Brother Cadfael 03: Monk's Hood

mind."
    "Ah! So there was, it seems, an heir who was being dispossessed by this charter, and had much to regain by rendering it void. And limited time for the business - only a few days or weeks, until a new abbot is appointed. Oh, don't mistake me, my mind is open. Every man's death may be convenient to someone, often to more than one. There could be others with something to gain. But you'll grant me, your son is certainly one such."
    She bit her lip, which was unsteady, and took a moment to compose herself before she said gallantly: "I don't quarrel with your reasoning. I do know that my son, however much he may have wanted his manor, would never have wanted it at this price. He is learning a trade, and resolved to be independent and make his own future."
    "But he was here today. And departed, it appears, in some haste. When did he come?"
    Meurig said readily: "He came with me. He's apprenticed himself to Martin Bellecote, who is his sister's husband and my master. We came here together this morning, and he came with me, as he has once before, to see my old uncle in the infirmary."
    "Then you arrived at this house together? You were together throughout that time? A while ago you said you came into the kitchen - 'I,' you said, not 'we.' "
    "He came before me. He was restive after a while ... he's young, he grew tired of standing by the old man's bed while we spoke only Welsh together. And his mother was here waiting to see him. So he went ahead. He was in at the table when I got here."
    "And left the table almost dinnerless," said the sergeant very thoughtfully. "Why? Can that have been a very comfortable dinner-table, a young man come to eat with the man who disinherited him? Was this the first time they had so met, since the abbey supplanted him?"
    He had his nose well down on a strong trail now, and small blame to him, it reeked enough to lure the rawest pup, and this man was far from being that. What would I have said to such a strong set of circumstances, Cadfael wondered, had I been in his shoes? A young man with the most urgent need to put a stop to this charter, while he had time, and into the bargain, here on the scene just prior to the disaster, and fresh from the infirmary, which he had visited before, and where the means to the end was to be found. And here was Richildis, between holding the sheriff's sergeant fast with huge, challenging eyes, shooting desperate glances in Cadfael's direction, crying out to him silently that he must help her, or her darling was deep in the mire! Silently, in turn, he willed her to spill out at once everything that could count against her son, leave nothing untold, for only so could she counter much of what might otherwise be alleged against him.
    "It was the first time," said Richildis. "And it was a most uneasy meeting, but it was for my sake Edwin sought it. Not because he hoped to change my husband's mind, only to bring about peace for me. Meurig, here, has been trying to persuade him to visit us, and today he prevailed, and I'm grateful to him for his efforts. But my husband met the boy with illwill, and taunted him with coming courting for his promised manor - for it was promised! - when Edwin intended no such matter. Yes, there was a quarrel! They were two hasty people, and they ended with high words. And Edwin flung out, and my husband threw that platter after him - you see the shards there against the wall. That's the whole truth of it, ask my servants. Ask Meurig, he knows. My son ran out of the house and back into Shrewsbury, I am sure, to where he now feels his home to be, with his sister and her family."
    "Let me understand you clearly," said the sergeant, a thought too smoothly and reasonably. "Ran out of the house through the kitchen, you say? - where you three were sitting?" The turn of his head towards Aldith and the young men was sharp and intent, not smooth at all. "So you saw him leave the house, without pause on the way?"
    All three hesitated a brief instant, each casting uncertain glances aside at the others, and that was a mistake. Aldith said for them all, resignedly: "When they began to shout and throw things, we all three ran in there, to try and calm the master down ... or at least to ..."
    "To be there with me, and some comfort," said Richildis.
    "And there you remained after the boy had gone." He was content with his guess, their faces confirmed it, however unwilling. "So I thought. It takes time to placate a very angry man. So none of you saw