CHAPTER 37Is betrayal ever expected? If it were, I suppose, it would not bear the name. Certainly it was the last thing on my mind when I crossed the abbey courtyard that morning, with the first of the early autumn mists swirling about my skirts.
I remember feeling only mildly disgruntled that the wretched fog seemed to have brought back the cough which had not bothered me since spring. And I realized too that time was flying by again: another winter was approaching, and one with less to look forward to than last, since William’s response to our terms had been to sequester the Abbey’s lands outside Ely, leaving the monastery and its defenders considerably worse off. To counteract that, and the increasing boredom of the men, foraging expeditions were longer and more frequent, taking Herewa
