Personal Devil Library Edition

Chapter One 12 MAY 1139 OLD PRIORY GUESTHOUSE Whore!" Sir Bellamy of Itchen bellowed, his fair skin crimson with rage. Magdalene la Batarde, whoremistress of the Old Priory Guesthouse looked up at him, completely unmoved, then uttered a small exasperated sigh. "Yes," she agreed. "I am a whore. I have been telling you so since the day we met." "You swore to me you had retired from that work." Magdalene sighed again. "I did not swear. I said I took no pleasure in making the beast with two backs, and that is true, but I was and am a whore. You know quite well my reasons for taking the man's five pence. We are a woman short since Sabina took Master Mainard's offer and became his leman. I cannot turn away the men accustomed to her service. I run a business and I must pay an exhorbitant rent. I need the money." For a moment Bell could not speak. He stared down into her exquisitely beautiful face. He could not ever remember seeing a woman so beautiful. The skin was flawless, a translucent, creamy white; the large almond-shaped eyes, framed in golden-brown lashes long enough to touch the fine brown brows above them, were the faintly grayed blue of a misty morning. The nose was straight and fine, the lips full, perfectly shaped, a dark rose. He ground his teeth. Every word she said was true. And he could not bear it. "Why did you let Sabina go, you fool," Bell snarled. Magdalene's lips thinned. "First, because Sabina was not a slave. She had long since repaid what I gave her previous whoremistress to let her come to me. Second, and far more important, an unhappy and unwilling whore does not provide the kind of attention to the pleasure of a client for which the Old Priory Guesthouse charges the highest fees in Southwark" "So you are not an unhappy and unwilling whore," Bell snapped. The small sign of temper that Magdalene had displayed a few moments earlier disappeared. She shook her head and laughed. "No, indeed I am not. I feel a sense of virtue and righteousness over the two clients I entertained last week. The onewho really only likes strong and brutal mencan boast in public that the whoremistress herself satisfied him; and the other, who not long ago lost a well-beloved wife and has no chick at home, talked himself out of his loneliness and sorrow and perhaps, at last, is considering taking an indigent sister into his household. These men need my 'services,' such as they are, and I need their five pennies. That is the end of it. The matter is no longer open for discussion. Now, if you wish to dine with us, you will be welcome, but if you only wish to quarrel with me, I have better things to do." "So you intend to receive clients again?" Bell's voice had dropped to normal, but it was flat and expressionless. "Until I can find a replacement for Sabina, yes, I do." Magdalene's voice was equally flat; it was also hard. Bell turned on his heel and went out, slamming the front door behind him. Magdalene sighed. She was very fond of Bell. She would have liked to invitehiminto her bed for far more active entertainment than she had provided for either the young man who desired men or the old widower who needed company, but she did not dare. Bell, she feared, actually cared for her, and in her past experience that bred disaster. Her husband had been so jealous that he threatened to mutilate her. Her first lover had been slain by the man who wished to keep her in his stead. Her second...Magdalene shivered and pushed the memories away. An opening door drew her attention, and she smiled at the adoraGellis, Roberta is the author of 'Personal Devil Library Edition' with ISBN 9780312875930 and ISBN 0312875932.