The Chatter of the Maidens

The Chatter of the Maidens is the second Hawkenlye Mystery I have read, and I definitely like Sir Josse d'Acquin. Abbess Helewise can be a pain, but Josse is constantly patient and kind and human.

In this story, Josse is taken to Hawkenlye as he might to a hospital in our days, suffering from severe blood poisoning when an old wound reopened and became infected.

Also at Hawkenlye is a new nun, Alba, and her two young sisters, all orphans. Josse in his sickbed is befriended by the youngest, a sweet child named Berthe. Alba, though, is anything but sweet. And it turns out she has been lying to Helewise about her background.

Helewise decides to make the long journey from Kent to Ely, in the fen country of East Anglia, in order to find out exactly who Alba and her sisters are and why they came to her.

There are two murders, both of which, we discover, concern the Templar Knights; there are the mysterious People of the Forest, whom Helewise both condemns (they are pagans) and respects, and who provide the secret remedy when Josse is dying and the sister-infirmerar is at her wit's end; and there is a young stranger who is love with the beautiful middle sister, Meriel: who is he?

Helewise is determined to get to the bottom of it all, but this time she is on her own. Josse, though no longer at death's door, cannot help her.

I am definitely going to read more of these Hawkenlye Mysteries. (And I notice that Josse and Helewise are doing very well in our new survey of medieval sleuths!)