"Driven, rather," said Cadfael practically, remembering the blinding snow, and the small beckoning spark of the torch in the drifting dark.
"It"s true, to arrive on the eve of the bridegroom"s coming is very apt timing. I can but go with the burden of the day," said Haluin, "and hope to be led aright. These second marriages in old age, Cadfael, have sorry tangles to answer for. How can two babes playing together in the rushes of the floor know that they are aunt and nephew, and fruit forbidden? A pity that love should be spent to no end."
"I am not sure," said Cadfael, "that love is ever spent for no end. Well, at least now you can be still and rest for a day or so, and all the better for it. That, at any rate, comes timely."
And that was plainly the best use Haluin could make of this halt on the way home, since he had already tried himself very near the end of his endurance. Cadfael left him in peace, and went out to take a daylight look at this manor of Vivers. A cloudy day with a fitful wind, the air free of frost, and occasional fine drifts of rain in the air, but none that lasted long.
He walked the width of the enclave to the gate, to see the full extent of the house. There were windows in the steep roof above the solar, probably two retiring rooms were available there. Haluin and companion had been accommodated considerately on the living floor. No doubt one of those upper chambers was being prepared at this moment for the expected bridegroom. The daily bustle about the courtyard seemed everywhere to be in hand without haste or confusion; things were well ordered here.
Beyond the pale of the stockade the soft, undulating landscape extended in field and copse and spa.r.s.ely treed upland, all the greens still bleached and dried with winter, but the black branches showed here and there the first nodules of the leaf buds of spring. Faint frills of snow outlined all the hollows and sheltered places, but a gleam of sun was breaking through the low cloud, and by noon all the remnant of last night"s fall would be gone.
Cadfael looked into the stables and the mews, and found both well supplied and proudly kept by servitors ready and willing to show them off to an interested visitor. In a separate stall in the kennels a hound b.i.t.c.h lay curled in clean straw with her six pups around her, perhaps five weeks old. He could not resist going into the dim shed to take up one of the young ones, and the dam was complacent, and welcomed admiration of her brood. The soft warmth of the small body in his arms had a smell like new bread. He was just stooping to lay the pup back among its siblings when a clear, cool voice behind him said: "Are you the priest who is to marry me?"
And there she was in the doorway, again a shadowy form against the light, so composed, so a.s.sured that she might easily be taken for a mature and stately woman of thirty, though the fresh, light voice belonged to her proper age.
The girl Helisende Vivers, not yet decked out to receive her bridegroom, but in a plain housewifely gown of dark blue wool, and with a gently steaming pail of meat and meal for the hounds in one hand.
"Are you the priest who is to marry me?"
"No," said Cadfael, slowly straightening up from the wriggling litter and the crooning b.i.t.c.h. "That is Brother Haluin. I never studied for orders. I know myself better."
"It"s the lame man, then," she said with detached sympathy. "I am sorry he suffers such hardship. I hope they have made him comfortable, here in our house. You do know about my marriage-that Jean comes here today?"
"Your brother has told us," said Cadfael, watching the features of her oval face emerge softly from shadow, every plaintive, ingenuous line testifying to her youth. "But there are things he could not tell us," he said, watching her intently, "except by hearsay. Only you can tell us whether this match has your consent, freely given, or no."
Her brief silence at that did not suggest hesitation so much as a grave consideration of the man who raised the question. Her large eyes, dauntlessly honest, embraced and penetrated, quite unafraid of being penetrated in return. If she had judged him so alien to her needs and predicament as to be unacceptable, she would have closed the encounter there and then, civilly but without satisfying what would then have been there intrusive curiosity. But she did not.
"If we do anything freely, once we are grown," she said, "then yes, this I do freely. There are rules that must be kept. There are others in the world with us who have rights and needs, and we are all bound. You may tell Brother Haluin-Father Haluin I must call him-that he need have no qualms for me. I know what I am doing. No one is forcing my hand."
"I will tell him so," said Cadfael. "But I think you do it for others, not for yourself."
"Then say to him that I choose-freely-to do it for others."
"And what of Jean de Perronet?" said Cadfael.
