John, Edward and the other two men had been speaking of village things: the price of lambs at Dorchester fair, the old fox up on Lipp Hill that had taken a whole flock of geese in one night and the angel who had been seen over the rooftops at Lyme.
'I reckon they's been drinking too much,' Edward said.
'I sees angels when I drink,' John said.
'That be Jane,' Edward said. 'Looks like an angel, she does.'
'Don't behave like one,' John said. 'Lass is pregnant,' and all four men looked at Thomas, who stared innocently up at the treasure hanging from the rafters. In truth Thomas was frightened that the child was indeed his and terrified of what his father would say when he found out, but he pretended ignorance of Jane's pregnancy that night. He just looked at the treasure that was half obscured by a fishing net hung up to dry, while the four older men gradually fell asleep. A cold draught flickered the twin candle flames. A dog howled somewhere in the village, and always, never ending, Thomas could hear the sea's heartbeat as the waves thumped on the shingle then scraped back, paused and thumped again
HARLEQUIN
Bernard Cornwell
The first book in the Grail Quest series
England and France, mid-14th Century
For women such as Theodora and her sisters, the alternatives were the stage or the convent. They chose the stage, or, perhaps to be more accurate, their mother made the choice for them.
Comito soon became a star. Theodora made her stage debut as her sister's attendant, dressed as a slave girl. [...] She had nothing to sell except a lovely body, for she could neither dance nor play an instrument, and when she did make an attempt to entertain at banquets, the only act she could offer was a striptease. But she was a gifted comedienne, and her specialty in the theatre was the comic mime. She was famous for her performance of "Leda and the Swan." Naked, except for a girdle, she reclined onstage while some slaves sprinkled some barley over her groin, and a small gaggle of trained geese waddled up and picked the grains off her with their beaks. Once the act was finished, Theodora got to her feet and acknowledged the applause. "She got to her feet without so much as a blush," reported the Secret History. "Indeed, she seemed to take great pride in this performance of hers." It seems she was also a contortionist who could bend her back until her mouth was level with her groin. Procopius invites our disapproval.
'Listen, master-player or devil's messenger or whatever you are. They have wanted to take me for years past because I speak against the monks and friars and especially against the Benedictines, most slothful and debauched of all.'
[...]
'Is your daughter also a Child of the Spirit?'
'She cannot bear witness,' he said.'She came sometimes with me to meetings of the Brethren.'
I turned to go. 'What is her name?' I said.
'Her name is Jane.' His face had softened with the uttering of it. 'It was also the name of my mother,' he said. 'My wife and one son died in the Plague and my older son died two years later in the famine of that year, when we all nearly died. More here died of want than of disease.' [...]
At the door I glanced back. He had not moved. I met his eyes and I seemed to see the glint of tears in them. But his voice was the same, practised, hoarse with much speaking. 'She cannot bear witness,' he said. 'But I know her. She would hesitate to kill a mouse, or a wasp that had stung her, let alone a human child.'
