Summary

In Part 2, Marie continues to put affairs in order at the abbey. She plants apricot pits she acquired at Westminster. She impresses her superiors in the church with carefully worded letters, and “flips their demands into favors she's doing them” (56). A family in town steals rye from the abbey's fields and bakes it into bread. They become ill and the villagers suggest that the abbey's land is cursed by the devil. Abbess Emme brings Marie with her to exorcise the fields. They light them on fire as Abbess Emme intones a prayer in Latin, then continue to pray through the night. Marie contemplates better ways of organizing labor at the abbey. Afterward, Abbess Emme tells Marie that she made up the Latin prayer. Marie realizes that a woman's reputation is her most significant asset when it comes to maintaining power, and she believes that...