Brother Cadfael 08: The Devil's Novice

Eluard stepped forward and stood between, with an arresting motion of his hand. Only then, following his fixed gaze, did Roswitha look down at the collar of her cloak, which swung loose on her shoulders, and see the glitter of enamelled colours and the thin gold outlines of fabulous beasts, entwined with sinuous leaves.
    'Child,' said Eluard, 'may I look more closely?' He touched the raised threads of gold, and the silver head of the pin. She watched in wary silence, startled and uneasy, but not yet defensive or afraid. 'That is a beautiful and rare thing you have there,' said the canon, eyeing her with a slight, uncertain frown. 'Where did you get it?'
    Hugh had come forth from the gatehouse and was watching and listening from the rear of the crowd. At the corner of the cloister two habited brothers watched from a distance. Pinned here between the watchers round the west door and the gathering now halted inexplicably here in the great court, and unwilling to be noticed by either, Meriet stood stiff and motionless in shadow, with Brother Mark beside him, and waited to return unseen to his prison and refuge.
    Roswitha moistened her lips, and said with a pale smile: 'It was a gift to me from a kinsman.'
    'Strange!' said Eluard, and turned to the abbot with a grave face. 'My lord abbot, I know this brooch well, too well ever to mistake it. It belonged to the bishop of Winchester, and he gave it to Peter Clemence - to that favoured clerk of his household whose remains now lie in your chapel.'
    Brother Cadfael had already noted one remarkable circumstance. He had been watching Nigel's face ever since that young man had first looked down at the adornment that was causing so much interest, and until this moment there had been no sign whatever that the brooch meant anything to him. He was glancing from Canon Eluard to Roswitha, and back again, a puzzled frown furrowing his broad forehead and a faint, questioning smile on his lips, waiting for someone to enlighten him. But now that its owner had been named, it suddenly had meaning for him, and a grim and frightening meaning at that. He paled and stiffened, staring at the canon, but though his throat and lips worked, either he found no words or thought better of those that he had found, for he remained mute. Abbot Radulfus had drawn close on one side, and Hugh Beringar on the other.
    'What is this? You recognise this gem as belonging to Master Clemence? You are certain?'
    'As certain as I was of those possessions of his which you have already shown me, cross and ring and dagger, which had gone through the fire with him. This he valued in particular as the bishop's gift. Whether he was wearing it on his last journey I cannot say, but it was his habit, for he prized it.'
    'If I may speak, my lord,' said Isouda clearly from behind Roswitha's shoulder, 'I do know that he was wearing it when he came to Aspley. The brooch was in his cloak when I took it from him at the door and carried it to the chamber prepared for him, and it was in his cloak also when I brought it out to him the next morning when he left us. He did not need the cloak for riding, the morning was warm and fine. He had it slung over his saddle-bow when he rode away.'
    'In full view, then,' said Hugh sharply. For cross and ring had been left with the dead man and gone to the fire with him. Either time had been short and flight imperative, or else some superstitious awe had deterred the murderer from stripping a priest's gems of office from his very body, though he had not scrupled to remove this one fine thing which lay open to his hand. 'You observe, my lords,' said Hugh, 'that this jewel seems to show no marks of damage. If you will allow us to handle and examine it ... ?'
    Good, thought Cadfael, reassured, I should have known Hugh would need no nudging from me. I can leave all to him now.
    Roswitha made no move either to allow or prevent, as Hugh unpinned the great brooch from its place. She looked on with a blanched and apprehensive face, but said never a word. No, Roswitha was not entirely innocent in the matter; whether she had known what this gift was and how come by or not, she had certainly understood that it was perilous and not to be shown-not yet! Perhaps not here? And after their marriage they were bound for Nigel's northern manor. Who was likely to know it there?
    'This has never seen the fire,' said Hugh, and handed it to Canon Eluard for confirmation. 'Everything else the man had was burned with him.