The Abbey

The Abbey

Chapter 1

She stood just inside the abbey entrance, the gates clanging shut behind her. For some reason, the fact that the late afternoon was misty and wet made the sound even louder and lonelier.

\"You\'ve no reason to feel sorry for yourself,\" she thought as she prepared to make her way inside, following her cousin Will.

\"Brother Sebastian,\" she reminded herself. She must call her cousin—her father\'s cousin really, and both of them nearing forty—by his proper name according to the laws of the abbey.

\"Come, child,\" her cousin said to her, smiling broadly at her before turning round and making his way down the cinder path to the cloister. \"Are you hungry?\"

\"Yes, W—\" She lapsed into silence and then laughed, the crunch of their shoes in the cinders loud in her ears. \"What do I call you, then, if I\'m not to call you Will?\"

He did not answer her right away, instead turning round and raising his hand. \"Before we go in, child, I must tell you again what your duties will be.\"

She smiled and raised her own hand, touching palm to palm for a moment. His hand was cold, and she dropped my own hand back against her side, her fingers clutching the coarse fabric of her cloak. This close to the building, the scent of damp stone was growing strong. When she started to say something about that, he beckoned her quiet.

\"You must call me Brother Sebastian here.\"

She laughed, and he tried to give her a stern look. When his expression faded into a true stoniness, she grew a little wary, and ever more so once he began spelling out to her exactly what her duties were going to be in great detail ... much more so than he had given her and her father back at home. No doubt her father was still fingering the silver coin he\'d been given to hand her over to the great abbey in the north\'s green valley.

Brother Sebastian (he was no longer Will to her, her jolly old cousin with the fading ginger whiskers) spoke slowly so that she would not miss anything.

\"The community is allowing you admittance under very special circumstances, my dear. Your duties will be ... very interesting to you, I hope.\"

She grinned at that. \"What? Cleaning? Cooking?\"

\"You will not be asked to perform any menial chores. As a matter of fact, you shall be waited on by the entire community. After all, your presence here is very unusual for us, and we wish to make the most of it.\"

When she started to open her mouth, no doubt to utter some foolish witticism, Brother Sebastian stepped so close to her that she could smell his musty robe and the old sweat on his skin. She tried to move away, but he caught her by one arm.

\"Listen, now, for it is growing late and they are expecting us. During the day, you may stay in your room and read, wander the grounds which I think you will find are very fair ... in short, your days are your own, unless of course you are asked to perform some minor duty for one of the brothers.\"

\"And what would that be?\"

\"Oh,\" Brother Sebastian smirked. \"You will know in the proper time. As I was saying, your days will be your own. All that will be asked of you will be that you perform any special requests that are made of you and that you wear the clothing that you will find waiting for you in your room. It is at night that you will perform the majority of your duties in the abbey.\"

\"Where?\"

\"To begin with, in your room.\" As he spoke, Brother Sebastian slid his hand from her arm to her breast, cupping it intimately and rubbing her nipple through the thin fabric of her tunic. She took a sharp breath and shivered.

He\'d never really touched her before, not in those places that no one is to touch except one\'s duly wedded husband. She\'d known he\'d wanted to, ever since her breasts had swelled and budded out. She\'d know that he\'d been frustrated whenever he came to visit, to not be able to find even a dark corner to indulge in a little amorous solitude with her (try though he might, he was never able to lure her outside into the fields).

How very clever he\'d been in the end, to remove her completely from her family, to place her under the absolute control of this community of dark-robed holy men. She continued to think on this as he resumed telling her about her new duties though eventually she found she had to listen to him, could not stop listening to him. The things he was saying she would have to do!

\" ... then, at night, when all retire for reflection and sleep, you will go to your room and dress in the shift that is left for you beneath your pillow. You will like it; we have spared no expense in getting certain things for you. After you dress, you will draw back the covers from your bed and get in. But you must not just lie down as you normally would in your own bed. You must indeed get in bed, but you are to slide down the mattress until you reach its edge. There you will see two padded legs that stick out from the bed in a crosswise fashion. You must spread your legs and place them around these devices. Do you understand?\"

A thousand bees swarmed in her head, and she would have sworn to any who would listen that she heard every one of them.

\"Oh, Sweet St. Katherine.\" She prayed to her name\'s saint for deliverance, but it was too late for that. She could not leave this place, at least not this night though she would keep her wits about her in case an opportunity arose.

\"Do you understand?\" her traitorous cousin repeated, loudly, when she stayed stubbornly silent, her eyes fixed to the ground.

She looked up at him so suddenly that he dropped his hand. \"Yes, Cousin, I do,\" she said in a hard voice.

He flinched at that and turned away, taking out a key and fitting it to the lock. She\'d always been his favorite; what a dear thing she\'d been when little, and what a beautiful thing she\'d grown into being. He gave a little push, and the door swung open. Katherine peered inside to see a long cloister, the narrow covered passageway fading away into shadow for the afternoon was growing late and it was wet.

