Brother Cadfael 09: Dead Man's Ransom Read Online Free PDF

this. I wanted to get my bearings.'
    'And the impudence was to stiffen your sinews, I suppose. Shame to miscall the holy women who saved your saucy life for you.'
    'No one was meant to hear and understand,' protested the prisoner, and in the next breath owned magnanimously: 'But I'm not proud of it, either. A bird in a net, pecking every way, as much for spite as for escape. And then I didn't want to give away any word of myself until I had my captor's measure.'
    'Or to admit to your value,' Cadfael hazarded shrewdly, 'for fear you should be held against a high ransom. No name, no rank, no way of putting a price on you?'
    The black head nodded. He eyed Cadfael, and visibly debated within himself how much to concede, even now he was found out, and then as impulsively flung open the floodgates and let the words come hurtling out. 'To tell truth, long before ever we made that assault on the nunnery I'd grown very uneasy about the whole wild affair. Owain Gwynedd knew nothing of his brother's muster, and he'll be displeased with us all, and when Owain's displeased I mind my walking very carefully. Which is what I did not do when I went with Cadwaladr. I wish heartily that I had and kept out of it. I never wanted to do harm to your ladies, but how could I draw back once I was in? And then to let myself be taken! By a handful of old women and peasants! I shall be in black displeasure at home, if not a laughingstock.' He sounded disgusted rather than downcast, and shrugged and grinned good, naturedly at the thought of being laughed at, but for all that, the prospect was painful. 'And if I'm to cost Owain high, there's another black stroke against me. He's not the man to take delight in paying out gold to buy back idiots.'
    Certainly this young man improved upon acquaintance. He turned honestly and manfully from wanting to kick everyone else to acknowledging that he ought to be kicking himself. Cadfael warmed to him.
    'Let me drop a word in your ear. The higher your value, the more welcome will you be to Hugh Beringar, who holds you here. And not for gold, either. There's a lord, the sheriff of this shire, who is most likely prisoner in Wales as you are here, and Hugh Beringar wants him back. If you can balance him, and he is found to be there alive, you may well be on your way home. At no cost to Owain Gwynedd, who never wanted to dip his fingers into that trough, and will be glad to show it by giving Gilbert Prestcote back to us.'
    'You mean it?' The boy had brightened and flushed, wide-eyed. 'Then I should speak? I'm in a fair way to get my release and please both Welsh and English? That would be better deliverance than ever I expected.'
    'Or deserved!' said Cadfael roundly, and watched the smooth brown neck stiffen in offence, and then suddenly relax again, as the black curls tossed and the ready grin appeared. 'Ah, well, you'll do! Tell your tale now, while I'm here, for I'm mightily curious, but tell it once. Let me fetch in Hugh Beringar, and let's all come to terms. Why lie here on stone and all but in the dark, when you could be stretching your legs about the castle wards?'
    'I'm won!' said the boy, hopefully shining. 'Bring me to confession, and I'll hold nothing back.'
    Once his mind was made up he spoke up cheerfully and volubly, an outward soul by nature, and very poorly given to silence. His abstention must have cost him prodigies of self, control. Hugh listened to him with an unrevealing face, but Cadfael knew by now how to read every least twitch of those lean, live brows and every glint in the black eyes.
    'My name is Elis ap Cynan, my mother was cousin to Owain Gwynedd. He is my overlord, and he has overwatched me in the fosterage where he placed me when my father died. That is, with my uncle Griffith ap Meilyr, where I grew up with my cousin Eliud as brothers. Griffith's wife is also distant kin to the prince, and Griffith ranks high among his officers. Owain values us. He will not willingly leave me in captivity,'