The Sempster's Tale (Sister Frevisse Medieval Mysteries)

the long version

Since the death of her husband, Anne Blakhall has carried on their shared business as a tailor and embroiderer in the heart of London. Rather than remarry as prosperous London widows usually do, she has taken a lover - David Weir, a foreign merchant who is secretly a Jew and therefore in constant deadly peril so long as he remains in England, where Jews have been banished for over a hundred years. Anne, sharing in his secrets, knows that both his life and hers would be forfeit if ever he is found out. Dame Frevisse of St. Frideswide's nunnery is in London to arrange the funeral vestments for her cousin's murdered husband, the Duke of Suffolk. But she is also charged with secretly recovering - and then conveying to her cousin - the gold the late duke sent out of England shortly before his death. But her duty and their love become more dangerous a rebel army advances on London - and a murdered body is discovered in the crypt of a London church, mutilated with what a Franciscan friar of the Inquisition claims are Hebrew letters. Sister Frevisse - Book 15