For one instant her firm, full lips shook. It was the one thing that still disrupted her resolute composure, that she was not being fair to the man who was to be her husband. Cenred would certainly not have told him that he was getting only a sad remainder after the heart was gone. Nor could she tell him so. The secret belonged only to the family. The only hope for this hapless pair was that love might come with time, a kind of love, better, perhaps, than many marriages ever achieve, but still far short of the crown.
"I will try," she said steadily, "to give him all that he is asking, all that he wants and expects. He deserves well, he shall have the best I can do."
There was no point in saying to her that it might not be enough, she already knew that, and was uneasy about a degree of deception she could not evade. It might even be that what had already been said here in the dimness of the kennels had reopened a deep abyss of doubt which she had almost succeeded in sealing over. Better let well alone, where there was no possibility of rendering the load she carried any lighter.
"Well, I pray you may be blessed in all you do," said Cadfael, and drew back out of her way. The b.i.t.c.h had uncoiled herself from among her puppies and was nuzzling the pail, and waving a feathered tail in hungry expectation. The ordinary business of the day goes on through births, marriages, deaths, and festivals. When he looked back from the doorway the girl Helisende was stooping to fill the b.i.t.c.h"s bowl, the heavy braid of her brown hair swinging among the scrambling litter. She did not look up, but for all that, he had the feeling that she was deeply and vulnerably aware of him until he turned and walked softly away.
"You"ll miss your nurseling," said Cadfael when Edgytha came at noon to serve food and drink for them. "Or will you be going south with her when she"s married?"
The old woman lingered, taciturn by nature but visibly in need of unburdening a heart by no means reconciled to losing her darling. Within the stiff folds of her wimple her withered cheek trembled.
"What should I do at my age, in a strange place? I am too old to be of much value now, I shall stay here. At least I know the way of things here, and everyone knows me. What respect should I have in a strange household? But she"ll go, I know that! She"ll go, I suppose, as go she must. And the young man"s well enough-if my lamb had not another in her eye and in her heart."
"And one placed so far out of reach," Haluin reminded her gently, but his face was pale, and when she turned and looked at him in silence for a long moment he averted his eyes and turned away his head.
Her eyes were the pale, washed blue of fading harebells. Once, shadowed by lashes now grown thin and meager, they might have resembled more the color of periwinkles. "So my lord will have told you," she said. "So they all say. And if there"s no help, she might do much worse, I know! I came here in attendance on her mother, all those years ago, and that was no lovers" match, her so young, and him nigh on three times her age. A decent, kind man he was, but old, old! She had good need, poor lady, of someone from home, someone she knew well and could trust. At least they"re marrying my girl to somebody young."
Cadfael asked what had been preoccupying his mind for some little while, since no word had been said on the matter: "Is Helisende"s mother dead?"
"No, not dead. But she took the veil at Polesworth, it must be eight years ago now, after the old lord died. She"s within your own order, a Benedictine nun. She had always a leaning towards it, and when her husband died, and she began to be talked about and bargained about as widow ladies are, and urged to marry again, rather than that she left the world. It"s one way of escape," said Edgytha, and set her lips grimly.
"And left her daughter motherless?" said Haluin, with more reproof in his voice than he had intended.
"She left her daughter very well mothered! She left her to the lady Emma and to me!" Edgytha smoldered for a moment, and subdued the brief fire within lowered eyelids. "Three mothers that child has had, and all fond. My lady Emma could never be harsh to any young thing. Too soft, indeed, the pair of them could always get their will of her. But my own lady was given to solitude and melancholy, and when it came to a new marriage, no, she would not, she took the veil gladly rather than marry again."
"Helisende has never considered that refuge?" asked Cadfael.
"Not she, G.o.d forbid she ever should! My girl was never of that mind. For those who take to it kindly it may be bliss, but for those who are pressed into it, it must be a h.e.l.l on earth! If you"ll pardon my tongue, Brothers! You know your own vocation best, and no doubt you took the cowl for the best of reasons, but Helisende... No, I would not want that for her. Better by far this Perronet lad, if there has to be a second-best," She had begun to gather up the platters and dishes they had emptied, and took up the pitcher to refill their cups. "I did hear say that you"ve been at Elford, and seen Roscelin there. Is that true?"
