by Ellis Peters
*
He came down to the abbey, two days later, to attend the Mass Abbot Radulfus had decreed for the souls of all those dead at Lincoln, on both parts, and for the healing of England’s raw and festering wounds. In particular there were prayers to be offered for the wretched citizens of the northern city, prey to vengeful armies and plundered of all they had, many even of their lives, and many more fled into the wilds of the winter countryside. Shropshire stood nearer to the fighting now than it had been for three years, being neighbour to an earl of Chester elated by success and greedy for still more lands. Every one of Hugh’s depleted garrisons stood to arms, ready to defend its threatened security.
They were out from Mass, and Hugh had lingered in speech with the abbot in the great court, when there was sudden bustle in the arch of the gatehouse, and a small procession entered from the Foregate. Four sturdy countrymen in homespun came striding confidently, two with bows strung and slung ready for action, one shouldering a billhook, and the fourth a long-handled pikel. Between them, with two of her escort on either side, rode a plump middle-aged woman on a diminutive mule, and wearing the black habit of a Benedictine nun. The white bands of her wimple framed a rounded rosy face, well-fleshed and well-boned, and lit by a pair of bright brown eyes. She was booted like a man, and her habit kilted for riding, but she swung it loose with one motion of a broad hand as she dismounted, and stood alert and discreet, looking calmly about her in search of someone in authority.
“We have a visiting sister,” said the abbot mildly, eyeing her with interest, “but one that I do not know.”
Brother Cadfael, crossing the court without haste towards the garden and the herbarium, had also marked the sudden brisk bustle at the gate, and checked at the sight of a well remembered figure. He had encountered this lady once before, and found her well worth remembering. And it seemed that she, also, recalled their meeting with pleasure, for the moment her eyes lit upon him the spark of recognition flashed in them, and she came at once towards him. He went to meet her gladly. Her rustic bodyguard, satisfied at having delivered her successfully where she would be, stood by the gatehouse, straddling the cobbles complacently, and by no means intimidated or impressed by their surroundings.
“I thought I should know that gait,” said the lady with satisfaction. “You are Brother Cadfael, who came once on business to our cell. I’m glad to have found you to hand, I know no one else here. Will you make me known to your abbot?”
“Proudly,” said Cadfael, “and he’s regarding you this minute from the corner of the cloister. It’s two years now… Am I to tell him he’s honoured by a visit from Sister Avice?”
“Sister Magdalen,” she said demurely and faintly smiled; and when she smiled, however briefly and decorously, the sudden dazzling dimple he remembered flashed like a star in her weathered cheek. He had wondered then whether she had not better find some way of exorcising it in her new vocation, or whether it might not still be the most formidable weapon in her armoury. He was aware that he blinked, and that she noted it. There was always something conspiratorial in Avice of Thornbury that made every man feel he was the only one in whom she confided. “And my errand,” she said practically, “is really to Hugh Beringar, for I hear Gilbert Prestcote did not come back from Lincoln. They told us in the Foregate we should find him here, or we were bound up to the castle to look for him.”
“He is here,” said Cadfael, “fresh from Mass, and talking with Abbot Radulfus. Over my shoulder you’ll see them both.” She looked, and by the expression of her face she approved. Abbot Radulfus was more than commonly tall, erect as a lance, and sinewy, with a lean hawk-face and a calmly measuring eye; and Hugh, if he stood a whole head shorter and carried but light weight, if he spoke quietly and made no move to call attention to himself, nevertheless seldom went unnoticed. Sister Magdalen studied him from head to heel with one flash of her brown eyes. She was a judge of a man, and knew one when she saw him.
“Very well so!” she said, nodding. “Come, and I’ll pay my respects.”
Radulfus marked their first move towards him and went to meet them, with Hugh at his shoulder.
“Father Abbot,” said Cadfael, “here is come Sister Magdalen of our order, from the cell of Polesworth which lies some miles to the southwest, in the forest at Godric’s Ford. And her business is also with Hugh Beringar as sheriff of this shire.”
