Brother Cadfael 06: A Virgin In The Ice

flashing bitterness, "gaining me and losing Yves. For I am the one who has cost you all so much trouble and time."
    "Your brother was safe and in excellent health," said Cadfael firmly, "as late as Compline last night. There is no need to suppose that we shall fail of finding him again, for he cannot have gone far. The sheriff's men in Ludlow will have had their orders overnight, and be out by now. And so will Hugh Beringar, as soon as he has seen you safe and well, and heard whatever you can tell him."
    Hugh was at the door by then, and the brothers had hastily cleared a path through the drifts to bring the girl almost dry-shod up to the guest-hall. Prior Leonard himself led her in to warmth and food and a comfortable seat by the fire. He was distressed that there was no woman guest to provide her a change of clothing.
    "That shall be seen to," said Beringar shortly. "Josce de Dinan has a household full of women, I'll get from them whatever is needed. But you had better get out of those wet skirts, madam, if it must needs be into habit and sandals. You have nothing with you but what you wear?"
    "I gave what I have in exchange for what I wear," she said with composure, "and for the hospitality that was given me without thought of reward. But some money I still have about me. I can pay for a gown."
    They left her to strip beside the fire, and provided her the habit and shoes of a novice. When she opened the door to them again, and bade them in, it was with the grace of a countess welcoming guests. She had let down and combed her mass of dark hair, it was drying into curls on her shoulders, and swung like heavy, lustrous curtains either side of her face. Wrapped in the black habit, and girdled close about the waist, she returned to her chair and braced herself, facing the squarely, the most beautiful novice Bromfield had ever housed. She had spread out her wet clothes to dry on a bench beside the fire.
    "My lord," she said, "and Father Prior, to say this briefly, I have been the cause of great trouble and cost to you and many others, and I am sensible of it. It was not intended, but I did it. Now that I am come to make what amends I may, I hear that my brother, who was here in safety, and whom I hoped to join here, has gone forth overnight and vanished again. I cannot but lay this, with the rest, to my own charge, and I am sorry. If there is anything I can do to help in the search for him ..."
    "There is but one thing you can do to help us all," said Hugh firmly, "and take one anxiety, at least, off our hands. You can remain here, not setting a foot outside these walls, until we find and bring your brother to join you. Let us at least be sure that you are safe, and cannot be lost again."
    "I could wish better, but what you order, I will do. For this while," she added, and jutted her lip at him.
    "Then there are things I need to know from you, now, shortly, and the rest can wait. You are but a part of my business here. The king's peace is also my business, and you, I think, have good reason to know that the king's peace is being flouted in these parts. We know from Yves you left him and Sister Hilaria at Cleeton, and sent word to Evrard Boterei to come and fetch you away to his manor of Callowleas. We have seen what is left of Callowleas, and we have been to Ledwyche looking for you, and heard from Boterei that you reached there with him safely, but rode out while he lay in fever from his wounds got in the fighting, and went to look for the companions you had left behind. What had befallen Callowleas could well befall others, no wonder you were in desperate anxiety."
    She sat gnawing her underlip and staring at him with unwavering eye, her brows drawn close. "Since Evrard has told you all this, I need only confirm it. He is recovered, I trust? Yes, I did fear for them. There was good cause."
    "What happened to you? Boterei had already told us that you did not return, and from the time he recovered his wits and found you were gone, he has been searching for you constantly. It was folly to set out alone."
    Surprisingly, her lips contorted in a wry smile. She had already admitted to folly. "Yes, I am sure he has been hunting high and low for me. We may set his mind at rest now. No, I did not reach Cleeton. I don't know these ways, and I was benighted, and then the snow came ... In the dark I lost myself utterly, and had a fall, and the horse bolted. I was lucky to be found and taken in by a forester and his wife, lifelong