Brother Cadfael 05: Leper of Saint Giles

by. The schoolroom was a cramped corner of the hall, close to a narrow window for light. Sometimes they ended using up the rest of the leaf in children's drawing games, at which Bran could usually win. The leaf could always be cleaned and used again and again, until it wore too thin and frayed away.
    Mark went out to find his pupil. The day was clear, but the sunlight moist and mild. Many of the lepers would be out along the fringes of the highroads with their clapper-dishes, keeping their humble distance from all traffic, but crying their appeal to those who passed. But close to his accustomed place beside the cemetery wall Lazarus was sitting, tall, straight-backed, head erect in its shrouding hood and veil. Close beside him, leaning comfortably upon his thighs, was Bran, both hands raised with spread fingers holding a web of coarse thread, with one side of it caught in his teeth. The man's hands shared the spread of the web. They were playing the old game of cat's-cradle, and the boy was bubbling with laughter round the cord he nibbled.
    It was pleasant and cheering to see old age and childhood in harmony together, and Brother Mark hesitated to break into their concentration. He was about to withdraw and leave them to their game, but the child had caught sight of him, and let fall his tether to call out hastily: "I'm coming, Brother Mark! Wait for me!"
    He unwound his fingers from the web, said a blithe farewell to his playmate, who unlaced the thread without a word, and ran willingly to slip his hand into Mark's, and skip beside him into the hall.
    "We were only filling up the time, till you were ready for me," said the boy.
    "Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay out and play, while the weather's mild like this? You may, of course, if you wish. We can learn in the dark evenings, all the winter long by the fire."
    "Oh, no, I want to show you how well I can do the letters you taught me."
    He had towed Brother Mark indoors, and was at his desk and smoothing the fresh sheet of vellum proudly before him, and still it had not dawned on Mark what he had just witnessed. It was the sight of the thin, careful hand gripping the quill that finally brought enlightenment. He drew in breath so sharply that Bran looked up quickly, in the belief that he must be doing something either very badly, or unexpectedly well, and Mark made haste to reassure and praise him.
    But how could he have failed to recognize what he was seeing? The height matched, the erect carriage was right, the width of the shoulders under the cloak - everything was as it should be. Except that both hands from which Bran had been in the act of lifting their web of thread had all their fingers, and were smooth, supple and shapely, a young man's hands.
    Nevertheless, Brother Mark said never a word to the superior of the hospital, or to any other, of what he had discovered, nor did he make any move to confront the interloper. What impressed him most, and caused him to hold his hand, was the unanimity with which his afflicted flock had opened to receive the fugitive, surely with barely a word said, and nothing explained, and had closed about him in the silent solidarity of shared misfortune. Not lightly would he presume to turn back that tide, or dispute the lightness of that judgment.
    The hunters came back from their fruitless search with the fall of darkness. Guy, a very reluctant conscript, tramped into the chamber he shared with Simon, kicked off his boots, and lay back on his bed with a great gusty sigh of exasperation.
    "Well for you, that you escaped that penance! Hours of draggle-tailing it through the bushes and peering into cottage pig-styes, and scaring out molting hens. I swear I stink of muck! Canon Eudo came bustling back from the church and hunted us all out, but his zeal didn't run as far as volunteering for the foul work himself. He went back to his prayers - may they do the old man's soul some good!"
    "And you've seen nothing of him? Of Joss?" asked Simon anxiously, pausing with one arm in the sleeve of his best cotte.
    "If I had, I should have looked the other way, and kept main quiet about it." Guy smothered a huge yawn, and stretched his long legs at ease. "But no, never a glimpse. The sheriff's got a cordon round the town that should keep in even a mouse, and they're planning a slow drive further out on the north side tomorrow, and if that fails, on the brook side the next day. I tell you, Simon, they're set on taking him. Did you hear they