Brother Cadfael 02: One Corpse Too Many

the gate, and brothers and neighbours lifting limp bodies to carry them away. More of the townspeople were still coming timidly in through the archway, women with shawls drawn close over their heads and faces half-hidden, gaunt old men trudging resignedly to look for their sons. No wonder Courcelle, whose duties could hardly have encompassed this sort of guard before, looked almost as unhappy as the mourners.
    He was frowning down at the ground in morose thought when Aline came into view in the archway, her hand drawn protectively through Hugh Beringar's arm. Her face was white and taut, her eyes very wide and her lips stiffly set, and her fingers clutched at her escort's sleeve as drowning men clutch at floating twigs, but she kept her head up and her step steady and firm. Beringar matched his pace attentively to hers, made no effort to divert her eyes from the sorry spectacle in the ward, and cast only few and brief, but very intent, side-glances at her pale countenance. It would certainly have been a tactical error, Cadfael thought critically, to attempt the kind of protective ardour that claims possession; young and ingenuous and tender as she might be, this was a proud patrician girl of old blood, not to be trifled with if once that blood was up. If she had come here on her own family business, like these poor, prowling citizens, she would not thank any man to try and take it out of her hands. She might, none the less, be deeply thankful for his considerate and reticent presence.
    Courcelle looked up, almost as though he had felt a breath of unease moving before them, and saw the pair emerge into the sunlight in the ward, cruel afternoon sunlight that spared no detail. His head jerked up and caught the light, his bright hair burning up like a furze fire. 'Christ God!' he said in a hissing undertone, and went plunging to intercept them on the threshold.
    'Aline! - Madam, should you be here? This is no place for you, so desolate a spectacle. I marvel,' he said furiously to Beringar, 'that you should bring her here, to face a scene so harrowing.'
    'He did not bring me,' said Aline quickly. 'It was I insisted on coming. Since he could not prevent me, he has been kind enough to come with me.'
    'Then, dear lady, you were foolish to impose such a penance on yourself,' said Courcelle fiercely. 'Why, how can you have business here? Surely there's none here belonging to you.'
    'I pray you may be right,' she said. Her eyes, huge in the white face, ranged in fearful fascination over the shrouded ranks at her feet, and visibly the first horror and revulsion changed gradually into appalled human pity. 'But I must know! Like all these others! I have only one way of being certain, and it's no worse for me than for them. You know I have a brother - you were there when I told the king.'
    'But he cannot be here. You said he was fled to Normandy.'
    'I said it was rumoured so - but how can I be sure? He may have won to France, he may have joined some company of the empress's men nearer home, how can I tell? I must see for myself whether he chose Shrewsbury or not.'
    'But surely the garrison here were known. Your name is very unlikely to have been among them.'
    'The sheriff's proclamation,' said Beringar mildly, speaking up for the first time in this encounter, 'mentioned that there was one here, at least, who was not known. One more, apparently, than the expected tally.'
    'You must let me see for myself,' said Aline, gently and firmly, 'or how can I have any peace?'
    Courcelle had no right to prevent, however it grieved and enraged him. And at least this particular corpse was close at hand, and could bring her nothing but reassurance. 'He lies here,' he said, and turned her towards the corner where Brother Cadfael stood. She gazed, and was surprised into the faint brightness of a smile, a genuine smile though it faded soon.
    'I think I should know you. I've seen you about the abbey, you are Brother Cadfael, the herbalist.'
    'That is my name,' said Cadfael. 'Though why you should have learned it I hardly know.'
    'I was asking the porter about you,' she owned, flushing. 'I saw you at Vespers and Compline, and - forgive me, brother, if I have trespassed, but you had such an air - as though you had lived adventures before you came to the cloister. He told me you were in the Crusade - with Godfrey of Bouillon at the siege of Jerusalem! I have only dreamed of such service ... Oh!' She had lowered her eyes from his face, half abashed by