Brother Cadfael 07: The Sanctuary Sparrow

herself, even without his warning. 'I am as I am,' she said, rather admitting than boasting.
    'Be so as long as you may, and leave it to the young to fly into frenzies over upsets that will all pass, given time. Now here I'm leaving you this flask - it's the decoction of heart trefoil, the best thing I know to strengthen the heart. Take it as I taught you before, and keep your bed today, and I'll take another look at you tomorrow. And now,' said Cadfael, 'I'm going along to see how Master Walter fares.'
    The goldsmith, his balding head swathed and his long, suspicious face fallen slack in sleep, was snoring heavily, and it seemed the best treatment to let him continue sleeping. Cadfael went down thoughtfully to find Susanna, who was out in the kitchen at the rear of the house. A skinny little girl laboured at feeding a sluggish fire and heaving a great pot to the hook over it. Cadfael had caught a glimpse of the child once before, all great dark eyes in a pale, grubby face, and a tangle of dark hair. Some poor maidservant's by-blow by her master, or her master's son, or a passing guest. For all the parsimony in this household, the girl could have fallen into worse hands. She was at least fed, and handed down cast-off clothing, and if the old matriarch was grim and frightening, Susanna was quiet and calm, no scold and no tyrant.
    Cadfael reported on his patient, and Susanna watched his face steadily, nodded comprehension, and asked no questions.
    'And your father is asleep. I left him so. What better could anyone do for him?'
    'I fetched his own physician to him last night,' she said, 'when we found him. She'll have none but you now, but father relies on Master Arnald, and he's close. He says the blow is not dangerous, though it was enough to lay him senseless some hours. Though it may be the drink had something to do with that, too.'
    'He hasn't yet been able to tell you what happened? Whether he saw who the man was who struck him?'
    'Not a word. When he comes to, his head aches so he can remember nothing. It may come back to him later.'
    For the saving or the damning of Liliwin! But whichever way that went, and whatever else he might be, Walter Aurifaber was not a liar. Meantime, there was nothing to be learned from him, but from the rest of the household there might be, and this girl was the gravest and most reasonable of the tribe.
    'I've heard the general cry against this young fellow, but not the way the thing happened. I know there was some horse-play with the lads, nothing surprising at a wedding feast, and the pitcher got broken. I know your grandmother lashed out at him with her stick, and had him cast out with only one penny of his fee. His story is that he made off then, knowing it was hopeless to protest further, and he knew nothing of what followed until he heard the hunters baying after him, and ran to us for shelter.'
    'He would say so,' she agreed reasonably.
    'Every man's saying may as well be true as untrue,' said Cadfael sententiously. 'How long after his going was it when Master Walter went to his workshop?'
    'Nearly an hour it must have been. Some of the guests were leaving then, but the more lively lads would stay to see Margery bedded, a good dozen of them were up the stair to the chamber. The wedding gifts were on the table to be admired, but seeing the night was ending, father took them and went to lock them away safely in his strong-box in the workshop. And it must have been about half an hour later, with all the merriment above, that I began to wonder that he hadn't come back. There was a gold chain and rings that Margery's father gave her, and a purse of silver links, and a breast ornament of silver and enamel - fine things. I went out by the hall door and round to the shop, and there he was, lying on his face by the coffer, and the lid open, and all but the heavy pieces of plate gone.'
    'So the singing lad had been gone a full hour before this happened. Did anyone see him lurking after he was put out?'
    She smiled, shaking a rueful head. 'There was darkness enough to hide a hundred loiterers. And he did not go so tamely as you suppose. He knows how to curse, too, he cried us names I'd never heard before, I promise you, and howled that he'd have his own back for the wrong we did him. And I won't say but he was hard done by, for that matter. But who else should it be? People we've known lifelong, neighbours here in the street? No, you may be sure he hung about the yard in the dark until he