She made a very graceful reverence and stooped to the abbot’s hand. “Truly, what I have to tell concerns all here who have to do with order and peace, Father. Brother Cadfael here has visited our cell, and knows how we stand in these troublous times, solitary and so close to Wales. He can advise and explain, if I fall short.”
“You are welcome, sister,” said Radulfus, measuring her as shrewdly as she had measured him. “Brother Cadfael shall be of our counsel. I trust you will be my guest for dinner. And for your guards—for I see they are devoted in attendance on you—I will give orders for their entertainment. And if you are not so far acquainted, here at my side is Hugh Beringar, whom you seek.”
Though that cheek was turned away from him, Cadfael was certain that her dimple sparkled as she turned to Hugh and made her formal acknowledgement. “My lord, I was never so happy,” she said—and whether that was high courtesy or mischief might still be questioned—”as to meet with you before, it was with your sheriff I once had some speech. As I have heard he did not return with you and may be prisoner, and for that I am sorry.”
“I, too,” said Hugh. “As I hope to redeem him, if chance offers. I see from your escort, sister, that you have had cause to move with caution through the forest. I think that is also my business, now I am back.”
“Let us go into my parlour,” said the abbot, “and hear what Sister Magdalen has to tell us. And, Brother Cadfael, will you bear word to Brother Denis that the best of our house is at the disposal of our sister’s guards? And then come to join us, for your knowledge may be needed.”
*
She was seated a little withdrawn from the fire when Cadfael entered the abbot’s parlour some minutes later, her feet drawn trimly under the hem of her habit, her back erect against the panelled wall. The more closely and the longer he viewed her, the more warmly did he remember her. She had been for many years, from her beautiful youth, a baron’s mistress, accepting that situation as an honest business agreement, a fair return for her body to give her escape from her poverty and cultivation for her mind. And she had held to her bargain loyally, even affectionately, as long as her lord remained alive. The loss of one profession offering scope for her considerable talents had set her looking about, with her customary resolution, for another as rewarding, at an age when such openings may be few indeed. The superior at Godric’s Ford, first, and the prioress of Polesworth after, however astonished they might have been at being confronted with such a postulant, must have seen something in Avice of Thornbury well worth acquiring for the order. A woman of her word, ungrudging, to her first allegiance, she would be as good as her word now to this new attachment. Whether it could have been called a vocation in the first place might seem very doubtful, but with application and patience she would make it so.
“When this matter of Lincoln blazed up as it did in January,” she said, “we got rumour that certain of the Welsh were ready to rise in arms. Not, I suppose, for any partisan loyalty, but for plunder to be had when these two powers collided. Prince Cadwaladr of Gwynedd was mustering a war band, and the Welsh of Powys rose to join him, and it was said they would march to aid the earl of Chester. So before the battle we had our warning.”
It was she who had heeded it. Who else, in that small nest of holy women, could have sensed how the winds blew between claimants for the crown, between Welsh and English, between ambitious earl and greedy tribesman?
“Therefore, Father, it was no great surprise to us, some four days ago, when a lad from an assart west of us came running in haste to tell us how his father’s cot and holding was laid waste, his family fled
eastward, and how a Welsh raiding party was drinking its fill in what remained of his home, and boasting how it would disembowel the nunnery of Godric’s Ford. Huntsmen on their way home will not despise a few stray head of game to add to their booty. We had not the news of the defeat of Lincoln then,” she said, meeting Hugh’s attentive gaze, “but we made our judgements accordingly and took heed. Cadwaladr’s shortest way home with his plunder to his castle at Aberystwyth skirts Shrewsbury close. Seemingly he still feared to come too near the town, even with the garrison thinned as he knew it must be. But he felt safer with us in the forest. And with only a handful of women to deal with, it was worth his while to spend a day in sport, and strip us bare.”
“And this was four days ago?” asked Hugh, sharply intent.
“Four when the boy came. He’s safe enough, and so is his sire, but their cattle are gone, driven off westward. Three days, when they reached us. We had a day to prepare.”
