Brother Cadfael 07: The Sanctuary Sparrow

core, and gone as far as congealing into hate, I think he might have been less voluble about it.'
    "I'll bear that in mind, too. Tell me, Cadfael,' said Hugh, eyeing him shrewdly, 'how strong is the scent you got wind of? Say I find no such witness - no second such witness, ought I to say? - shall I be justified in wagering on the accuracy of your nose?'
    'In your shoes,' said Cadfael cheerfully, 'I would.'
    'You seem to have found your witness in very short order,' remarked Hugh dryly, 'and without leaving the precinct. So you got it out of him - whatever it was that had him choking on a simple lie. I thought you would.' He rose, grinning, and set down his cup. I'll take your confession later, I'm away now to see what I can get out of the new wife.' He clouted Cadfael amiably on the shoulder in passing, and looked back from the doorway. 'No need to fret for that weedy lad of yours, I'm coming round to your opinion. I doubt if he ever did worse in his life than sneak a few apples from an orchard.'
    The journeyman, Iestyn, was working alone in the shop, repairing the broken clasp of a bracelet, when Hugh came to the Aurifaber burgage. It was the first time Hugh had spoken with this man alone, and in company Iestyn kept himself silent and apart. Either he was taciturn by nature, thought Hugh, or the family had taken care to make his status clear to him, and it was not theirs, and there should be no stepping over the line that divided them.
    In answer to Hugh's question he shook his head, smiling and hoisting impassive shoulders.
    'How would I see what goes on in the street after dark or who's on the prowl when decent folks are in bed? I sleep in the back part of the undercroft, beneath the rear of the hall, my lord. Those outside stairs go down to my bed, as far from the lane as you can get. I neither see nor hear anything from there.'
    Hugh had already noted the stairs that dived below the house at the rear, a shallow flight, since the ground dropped steadily away from the street level, and the undercroft, completely below-ground at the street end, was half above-ground at the back. From there, certainly, a man would be cut off from the world outside.
    'At what hour did you go there, two nights ago?'
    Iestyn knotted his thick black brows and considered. 'I'm always early, having to rise early. I reckon about eight that night, as soon as my supper had settled.'
    'You had no late errands to do? Nothing that took you out again after that?'
    'No, my lord.'
    'Tell me, Iestyn,' said Hugh on impulse, 'are you content in your work here? With Master Walter and his family? You have fair treatment, and a good relationship?'
    'One that suits me well enough,' said Iestyn cautiously. 'My wants are simple, I make no complaint. I never doubt time will bring me my due. First to earn it.'
    Susanna met Hugh in the hall doorway, and bade him in with the same practical composure she would have used with any other. Questioned, she shrugged away all knowledge with a rueful smile.
    'My chamber is here, my lord, between hall and store, the length of the house away from the street. Baldwin's boy did not come to us with his trouble, though he well could have done. At least he would have had company. But he didn't come, so we knew nothing of his master being still astray until the morning, when John came. I was sorry poor Griffin worried out the night alone.'
    'And you had not seen Master Peche during the day?'
    'Not since morning, when we were all about the yard and the well. I went across to his shop at dinner with a bowl of broth, having plenty to spare, and it was then John told me he'd gone out. Gone since mid-morning and said something about the fish rising. To the best I know, that's the last known word of him.'
    'So Boneth has told me. And no report of him from any shop or ale-house or friend's house since. In a town where every man knows every man, that's strange. He steps over his door-sill and is gone.' He looked up the broad, unguarded stairs that led up from beyond her door to the gallery and the rooms above. 'How are these chambers arranged? Who has the one on the street, above the shop?'
    'My father. But he sleeps heavily. Yet ask him, who knows but he may have heard or seen something. Next to him my brother and his wife. Daniel is away to Frankwell, but Margery you'll find in the garden with my father. And then my grandmother has the nearest chamber. She keeps her room today, she's old and has had some trying seizures, perilous