Brother Cadfael 07: The Sanctuary Sparrow

candle, and hid them in my bedchamber. Tonight, Rannilt, but for this mortal stay, I meant to leave this place, to quit this house that has never done me right, and this town in which I have no honourable place. Tonight God prevented. But tomorrow night ... tomorrow night I am going! If you will help me I can take with me more of my poor possessions than I can carry the first short piece of the way alone. Come nearer, child, and I'll tell you.' Her voice was very low and soft, a confiding breath in Rannilt's ear. 'Across the bridge, at my father's stable beyond Frankwell, someone who sets a truer value on me will be waiting ...'
    Chapter Eleven
    Friday: from morning to late evening
    Susanna came to the table as the subdued household assembled next morning, with the keys at her girdle, and with deliberation unfastened the fine chain that held them, and laid them before Margery.
    'These are now yours, sister, as you wished. From today the management of this house belongs to you, and I will not meddle.'
    She was pale and heavy-eyed from a sleepless night, though none of them were in much better case. They would all be glad to make an early night of it as soon as the day's light failed, to make up for lost rest.
    'I'll come round kitchen and store with you this morning, and show you what you have in hand, and the linen, and everything I'm handing over to you. And I wish you well,' she said.
    Margery was almost out of countenance at such magnanimity, and took pains to be conciliatory as she was conducted remorselessly round her new domain.
    'And now,' said Susanna, shaking off that duty briskly from her shoulders, 'I must go and bring Martin Bellecote to see about her coffin, and father will be off to visit the priest at Saint Mary's. But then - you'll hold me excused - I should like to get a little sleep, and so must the girl there, for neither of us has closed an eye.'
    "I'll manage well enough alone,' said Margery, 'and take care not to disturb you in that chamber for today. If I may take out what's needed for the dinner now, then you can get your rest.' She was torn between humility and exultation. Having death in the house was no pleasure, but the gloom would lie heavy for only a few days, and then she was rid of all barriers to her own plans, free of the old, censorious eyes watching and disparaging her best efforts, free of this ageing virgin, who would surely absent herself from all participation in the running of the house hereafter, and mistress of a tamed husband who would dance henceforth to her piping.
    Brother Cadfael spent the early part of that afternoon in the herb-garden, and having seen everything left in order there, went out to view the work along the Gaye. The weather continued sunny and warm, and the urchins of the town and the Foregate, born and bred by the water and swimmers almost before they could walk, were in and out of the shallows, and the bolder and stronger among them even venturing across where the Severn ran smoothly. The spring spate from the mountains was over now, the river showed a bland face, but these water-children knew its tricks, and seldom trusted it too far.
    Cadfael walked through the flowering orchard, very uneasy in his mind after the night's alarms, and continued downstream until he stood somewhere opposite the gardens of the burgages along the approach to the castle. Halfway up the slope the tall stone barrier of the town wall crossed, its crest crumbled into disrepair in places, not yet restored after the rigors of the siege two years ago. Within his vision it was pierced by two narrow, arched doorways, easily barred in dangerous times. One of the two must be in the Aurifaber grounds, but he could not be sure which. Below the wall the greensward shone fresh and vivid, and the trees were in pale young leaf and snowy flower. The alders leaned over the shallows lissome and rosy with catkins. Willow withies shone gold and silver with the fur-soft flowers. So sweet and hopeful a time to be threatening a poor young man with hanging or bludgeoning a single household with loss and death.
    The boys of the Foregate and the boys of the town were rivals by tradition, earring into casual warfare the strong local feeling of their sires. Their water-games sometimes became rough, though seldom dangerous, and if one rash spirit overstepped the mark, there was usually an older and wiser ally close by, to clout him off and haul his victim to safety. There was some horse-play going on in