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Lukas was as good—or as bad—as his word. He let Molly spend her days at the hospital, while he and Halvor rode out to examine the abbey’s various estates. From time to time, when Molly went out to wash clothes in the stream, or when she rode into town to help sell the abbey’s produce, she would see Lukas and Halvor surveying the fields, or talking to farmers, or sitting in a tavern and going over account books. As far as she could tell, they were trying to decide which parts of the abbey’s holdings they would sell off once the king decided to give it all to Halvor.
She saw Timothy, Halvor’s valet, all the time now. Like her, he was bored and looking for some way to pass the time. So she recruited him to help with the hospital work. He turned out to be a tremendous asset. At this point, four months after the battle, the only men left in the abbey’s care were those who had suffered terrible, crippling injuries, like the loss of limbs. When they had to be moved, it usually took two or three nuns to lift them. Timothy wasn’t the biggest or strongest man, but he was stronger than Molly or the nuns, and that meant a lot of time and effort saved.
Timothy started eating lunch with her, too, and going on all her trips into Basington. He had been born there, it turned out, and he knew all the locals. He didn’t seem terribly fond of them, however. Whenever they were in town together, he avoided talking to anyone but Molly, which she found charming, but rather odd. After a week or two, he was spending so much time with her that she began to wonder if he had fallen in love with her.
One night, when Halvor and Lukas were away dining with some local baron, Molly and Timothy had a drunken supper together. With the courage from the bottle of wine, she dared to ask him what he thought of her. He was very embarrassed, and for a moment, she thought she had been right. Then he shook his head and confessed what he called his “shameful secret”: he loved men.
Molly was more surprised than offended. And then more curious than surprised. For some reason, she didn’t find the notion of two men together quite so off-putting as two women. “Do you have a lover now?” she asked.
“Sort-of,” he replied, looking down at his wineglass. “There’s a fellow I see whenever we happen to be in the same place at the same time. But that’s not very often. I’m trying to avoid him, to be honest.”
“Why would you want to avoid your lover?”
“It’s a very long story, but suffice it to say Halvor found out about me and this other man, and he ordered me to...use my relationship to get information. It sort-of spoiled things.”
“Because you don’t want to use him that way. That’s very noble of you.”
“I don’t know if it’s noble. I just wish Halvor hadn’t found out.”
“You don’t like working for Halvor?”
“It’s less fun than it used to be.”
Over the next few days, Molly thought a lot about Timothy and what he had said. She couldn’t help seeing parallels between Timothy’s experiences with his employer and her experiences with Lukas. Her affair, like Timothy’s job, was “less fun than it used to be.” She didn’t know how much longer it would last, and she wasn’t sure anymore whether it was worth making the effort to preserve it.
She found it increasingly difficult to be around Lukas and Halvor. On the nights when they ate at their headquarters in the abbey, she was expected to play hostess and pour the wine and be witty, but all they ever wanted to talk about now was the land they were going to steal from the abbey. She hated the way they laughed about it, and the way they toasted to their good fortune. She hated the looks on their faces—grotesque, leering grins, obscenely wagging eyebrows. They were actually proud of themselves.
One morning in late October, Lukas took her along to one of the local taverns to dine with the mayor of Basington and some of the local tradesmen. A few of the men stood up for the nuns at the abbey, but most of them were happy to join Lukas and Halvor in running the place down. Convents were old-fashioned, or so they said. Getting rid of them was a sign of progress, whatever that might mean. A few of the men even made vulgar jokes about what they thought the nuns did at night together. That was the point when Molly decided she had had enough. She excused herself and stormed out of the private meeting room.
She intended to go straight back to the abbey, where she hoped to find Timothy so she could vent a little. But as she crossed the half-empty common room, one of the serving girls called out to her. “Leaving so soon?”
“I’m feeling a bit indisposed,” said Molly.
“Mind if I have a quick word with you? We haven’t seen each other in a while, and it’s like you don’t even recognize me.”