\"And then what do I do?\" she asked, just as he started to step through the doorway. He stopped, his hand gripping the door frame. Without turning around, he said in a clear voice, \"Whatever each brother asks you to do.\" When she gasped, he chuckled. \"Each of the brothers will visit you one at a time, including me. I am certain you will be equal to your duties.\"

Brother Sebastian turned round and waved his hand at her, grabbing her wrist and pulling her inside, shutting the door against the rain that was starting to slant against the building.

She was inside. She\'d always wanted to come inside here before. There had been many feast days that had found her and her family here – inside the abbey church and occasionally in the little room set aside for relatives and others who occasionally came to speak with one of the brothers.

But she had never been really inside and had always wanted to; she used to spend hour after hour wondering what lay behind the abbey\'s thick gray walls and closed doors of carved wood. And now here she was at long last, and all she wanted to do was escape. She would manage it, no matter how long it took and no matter what she found herself submitting to.

\"I will,\" she whispered to herself as she followed her cousin down the cloister.

As they drew near to another closed door, he said nonchalantly over his shoulder, \"You will want your dinner and to get acquainted with your room. But first a quick visit to meet the head of our community. Father Dionysius is waiting for you.\"

They spoke no more as he led her inside and through a series of passageways and doors. Finally, they were admitted by a smiling fat monk to Father Dionysius\' office, a good-sized room. To Katherine, the room was furnished with the most luxurious things she\'d ever seen. In later years when she recalled that room, she realized it was merely comfortable in its furnishings, but at the time, it had overwhelmed her.

There were soft things in the abbot\'s office, but Father Dionysius was not one of them. As soon as they entered the room, he had risen from his desk and watched them approach. He was like a stork, all long legs and arms and sharp points, especially his face. Even his deep-set eyes seemed sharp.

His voice was oddly soft. After looking at his bony form, Katherine was surprised to hear such a benign-sounding voice.

He said, \"Welcome, my dear. I hope Brother Sebastian has been helpful to you.\"

She nodded. Was it possible that this old man with the ice blue eyes did not know the dreadful things her cousin had just told her? Should she blurt out everything she had heard? A small bubble of hope rose in her chest.

Father Dionysius said, \"Have her lie on the table. I will examine her there.\"

The bees returned in force as Brother Sebastian led Katherine to a long table. He did not look her in the eye as he took her by the shoulders and pushed her down on the table, her bottom just resting on the edge of the table. Brother Sebastian moved quickly behind her head and pulled her knees to her head.

\"No!\" Katherine cried.

\"Hush,\" the abbot said and his voice was no longer friendly and innocent. He moved away from his desk toward the table. \"You are a very lucky young lady, of no family or fortune, to be brought here for such a stay.\" He stepped between Katherine\'s legs and stared down at her; her knees were behind her ears, her skirts fallen back and exposing her most intimate parts. \"You will do as you are told.\"

Father Dionysius dropped to his knees to look closely at her. His breath was warm on her vulva, and then she was cold again for he stood up.

\"You\'re very lucky, my child. Your intimate parts are very beautiful. Did you know that?\"

She made no answer, but it was no matter because the abbot had proceeded to manually examining his new ward. His fingers were hard and long and cold. They were also very efficient as they spread and prodded and poked and rubbed. When he pushed three fingers very far inside her, breaking through the membrane of her virginity, and she jerked hard, grunting, he said, \"Far better that I do it than have it done by a penis swollen to five times the size of my poor fingers that are so happily burrowing their way inside you. Don\'t you think?\"

But she had closed her eyes. She did not want them to see that it had stopped hurting. She did not want them to see anything in her eyes.

Eventually, the thrusting fingers withdrew, and the abbot stepped back. \"I am sure, Brother Sebastian, that your beautiful cousin will be a blessing to our community. We will, I am sure, all be very sorry when she has to leave ... though there is no need to talk of that at the moment.\"

Brother Sebastian stepped forward with a basin and a washcloth. \"Will you be ...\" he asked.

The abbot looked at Katherine as he took the cloth and cleaned his fingers. She had curled up on her side on the table, pulling her skirts around her. \"No, I think not. I should like to, but I think I shall wait to completely taste this flower until the rest of community has had the pleasure. Then, oh yes, then I will definitely sample her beauties. You may take her first, my son.\"

He must have seen the look of fear and disgust on her face for he said, \"Ah, not quite yet, dear Katherine. Not quite yet. We are not so craven here that we will not grant you a few hours of peace and preparation. After all, you will be much in demand tonight.\"

After that, the abbot ignored Katherine and Brother Sebastian, paying no attention to them as the monk carefully cleaned the virgin blood from her thighs. \"I will have a bath brought to your room. I will wash you myself.\"

\"You are a snake,\" Katherine hissed back as they began to leave the room.

\"Snake!\"