Brother Cadfael 08: The Devil's Novice

mind on his simmering syrup.
    'Folly!' he said then, scornfully. His brew was bubbling too briskly, he lifted it to the side of the brazier.
    'Of course folly,' agreed Hugh heartily. 'A poor wretch without a rag to his covering or a crust to his name, kill a man and leave him his valuables, let alone his clothes? They must be about of a height, he would have stripped him naked and been glad of such cloth. And build the clerk single-handed into that stack of timber? Even if he knew how such burnings are managed, and I doubt if he does ... No, it is beyond belief. He found the dagger, just as he says. What we have here is some poor soul pushed so far by a heavy-handed lord that he's run for it. And too timid, or too sure of his lord's will to pursue him, to risk walking into the town and seeking work. He's been loose four months, picking up what food he could where he could.'
    'You have it all clear enough, it seems,' said Cadfael, still brooding over his concoction, though it was beginning to settle in the pot, gently hiccupping. 'What is it you want of me?'
    'My man has a cough, and a festered wound on his forearm, I judge a dog's bite, somewhere he lifted a hen. Come and sain it for him, and get out of him whatever you can, where he came from, who is his master, what is his trade. We've room for good craftsmen of every kind in the town, as you know, and have taken in several, to our gain and theirs. This may well be another as useful.'
    'I'll do that gladly,' said Cadfael, turning to look at his friend with a very shrewd eye. 'And what has he to offer you in exchange for a meal and a bed? And maybe a suit of clothes, if you had his inches, as by your own account you have not. I'd swear Peter Clemence could have topped you by a hand's length.'
    'This fellow certainly could,' allowed Hugh, grinning. 'Though sidewise even I could make two of him as he is now. But you'll see for yourself, and no doubt be casting an eye over all your acquaintance to find a man whose cast-offs would fit him. As for what use I have for him, apart from keeping him from starving to death - my sergeant is already putting it about that our wild man is taken, and I've no doubt he won't omit the matter of the dagger. No need to frighten the poor devil worse than he's been frightened already by charging him, but if the world outside has it on good authority that our murderer is safe behind bars, so much the better. Everyone can breathe more freely - notably the murderer. And a man off his guard, as you said, may make a fatal slip.'
    Cadfael considered and approved. So desirable an ending, to have an outlaw and a stranger, who mattered to nobody, blamed for whatever evil was done locally; and one week now to pass before the wedding party assembled, all with minds at ease.
    'For that stubborn lad of yours at Saint Giles,' said Hugh very seriously, 'knows what happened to Peter Clemence, whether he had any hand in it, or no.'
    'Knows,' said Brother Cadfael, equally gravely, 'or thinks he knows.'
    He went up through the town to the castle that same afternoon, bespoken by Hugh from the abbot as healer even to prisoners and criminals. He found the prisoner Harald in a cell at least dry, with a stone bench to lie on, and blankets to soften it and wrap him from the cold, and that was surely Hugh's doing. The opening of the door upon his solitude occasioned instant mute alarm, but the appearance of a Benedictine habit both astonished and soothed him, and to be asked to show his hurts was still deeper bewilderment, but softened into wonder and hope. After long loneliness, where the sound of a voice could mean nothing but threat, the fugitive recovered his tongue rustily but gratefully, and ended in a flood of words like floods of tears, draining and exhausting him. After Cadfael left him he stretched and eased into prodigious sleep.
    Cadfael reported to Hugh before leaving the castle wards.
    'He's a farrier, he says a good one. It may well be true, it is the only source of pride he has left. Can you use such? I've dressed his bite with a lotion of hound's-tongue, and anointed a few other cuts and grazes he has. I think he'll do well enough. Let him eat little but often for a day or two or he'll sicken. He's from some way south, by Gretton. He says his lord's steward took his sister against her will, and he tried to avenge her. He was not good at murder,' said Cadfael wryly, 'and the ravisher got away with a mere graze. He may be better at farriery. His