broad daylight not immediately recognisable.
“I came only to ask how you are,” said Cadfael as the door was closed behind him, “and to see if you need anything more for your grazes.”
Diota came round to face him and let herself be seen, the palest of smiles visiting a face habitually grave and anxious. “That was kind of you, Brother Cadfael. I am well, I thank you, quite well. You see the wound is healed.”
She turned her injured temple docilely to the best of the light at the urging of his hand, and let him study what had faded now to a yellow bruise and a small dry scar.
“Yes, that’s well, there’ll be no mark left to show for it. But I should go on using the ointment for a few days yet, in this frost the skin dries and abrades easily. And you’ve had no headaches?”
“No, none.”
“Good! Then I’ll be off back to my work, and not take up your time, for I see you have a visitor.”
“Oh, no,” said the visitor, rising briskly from the bench, “I was about to take my leave.” She stepped forward, raising to the light a rounded young face, broad at the brow and tapering gently to a resolute chin. Challenging harebell-blue eyes, set very wide apart, confronted Cadfael with a direct and searching stare. “If you must really go so soon,” said Sanan Bernicres, with the serene confidence of a masterful child, “I’ll walk with you. I’ve been waiting to find a right time to talk to you.”
There was no gainsaying such a girl. Diota did not venture to try and detain her, and Brother Cadfael, even if he had wished, would have hesitated before denying her. Law itself, he thought with amused admiration, might come off the loser if it collided with the will of Sanan Bernicres. In view of all that had happened, that was a distinct if as yet distant possibility, but she would not let the prospect deter her.
“That will be great pleasure for me,” said Cadfael. “The walk is very short?but perhaps you’ll be needing some more herbs for your kitchen? I have ample supplies, you may come in and take what you wish.”
She did give him a very sharp glance for that, and as suddenly dimpled, and to hide laughter turned to embrace Diota, kissing her thin cheek like a daughter. Then she drew her cloak about her and led the way out into the alley, and together they walked the greater part of the way out into the Foregate in silence.
“Do you know,” she said then, “why I went to see Mistress Hammet?”
“Out of womanly sympathy, surely,” said Cadfael, “with her loss. Loss and loneliness?still a virtual stranger here
“
“Oh, come!” said Sanan bluntly. “She worked for the priest, I suppose it was a secure life for a widow woman, but loss
? Lonely she may well be.”
“I was not speaking of Father Ailnoth,” said Cadfael.
She gave him another straight glance of her startling blue eyes, and heaved a thoughtful sigh. “Yes, you’ve worked with him, you know him. He told you, didn’t he, that she was his nurse, no blood kin? She never had children in her own marriage, he’s as dear as a son to her. I
have talked with him, too?by chance. You know he sent a message to my step-father. Everyone knows that now. I was curious to see this young man, that’s all.”
They had reached the abbey gatehouse. She stood hesitant, frowning at the ground.
“Now everyone is saying that he?this Ninian Bachiler killed Father Ailnoth, because the priest was going to betray him to the sheriff. I knew she must have heard it. I knew she would be alone, afraid for him, now he’s fled, and hunted for his life?for it is his life, now!”
“So you came to bear her company,” said Cadfael, “and reassure her. Come through into the garden, and if you have all the pot-herbs you want, I daresay we can find another good reason. You won’t be any the worse for having something by you to cure the cough that may be coming along in a week or two.”
She looked up with a flashing smile. “The same remedy you gave me when I was ten? I’ve changed so much you can hardly have known me again. Such excellent health I have, I need you only once every seven or eight years.”
“If you need me now,” said Cadfael simply, leading the way across the great court towards the gardens, “that’s enough.”
She followed demurely, lowering her eyes modestly in this male seclusion, and in the safe solitude of the workshop she allowed herself to be installed comfortably with her small feet towards the brazier before she drew breath again and went on talking, now more freely, having left all other ears outside the door.
“I came to see Mistress Hammet because I was afraid that, now that he is so threatened, she might do something foolish. She is devoted to Ninian, in desperation she might do anything?anything!?to ensure that he goes free. She might even come forward with some mad story about being to blame herself. She would, I am sure, for him! If she thought it would clear him of all guilt, she would confess to murder.”
“So you came,” said Cadfael, moving about his private world quietly to leave her the illusion that she was not closely observed, “to urge her to hold her peace and wait calmly, for he’s still at liberty and in no immediate danger. Is that it?”
“Yes. And if you go to see her again, or she comes to you, please urge the same upon her. Don’t let her do anything to harm herself.”
“Did he send you, to see her and tell her this?” asked Cadfael directly.
She was not yet quite ready to be drawn into the open, though fleetingly she smiled. “It’s simply that I know, I understand, how anxious he must be now about her. He would be glad if he knew I had talked to her.”
As he will know, before many hours are out, thought Cadfael. Now I wonder where she has hidden him? There could well be old retainers of her own father here in Shrewsbury, or close by, men who would do a great deal for Bernicres’s daughter.
