Brother Cadfael 05: Leper of Saint Giles

muscles of his face set like a wrestler's biceps, his small, black, malevolent eyes alertly bright. Close at his elbow rode Gilbert Prestcote, sheriff of Shropshire under King Stephen, a lean, hard, middle-aged knight browed and nosed like a falcon, his black, forked beard veined with grey. He had a sergeant and seven or eight officers at his back, an impressive array. He halted them within the gage, and dismounted as they did.
    "And there he stands!" blared Domville, eyes glittering upon Joscelin, who stood startled and gaping. "The rascal himself! Did I not say he'd be stirring up trouble everywhere possible before he took himself off? Seize him, sheriff! Lay hold on the rogue and make him fast!"
    He had been so intent on his quarry that he had not immediately observed that the abbot himself was among those present. His eye lit on the austere and silent figure belatedly, and he dismounted and doffed in brusque respect. "By your leave, Father Abbot! We have dire business here, and I am all the sorrier that this young rogue should have brought it within your walls."
    "Such disturbance as he has so far caused us," said Radulfus coolly, "does not seem of a sort to require the attendance of sheriff and sergeant. I gather that if he has offended, he has also been brought to book for it. To dismiss him your service is your right. To pursue him further seems somewhat excessive. Unless you have further complaint to make against him?" He looked to Prestcote for his answer.
    "There is indeed more," said the sheriff. "I am instructed by my lord Domville that since this squire was ordered to pack and go, a thing of great value has been missed, and looked for in vain within the household. There is ground for suspicion that this man may have stolen it in despite of his lord, and in revenge for his dismissal. He stands so charged."
    Joscelin was staring in astonished derision, not yet even angry on this count, and certainly not afraid. "I, steal?" he gasped in huge contempt. "I would not touch the meanest thing that belonged to him, I would not willingly take away on my shoes the dust of his courtyard. Go, he bade me, and so I did, out of his house, and have not even stopped to gather together everything that was mine there. All that I brought away is here on my body or in the saddle-bags there."
    The abbot raised a restraining hand. "My lord, what is this valuable thing which is lost? How does it bulk? When was it missed?"
    "It is the wedding gift I intended for my bride," said the baron, "a collar of gold and pearls. It could lie in the palm of a man's hand, once out of its case. I meant to bring it to the girl today, after Mass, but when I went to take it, and looked within the case, I found it empty. Nigh on an hour ago, I suppose, for we wasted time hunting for it, though the leaving of the empty case should have told us it was not lost, but stolen. And but for this turbulent boy, who was turned off for good reason and took it very defiantly, no one else has left my household. I charge him with the theft, and I will have the remedy of law, to the last particle."
    "But did this young man know of this collar, and where to lay hand on it?" demanded the abbot.
    "I did, Father," Joscelin acknowledged readily. "So did all three of us who served him as squires."
    Still more horsemen had appeared in the gateway, several of Domville's outridden retinue, and among them Simon and Guy, by the look of their faces by no means eager to be noticed or take any part in this encounter. They looked on from the background, uncertain and unhappy, as well they might.
    "But I have not touched it," Joscelin went on firmly. "And here am I, just as I left the house, take me away and strip me if you will, you'll find never a thread that is not mine. And there is my horse and my saddle-bags, turn out whatever you find, and let the lord abbot be witness. But no," he added vehemently, seeing Domville himself make a move toward the grey horse, "not you, my lord! I will not have my accuser's hands pawing my belongings. Let an impartial judge do the searching. Father Abbot, I appeal to your justice!"
    "That is but fair," said the abbot. "Robert, will you do what is needful?"
    Prior Robert received the request with a dignified inclination of the head, and made a solemn procession of his advance upon the duty allotted him. Two of Prestcote's men-at-arms unbuckled the saddle-bags from their place, and when the horse, nervous at the press of people, sidled