Mistress Martha smiled. Coin in hand, and not a year trying to obtain the monies owed. Excellent! Her mood brightened even more. "Come here, child, and let me look at you," she said to Eleanore. "Well, you're shorter than our Cecily, but there is little to raising a hem. The top of you looks about the same size." She turned to the abbess. "We can make good use of both her tunica and her skirts by matching them to the other, more colorful pieces. A nice yellow tunica for the gray skirts," she considered thoughtfully. "It will complement her pretty hair. Now, what to put with that gray tunica." She thought carefully. "Ah, yes, rose-and-light-blue-striped skirts. That will give the lass two changes of clothing. Now, for her marriage day gown. A particolored bliaut in forest green, the front embroidered in gold, to be worn with green skirts. It will be perfect on you, my dear, but my daughter hated it on sight, so it is certainly no loss to her. I do not understand, for I think it beautiful, but I believe she found it too fine a gown for a clothier’s daughter who is marrying a member of the carpenter’s guild-although I believe Peter will one day be a Master in his guild," the clothier’s wife said proudly. "Still, there is no arguing with a lass with bridal nerves. Come upstairs with me now, child, and we will see what needs to be done to make your clothing fit."
"Go with Eleanore, Sister Columba," the abbess said. "Sister Winifred and I will remain down here."
The two girls followed the clothier’s wife up the staircase, and into a large, bright room. Going to a wooden chest, Mistress Martha opened it and lifted out a yellow tunica. Instructing Elf to remove her own gray garment, she slipped the top over the girl’s head. Next she fastened a pretty girdle of deeper yellow with copper threads about Elf’s hips. She stepped back, then nodded.
"Our Cecily is taller and a bit broader, but you are both slender."
Elf let her fingers touch the soft silk fabric. Since her arrival at the convent, she had never worn anything but cotton or wool. "How do I look?" she asked Sister Columba shyly.
"Perfect. Oh, Elf, I wish you could see yourself. That yellow tunica makes your lovely hair even lovelier."
"The tunica is just right but for a nip or two in the shoulders. Cecily’s height is in her legs." The clothier’s wife smiled at Elf. "The young sister is right. The yellow is a good color for you. Now, child, off with both your tunica and skirts. We shall try the rose-and-blue-striped skirt, and see how much must be taken up."
When Elf had done as she was bid, Mistress Martha knelt, first pinning up the skirts, then pinning the waist to make it smaller. Then she suggested Elf put her gray tunica back on, and when she had, Mistress Martha fastened another girdle, rose silk with silver threads, about the garment. Elf looked to her friend, and Sister Columba nodded with a smile. Now it was time to try on the wedding finery. Mistress Martha lifted the garment from the chest.
"You will wear a camisa with an embroidered neckline, my dear, beneath this," she explained. "I just want you to try it for size." She held the bliaut out for Elf to put her arms into. The bliaut had a corsetlike bodice with long sleeves that were both wide and embroidered. The waistline was low, and attached to a pleated skirt. The low and slit ornamented neckline would allow the decorated neckline of the camisa to show. Mistress Martha laced the garment tightly up the back, clucking as she realized the bliaut would have to be taken in. The tunica tops had been loose, and belted with their own girdles, but the fitted bliaut was too wide for the petite Elf. "It can be done," she muttered beneath her breath. "A seam tightened here, another there. What do you think of the color on your friend, good sister?"
"You are beautiful, Elf," the young nun said. "The dark green and gold of the fabric sets off your delicate coloring, and your hair, perfectly. I wish Isa could see you now. She would be so jealous!"
Elf could not help but giggle. "Shame on you," she scolded her friend. She fingered the beautiful fabric. "I do like the color, but must it be laced so tightly? I find the outline of my body very immodest."
"All the fine ladies are wearing the bliaut, my lady," Mistress Martha said. "Surely if you are being wed by the bishop before King Stephen, you will want to look your best. It will do honor to your new husband as well that you are so fashionable."
"Isa’s mother sent her one to wear home," Elf’s best friend said. "It certainly wasn't as fine as this one."
Mistress Martha knelt, and pinned the hem of the pleated skirt as well as the waist. "You will be a lovely bride, my dear," she said when she had finished. "Now, get dressed in your own clothing again. We shall return downstairs to the abbess. I shall be up all night sewing to get your garments ready."
