opened my eyes, I was lying on the floor and you were standing over me with my husband and all was blissful peace.'
'Yon recall nothing of a great noise you made?'
'Noise, sir?'
A most dolorous cry came from you.'
I was weeping for the death of Christ in torment. Miles Melhuish threw caution to the winds and sat opposite her. Wayward housewives had always responded to astern reproof before. It was time to stop encouraging the woman in her fancy and to put her firmly back on the straight and narrow path of wifely duty. He knitted his brows and reached for his homiletic strain.
Cast out these false notions!' he warned. If you would serve
God then do so by showing proper respect for one of His ministers.
It is within the four walls of this parish church that you will hear
His true voice and not at the fish stall in Nottingham market.'
She looked duly crushed and it spurred him on. 'Go back to
Humphrey Budden. He is a good husband and deserves better from his chosen companion in life. Let me hear no more about this chastity in your bedchamber. Cleave to your spouse. Give him the children he desires. Add some little parishioners to our congregation at St Stephen's. That only is your bounden duty and purpose here upon this earth.'
He had won. Eleanor Budden sat with bowed head and hunched shoulders, meek, mild and submitting to his firm instruction. It was a small victory for him and it gave him a flabby self-importance. He sat up straight in his chair to project his full ecclesiastical authority.
And all the while, she was in abject surrender.
Then she began to laugh. It began as a snigger, half-suppressed with the back of her hand. Then it became a giggle, almost girlish in its flippancy, increasing in volume every second until it was a full-throated laugh that set her whole body shaking, then it became a roar of mirth that made the vestry reverberate with sound, and, finally and inexplicably, it was a strange and uncontrollable cachinnation that built up into a crescendo and stopped dead.
Eyes that had sparkled with humour now ran with tears of remorse. Hands that had flapped about wildly now closed in prayer. Miles Melhuish writhed beneath the intensity of her gaze and vowed to refer the case to the diocesan synod. It was way beyond his competence. He was in the presence of witchcraft. The Dean alone was fit to pronounce on such a weighty matter.
The tears ceased but the wild stare remained. He endured its obsessional glow until he realized that she was not looking at him at all but at some object directly behind him. Turning around, he saw what had transfixed and transfigured her. It was a small lancet window into which some zealous craftsman had set the most affecting picture in stained glass. Christ was nailed to the cross with the crown of thorns upon His head. The round face was framed by long fair hair and a full beard, which took on a golden hue as light streamed in through the window. There was martyrdom and majesty in the image.
Eleanor Budden let out a sigh of pure enchantment.
She was in love.
Nicholas Bracewell ran wet hands through his hair and tossed back his mane as he completed his ablutions at the pump in the courtyard. He was up not long after dawn and the sun was taking its first peep at the day. There was much to do before departure.
Nicholas had to supervise the feeding and harnessing of the horses, the loading up of the waggon, the checking of valuables to make sure that nothing was missing, the payment of the landlord and the pacification of his wife, whom Lawrence Firethorn, in a moment of drunken zeal, had mistaken for a serving wench and seized in an amorous embrace. There would also be some lessons in swordplay he had promised the boys and the purchase of some provisions for the journey. The work of the book holder was never done.
'Welcome to the day, Master Bracewell!'
'The same to you, Christopher.'
'Let us hope it bears sweeter fruit than yesterday.'
'I am sure it must.'
'Where do we stop today?'
'At Royston. God willing.
