Eve’s heart was pounding.It was probably nothing.They were probably going to the chapter house to hear Prior Isaac lecture everyone on the sin of accosting ladies.
“Come on,” Edward said, grabbing Timothy’s hand and joining the mob.
It was a risk, following them.A traveling ascetic wasn’t necessarily welcome in a priory’s inner sanctum.But Eve could make herself invisible.She retrieved the stylus and managed to slip in to the chapter house with the last of the dozens of monks.
“Brethren,” the prior intoned when everyone had grown quiet, “ye are here to witness the penance of a fellow monk.”
Speculative whispers blew like an ill wind through the arched chamber.
Eve bit the corner of her lip.She’d been punished once for running away.The abbess had made her recite the Ten Commandments a dozen times in front of all the other nuns.The abbess had intended it as a humiliation.But it hadn’t been so bad.
Maybe that was what the prior intended.
“Carnal temptation,” the prior began, making Eve’s eyes roll, “must be resisted if ye are to be faithful servants o’ God.If ye do not resist, if ye succumb to the desires o’ the flesh, ye become servants o’ the Devil.”
He beckoned to the guards, who dragged Adam forward.
“This monk, this servant o’ God, fell to the Devil’s wiles.He weakened in his faith and shamed himself with a woman.”
Several gasps erupted.
Eve frowned.He hadn’t “shamed himself.”He’d only touched her about the waist.
“He shall be punished accordingly,” the prior announced, “to silence the voice o’ lust within him, and so ye may learn what happens to those who yield to the temptations of Eve.”
Eve sucked in a quick breath at the mention of her name.
Then she remembered.Genesis.ThatEve.
The prior gestured to the guards.They turned their prisoner round.With a rough yank, they wrenched the top half of his cassock down, baring his back.
Eve shuddered.
Surely the prior couldn’t mean to… Not that beautiful, smooth, perfectly sculpted…
The prior picked up a thick wooden rod, testing it with a slap across his palm.
The breath froze in Eve’s chest.
God’s bones!
She had to do something.
Starting another fire occurred to her.
But there was no time.
Adam braced himself.
It wouldn’t be the first time he’d taken a beating.Not as Adam of Rivenloch, of course.But once when he’d disguised himself as Black Conall, the sea reiver, he’d been beaten for fighting with a fellow crewman.And once as the beggar Tom, he’d been whipped for winking at a woman.
Neither had been severe.He’d been left with no scars, which was fortunate.The more identifying marks he bore on his body, the more recognizable he’d become.And becoming recognizable would end his livelihood as a spy.
He supposed his fate today depended upon how much religious fervor the prior intended to use wielding the rod.
He wondered if this was what Lady Aillenn had in mind when she said she trusted the prior’s judgment.It certainly seemed an extreme price to pay for “carnal desire.”
“Hold him still,” the prior told the guards.
