Wednesday January 8th, 1530 - 13th hour
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ere it was, the thirteenth hour, when afternoon Mass was over and preparations in the kitchen were underway for supper. Sister Tabitha was always in the kitchen, as she was the head cook for the entire Monastery. Years of cooking had tailored Tabitha into a dependable chef for many numbers, but she always had a disciple or two underfoot to help in the menial tasks. At this hour, Zosia and Elaine were both appointed duty in the kitchen. Tabitha went about rearranging things, taking inventory, shuffling produce around, and counting onions, while Zosia and Elaine hovered over a large chopping block, prepping carrots for the beef stew. They worked in awkward silence for a long time. Long enough for Elaine to start grasping straws in her mind. Zosia was still insisting she would report Elaine to Father Nathaniel, and Elaine was running into dead ends with her.
So, if begging wouldn't move a mountain, Elaine decided to turn the heat up on Zosia. She leaned over the chopping block to shorten the distance between their ears and spoke very softly so that Tabitha would not hear. It didn't befit Elaine to be menacing towards anyone, but desperate measures called for desperate actions, "You never answered my question earlier." She frowned, and grabbed another carrot, never skipping a step in the chore assigned to her. "What exactly were you doing visiting the closet?" She glared at Zosia while her hands shaved the knife along the length of the carrot, shedding off the outer skin. "You should have been in Devotionals, not visiting the clerical closet."
Zosia glowered, but she kept on chopping the carrot up into small slices, wary of her fingers, "What are you on about?"
"Don't think me a fool, Zosia. I know why you were there." Elaine tossed the finished carrot into a growing pile of them, waiting for Zosia to chop them up. Elaine grabbed a new carrot and started to work on it. "I know you are stealing vials of ink. I know you came to the closet to get more. I see you out my bed chamber window every time Bayard and Bodin visit us. I see you trading them off for something." She paused, taking a swift moment to look over her shoulder towards Tabitha, to ensure the Nun was still out of eavesdropping distance. "What are you trading them for, hmm?" Elaine returned to skinning the carrot, but her eyes jabbed towards Zosia. "…something small, like sweets perhaps? Or maybe a drug?"
There was a hardened countenance over Zosia, who didn't seem bothered by the accusation. For anything worth it all, she shrugged it off her shoulders as if it never landed. Zosia had some street smarts, and she recognized blackmail for what it was, seemingly confident as her knife chopped slices. "Hush Elaine, don't think my sin is as heavy as yours. A slut in the closet is far more damning than a missing bottle of ink. Mind your own business and manage your own sins."
Elaine fumed back, audibly reined in, "I would love to manage my own sins, but you want to take them to Father Nathaniel! Remember Zosia, a sin is a sin, no matter how small." She straightened her back and squared her shoulders, "If you report me to the Priest, I will also report you." She went back to shaving the carrot, and added as an afterthought, "Besides, we should be looking out for one another, not squandering away over such things. You've seen Father Nathaniel, how he punishes us. He is not reasonable, like Father Matteo was."
Zosia slipped her hand across the board pushing slices of carrots to the side, and then picked up a new carrot. Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop. A small smile shaped the corner of her mouth. "Tell me Elaine…who were you fantasizing about as you fucked yourself?"
"Oh pleeease, how is that of any concern in this matter?"
"You were thinking about him, weren't you?"
"Him? Him who?" Elaine was genuinely puzzled.
"Father Nathaniel of course, the only him around here that matters."
"I would never."
"Of course you would. Everyone else does. He is the only one with a cock around here."
"Zosia!" Elaine gasped, and her cheeks went red. But they grew red not in thought of Nathaniel's manhood, but because she had been fantasizing about her own brother. For some reason, that just felt like a greater taboo.
Wednesday January 8th, 1530 - 8th hour
iriam shuddered in utter despair. Her eyeballs were breaking the oars out, in hopes of staying afloat in the flood. She wished she never had drunk the soup broth last meal or had the cup of water when she had finished in the garden. These small indulgences were now punishing her as her bladder ached to be emptied. Although her eyelids were closed shut, they trembled with great duress. She would never forgive herself if she urinated right here, right now.
"You better watch yourself, sister."
Miriam whimpered, and there went her urine. Her pelvic muscles couldn't resist any longer, especially with Nathaniel poking his cane into her belly impossibly hard. Against her own willpower, her bladder dumped the flood, and the inward sides of her legs became soaked as urine flowed to the stonework on the ground. A small wet spot appeared where both of her bare feet were standing.