“This was a despicable undertaking,” said Radulfus with anger and disgust, “to fasten like cowards upon a household of defenceless women. Great shame to the Welsh or any others who attempt such infamies. And we here knowing nothing of your need!”
“Never fear, Father, we have weathered this storm well enough. Our house yet stands, and has not been plundered, nor harm come to any of our women, and barely a scratch or two among the forest menfolk. And we were not quite defenceless. They came on the western side, and our brook runs between. Brother Cadfael knows the lie of the land there.”
“The brook would be a very frail barrier most of the year,” said Cadfael doubtfully. “But we have had great rains this winter season. But there’s both the ford and the bridge to guard.”
“True, but it takes no time there among good neighbours to raise a very fair muster. We are well thought of among the forest folk, and they are stout men.” Four of the stout men of her army were regaling themselves in the gatehouse with meat and bread and ale at this moment, proud and content, set up in their own esteem, very properly, by their own exploits. “The brook was high in flood already, but we contrived to pit the ford, in case they should still venture it, and then John Miller opened up all his sluices to swell the waters. As for the bridge, we sawed through the wood of the piers, leaving them only the last holt, and fastened ropes from them into the bushes. You’ll recall the banks are well treed both sides. We could pluck the piers loose from cover whenever we saw fit. And all the men of the forest came with bills and dung-forks and bows to line our bank, and deal with any who did get over.”
No question who had generalled that formidable reception. There she sat, solid, placid and comely, like a well-blessed village matron talking of the doings of her children and grandchildren, fond and proud of their precocious achievements, but too wise to let them see it.
“The foresters,” she said, “are as good archers as you will find anywhere, we had them spaced among the trees, all along our bank. And the men of the other bank were drawn aside in cover, to speed the enemy’s going when he ran.” The abbot was regarding her with a warily respectful face, and brows that signalled his guarded wonder. “I recall,” he said, “that Mother Mariana is old and frail. This attack must have caused her great distress and fear. Happy for her that she had you, and could delegate her powers to so stout and able a deputy.”
Sister Magdalen’s benign smile might, Cadfael thought, be discreet cover for her memory of Mother Mariana distracted and helpless with dread at the threat. But all she said was: “Our superior was not well at that time, but praise be, she is now restored. We entreated her to take with her the elder sisters, and shut themselves up in the chapel, with such sacred valuables as we have, and there to pray for our safe deliverance. Which doubtless availed us above our bills and bows, for all passed without harm to us.”
“Yet their prayers did not turn the Welsh back short of the planned attempt, I doubt,” said Hugh, meeting her guileless eyes with an appreciative smile. “I see I shall have to mend a few fences down there. What followed? You say all fell out well. You used those ropes of yours?”
“We did. They came thick and fast, we let them load the bridge almost to the near bank, and then plucked the piers loose. Their first wave went down into the flood, and a few who tried the ford lost their footing in our pits, and were swept away. And after our archers had loosed their first shafts, the Welsh turned tail. The lads we had in cover on the other side took after them and sped them on their way. John Miller has closed his sluices now. Give us a couple of dry weeks, and we’ll have the bridge up again. The Welsh left three men dead, drowned in the brook, the rest they hauled out half sodden, and dragged them away with them when they ran. All but one, and he’s the occasion for this journey of mine. There’s a very fine young fellow,” she said, “was washed downstream, and we pulled him out bloated with water and far gone, if we had not emptied him, and pounded him alive to tell the tale. You may send and take him off our hands whenever you please. Things being as it seems they are, you may well have a use for him.”
“For any Welsh prisoner,” said Hugh, glowing. “Where have you stowed him?”
“John Miller has him under lock and key and guarded. I did not venture to try and bring him to you, for good reason. He’s sudden as a kingfisher and slippery as a fish, and short of tying him hand and foot I doubt if we could have held him.”
“We’ll undertake to bring him away safely,” said Hugh heartily. “What manner of man do you make of him? And has he given you a name?”