"Yes," said Cadfael, "we left Elford only yesterday. We did, by chance, have some brief talk with the young man, but never knew until this morning that he came from this neighboring manor of Vivers."
"And how did he look?" she asked longingly. "Is he well? Was he down in spirits? I have not seen him for a month or more, and I know how ill he took it that he should be sent away like some offending page from his own home, when he had done no wrong, nor thought none. As good a lad as ever stepped! What had he to say?"
"Why, he was in excellent health at any rate," said Cadfael cautiously, "and very fair spirits, considering all. It"s true he did complain of being banished, and was very ill-content where he is. Naturally he said little about the circ.u.mstances, seeing we were chance comers and unknown to him, and I daresay he would have said no more to anyone else who had as little business in the matter. But he did say he had given his word to abide by his father"s orders, and wait for leave before he"d venture home."
"But he does not know," she said, between anger and helplessness, "what"s being planned here. Oh, he"ll get leave to come home fast enough as soon as Helisende is out of the house, and far away south on her way to that young man"s manor. And what a homecoming that will be for the poor lad! Shame to deal so behind his back!"
"They think it for the best," said Haluin, pale and moved. "Even for his best interests, they believe. And this matter is hard even for them. If they are mistaken in hiding this marriage from him until it is over, surely they may be forgiven."
"There are those," said Edgytha darkly, "who never will be." She picked up her wooden tray, and the keys at her girdle chimed faintly as she moved towards the door. "I wish this had been honestly done. I wish he had been told. Whether he could ever have her or not, he had a right to know, and to give his blessing or his ban. How was it you were brought in touch with him there, to know the half of his name but not the whole?"
"It was the lady mentioned his name," said Cadfael, "when de Clary came in from riding, and the young man was with him. Roscelin, she called him. It was later we spoke with him. He saw my friend here stiff from a night on his knees, and came to lend him an arm to lean on."
"So he would!" she said, warming. "To any one he saw in need. The lady, you say? Audemar"s lady?"
"No, our errand was not to him, we never saw his wife and children. No, this was his mother, Adelais de Clary."
The dishes jangled momentarily on Edgytha"s tray. With care she balanced it on one hand, and reached to the latch of the door. "She is there? There at Elford?"
"She is. Or she was when we left, yesterday, and with the snow coming so shortly after, she is surely there still."
"She visits very rarely," said Edgytha, shrugging. "They say there"s small love lost between her and her son"s wife. That"s no uncommon thing, either, I suppose, so they"re just as well apart." She nudged the door open expertly with an elbow, and swung the large tray through the doorway edgewise. "Do you hear the horses, outside there? That will be Jean de Perronet"s party riding in."
There was nothing clandestine or secretive, certainly, about Jean de Perronet"s arrival, though nothing ceremonious or showy, either. He came with one body servant and two grooms, and with two led horses for the bride and her attendant, and packhorses for the baggage. The entire entourage was practical and efficient, and de Perronet himself went very plainly, without flourishes in his dress or his manner, though Cadfael noted with appreciation the quality of his horseflesh and harness. This young man knew where to spend his money, and where to spare.
They had gone out, Haluin and Cadfael together, to watch the guests dismount and unload. The afternoon air was again clearing towards a night frost, but there were scudding clouds in the upper air, and might be further flurries of snow in the dark hours. The travelers would be well content to be under a sound roof and out of the chilly wind.
De Perronet dismounted from his flecked roan horse before the door of the hall, and Cenred came striding down the steps to meet him and embrace him, and lead him by the hand up to the doorway, where the lady Emma waited to welcome him as warmly. Helisende, Cadfael noted, did not appear. At supper at the high table she would have no choice but to attend, but at this stage it was fitting that the honors of the house should rest with her brother and his wife, the guardians of her person and the disposers of her marriage. Host, hostess, and guest vanished within the great hall. Cenred"s servants and de Perronet"s grooms unloaded baggage and stabled horses, and went about the business so practically that within a matter of minutes the courtyard was empty.
