Sister Frevisse Medieval Mysteries (Paperback)
1 primary work • 10 total works
Book 9
Since the death of her husband, Anne Blakhall has carried on their shared business as a tailor and embroiderer in the heart of London. Rather than remarry as prosperous widows usually do, she has taken on a lover - Daved Weir, a foreign merchant who must conceal the fact he is a Jew so long as he is in England, or face deadly peril. Dame Frevisse of St Frideswide's nunnery is in London to arrange funeral vestments for her cousin's murdered husband, the Duke of Suffolk. She is also charged with secretly recovering gold the duke sent out of England shortly before his death. Attempting to help her cousin, she encounters Anne and Daved. But her duty and their love become more dangerous as a rebel army approaches the city. Trapped by rebels, threatened by the Inquisition, Dame Frevisse must find out not only who is guilty, but whether anyone at all is innocent.
Once again the perceptive nun, Dame Frevisse, is caught in the middle of a murder scenario. When the body of Sir Ralph of Woodrim is discovered in the woods near his manor house, she finds herself positioned as the comfort-provider to a widow who's not grieving. It soon emerges that the late master of the manor, despised by his wife and family, can still hold power over his heirs through his will, just as he did in life, with stringent demands upon his executors. As secrets are drawn out into the light, Dame Frevisse fears the murderer among them will not rest until the family legacy has been settled once and for all and it is she who must resolve the mysteries and ensure justice is done.
It's Christmas time, and the sisters of St. Frideswide cannot turn away travellers - even the theatre players knocking at the nunnery door. But along with the motley troupe comes the grievously wounded husband of the cloister's scullery maid, Meg. The actors swear they found the drunken wastrel in a ditch, but their tale sounds remarkably like another song and dance. Especially when two dead bodies are found waiting in the wings...Now, Sister Frevisse must find out if one of the actors is a murderer in masquerade or face a deadly Yuletide season..
Sister Frevisse is sinfully good at discerning the mysteries of the soul and solving the crimes of the human heart. Now, on her way to a baptism, Sister Frevisse finds the truth in the saying blood is thicker than water...and as easily spilled. Waylaid by a band of outlaws, she learns that their leader is her long-lost cousin, who asks her to help him get pardoned for his crimes. But while Sister Frevisse is lodging at the home of Nicholas' business companion, an unpardonable act of murder is committed. Even if it means her own kin is condemned, Sister Frevisse must discover who robbed a rich landowner of his purse and his life.
Years previously, young Robert Fenner was forced into marriage with the older Lady Blaunche. Now, in 1442, he is being forced towards warfare with a powerful knight to protect lands his wife wrongly holds and will not surrender. Worse, he is in love with his ward Katherine, whose wealth makes her a goal of other men's greed, including his stepson's. To protect her, Robert must deny his love and choose someone else for her to marry while he fends off his wife's ambitions. Into this turmoil of loves, lusts, angers, fear, and greed, Dame Frevisse is brought from her nunnery's contemplative quiet by Lady Blaunche's need, only to find that more than prayers are needed when murder is done.
St Mary's infirmary garden was a place for the growing of healing herbs and a place of quiet for those nuns who had been ill. The fact that it was designed for serenity and comfort made it doubly wrong to find Master Montfort sprawled out on the grass there. Dead. That he had died violently was neither a surprise nor a distress to Dame Frevisse. Her past dealings with him when he was crowner had not been pleasant. And as royal escheator in charge of determining the rightful heirs of important properties, Monfort had enemies enough. In fact, his death seemed directly related to his work...Montfort was to settle an inheritance dispute between a wealthy woman and her supposed nephew. If he is actually her dead sister's son, he stands to inherit an estate. Now Dame Frevisse must step in and untangle the fortunes and felonies in this complicated case of political and familial rivalries. But her real challenge is to put aside her feelings and serve justice for the murder of an unjust man...
It is the year of Our Lord's grace 1431, and the nuns of England's St. Frideswide sweetly chant their Paternosters behind gracious, trellised walls. But their quiet lives are shattered by the unwelcome visit of the hard-drinking, blaspheming dowager Lady Ermentrude, with her retinue of lusty maids and men, baying hounds, and even a pet monkey in tow. The lady demands wine, a feast, and her niece, the frail and saintly novice Thomasine.
What she gets is her own strange and sudden death.
Sister Frevisse, hosteler of the priory and amateur sleuth, fears murder. The most likely suspect is pious Thomasine . . . but Frevisse alone detects a clever web spun to entangle an innocent nun in the most unholy of passions--and the deadliest of deeds.
Rebellious factions, determined to unseat King Henry from the throne, have been staging uprisings throughout England. In the midst of this unrest, Dame Frevisse of St. Frideswide's nunnery has come to her cousin's side. Lady Alice, the widowed duchess of Suffolk, needs Frevisse's support in burying her unlamented husband, and when men in Suffolk's employ start disappearing, Frevisse fears for her cousin's safety.Wandering player Simon Joliffe has also come to London, filling the role of courier for the exiled duke of York and bringing vital information - a list bearing the names of the English noblemen who purportedly betrayed their King by conspiring with the French.Now Frevisse starts to wonder whether or not the list is real or part of an even greater conspiracy against the crown.
In the year 1447, powerful men from all the realm of England have been summoned to Parliament in the great pilgrimage town of Bury St. Edmunds. Most come for the straightforward business of making laws and passing taxes, but a small group of great nobles are planning to use this chance to bring down, by treachery and treason, their greatest rival. Against her will and under cover of her friendship with Lady Alice of Suffolk, her high-placed cousin, Dame Frevisse is brought from her nunnery into the fringes of this swirl of politics and plotting by the ambitious Bishop of Winchester. Meant to observe and report to him what she sees, she is instead drawn into the very centre of treachery and death encircling the throne of England. The pity is that desperate acts of loyalty and love are not always enough to save men from murder and an innocent man from the gallows.