Brother Cadfael 09: Dead Man's Ransom

though by nightfall it surely would be. But as soon as Cadfael entered the castle wards it was plain, by the purposeful bustle everywhere, that something of importance was in hand. The smith and the fletchers were hard at work, so were the grooms, and storewagons were being loaded to follow stolidly after the faster horse, and footmen. Cadfael delivered his herbs to the maid who came down to receive them, and went looking for Hugh. He found him directing the stalling of commandeered horses in the stables.
    'You're moving, then? Northward?' said Cadfael, watching without surprise. 'And making quite a show, I see.'
    'With luck, it need be only a show,' said Hugh, breaking his concentration to give his friend a warm sidelong smile.
    'Is it Chester feeling his oats?' Hugh laughed and told him. 'With Owain one side of the border and me the other, he should think twice. He's no more than trying his arm. He knows Gilbert is gone, but me he does not know. Not yet!'
    'High time he should know Owain,' observed Cadfael. 'Men of sense have measured and valued him some while since, I fancy. And Ranulf is no fool, though I wouldn't say he's not capable of folly, blown up by success as he is. The wisest man in his cups may step too large and fall on his face.' And he asked, alert to all the sounds about him, and all the shadows that patterned the cobbles: 'Do your Welsh pair know where you're bound, and why, and who sent you word?'
    He had lowered his voice to ask it, and Hugh, without need of a reason, did the same. 'Not from me. I've had no time to spare for civilities. But they're at large. Why?' He did not turn his head; he had noted where Cadfael was looking.
    'Because they're bearing down on us, the pair in harness. And in anxiety.' Hugh made their approach easier, waving into the groom's hands the thickset grey he had been watching about the cobbles, and turning naturally to withdraw from the stables as from a job finished for the present. And there they were, Elis and Eliud, shoulders together as though they had been born in one linked birth, moving in on him with drawn brows and troubled eyes.
    'My lord Beringar...' It was Eliud who spoke for them, the quiet, the solemn, the earnest one. 'You're moving to the border? There's threat of war? Is it with Wales?'
    'To the border, yes,' said Hugh easily, 'there to meet with the prince of Gwynedd. The same that bade you and all your company here bear your souls in patience and work with me for justice concerning the matter you know of. No, never fret! Owain Gwynedd lets me know that both he and I have a common interest in the north of this shire, and a common enemy trying his luck there. Wales is in no danger from me and my shire, I believe, in no danger from Wales. At least,' he added, reconsidering briskly, 'not from Gwynedd.'
    The cousins looked along wide, straight shoulders at each other, measuring thoughts. Elis said abruptly: 'My lord, but keep an eye to Powys. They... we,' he corrected in a gasp of disgust, 'we went to Lincoln under the banner of Chester. If it's Chester now, they'll know in Caus as soon as you move north. They may think it time... think it safe... The ladies there at Godric's Ford...'
    'A parcel of silly women,' said Cadfael musingly into his cowl, but audibly, 'and old and ugly into the bargain.'
    The round, ingenuous face under the tangle of black curls flamed from neck to brow, but did not lower its eyes or lose its fixed intensity. 'I'm confessed and shriven of all manner of follies,' said Elis sturdily, 'that among them. Only do keep a watch on them! I mean it! That failure will rankle, they may still venture.'
    'I had thought of it,' said Hugh patiently. 'I have no mind to strip this border utterly of men.'
    The boy's blush faded and flamed anew. 'Pardon!' he said. 'It is your field. Only I do know... It will have gone deep, that rebuff.' Eliud plucked at his cousin's arm, drawing him back. They withdrew some paces without withdrawing their twin, troubled gaze. At the gate of the stables they turned, still with one last glance over their shoulders, and went away still linked, as one disconsolate creature.
    'Christ!' said Hugh on a blown breath, looking after them. And I with less men than I should like, if truth be told, and that green child to warn me! As if I do not know I take chances now with every breath I draw and every archer I move. Should I ask him how a man spreads half a company across three times a company's span?'
    'Ah, but he would