So that was the bridegroom! Cadfael stood considering what he had seen, and so far could find no fault in it except that it was, as Edgytha had said, a second-best. And a second-best was all that boy would gain. A young man of perhaps twenty-five or twenty-six, already accustomed to authority and responsibility by his bearing, and well capable of handling them. His men, these favored ones at least, were easy with him. He knew his business as they knew theirs, and there was an air of mutual respect between them. Moreover, he was a good-looking young man, tall and shapely, of open, amiable countenance, and, by the look of him, in the happiest possible humor on the eve of his marriage. Cenred had done his best for his young sister, and his best promised to turn out very well. A pity it could not have been what her heart desired.
"But what else could he have done?" said Haluin, betraying in few words the depth of his own dismay and doubt.
Chapter Eight.
IN THE LATE AFTERNOON Cenred sent his steward to ask the two Benedictine brothers if they felt able to join his household at supper in hall, or if Father Haluin preferred to continue his rest in retirement, and be waited on in his own chamber. Haluin, who had withdrawn into a dark, inward meditation, would certainly rather have remained apart, but felt it discourteous to absent himself any longer, and made the effort to emerge from his anxious silence, and do honor to the company at the high table. They had given him a place close to the bridal pair, by virtue of his office as the priest who was to marry them. Cadfael, seated a little apart, had them all in view. And below, in the body of the hall, the whole household a.s.sembled in its due ranks, under the glow of the torches.
It occurred to Cadfael, watching Haluin"s grave face, that this would be the first time his friend had ever been called upon to be go-between for G.o.d. It was true that the young brothers were being encouraged to aim at orders, more now than ever in the past, but many of them would be, as Haluin was, priests without pastoral cares, who in a long life would probably never christen, never marry, never bury, never ordain others to follow them in the same sheltered paths. It is a terrible responsibility, thought Cadfael, who had never aspired to ordination, to have the grace of G.o.d committed to a man"s hands, to be privileged and burdened to play a part in other people"s lives, to promise them salvation in baptism, to lock their lives together in matrimony, to hold the key to purgatory at their departing. If I have meddled, he thought devoutly, and G.o.d knows I have, when need was and there was no better man to attempt it, at least I have meddled only as a fellow sinner, tramping the same road, not as a viscount of heaven, stooping to raise up. Now Haluin faces this same terrible demand, and no wonder if he is afraid.
He looked along the array of faces which Haluin, being so close beside them, could see only as overlapping profiles, each briefly seen as the ripple of movement flowed along the high table, and lit deceptively by the falling glow of the torches. Cenred"s broad, open, blunt-featured countenance a little drawn and taut with strain, but resolutely jovial, his wife presiding over the table with determined amiability and a somewhat anxious smile, de Perronet in happy innocence, shining with evident pleasure at having Helisende seated beside him and all but his already. And the girl, pale and quiet and resolutely gracious at his side, doing her gallant best to respond to his brightness, since this grief was no fault of his, and she had acknowledged that he deserved better. Seeing them thus together, there was no question of the man"s attachment, and if he missed the like radiance in her, perhaps he accepted that as the common ground on which marriages begin, and was ready and willing to be patient until the bud came to flower.
This was the first time Haluin had seen the girl since she had startled him to his feet here in the hall, and brought him down in that crashing fall, half dazed as he already was by the stinging wind and the blinding snow. And this stiff young figure in her best, gilded by the torchlight, might have been a stranger, never before seen. He looked at her, when chance brought her profile into clear view, with doubt and bewilderment, burdened by a responsibility new to him, and heavy to bear.
It was late when the women withdrew from the high table, leaving the men to their wine, though they would not sit here in the hall much longer. Haluin looked round to catch Cadfael"s eye, agreeing in a glance that it was time for them to leave host and guest together, and Haluin was already reaching for his crutches and bracing himself for the effort of rising when Emma came in again from the solar with a fl.u.s.tered step and an anxious face, a young maidservant at her heels.
"Cenred, here"s something strange happened! Edgytha is gone out and has not returned, and now it"s beginning to snow again, and where should she be going, thus in the night? I sent for her to attend me to bed, as always, and she"s nowhere to be found, and now Madlyn here says that she went out hours ago, as soon as it was dusk."
Cenred was slow to turn his mind from his hospitable duty towards his guest to an apparently small domestic problem, surely the women"s business rather than his.
"Why, Edgytha may surely go out if she so chooses," he said good-humoredly," and will come back when she chooses no less. She"s a free woman, knows her own mind, and can be trusted to mind her duties. If she"s once missing when she"s called for, that"s no great matter. Why should you worry over it?"
