Brother Cadfael 03: Monk's Hood

spices. Now if it had been the rest of the bird that was poisoned," said Petrus darkly, "I'd give you leave to look sideways at me, for you'd have reason. But if ever I did go so far as to prepare a monk's-hood stew for that one, be sure I'd make no mistake about which bowl went to which belly."
    No need, thought Cadfael, crossing the court to Mass, to take Brother Petrus's fulminations too seriously. For all his ferocity he was a man of words rather than actions. Or ought it, after all, to be considered as worth pondering? The idea that a mistake had been made, and the dish intended for Robert sent instead to Bonel, had never entered Cadfael's head until now, but clearly Petrus had credited him with just such a notion, and made haste to hammer it into absurdity before it was uttered. A shade too much haste? Murderous hatreds had been known to arise between those who were sworn to brotherhood, before this, and surely would so arise again. Brother Petrus might have started the very suspicion he had set out to scotch. Not, perhaps, a very likely murderer. But bear it in mind!
    The few weeks before the main festivals of the year always saw an increase in the parochial attendance at Mass, the season pricking the easy consciences of those who took their spiritual duties lightly all the rest of the year. There were a creditable number of local people in the church that morning, and it was no great surprise to Cadfael to discover among them the white coif and abundant yellow hair of the girl Aldith. When the service ended he noticed that she did not go out by the west door, like the rest, but passed through the south door into the cloister, and so out into the great court. There she drew her cloak around her, and sat down on a stone bench against the refectory wall.
    Cadfael followed, and saluted her gravely, asking after her mistress. The girl raised to him a fair, composed face whose soft lines seemed to him to be belied by the level dark force of her eyes. She was, he reflected, as mysterious in her way as Aelfric, and what she did not choose to reveal of herself it would be hard to discover unaided.
    "She's well enough in body," she said thoughtfully, "but distressed in mind for Edwin, naturally. But there's been no word of his being taken, and I'm sure we should have heard if he had been. That's some comfort. Poor lady, she's in need of comfort."
    He could have sent her some reassurance by this messenger, but he did not. Richildis had taken care to speak with him alone, he should respect that preference. In so tight and closed a situation, where only the handful of people involved in one household seemed to be at risk, how could Richildis be absolutely sure even of her young kinswoman, even of her stepson or her manservant? And could he, in the end, even be sure of Richildis? Mothers may be driven to do terrible things in defence of the rights of their children. Gervase Bonel had made a bargain with her, and broken it.
    "If you'll permit, I'll sit with you a little while. You're not in haste to return?"
    "Aelfric will be coming for the dinner soon," she said. "I thought I would wait for him, and help him carry everything. He'll have the ale and the bread as well." And she added, as Cadfael sat down beside her: "It's ill for him, having to do that same office daily, after what fell on us yesterday. To think that people may be eyeing him and wondering. Even you, brother. Isn't it true?"
    "No help for that," said Cadfael simply, "until we know the truth. The sheriff's sergeant believes he knows it already. Do you agree with him?"
    "No!" She was mildly scornful, it even raised the ghost of a smile. "It isn't the wild, noisy, boisterous boys, the ones who let the world all round know their grievances and their tantrums and their pleasures, who use poison. But what avails my telling you this, saying I believe or I don't believe, when I'm deep in the same coil myself? As you know I am! When Aelfric came into my kitchen with the tray, and told me about the prior's gift, it was I who set the dish to keep hot on the hob, while Aelfric carried the large dish into the room, and I followed with the platters and the jug of ale. The three of them were in there at table, they knew nothing about the partridge until I told them ... thinking to please the master, for in there the air was so chill you could hardly breathe. I think I was back in the kitchen first of the two of us, and I sat by the hob to eat my meal, and I stirred the bowl