The Difficult Saint: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery by Sharan Newman Page A

found it very gratifying to realize that Walter thought she was beautiful.
    As Walter had predicted, they reached Metz late the following afternoon. All during their trip, the crosses worn by Jehan and Walter had been greeted with respect and admiration. But in Metz they were only two of hundreds of soldiers with crosses. It seemed to Agnes that every man of fighting age was planning to join the pilgrimage.
    The reason for this was made clear when they arrived at the hostel at the convent of Saint Pierre les Nonnains.
    “The representative of Abbot Bernard is here,” Jehan informed them, after talking with one of the clerics. “He read the abbot’s encyclical yesterday in the town square and it was all they could do to keep the whole of Metz from taking the cross.”
    “Do you think the abbot himself will preach soon?” Agnes asked. “I didn’t hear him at Vézelay.”
    “I don’t know. He seems to be everywhere at once these days,” Jehan said. “They say he may go to Germany to try to convince the
emperor to join King Louis. And then there’s this news from the Rhineland.”
    “And what is this news?” Walter asked impatiently.
    “Oh, something about the Jews again.” Jehan grimaced. “Some of them have been attacked and now they’re whining to their bishops to protect them. As if those mavaises bestes deserved protection.”
    “Jehan!” Walter said in surprise. “Of course they do! The fathers of the Church all say so, as does Abbot Bernard. How will they ever be converted to the true faith if they’re persecuted and killed?”
    “They only way those stubborn bastards will ever come to the faith is at the point of a sword,” Jehan told him.
    Agnes began to feel uneasy with the conversation.
    “I don’t like them, either, Jehan,” she said. “But I don’t think anyone was ever converted in their hearts through intimidation.”
    Jehan gave her a startled glance, as if a favorite hunting dog had suddenly tried to bite him.
    “Also,” Walter added, “the bishops swore an oath to protect the Jews under them. Breaking it would imperil their immortal souls.”
    “Yes, of course.” Jehan seized at this solution. “One must never break a sacred oath, however foolish.”
    He turned to Agnes for her reaction, but she wasn’t paying attention to either of them. One of the guards had helped her down and she was busy directing the unloading of her baggage while she waited for the portress to admit her and the other ladies.
    Walter shook his head in sympathy.
    “Turn your mind to Heaven, Jehan, as I do,” he said. “Or you’ll find no peace anywhere on Earth.”
    “I have no hope of either Heaven or happiness.” Jehan’s voice was bleak.
    Walter leaned over and gave him a pat that nearly unseated him.
    “In that case, we might as well see to the women and then go drown ourselves in the first tavern we can find.”
    Jehan brightened slightly. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard since this journey began.”
     
    Agnes didn’t notice them leave. There was too much to be done. It was the private belief of her maids that she would run a household
better than the kings did their armies. She oversaw everything and missed nothing. While she was, they admitted, fair in her demands, there was no warmth in her manner. Her prospective husband was the subject of sincere pity.
    Agnes gave no sign that she knew or cared what they thought. She gave the directions for the temporary storage of her goods and then allowed the portress to lead her to greet the abbess before retiring to her room.
    The maids stopped for a moment after she had gone.
    “Do you think she even confides in a priest?” Laudine asked asked.
    “Hmmph! That one wouldn’t tell her secrets to the Virgin herself,” Lisette stated.
    A third woman bent over and began gathering up bundles of clothing and toiletries that would be needed that night.
    “She’s a close one,” the woman agreed. “But I’d think she must be lonely as Eve