My heart pounded. “What will happen now?” I asked.
“No one knows.” She pulled at her chin. “As the prioress said, it is all in God’s hands now.”
I doubt that anyone slept soundly in the priory that night. In the darkness I could hear Sister Christina shifting and turning, this way and that, and I knew that sleep eluded her as well. As soon as I learned of the commissioners’ ruling, their plans for the priory, I would write another letter to Bishop Gardiner and leave it at the leper hospital. I’d written a second letter two weeks ago, telling him only of Lord Chester’s murder and Brother Edmund’s arrest, nothing more. Seeing the lilies and the crown above the entranceway and atop the columns of the chapter house wasn’t something that advanced my search. Nor was reading the story of King Athelstan and learning that he had worn into battle a crown given to him by Hugh Capet. The bishop already knew that very well, I was sure. I wasn’t here to learn the secrets of the crown, only to find it.
If the commissioners ordered us dissolved tomorrow, how long before we were expelled from the priory and the walls torn down? It could be some poor workman, paid a day’s wage for his labors, who knocked down a wall and discovered the hidden crown. What would be unleashed in that moment?
And how would Bishop Gardiner punish my poor father for my failure? I saw him again in the Tower torture room, the scar disfiguring his face, the anger and fear warring in his eyes at the sight of me. And then the pain as he was racked.
A sob escaped my throat. On the other side of the room, Sister Christina turned over again. Perhaps I’d disturbed her, or perhaps her restless torment had nothing to do with me. Two unhappy novices, waiting for the night to be over.
“Sister Christina, are you not well?” I whispered.
She didn’t answer at first, and I thought her asleep after all. But then she said, “I was thinking of Christina.”
“You reflect on your situation?” I asked.
“Not me. Another Christina. I was not named for her, I am sure, and yet because we have the same name I often think of her.”
“Was she English?”
“No, no, she was born in Lieges, hundreds of years ago. I read about her in one of the books in the Dartford library when I was a postulant. I have never been able to get her out of my mind since.”
“Tell me,” I said, curious.
“She was the youngest of three sisters. Their parents died, and Christina, who was a young girl, was set to watch the animals all day. She was alone and thought of God all day while tending the beasts. She became ill and died, and her sisters had her body laid out in church. During Mass, she came to life again and flew like a bird to the rafters of the church.”
“How can that be?”
“It was God’s work. She explained to her sisters when she came down from the rafters. She had been taken to a place of fire and torment, where men screamed all around her, and she felt tremendous pity for them. After that she was taken to a place of even greater pain and unimaginable sufferings. Then Christina went to a throne room that was very peaceful and beautiful, and God spoke to her and explained all. The first place was purgatory, the second was hell, and now she was in heaven. God gave her a choice. She could stay with Him, or she could go back into the mortal world and endure the sufferings of a mortal in an immortal body, and by doing, she could deliver the men she pitied from purgatory. Christina chose to return to her body. And so from that time on she sought out the greatest pain she could find.”
“And she didn’t feel any of it?” I asked.
“Oh, but she did, Sister Joanna; she did. She walked into fires set in people’s homes, and she crawled into the hot ovens for making bread, and she jumped into cauldrons of boiling water, and Christina felt everything. Her own suffering was extreme, but her flesh was untouched. Her skin did not show any marks or blisters. She was always completely uninjured.”
After a moment, I said, “But that must have been so frightening to behold.”
“Yes, her sisters were greatly disturbed, and they kept her bound with ropes and even chains