She swallowed hard; he could see it. “When I first came to St. Blitha, I was warned by another pledge about the Mother Abbess,” she murmured, blinking away tears of pure fright. “I was told not to cross her. I was told that she could make women in her charge… disappear.”
Maxton was listening very carefully. “Disappear how?” he asked. “Send them away?”
Andressa shook her head. When she looked at him, it was with the greatest reluctance. “Nay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “There is a vault below the abbey, a place that the Mother Abbess calls The Chaos. When I first came to St. Blitha, there were eighteen pledges. One girl, named Lora, came just before me. She was vivacious and kind, and she truly wanted to serve God. But she also had a bold tongue, and she was warned of her behavior several times. Then, she was caught singing as she swept the floor of the church and the Mother Abbess ordered her into The Chaos. I never saw her again after that. Lora was the first of seven women who have been sent to The Chaos since I have been at St. Blitha. They go into The Chaos but they never return. Ever.”
Maxton had to admit that he was rather shocked to hear that. “They stay down there forever?” he said. “Or, it is equally possible that they are sent away, only you do not see it?”
“They are not sent away, my lord.”
“You know this for certain?”
“Aye.”
“Then what happens to them?”
Andressa closed her eyes as if to ward off the question, but she was too deep into her ghastly tale to refrain from answering. “I… I have seen the Mother Abbess take the stairs down to TheChaos,” she whispered. “When she goes, she always takes her staff with her. It is a big, heavy cross, taller than a man, and she calls it the Staff of Truth, but it is not as it seems. When she has come up from The Chaos, one of the nuns is always waiting for her with a piece of linen. The bottom of the staff, you see, is a dagger. A long dagger that is set within a wooden sheath made to look as if it is part of the staff. I have seen the nun remove that wooden sheath to reveal a bloodied blade. She uses the linen to wipe off the blade before replacing it into the wooden sheath. Do you not understand, my lord? The Mother Abbess kills those who go into The Chaos with her Staff of Truth and believes she is doing it with God’s blessing.”
Maxton sat back, hand to his mouth in astonishment as he pondered what he’d just been told. “Are you serious?” he gasped. “Shekillsthem?”
Andressa nodded her head quickly, wiping at her eyes, at the tears of fright. “I swear upon our Holy Father that it is the truth,” she said. “And you swore upon your oath that you would not repeat it. If you do, I will end up in The Chaos, and I do not wish to go there.”
Maxton was horrified. “But why in God’s name should she kill those she sends to the vaults?”
She shook her head. “I do not know,” she said. “I have been asking myself the same question, except I overheard the nuns speak one day. They said that they had received the regular donation from Lora’s family because they were able to purchase fine meat for the Mother Abbess’ table.”
“Then her family does not know she is missing? Or dead?”
“If they did, they would no longer send the donation.”
That information hit Maxton like a punch to the chest. The family had not been informed so the Mother Abbess could continue collecting the family’s donations. That was greed on an entirely new level. “God’s Bones,” he muttered. “The womankills the charges who displease her, but doesn’t tell the families? She continues to take their money?”
“Aye, my lord.”
He threw up his hands, agitated and outraged. “Someday, the families are going to know that something is amiss.”
Andressa remained calm. She had lived with this terrible secret for years and it was something that no longer outraged her, only terrified her. “We are not allowed visitors at St. Blitha,” she said. “They would not know the truth and if they did, I am sure they would be told that their daughters died of an illness or an accident. Anything but the truth.”
“But you have seen the bloodied staff.”
She appeared pale and sickened. “I have seen everything but the actual killing, my lord.”
“God help us,” he muttered in disbelief. Then, he pointed in the direction of the street outside. “And this is the same woman who lets her charges run loose in the streets of London, begging for food?”
She nodded again, swiftly. “As long as we do not speak against her and as long as our chores and prayers are completed on time, she has no conscience about it,” she said. “As long as we do not disrupt her life, she cares not what occurs. It has been like that since I have been there.”
It was a truly ghastly story. Maxton could hardly believe it. But in the same breath, he knew what the pope himself was capable of. He had experienced it first-hand. Therefore, it didn’t surprise him that this Mother Abbess was capable of the same, vipers in a church that was full of men and women hiding behind the veil of religion. Therefore, it took very little thought for him to be utterly convinced that Andressa was telling the truth, as dreadful as it was.
“I will not repeat this,” he assured her. “But you cannot go back there.”
Andressa looked at him with some surprise. “I must,” she said. “I have nowhere else to go.”
He was starting to think quickly, thinking of a place where he could take her. The poor woman couldn’t return to the hell of St. Blitha.
“I will think of something,” he said. “You said you had an older brother once? I will assume his role. I will not let you suffer any longer than necessary, my lady. Yours is a horrible story. I am sure I can find a place for you, somewhere. St. Blitha is not a fit place for you, or for anyone.”
She bolted to her feet. “Nay,” she said, moving away from the table so she was out of his arm’s length. “Imustreturn, my lord. You do not understand. She would find me no matter where you take me because I have seen it happen before. Pledges have tried to leave her, but she always brings them back. I… I cannot leave!”
With that, she dashed away from the table, running into men and even knocking over a chair. Maxton stood up, rushing after her, but she was moving faster than he was. She raced from the entry and by the time he got out to the street, he saw her down the avenue, running as fast as her slender legs would carry her.