Molly looked again and let out a gasp. It was Vittoria, the Immani girl she had been friends with in Severn. She had done her hair differently, and her dress was frumpy and worn. But it was definitely Vittoria.
“I’m so sorry!” cried Molly. “What are you doing here?”
Vittoria led her into an empty back room. “I’ve been watching Lukas for a while now. I can’t help but notice that you’re not as happy with him as you used to be.”
“That’s...wait, you’ve been watching him? And me?”
“It’s what I do.” Vittoria smiled.
Molly looked around the empty room, as if someone might be lurking in the shadows somewhere. In a whisper, she asked, “Are you some sort of spy?”
“Technically, I’m an Emissaria. That means ‘messenger girl’ in Immani, of course. I gather information for my employers.”
“That sounds like being a spy,” said Molly. “Who are these employers of yours? Are you working for the Sigors?”
“It would be more accurate to say that I am working with the Sigors. I should like to work with you, too, if you’d be amenable.” She put a hand on Molly’s arm. “Of course, if you feel an abiding loyalty to Duke Lukas, I would understand completely. Say the word, and I’ll leave you alone.”
“Get out of here,” said Molly. “And don’t let me see you snooping around anymore!”
“Very well,” said Vittoria, with an infuriating smile. “I’ll try to stay out of your sight. But if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
Molly didn’t like to think of herself as the sort who took offense easily, but for the first day or so after seeing Vittoria, she was mortally offended. How dare some spy try to recruit her. And how dare she imply that Molly would pass information to the Sigors because things with Lukas weren’t as good as they had been. What business was it of that woman to go sneaking around, taking notes on people’s private lives?
Then two events caused Molly to change her mind. The first was two days after she spoke to Vittoria. She was in Basington with Timothy, Sister Morwen, and Sister Lillian. They were going to one of the carpenters with a load of wood for making false limbs for the wounded soldiers. As their cart rolled up the High Street, Molly chanced to look in the front window of a tavern. Lukas was there, and some girl was sitting on his lap. The girl was giggling, and Lukas was grinning at her the way he did when he had said something really vulgar.
“He’s sleeping with her,” thought Molly. “Or if he hasn’t yet, he will soon.”
She had always known, in the back of her mind, that her time with Lukas was limited. And she had never been so naïve as to think he was exclusively faithful to her, even when their affair was fresh and new. But she usually managed to forget such things and pretend the problem didn’t exist. Now the problem was smacking her right in the face. She thought of what Lady Jannike, the king’s mistress, had said: “Look out for yourself. No one else is going to do it for you.”
The second thing that caused Molly to change her mind was coming upon Sister Lillian crying in the abbey garden. “What’s wrong?” she asked, wondering if another of the wounded soldiers had died. Lillian often cried when that happened.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize there was anyone else in the garden,” said Lillian. “I didn’t want to bother anyone, so I came out here.”
“Did something happen?”
“No.” Lillian wiped her eyes with a corner of her veil. “It’s just every time I think about the abbey closing, I want to die. It’s the only place I’ve ever really felt at home, you see.”
Molly patted her on the back. “There are other abbeys, of course.”
“It wouldn’t be the same,” sighed Lillian. “All my friends are here. There isn’t another abbey large enough to take all of us, so we’d be split up. I don’t think I could stand that.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” said Molly.
That afternoon, she went into town alone and found Vittoria. “Suppose I help you. Do you think you could help the nuns here keep their convent?”
“I could certainly try,” said Vittoria. “Find out anything you can about when Lukas is going to attack the Sigors in Pinburg.”
“How will that help the convent?”
“First things first. If Lukas and Halvor are humiliated on the battlefield, the king will be much less likely to let them steal the abbey’s land.”
That sounded a bit convoluted to Molly, but it was the only option she had. And in truth, the notion of Lukas being humiliated appealed to her. “Fine. I’ll see what I can find out.”