“More by luck than valour,” said Torold ruefully. “We were rolling about in the hay, wrestling and trying for each other’s throat, everything by feel and nothing by sight, and neither of us could get space or time to draw, for I don’t know how long, but I suppose it was no more than minutes. What ended it was that there must have been an old manger there against the wall, half fallen to pieces, and I banged my head against one of the boards lying loose in the hay. I hit him with it, two-handed, and he dropped. I doubt I did him any lasting damage, but it knocked him witless long enough for me to run, and run I did, and loosed both the horses, and made off westward like a hunted hare. I still had work to do, and there was no one but me left to do it, or I might have stayed to try and even the account for Nick. Or I might not,” owned Torold with scowling honesty. “I doubt I was even thinking about FitzAlan’s errand then, though I’m thinking of it now, and have been ever since. I ran for my life. I was afraid he might have had others lying in ambush to come to his aid. All I wanted was out of there as fast as my legs would go.”
“No need to make a penance of it,” said Cadfael mildly, securing his bandage. “Sound sense is something to be glad of, not ashamed. But, my friend, it’s taken you two full days, by your own account, to get to much the same spot you started from. I take it, by that, the king has allies pretty thick between here and Wales, at least by the roads.”
“Thick as bees in swarm! I got well forward by the more northerly road, and all but ran my head into a patrol where there was no passing. They were stopping everything that moved, what chance had I with two horses and a load of valuables? I had to draw off into the woods, and by that time it was getting light, there was nothing to be done but lie up until dark again and try the southerly road. And that was no better, they had loose companies ranging the countryside by then. I thought I might make my way through by keeping off the roads and close to the curve of the river, but it was another night lost. I lay up in a copse on the hill all day Thursday, and tried again by night, and that was when they winded me, four or five of them, and I had to run for it, with only one way to run, down towards the river. They had me penned, I couldn’t get out of the trap. I took the saddlebags from both horses, and turned the beasts loose, and started them off at a panic gallop, hoping they’d crash through and lead the pursuit away from me, but there was one of the fellows too near, he saw the trick, and made for me instead. He gave me this slash in the thigh, and his yell brought the others running. There was only one thing to do. I took to the water, saddlebags and all. I’m a strong swimmer, but with that weight it was hard work to stay afloat, and let the current bring me downstream. That’s when they started shooting. Dark as it was, they’d been out in it long enough to have fair vision, and there’s always light from the water when there’s something moving in it. So I got this shoulder wound, and had the sense to go under and stay under as long as I had breath. Severn’s fast, even in summer water it carried me down well. They followed along the bank for a while, and loosed one or two more arrows, but then I think they were sure I was under for good. I worked my way towards the bank as soon as it seemed safe, to get a foot to ground and draw breath here and there, but I stayed in the water. I knew the bridge would be manned, I dared not drag myself ashore until I was well past. It was high time by then. I remember crawling into the bushes, but not much else, except rousing just enough to be afraid to stir when your people came reaping. And then Godric here found me. And that’s the truth of it,” he ended firmly, and looked Cadfael unblinkingly in the eye.
“But not the whole truth,” said Cadfael, placidly enough. “Godric found no saddlebags along with you.” He eyed the young face that fronted him steadily, lips firmly closed, and smiled. “No, never fret, we won’t question you. You are the sole custodian of FitzAlan’s treasury, and what you’ve done with it, and how, God knows, you ever managed to do anything sensible with it in your condition, that’s your affair. You haven’t the air of a courier who has failed in his mission, I’ll say that for you. And for your better peace, all the talk in the town is that FitzAlan and Adeney were not taken, but broke out of the ring and are got clean away. Now we have to leave you alone here until afternoon, we have duties, too. But one of us, or both, will come and see how you’re faring then. And here’s food and drink, and clothes I hope will fit you well enough to pass. But lie quiet for today, you’re not your own man yet however wholeheartedly you may be FitzAlan’s.”
Godith laid the washed and mended shirt on top of the folded garments, and was following Cadfael to the door when the look on Torold’s face halted her, half uneasy, half triumphant. His eyes grew round with amazement as he stared at the crisp, clean linen, and the fine stitches of the long mend where the bloodstained gash had been. A soft whistle of admiration saluted the wonder.
“Holy Mary! Who did this? Do you keep an expert seamstress within the abbey walls? Or did you pray for a miracle?”
“That? That’s Godric’s work,” said Cadfael, not altogether innocently, and walked out into the early sunshine, leaving Godith flushed to the ears. “We learn more skills in the cloister than merely cutting wheat and brewing cordials,” she said loftily, and fled alter Cadfael.
But she was grave enough on the way back, going over in her mind Torold’s story, and reflecting how easily he might have died before ever she met him; not merely once, in the murderer’s cord, nor the second time from King Stephen’s roaming companies, but in the river, or from his wounds in the bushes. It seemed to her that divine grace was taking care of him, and had provided her as the instrument. There remained lingering anxieties.
“Brother Cadfael, you do believe him?”
“I believe him. What he could not tell truth about, he would not lie about, either. Why, what’s on your mind still?”
“Only that the night before I saw him I said — I was afraid the companion who rode with Nicholas was far the most likely to be tempted to kill him. How simple it would have been! But you said yesterday, you did say, he did not do it. Are you quite sure? How do you know?”
“Nothing simpler, girl dear! The mark of the strangler’s cord is on his neck and on his wrist. Did you not understand those thin scars? He was meant to go after his friend out of this world. No, you need have no fear on that score, what he told us is truth. But there may be things he could not tell us, things we ought to discover, for Nicholas Faintree’s sake. Godith, this afternoon, when you’ve seen to the lotions and wines, you may leave the garden and go and keep him company if you please, and I’ll come there as soon as I can. There are things I must look into, over there on the Frankwell side of Shrewsbury.”
Chapter Six
From the Frankwell end of the western bridge, the suburb outside the walls and over the river, the road set off due west, climbing steadily, leaving behind the gardens that fringed the settlement. At first it was but a single road mounting the hill that rose high above Severn, then shortly it branched into two, of which the more southerly soon branched again, three spread fingers pointing into Wales. But Cadfael took the road Nicholas and Torold had taken on the night after the castle fell, the most northerly of the three.
He had thought of calling on Edric Flesher in the town, and giving him the news that one, at least, of the two young couriers had survived and preserved his charge, but then he had decided against it. As yet Torold was by no means sale, and until he was well away, the fewer people who knew of his whereabouts the better, the less likely was word of him to slip out in the wrong place, where his enemies might overhear. There would be time later to share any good news with Edric and Petronilla.
The road entered the thick woodland of which Torold had spoken, and narrowed into a grassy track, within the