Nathaniel was releasing her from the cross, but Miriam started quietly sobbing again, unbearably ashamed of what had just happened. She remained silent about it though, but her mind was racing and praying to God that he wouldn't notice. A million prayers a minute she sent up to the Lord, asking him to grant Nathaniel the wisdom on how to remove the padlocks as quickly as possible. She was afraid to look down at her article of clothing, the undergarment, to see if she had soaked any of it. What would Father Nathaniel say if he saw what she had done? Would he punish her again? Would he laugh at her? Would he shame her in front of everyone? Desperately she tried to hold back what was left in her bladder, but also knew that it was too late to salvage her dignity here if Nathaniel noticed.
Finally, her wrists came free from the cross, and she slowly brought them down to her petite body. They ached, along with the muscles up her sides and in her lungs; everything sore from being forced into that position for hours on end. She felt panicked when he grabbed her waist and pulled her into him. She feared he would detect her accident. And she could feel the shape of his wonderful bulge. She struggled to bring memory into her legs on how to stand and support her own weight, as fast as possible. "Do you think you can stand on your own feet?" And she nodded her head in support of a positive report, "Yes Father, I can stand."
But then it happened…but how did it happen?! She didn't know, but she found herself falling to the ground. Were her legs just too weak to stand?! Did she trip? No… ..no, she had slipped! For heaven's sake don't say I slipped on my own puddle of urine!
Miriam would have fallen if Nathaniel hadn't had been there as a brace. She was mortified. Quickly she made sure to stand upright without his assistance, and her face was hot red. "Umm…" she just couldn't do it. Miriam could not look him in the eyes. She fidgeted in awkwardness with that damn elephant looming in the room. He knew. How could he not know? She just wanted to run away; the embarrassment was that heavy upon her. "Thank you for teaching me a lesson Father," she was exceedingly nervous, "thank you for your grace," Miriam danced with words, stammering the same thing over because she couldn't think straight, "thank you for…for guiding me into what is right…thank you."
She gave the Priest a small curtsey, and then hiked her undergarment up and ran off…away from the cross, away from him, away from that small pool of urine. She ran down the aisle of the Chapel and through the heavy doors. So humiliated. Miriam never paused to look, but she could imagine a trail of wet footprints following behind.
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Wednesday January 8th, 1530 - 20th hour
hen an initiate made the long journey into becoming a Nun, it was customary for a change in their name. Different religious Cloisters went about this in different ways, but for the Monastery of Saint Quintin, the new Nun would be given the name Mary to proceed her own. Mary Zosia Scotts never exactly appreciated this when it happened to her. Indeed, she loved the blessed virgin Mary like a mother she never had, but she just didn't enjoy the feeling of blending in and disappearing into the reservoir of all the other Nuns. The monastic lifestyle worked so hard in merging everyone into One Body, One Church, A Unit of One when all Zosia wanted was to be herself. As she was pushed deeper and deeper into the ritualistic lifestyle, it became even more important to hold on to whatever individuality she had left. Elaine made the argument that they needed to look out for one another, but this was not how Zosia was raised.
And besides, how was she ever going to get noticed by Father Nathaniel? Sister Claudia was such a covetous bitch over Nathaniel, who gave any Sister one hell of a day if she thought she witnessed any affection happening towards the Priest. The only way to work around Claudia was to, instead, work Nathaniel's affection towards you first. Or, if not his affection, then his punishment. Because Zosia was not afraid of his cruelty at all. Sometimes she craved to be the one being punished, if only to be noticed by him.
Elaine would be alright. How dare she fantasize about him, anyways. And then lie about it to her face. This would teach her to stop fucking around in closets with candlesticks, and most of all, teach her to stop fantasizing about Nathaniel. The opportunity was too great for Zosia to pass up. Who would pass up the chance to be with Nathaniel alone, in his own bedchamber? This gave her a reason to be there.
It was late at night now, and everyone had retired to their private rooms except for the one whose duty at this hour was to keep praise in song uplifted to the Lord, in the room of worship on the other side of the Cathedral. Zosia knocked on Father Nathaniel's door, hoping he was in there, and hoping he was alone. In her hands, wrapped up in a cloth, she had the exact candle that Elaine had fucked herself with, in case Nathaniel demanded proof for her story.
When he answered, she stepped into his room and shut the door behind her. "I am sorry Father for bothering you at this time of night, but I wanted to privately bring to you a matter that concerns Sister Mary Elaine." Zosia held her hands forward and let the cloth unravel enough to reveal the white, waxy object, "I found her today disgracing herself with this candle."
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