"But when does she ever do so without saying? Never! And now it"s snowing again, and she"s been gone four hours or more, if Madlyn says true. How if she"s come to harm? She would not stay away so long of her own will. And you know how I value her. I would not for the world that any harm should come to her."
"No more would I," said Cenred warmly, "nor to any of my people. If she"s gone astray we"ll look for her. But no need to fret before we know of any mishap. Here, girl, speak up, what is it you know of the matter? You say she went out some hours ago?"
"Sir, so she did!" Madlyn came forward willingly, wide-eyed with half-pleasurable excitement. "It was after we"d made all ready. I was coming in from the dairy, and I saw her come forth from the kitchen with her cloak about her, and I said to her that this was like to be a busy night, and she"d be missed, and she said she would be back before she was called for. It was just beginning to get dark then. I never thought she"d be gone so long."
"And did you not ask her where she was going?" demanded Cenred.
"I did," said the girl, "though it was little enough she was ever likely to tell about her own business, and I should have known she"d make a sour answer if she made any at all. But there"s no sense to be made of it. She said she was going to find a cat," said Madlyn in baffled innocence, "to put among the pigeons."
If it meant nothing to her, it had meaning for Cenred and for his wife, who plainly heard it now for the first time. Emma"s startled gaze flew to her husband"s face as he came abruptly to his feet. The look they exchanged Cadfael could read as if he had the words ringing in his ears. He had been given clues enough to make the reading easy. Edgytha was nurse to them both, indulged them, loved them like her own, resents even their separation, whatever the church and the ties of blood may say, and much more this marriage that makes the separation final. She is gone to enlist help to prevent what she deplores, even at this last moment. She is gone to tell Roscelin what is being done behind his back. She is gone to Elford.
None of which could be said aloud, here in front of Jean de Perronet, who stood now at Cenred"s side, looking from face to face round the circle, puzzled and sympathetic in a domestic trouble which was none of his business. An old servant gone missing in the evening, with night coming on and snow falling, called for at least a token search. He made the suggestion ingenuously, filling a silence which at any moment might have caused him to look more narrowly at what was happening here.
"Should we not look for her, if she"s been gone so long? The ways are not always safe at night, and for a woman venturing alone..."
The diversion came as a blessing, and Cenred seized on it gratefully. "So we will. I"ll send out a party by the most likely way. It may be she"s only been delayed by the snow, if she intended a visit in the village. But this need not give you any concern, Jean. I would not wish your stay to be marred. Leave this matter to my men, we have enough in the household. And rest a.s.sured she cannot be far, we shall soon find her and see her safe home."
"I will gladly come out with you," de Perronet offered.
"No, no, I will not have it. Let all things here go as we have planned them, and nothing spoil the occasion. Use my house as your own, and take your night"s rest with a quiet mind, for tomorrow this small flurry will be over and done."
It was not difficult to persuade the helpful guest to abandon his generous intention. Perhaps it had been made only as a courteous gesture. A man"s household affairs are his, and best left to him. It is civil to offer help, but wise to give way gracefully. Cenred knew very well now where Edgytha had set out to go, there would be no question of which road to take in hunting for her. Moreover, there was some genuine call for concern, for in four hours she could have been there and back even in snow. Cenred quit his supper table purposefully, driving the men of his following before him to muster within the hall door. He bade de Perronet an emphatic good-night, which was accepted plainly as dismissal even from this domestic conference, and issued brisk orders to those of his servants whom he chose to go with the search party, six of the young and vigorous and his steward with them.
"What must we do?" Brother Haluin wondered half aloud, standing with Cadfael a little apart.
"You," said Cadfael, "must go to your bed, like a sensible man, and sleep if you can. And a prayer or two will not come amiss. I am going with them."
"Along the nearest road to Elford," said Haluin heavily.
"To find a cat to put among the pigeons. Yes, where else? But you stay here. There is nothing you could do or say, if there has to be speech, that I cannot."
