yes, there! Those frost-gnawed hands you were pitying, we’ll make something for those.”
The chilblains of winter were always a seasonal enemy, and an extra batch of ointment for treating them could not come amiss. He began to issue orders briskly, pointing out the herbs he wanted, making Benet climb for some, and move hastily up and down the hanging bunches for others. The boy took pleasure in this novel entertainment, and jumped to obey every crisp command.
“The small scale, there, at the back of the shelf?fetch that out, and while you’re in the corner there, the little weights are in the box beside. Oh, and, Ninian
” said Cadfael, sweet and calm and guileless as ever.
The boy, interested and off his guard, halted and swung about in response to his name, waiting with a willing smile to hear what next he should bring. And on the instant he froze where he stood, the serene brightness still visible on a face turned to marble, the smile fixed and empty. For a long moment they contemplated each other eye to eye, Cadfael also smiling, then warm blood flushed into Benet’s face and he stirred out of his stillness, and the smile, wary as it was, became live and young again. The silence endured longer, but it was the boy who broke it at last.
“Now what should happen? Am I supposed to overturn the brazier, set the hut on fire, rush out and bar the door on you, and run for my life?”
“Hardly,” said Cadfael, “unless that’s what you want. It would scarcely suit me. It would become you better to put that scale down on the level slab there, and pay attention to what you and I are about. And while you’re at it, that jar by the shutter is hog’s fat, bring that out, too.”
Benet did so, with admirable calm now, and turned a wryly smiling face. “How did you know? How did you know even my name?” He was making no further pretence at secrecy, he had even relaxed into a measure of perverse enjoyment.
“Son, the story of your invasion of this realm, along with another mad-head as reckless as yourself, seems to be common currency by this time, and the whole land knows you are supposed to have fled northwards from regions where you were far too hotly hunted for comfort. Hugh Beringar got his orders to keep an eye open for you, at the feast in Canterbury. King Stephen’s blood is up, and until it cools your liberty is not worth a penny if his officers catch up with you. For I take it,” he said mildly,”that you are Ninian Bachiler?”
“I am. But how did you know?”
“Why, once I heard that there was a certain Ninian lost somewhere in these midland counties, it was not so hard. Once you all but told me yourself. “What’s your name?” I asked you, and you began to say “Ninian”, and then caught yourself up and changed it to a clownish echo of the question, before you got out “Benet”. And oh, my child, how soon you gave over pretending with me that you were a simple country groom. Never had a spade in your hand before! No, I swear you never had, though I grant you you learn very quickly. And your speech, and your hands?No, never blush or look mortified, it was not so obvious, it simply added together grain by grain. And besides, you stopped counting me as someone to be deceived. You may as well admit it.”
“It seemed unworthy,” said the boy, and scowled briefly at the beaten earth floor. “Or useless, perhaps! I don’t know! What are you going to do with me now? If you try to give me up, I warn you I’ll do all I can to break away. But I won’t do it by laying hand on you. We’ve been friendly together.”
“As well for both you and me,” said Cadfael, smiling, “for you might find you’d met your match. And who said I had any notion of giving you up? I am neither King Stephen’s partisan nor the Empress Maud’s, and whoever serves either of them honestly and at risk to himself may go about his business freely for me. But you may as well tell me what that business is. Without implicating any other, of course. I take it, for instance, that Mistress Hammet is not your aunt?”
“No,” said Ninian slowly, his eyes intent and earnest on Cadfael’s face. “You will respect her part in this? She was in my mother’s service before she married the bishop’s groom. She was my nurse when I was a child. When I was in flight I went to her for help. It was thoughtless, and I wish it could be undone, but believe it, whatever she has done has been done in pure aifection for me, and what I’ve been about is nothing to do with her. She got me these clothes I wear?mine had been living rough in the woods and in and out of rivers, but they still marked me for what I am. And it was of her own will that she asked leave to bring me here with her as her nephew, when Father Ailnoth got this preferment. To get me away from the hunters. She had asked and been given his leave before ever I knew of it, I could not avoid. And it did come as a blessing to me, I own it.”
“What was your intent when you came over from Normandy?” asked Cadfael.
“Why, to make contact with any friends of the Empress who might be lying very low in the south and east, where she’s least loved, and urge them to be ready to rise if FitzAlan should think the time ripe for a return. It looked well for her chances then. But when the wind changed, someone?God knows which of those we’d spoken with?took fright and covered himself by betraying us. You know we were two?”
“I know it,” said Cadfael. “Indeed I know the second. He was of FitzAlan’s household here in Shrewsbury before the town fell to the King. He got off safely from an eastern port, as I heard. You were not so lucky.”
“Is Torold clean away? Oh, you do me good!” cried Ninian, flushed with joy. “We were separated when they almost cornered us near Bury. I feared for him! Oh, if he’s safe home
” He caught himself up there, wincing at the thought of calling Normandy home. “For myself, I can deal! Even if I do end in the King’s prison?but I won’t! Fending for one is not so hard as fretting for two. And Torold’s a married man!”
“And the word is, he’s gone, back to his wife. And what,” wondered Cadfael, “is your intention now? Plainly the one you came with is a lost cause. What now?”
“Now,” said the boy with emphatic gravity, “I mean to get across the border into Wales, and make my way down to join the Empress’s army at Gloucester. I can’t bring her FitzAlan’s army, but I can bring her one able- bodied man to fight for her?and not a bad hand with sword or lance, though I do say it myself.”
By the lift of his voice and the sparkle in his eyes he meant it ardently, and it was a course much more congenial to him than acting as agent to reluctant allies. And why should he not succeed? The Welsh border was not so far, though the journey to Gloucester through the ill-disciplined wilds of Powys might be long and perilous. Cadfael considered his companion thoughtfully, and beheld a young man somewhat lightly clad for winter travelling afoot, without weapons, without a horse, without wealth to grease his journeying. None of which considerations appeared to discourage Ninian.
“An honest enough purpose,” said Cadfael, “and I see nothing against it. We have a few adherents of your faction even in these parts, though they keep very quiet these days. Could not one of them be of use to you now?”