"We can help," Elf said.
Her companion nodded. "I am certain the Reverend Mother will agree. We are skilled needlewomen. Your kindness should not be taken advantage of, Mistress Martha."
They returned to the shop, where the clothier’s wife explained everything to the abbess, concluding, "And the yellow tunica can also be matched with the green skirt, giving the lady a fourth costume."
"Excellent," the abbess said. "The lady Eleanore will have a suitable wardrobe without too great an extravagance." She turned to Elf. "I have purchased a few bolts of fabric for you, my daughter. You will want to make yourself several more gowns when you return home to Ashlin. And I have taken the liberty of obtaining some veils for your head, as well as ribbons you can use as fillets, since you will no longer wear your wimple."
"I shall need a small bolt of linen, Reverend Mother, for undergarments," Elf said softly. "I have but one camisa as you will recall. I shall want to make others when I return to Ashlin."
The abbess nodded in agreement. Then, turning to the clothier, she said, "What will we owe you for all of this, bearing in mind that the lady and Sister Columba will remain with your wife to do the alterations?"
Master Albert named a sum as his wife nodded in agreement.
The abbess smiled. "You are too generous, I think," she told him, counting out the required coin, and adding two additional silver marks. "One for you, Master Albert, and one for your good-wife for her great kindness toward the lady Eleanore."
The clothier bowed, nodding his thanks, and the abbess in the company of Sister Winifred departed the shop leaving the two younger women behind. Mistress Martha pocketed her silver mark with a pleased smile, then signaled to Eleanore and her companion to follow along back up the stairs. The three settled themselves to begin the task of making the alterations. Elf was silent as she sewed, carefully keeping her eye on her work, but Sister Columba chattered away with the clothier’s wife as they hemmed and stitched. Soon Mistress Martha knew a very great deal about the two young women. She was quite fascinated that a novice, within days of her final vows, had been plucked from the convent to marry a knight.
"I do not wish to seem rude," the older woman whispered to the young nun, in whom she recognized a friendly soul, "but does the young lady know about men’s needs? I hope I do not shock you."
"You are a mother," Sister Columba said. "Mayhap you should attempt to enlighten Elf."
She looked up at the sound of her name. "What is it?"
"Mistress Martha, realizing your ignorance in matters of the flesh, was asking me if she should speak to you as your own mother would were she alive to do so. I think it a good idea, Elf. You would never come with us when we went to the barn, and that was all right then, but tomorrow you are to be married, and as the goodwife says, men expect certain favors of their wives. You must know what will be required of you."
Elf blushed deeply. "I know… but I am frankly fearful."
"The natural reaction of a proper virgin," Mistress Martha said, "but, my child, there is really nothing to fear. While a woman’s body is a pretty thing, a man’s while not ugly, is quite ordinary. While a woman has titties to be stroked and a bottom to be fondled, men have naught but one item of interest. Their manhood. They put a great deal of store by it, however. Boys compare them for size. Men brag on them, and the amorous conquests they have made with them. It’s all quite silly considering a manhood is naught but a length of limp flesh most of the time." And then the good woman proceeded to explain as if Elf were her own dear daughter, Cecily. At length Mistress Martha finished, asking, "Now, is there anything you would ask me?"
Elf shook her head.
"You are free, you realize, to ask your husband questions. Oh, yes! Men like to be petted, too. Do not feel shy of touching your husband. And do you know, although of course you must, about preventing conception?"
"But that is wrong."
"Not always," Mistress Martha replied, "leastwise, not to my mind. Not if a woman has had too many babes in a row and her body needs to rest, or if a woman imperils her life by being with child. These dangers must be addressed. Oh, I know the church says that under such circumstances a man and his wife must cease marital relations, but more often than not they do not want to do so. Then, too, if they do, the man’s natural lusts will lead him to other women, and no wife wants that. The church, God bless it, does not comprehend these things, and asks too much of us in these cases. Better a wife take a spoonful of wild carrot seeds daily to prevent conception. That way she may keep her husband content in her bed and free from the greater sin of adultery," the goodwife concluded happily.
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