“He’ll say no word but in Welsh, and I have not the knowledge of that tongue, nor has any of us. But he’s young, princely provided, and lofty enough in his manner to be princely born, no common kern. He may prove valuable if it comes to an exchange.”
“I’ll come and fetch him away tomorrow,” promised Hugh, “and thank you for him heartily. By morning I’ll have a company ready to ride. As well I should look to all that border, and if you can bide overnight, sister, we can escort you home in safety.”
“Indeed it would be wise,” said the abbot. “Our guest hall and all we have is open to you, and your neighbours who have done you such good service are equally welcome. Far better return with the assurance of numbers and arms. Who knows if there may not be marauding parties still lurking in the forest, if they’re grown so bold?”
“I doubt it,” she said. “We saw no sign of it on the way here. It was the men themselves would not let me venture alone. But I will accept your hospitality, Father, with pleasure, and be as grateful for your company, my lord,” she said, smiling thoughtfully at Hugh, “on the way home.”
*
“Though, faith,” said Hugh to Cadfael, as they crossed the court together, leaving Sister Magdalen to dine as the abbot’s guest, “it would rather become me to give her the generalship of all the forest than offer her any protection of mine. We should have had her at Lincoln, where our enemies crossed the floods, as hers failed to do. Riding south with her tomorrow will certainly be pleasure, it might well be profit. I’ll bend a devout ear to any counsel that lady chooses to dispense.”
“You’ll be giving pleasure as well as receiving it,” said Cadfael frankly. “She may have taken vows of chastity, and what she swears she’ll keep. But she has not sworn never to take delight in the looks and converse and company of a proper man. I doubt they’ll ever bring her to consent to that, she’d think it a waste and a shame so to throw God’s good gifts in his teeth.”
*
The party mustered after Prime next morning, Sister Magdalen and her four henchmen, Hugh and his half dozen armed guards from the castle garrison. Brother Cadfael stood to watch them gather and mount, and took a warmly appreciative leave of the lady.
“I doubt I shall be hard put to it, though,” he admitted, “to learn to call you by your new name.”
At that her dimple dipped and flashed, and again vanished. “Ah, that! You are thinking that I never yet repented of anything I did—and I confess I don’t recall such a thing myself. No, bu
t it was such a comfort and satisfaction to the women. They took me to their hearts so joyfully, the sweet things, a fallen sister retrieved. I couldn’t forbear giving them what they wanted and thought fitting. I am their special pride, they boast of me.”
“Well they may,” said Cadfael, “seeing you just drove back pillage, ravishment and probable murder from their nest.”
“Ah, that they feel to be somewhat unwomanly, though glad enough of the result. The doves were all aflutter—but then, I was never a dove,” said Sister Magdalen, “and it’s only the men truly admire the hawk in me.”
And she smiled, mounted her little mule and rode off homeward surrounded by men who already admired her, and men who were more than willing to offer admiration. In the court or in the cloister, Avice of Thornbury would never pass by without turning men’s heads to follow her.
Chapter 2
BEFORE NIGHTFALL Hugh was back with his prisoner, having prospected the western fringe of the Long Forest and encountered no more raiding Welshmen and no masterless men living wild. Brother Cadfael saw them pass by the abbey gatehouse on their way up through the town to the castle, where this possibly valuable Welsh youth could be held in safekeeping and, short of a credible parole, doubtless under lock and key in some sufficiently impenetrable cell. Hugh could not afford to lose him.
Cadfael caught but a passing glimpse of him as they rode by in the early dusk. It seemed he had given some trouble on the way, for his hands were tied, his horse on a leading rein, his feet roped into the stirrups and an archer rode suggestively close at his rear. If these precautions were meant to secure him, they had succeeded, but if to intimidate, as the young man himself appeared to suppose, they had signally failed, for he went with a high, disdainful impudence, stretching up tall and whistling as he went, and casting over his shoulder at the archer occasional volleys of Welsh, which the man might not have endured so stolidly had he been able to understand their purport as well as Cadfael did. He was, in fact, a very forward and uppish young fellow, this prisoner, though it might have been partly bravado.