The hall door was opened, the party tramped down the steps into the courtyard, two of them carrying torches. Cadfael, following last, looked out upon a glittering, frosty night. The ground was covered but meagerly, small, needle-sharp flakes out of an almost clear sky, brittle with stars and too cold for a heavy fall. He looked back from the doorway, and saw the women of the house, gentlefolk and servants alike, drawn together in mutual uneasiness in the far corner of the hall, all eyes following their departing menfolk, the maids huddling close, Emma with her smooth, gentle face wrung in distress, and pulling nervously at her plump fingers.
And Helisende standing a pace apart, the only one not clinging to her kind for comfort. She was far enough back from one of the sconces for the torchlight to show her face fully, without exaggerated shadows. All that Emma had reported to her husband, all that Madlyn had told, Helisende surely knew now. She knew where Edgytha was gone, she knew for what purpose. She was staring wide-eyed into a future she could no longer foretell, where the results of this night"s work hid themselves in bewilderment and dismay and possible catastrophe. She had prepared herself for a willing sacrifice, but she found herself utterly unprepared for whatever threatened now. Her face seemed as still and composed as ever, yet it had lost all its calm and certainty, her resolution had become helplessness, and her resignation changed to desperation. She had arrived at an embattled ground she believed she could hold, at whatever cost to herself, and now that ground shook and parted under her feet, and she was no longer in control of her own fate. The image of her shattered gallantry, disarmed and vulnerable, was the last glimpse Cadfael carried out with him into the darkness and the frost.
Cenred drew his cloak close about his face against the wind, and set out from the gate of the manor on a path that was strange to Cadfael. With Haluin he had turned in from the distant highway, straight towards the gleam of light from the manor torches, but this way slanted back to strike the road much nearer to Elford, and would probably cut off at least half a mile of the distance. The night had its own lambent light, partly from the stars, partly from the thin covering of snow, so that they were able to go quickly, spread out in a line centered upon the path. The country here was open, at first bare of trees, then threading a belt of woods and scrubland. They heard nothing but their own footsteps and breath, and the soft whining of the wind among the bushes. Twice Cenred halted them to have silence, and called aloud to the night, but got no answer.
For one who knew this path well, Cadfael calculated, the distance to Elford would be roughly two miles. Edgytha could have been back in Vivers long ago, and by what she had said to the maid Madlyn she had intended to return in ample time to be at her mistress"s disposal after supper. Nor could she have strayed from a known way on so bright a night, and in barely more than a sprinkling of snow. It began to seem clear to him that something had happened to prevent either her errand or her safe return from it. Not the rigors of nature nor the caprice of chance, but the hand of man. And on such a night those outcast creatures who preyed upon travelers, even if any such existed here in this open country, were unlikely to be out and about their dark business, since their prey would hardly be eager to venture out in such a frost. No, if any man had intervened to prevent Edgytha from reaching her goal, it was with deliberate intent. There was, perhaps, one better possibility, that if she had reached Roscelin with her news, he had persuaded her not to return, but to remain at Elford in safety and leave the rest to him. But Cadfael was not sure that he believed in that. If it had happened so, Roscelin would already have been striding indignantly into the hall at Vivers before ever Edgytha had been missed from her place.
Cadfael had drawn close alongside Cenred, pressing forward in haste in the center of his line of hunters, and one dark, sidelong glance saluted and recognized him, without great surprise. "There was no need, Brother," said Cenred shortly. "We are enough for the work."
"One more will do no harm," said Cadfael.
No harm, but possibly none too welcome. As well if this matter could be kept strictly private to the Vivers household. Yet it seemed that Cenred was not greatly troubled by the presence of a chance Benedictine monk among his search party. He was intent on finding Edgytha, and preferably before she reached Elford, or failing that, in time to negate whatever mischief she had set afoot. Perhaps he expected to meet his son somewhere along the way, coming in haste to prevent that marriage that would destroy his last vain hopes. But they had gone somewhat more than a mile, and the night remained empty about them.
They were moving through thin, open woodland, over tufted, uneven gra.s.s, where the frozen snow lay too lightly to flatten the blades to earth, and they might have pa.s.sed by the slight hummock beside the path on the right hand but for the dark ground that showed through the covering of white lace, darker than the bleached brown of the wintry turf. Cenred had pa.s.sed it by, but checked sharply when Cadfael halted, and stared down as he was staring.
