Brother Cadfael 04: St. Peter's Fair

from Cadfael's Welsh merchant, she wants to card and spin them herself for the baby. And I changed my mind about a cradle, for I saw nothing in the fair to match what Martin Bellecote can do. I shall go to him."
    "The girl is not back yet?" said Hugh, mildly surprised. "She left the castle well before me."
    "She'll have gone to bring some things from the barge. She had nothing with her last night, you know. And she was going to Bellecote's shop, too, to bespeak the coffin for her uncle."
    "That she'd done on the way," said Hugh, "for Martin came to the castle about the business before I left. They'll be bringing the body down to the chapel here before dark." He added appreciatively: "A fair-minded lass, our Emma, as well as a stout-hearted one. She would not have that fool boy of Corviser's turned into the attacker, even for her uncle's sake. A straight tale as ever was. He opened civilly, was brusquely received, made the mistake of laying hand on the old man, and was felled like a poled ox."
    "And what does he himself say?" Aline looked up intently from the bolt of soft stuff she was lovingly stroking.
    "That he never laid eyes on Master Thomas again, and knows no more about his death than you or I. But there's that falconer of Corbiere's says he was breathing fire and smoke against the old man in Wat's tavern well into the evening. Who knows! The mildest lamb of the flock - but that's not his reputation! - may be driven to clash foreheads when roused, but the knife in the back, somehow - that I doubt. He had no knife on him when he was taken up at the gate. We shall have to ask all his companions if they saw such a thing about him."
    "Here is Emma," said Aline, looking beyond him to the doorway.
    The girl came in briskly with her bundle, Brother Cadfael at her shoulder. "I'm sorry to have been so long," said Emma, "but we had reason. Something untoward has happened - oh, it is not so grave, no great harm, but Brother Cadfael says we must tell you."
    Cadfael forbore from urging, stood back in silence, and let her tell it in her own way, and a very flat way it was, as though she had no great interest in her reported loss. But for all that, she described the bits of finery word for word as she had described them to him, and went into greater detail of their ornaments. "I did not wish to bother you with such trumpery thefts. How can I care about a lost girdle and gloves, when I have lost so much more? But Brother Cadfael insisted, so I have told you."
    "Brother Cadfael was right," said Hugh sharply. "Would it surprise you, child, to know that we have had not one complaint of mispractise or stealing or any evil all this day, touching any other tradesman at the fair? Yet one threat follows another where your uncle's business is concerned. Can that truly be by chance? Is there not someone here who has no interest in any other, but all too much in him?"
    "I knew you would think so," she said, sighing helplessly. "But it was only by chance that our barge was left quite unmanned all this afternoon, by reason of Roger being needed with the rest of us at the castle. I doubt if there was another boat there unwatched. And common thieves have a sharp eye out for such details. They take what they can get."
    It was a shrewd point, and clearly she was not the girl to lose sight of any argument that could serve her turn. Cadfael held his peace. There would be a time to discuss the matter with Hugh Beringar, but it was not now. The questions that needed answers would not be asked of Emma; where would be the use? She had been born with all her wits about her, and through force of circumstances she was learning with every moment. But why was she so anxious to have this search of her possessions shrugged aside as trivial, and having no bearing on Master Thomas's murder? And why had she stated boldly, in the first shook of discovery, indeed without time to view the field in any detail, that nothing had been taken? As though, disdaining the invasion, she had good reason to know that it had been ineffective?
    And yet, thought Cadfael, studying the rounded resolute face, and the clear eyes she raised to Hugh's searching stare, I would swear this is a good, honest girl, no way cheat or liar.
    "You'll not be needing me," he said, "Emma can tell you all. It's almost time for Vespers, and I have still to go and speak with the abbot. There'll be time later, Hugh, after supper." Abbot Radulfus was a good listener. Not once did he interrupt with