Brother Cadfael 14: The Hermit of Eyton Forest Read Online Free PDF Page B

the burden of choice from us. Tell her so, and say that I await the hearing with due submission. But until such a judgement is made, I must hold to my own sworn undertaking. I am glad,' he said with a dry and private smile, 'that we are thus agreed.'
    There was nothing left for the clerk to do but accept this unexpectedly pliant response at its face value, and bow himself out as gracefully as he could. A slight rustle and stir of curiosity and wonder had rippled round the chapterhouse stalls, but Abbot Radulfus suppressed it with a look, and it was not until the brothers emerged into the great court and dispersed to their work that comment and speculation could break out openly.
    'Was he wise to encourage her?' marvelled Brother Edmund, crossing towards the infirmary with Cadfael at his side. 'How if she does indeed take us to law? A judge might very well take the part of a lone lady who wants her grandchild home.'
    'Be easy,' said Cadfael placidly. 'It's but an empty threat. She knows as well as any that the law is slow and costs dear, at the best of times, and this is none of the best, with the king far away and busy with more urgent matters, and half his kingdom cut off from any manner of justice at all. No, she hoped to make the lord abbot think again and yield ground for fear of long vexation. She had the wrong man. He knows she has no intention of going to law. Far more likely to take law into her own hands and try to steal the boy away. It would take slow law or swift action to snatch him back again, once she had him, and force is further out of the abbot's reach than it is out of hers.'
    'It is to be hoped,' said Brother Edmund, aghast at the suggestion, 'that she has not yet used up all her persuasions, if the last resort is to be violence.'
    No one could quite determine exactly how young Richard came to know every twist and turn of the contention over his future. He could not have overheard anything of what went on at chapter, nor were the novices present at the daily gatherings, and there was none among the brothers likely to gossip about the matter to the child at the centre of the conflict. Yet it was clear that Richard did know all that went on, and took perverse pleasure in it. Mischief made life more interesting, and here within the enclave he felt quite safe from any real danger, while he could enjoy being fought over.
    'He watches the comings and goings from Eaton,' said Brother Paul, confiding his mild anxiety to Cadfael in the peace of the herb garden, 'and is sharp enough to be very well aware what they mean. And he understood all too well what went on at his father's funeral. I could wish him less acute, for his own sake.'
    'As well he should have his wits about him,' said Cadfael comfortably. 'It's the knowing innocents that avoid the snares. And the lady's made no move now for ten days. Maybe she's grown resigned, and given up the struggle.' But he was by no means convinced of that. Dame Dionisia was not used to being thwarted.
    'It may be so,' agreed Paul hopefully, 'for I hear she's taken in some reverend pilgrim, and refurbished the old hermitage in her woodland for his use. She wants his prayers daily for her son's soul. Edmund was telling us about it when he brought our allowance of venison. We saw the man, Cadfael, at the funeral. He was there with the two brothers from Buildwas. He'd been lodged with them a week, they give him a very saintly report.'
    Cadfael straightened up with a grunt from his bed of mint, grown wiry and thin of leaf now in late October. 'The fellow who wore the scallop shell? And the medal of Saint James? Yes, I remember noticing him. So he's settling among us, is he? And chooses a cell and a little square of garden in the woods rather than a grey habit at Buildwas! I never was drawn to the solitary life myself, but I've known those who can think and pray the better that way. It's a long time since that cell was lived in.'
    He knew the place, though he seldom passed that way,