"Quickly, bring the torch here close!"
The yellow light outlined clearly the shape of a human body lying sprawled, head away from the path, whitened over with a crust of snow. Cadfael stooped and brushed away the crystalline veil from an upturned face, open-eyed and contorted in astonished fright, and head of grey hair from which the hood had fallen back as she fell. She lay on her back but inclined towards her right side, her arms flung up and wide as if to ward off a blow. Her black cloak showed darkly through the filigree of white. Over her breast a small patch marred the veil, where her blood, in a meager flow, had thawed the flakes as they fell. There was no telling immediately, from the way she lay, whether she had been on her way outward or homeward when she was struck down, but it seemed to Cadfael that at the last moment she had heard someone stealing close behind her, and whirled about with hands flung up to protect her head. The dagger her attacker had meant to slip between her ribs from behind had missed its stroke, and been plunged into her breast instead. She was dead and cold, the frost confounding all conjecture as to when she must have died.
"G.o.d"s pity!" said Cenred on a whispering breath. "This I never thought to see! Whatever she intended, why this?"
"Wolves hunt even in frost," said his steward heavily, "Though what rich traffic there can be for them here heaven knows! And see, there"s nothing taken, not even her cloak. Masterless men would have stripped her."
Cenred shook his head. "There are none such in these parts, I swear. No, this is a different matter. I wonder, I wonder which way she was bound when she was struck dead!"
"When we move her," said Cadfael, "we may find out. What now? There"s nothing now can be done for her. Whoever used the knife knew his grim business, it needed no second stroke. And whatever footprints he left behind, the ground"s too hard to show, even where the snow has not covered them."
"We must carry her home," said Cenred somberly. "And a sorry matter that will be for my wife and sister. They set great store by the old woman. She was always loyal and trustworthy, all these years since my young stepmother brought her into the household. This must not pa.s.s without requital! We"ll send ahead to see if she ever came to Elford, and what"s known of her there, and whether they have any word of chance marauders haunting these ways, perhaps on the run from other regions. Though that"s hard to believe. Audemar keeps a firm hand on his lands."
"Shall we send back and fetch a litter, my lord?" asked the steward. "She"s but a light weight, we could make shift to carry her back in her cloak."
"No, no need to make another journey. But you, Edred, you take Jehan here with you, and go on to Elford, and find out what"s known of her there, if anyone has met and spoken with her. No, take two men with you. I would not have you in any danger on the road, if there are masterless men abroad."
The steward accepted his orders, and took one of the torches to light him the rest of the way. The small, resiny spark dwindled along the pathway towards Elford, and vanished gradually into the night. Those remaining turned to the body, and lifted it aside to unfasten and spread out on the path the cloak she wore. As soon as she was raised one thing at least was made plain.
"There"s snow under her," said Cadfael. The shrunken shape of her was dark and moist where contact had been close enough for her body"s lingering warmth to melt the flakes, but all round the rim where the folds of her clothing had lain only lightly, a worn border of lace remained, "It was after the snow began that she fell. She was on her way home."
She was light and limp in their hands. The chill of her body was from frost, not rigor. They wound her closely in her cloak, and bound her safely with two or three belts and Cadfael"s rope girdle, to give handholds for the servants who carried her, and so they bore her back the mile or so they had come, to Vivers.
The household was still awake and aware, unable to rest until they knew what was happening. One of the maids saw the lamentable little procession entering at the gate, and ran wailing to tell Emma. By the time they brought Edgytha"s body up into the hall the whole fluttered dovecote of maids was again a.s.sembled, huddled together for comfort. Emma took charge with more resolution than might have been expected from her soft and gentle person, and swept the girls into service with a briskness that kept them from tears, preparing a trestle table in one of the small chambers for a bier, composing the disordered limbs, heating water, bringing scented linen from the chests in the hall to drape and cover the dead. The funereal ceremonies do as much for the living as for the dead, in occupying their hands and minds, and consoling them for things left undone or badly done during life. Very shortly the murmur of subdued voices from the death chamber had softened from distress and dismay into a gentle, almost soothing elegiac crooning.
Emma came out into the hall, where her husband and his men were warming their chilled feet at the fire, and rubbing the sense back into their numbed hands.