Brother Cadfael 07: The Sanctuary Sparrow

whether it be true or no, you have the protection of this house, according to law, and time to think on your soul, if there is need.' He looked at Cadfael, and eye to eye they considered the needs that came before all. 'He had best keep to the church itself, I think, until we have spoken with the officers of law, and agreed on terms.'
    'So I think, also,' said Cadfael.
    'Should he be left alone?' They were both thinking of the pack recently expelled from this place, still hungry and ripe for mischief, and surely not gone far.
    The brothers had withdrawn, led back to the dortoir by Prior Robert, very erect and deeply displeased. The choir had grown silent and dark. Whether the brethren, particularly the younger and more restless, would sleep, was another matter. The smell of the dangerous outer world was in their nostrils, and the tremor of excitement quivering like an itch along their skins.
    'I shall have work with him a while,' said Cadfael, eyeing the smears of blood that marked brow and cheek, and the painful list with which the man stood. A young, willowy body, accustomed to going lightly and lissomely. 'If you permit, Father, I will stay here with him, and take his care upon me. Should there be need, I can call.'
    'Very well, do so, brother. You may take whatever is necessary for his provision.' The weather was mild enough, but the hours of the night would be cold, in this sanctified but stony place. 'Do you need a helper to fetch and carry for you? Our guest should not be left unfellowed.'
    'If I may borrow Brother Oswin, he knows where to find all the things I may need,' said Cadfael.
    'I will send him to you. And should this man wish to tell his own side of this unhappy story, mark it well. Tomorrow, no doubt, we shall have his accusers here in proper form, with one of the sheriff's officers, and both parties will have to render account.'
    Cadfael understood the force of that. A small discrepancy in the accused youth's story between midnight and morning could be revealing indeed. But by morning the voluble accusers might also have cooled their heads, and come with a slightly modified tale, for Cadfael, who knew most of the inhabitants of the town, had by this time recalled the reason for their being up so late in their best clothes, and well gone in drink. The young cockerel in the festival finery should by rights have been bedding a bride rather than pursuing a wretched wisp of manhood over the bridge with hunting cries of murder and robbery. Nothing less than the marriage of the heir could have unloosed the purse-strings of the Aurifaber household enough to provide such a supply of wine.
    'I leave the watch to you,' said Radulfus, and departed to hale out Brother Oswin from his cell, and send him down to join the vigil, He came so blithely that it was plain he had been hoping for just such a recall. Who but Brother Cadfael's apprentice should be admitted to his nocturnal ministrations? Oswin came all wide eyes and eager curiosity, as excited as a truant schoolboy at being footloose at midnight, and attendant on the fringes of a sensational villainy. He hung over the shivering stranger, between fascinated horror at viewing a murderer close, and surprised pity at seeing so miserable a human being, where a brutal monster should have been.
    Cadfael gave him no time to marvel. 'I want water, clean linen, the ointment of centaury and cleavers, and a good measure of wine. Hop to it, sharp! Better light the lamp in the workshop, we may need more things yet.'
    Brother Oswin plucked out a candle from its socket, and departed in such a gust of dutiful enthusiasm that it was a marvel his light was not blown out in the doorway. But the night was still, and the flame recovered, streaming smokily across the great court towards the gardens.
    'Light the brazier!' called Cadfael after him, hearing his wretched charge's teeth begin to chatter. A close brush with death is apt to leave a man collapsing like a pricked bladder, and this one had little flesh or strength about him to withstand the shock. Cadfael got an arm about him before he folded like an empty coat, and slid to the stones.
    'Here, come ... Let's get you into a stall.' The weight was slight as a child's, he hoisted it bodily, and made to withdraw round the parish altar to the somewhat less draughty confines of the choir, but the skinny fist that had all this time held fast to the altar-cloth would not let go. The thin body jerked in his arms.
    'If I loose,