Brother Cadfael 02: One Corpse Too Many

else is gossiped about in the king's court, besides the next campaign? There's no fresh word of FitzAlan and Adeney being sighted?'
    'None, nor will be now,' said Beringar readily. 'They had luck, and I'm not sorry. Where they are by now there's no knowing, but wherever it is, it's one stage on the way to France.'
    There was no reason to doubt him; whatever he was about he was making his dispositions by way of truth, not lies. So the news for Godith's peace of mind was still good, and every day better, as the distance between her father and Stephen's vengeance lengthened. And now there were two excellent horses well positioned on an escape road for Godith and Torold, in the care of two stalwart brothers who would release them at Cadfael's word. The first step was accomplished. Now to recover the saddle-bags from the river, and start them on their way. Not so simple a matter, but surely not impossible.
    'I see now where we are,' said Beringar, some twenty minutes later. They had cut straight across the mile of land enclosed by the brook's wanderings, and stood again on the bank; on the other side the stripped fields of pease whitened in the starlight, and beyond their smooth rise lay the gardens, and the great range of abbey buildings. 'You have a nose for country, even in the dark. Lead the way, I'll trust you for an unpitted ford, too.'
    Cadfael had only to kilt his habit, having nothing but his sandals to get wet. He strode into the water at the point opposite the low roof of Godith's hut, which just showed above the trees and bushes and the containing wall of the herbarium. Beringar plunged in after him, boots and hose and ail. The water was barely knee-deep, but clearly he cared not at all. And Cadfael noted how he moved, gently and steadily, hardly a ripple breaking from his steps. He had all the intuitive gifts of wild creatures, as alert by night as by day. On the abbey bank he set off instinctively round the edge of the low stubble of pease haulms, to avoid any rustle among the dry roots soon to be dug in.
    'A natural conspirator,' said Cadfael, thinking aloud; and that he could do so was proof of a strong, if inimical, bond between them.
    Beringar turned on him a face suddenly lit by a wild smile. 'One knows another,' he said. They had grown used to exchanging soundless whispers, and yet making them clear to be heard. 'I've remembered one rumour that's making the rounds, that I forgot to tell you. A few days ago there was some fellow hunted into the river by night, said to be one of FitzAlan's squires. They say an archer got him behind the left shoulder, maybe through the heart. However it was, he went down, somewhere by Atcham his body may be cast up. But they caught a riderless horse, a good saddle-horse, the next day, sure to be his.'
    'Do you tell me?' said Cadfael, mildly marvelling. 'You may speak here, there'll be no one prowling in my herb-garden by night, and they're used to me rising at odd times to tend my brews here.'
    'Does not your boy see to that?' asked Hugh Beringar innocently.
    'A boy slipping out of the dortoir,' said Brother Cadfael, 'would soon have cause to rue it. We take better care of our children here, my lord, than you seem to think.'
    'I'm glad to hear it. It's well enough for seasoned old soldiers turned monk to risk the chills of the night, but the young things ought to be protected.' His voice was sweet and smooth as honey. 'I was telling you of this odd thing about the horses ... A couple of days later, if you'll believe it, they rounded up another saddle-horse running loose, grazing up in the heathlands north of the town, still saddled. They're thinking there was a single bodyguard sent out from the castle, when the assault came, to pick up Adeney's daughter from wherever she was hidden, and escort her safely out of the ring round Shrewsbury. They think the attempt failed,' he said softly, 'when her attendant took to the river to save her. So she's still missing, and still thought to be somewhere here, close in hiding. And they'll be looking for her, Brother Cadfael - they'll be looking for her now more eagerly than ever.'
    They were up at the edge of the inner gardens by then. Hugh Beringar breathed an almost silent 'Good night!' and was gone like a shadow towards the guest house.
    Before he slept out the rest of the night, Brother Cadfael lay awake long enough to do some very hard thinking. And the longer he thought, the more convinced he became that someone had indeed