reply seemed as loud as thunder. He pointed at Rachel,
and she cringed away. What was he saying, that she belonged to John?

Feeling hopeless, Rachel stood weeping silently while the priest and the
cardinal argued what was to become of her in a language she did not
understand.

_Has God abandoned me because I have sinned?_

She looked at Tilia's house, at the horrid sight of the hanged man above
the door, cries of women barely audible over the rumble of thunder and
the pounding of rain on the pavement. She saw men carrying boxes and
bundles of cloth out the front door and realized that they were
ransacking the place.

Cold horror swept her as she realized she was going to lose everything.
Everything she had earned by her shame was in a chest in Tilia's room.

Friar Mathieu cried out something in French. In the midst of her misery,
Rachel was shocked to see a beggar-priest publicly chastising a
cardinal.

The cardinal stared at the friar, seemingly also shocked. He blinked as
lightning flashed overhead.

Rachel said, "Good Father--"

The cardinal found his voice and roared back at the friar, jabbing a
bejeweled finger at Rachel and turning on her a glare of utter contempt.
His look hurt Rachel as much as if he had hit her in the face with dung.
She pulled the soaking blanket tighter around herself. She saw that,
staunch as the friar might be, all the power was on the other side.

"Father," she said, "if nothing can stop them from taking me, at least
let me get the things I own from the house. My clothes and books." She
did not mention the bags of gold ducats in Tilia's chest, though John
might know of them. "Let me take them with me and travel with you."

Friar Mathieu nodded and spoke again angrily to the cardinal.

The cardinal yanked on the reins of his horse, turning the black head
around, up the street. He flung his answer over his shoulder.

Friar Mathieu turned a sad face toward Rachel. "He says you and I and
John can go back into the house and get what belongs to you. And you can
travel in my cart. But I am not to interfere if the Tartar desires you."
He shook his head. "I promise you, child, as long as you are with me,
John will not touch you. I was a knight before I was a priest. They can
make me stand by and witness murder and robbery. But not rape."

Rachel looked up to see John grinning at her with proprietary pride.
Like Rachel, he had not understood a word of the argument between the
friar